AussieDog

Mayuka/Lee? ...so maybe we're looking for something between Mayuka/Lee and Ronaldo/ Bale

We WILL sell players (maybe not in January) - but when we do, it will be on OUR terms. Everyone has a price. If you think about it, there's no point in grooming the academy players if they aren't going to get a chance. Of course they need to be good enough, but if the management think we can sell someone for 30 million, and replace him with someone at half the price or someone from the Academy close to his ability with the potential to be as good or if not better, then it's simple economics that we would do it. It's a balancing act. If we want to entice the best youngsters to our club we have to ensure the path to the first team remains open.

Only 3 teams have lost less than us. Only 5 teams have won more. Palace have drawn the same amount as Arsenal and Man City. Their goal difference is 20 worse than ours. We have 2 ex-Palace players, they have 2 ex-Saints players. Any more pointless statistics worth discussing?

At the start of the season Chelsea were my prediction for the title (don't laugh...), mainly because of the "Mourinho effect", so I don't think we should be too disappointed to have lost. We were definitely 2nd best most of the game though. Maybe scoring so early worked against us as I felt we didn't press from the front so much (or maybe that's just because we had Osvaldo instead of Lambert in?), and I thought a lot of our players seemed off-key. Lallana, JWP, Schneiderlin in particular. I was hopeful for Osvaldo, but I am getting impatient to see him come good. I certainly don't feel he has added to our team so far. Our passing didn't seem to have it's usual crispness about it either, and first touches were letting people down meaning we were taking longer to pass the ball on. You could see the uncertain-ness creeping into defence once Boruc went off. Hopefully Gazzanigga will rise to the occasion in his absence but it could be the turning point in our season (unusually pessimistic from me). Disappointed if Schneiderlin has taken a knock that keeps him out although Cork is a very able replacement if required (although I have a feeling it will probably be Davis coming in for him). I would imagine Harrison Reed coming on to the bench as well for Villa. 2 games 2 defeats, but I didn't think we'd get more than 1 point from the 2 games anyway. Injuries (and possibly suspensions) are the worry now for December as we have a really busy schedule coming up. If we're top 6 come January it will be an impressive performance. We've got to start scoring a few more goals though!

Based solely on players I've seen play, there are still so many great players I'd like to see in that team but at the end of the day the point is to improve the team. The best goalie we ever had was Shilton, so he's a shoe-in for Boruc. Although I could pick players to improve the defence, I'd probably leave it as it is so that I could bring replacements in for JWP & rodriguez, as although I think he's going to be a great player, he's not there yet and still a little lightweight. I'd love to put MLT in, but I don't think he'd fit in our style so it's either KK or steve williams to replace him. I feel the one thing our team is really missing is a goal poacher who can also go with our style. for that reason I'm going for Steve Moran. If he hadn't suffered that back injury (southsea night club?) I felt he would have gone on to be an England regular. Shilton Keegan Moran. would have loved it to be Williams but Keegan was the more consistent and harder working.

Would be interested to know the average age of our team (I think it was just under 19) versus theirs, plus our standouts in that age group were missing (Shaw, JWP, Chambers, plus Isgrove) but I can't imagine the management will be very happy with that result (and general performance by the sound of it)

Hypothetically...if he was in the team when the style was adopted then he would have no chance! - however, if he had just arrived at the club as an apprentice, then I wonder whether he could have been nurtured into our style and then imagine how fecking brilliant he could have been!

so, to sum up just the next 2 games..... 2 defeats - oh well it was good while it lasted 2 draws - wow, we could actually finish top 6 2 wins - f*ck me!!! please don't pinch me or wake me up until we've done the celebratory tour around the city in May!

...and last season NO team had as bad a start as we did and avoided relegation. Enjoy the ride, ladies & gentlemen. The next 6 games are going to test everyones belief. At the moment I can't see us getting more than 6 points, but then again I thought we'd beat Norwich and lose to Man Utd and Liverpool. I think our season will be defined by how we bounce back from 2 or 3 bad results (both the club and the supporters!). If we can keep the "one game at a time" mentality and avoid injuries & suspensions, we're going to have one hell of a season

A little surprising, but the fact that my ideals are so spread amongst the different parties, it's no wonder I choose to live in Australia (I might not agree with the Aussie policies either but at least the weather is decent!) Crime – UKIP Democracy – Conservatives Environment – Lib Dems Health / NHS – BNP Immigration – Lib Dems

It's going to take more than 10 matches to shift 40 years of supporting Saints and expecting us to do the difficult easily and the easy difficultly. When we started with the high press last season we had some great results, but we did seem to burn out pretty quickly and one of my concerns is that we do the same this season. I also worry about our best players being picked off by the top teams - but that's where we have to trust that our scouting network can identify affordable players of a similar or better quality. Have to say it's great being a Saints fan at the moment though

For the money paid, I would like him to be good enough for the first team, but we're always whinging about not having strength in depth. I think it's reassuring to think we can have a current Uruguayan international on our bench. If he can step his game up and be better than the likes of Lallana and JWP then we really will have a great player on our hands. Having said that...if we sell him in Jan and get in someone even better I won't complain

I'd be tempted to put Yoshida in ahead of Fox as backup LB. I do feel we need backup for Boruc though, although finding someone who is happy to be on the bench all season if Boruc stays clear of injuries would be a challenge. Assuming we don't get injuries it's going to take a serious amount of money to improve on the players we already have.

Is that opinion or fact? Can't say I have noticed either of the first 2. It just looks to me that they are playing different roles for the team and Osvaldo is playing the role that Rodriguez was playing last season

I haven't seen enough to make an opinion yet - but what exactly does he do better than Lambert?

If we invite them on to us like we did Swansea, we will get tonked. If we go back to the high pressing game and defending from the front we are in with a chance.

If there's ever a chance we might sneak into the top 4 I think it would be this season. what we need is to ride our luck and not get any serious injuries to key players (can you imagine if Boruc gets an injury?), and for the traditional top 4 to carry on the inconsistency they have shown already this season. All the top clubs have had key changes and are taking time to settle. I'm not sure why Liverpool are even classed in the same category any more. They seem to be living on past glories and alot of their squad is average to say the least. I'm surprised at Chelsea this season as I thought bringing Mourinho back it would re-galvanise them as they seem to have quality throughout their squad but were playing as individuals not as a team. Arsenal have started really well and have coped surprisingly well with the injuries they have already received. Ozil is absolute class, and Flamini seems to have given their midfield some defensive stability. Spurs - well they invariably flatter to deceive. They have some awesome players but have always seemed an unbalanced side. Man City are a bunch of individuals and when they click they are unstoppable, but so far this season they don't seem to have found any consistency. Man Utd are just a shambles (saying that, they will probably "click" the week they play us...) and Moyes' nervousness seems to be rubbing off on the players. Massive shoes to fill. Everton are a well-drilled unit but I don't think they have strength in depth and I really think their teamwork has seen them playing above their abilities for the past couple of years. I think we could sneak 4th. Not because we are a fantastic side, but because everyone seems capable of taking points off each other. Arsenal lost to Villa, Liverpool lost to us, Man Utd lost at home to WBA, Villa and Cardiff beat Man City. Spurs and Chelsea appear to be the most consistent so far but I don't think anybody is going to race away and the points total for 4th place could actually be lower than in previous seasons. Caveat. If this fails to happen in the way I have described it's because you lot don't have faith and our timelines diverge at some future point (Sliders...) In my reality this will happen....looks like I had better start saving for my european trip next season then....Berlin 2015 anybody?

I think Lallana still has the potential to play for England. He seemed off his game last season but I always felt he never quite looked 100% fit and may have been carrying an injury. This year I've been impressed with both his turn of pace and his energy. Maybe that's because he's been told he only has to play for 60-70 minutes so he can give that little bit extra for the time he is on the pitch, knowing that we've got the likes of Davis, Cork or Ramirez to take his place, depending on what's needed. The fact that the Manager still has him as captain and starts him ahead of 2 full internationals, plus someone who played for GB at the Olympics must show how highly he rates him. I certainly think he can give a different option to England, but I can't see him getting the chance unless there are injuries to the likes of Wiltshire.

Form is temporary, class is permanent. We've always had the class, and apart from a temporary blip, our form has been better for the best part of 50 years, so no real surprise

Judging him on goals alone, then he's definitely not at the top of his game - but I thought some of his work slightly deeper was really good. I think his impact is being underestimated at the moment. While I'm on about being underestimated...I was also surprised at Lallana's turn of pace yesterday too.

So if all creditors got paid in full does that mean that I have some money floating around for the shares I bought some time in the dim and distant past? Or doesn't that class as creditors?

I wasn't impressed with VW yesterday - but then again I wasn't really impressed with anyone or the team performance as a whole. Did we really play our high pressing game? It didn't seem as dynamic as I remember from last year. I think the biggest disappointments were Lallana being substituted and Webb missing our shout for a penalty. Overall it just didn't seem like a "team" performance and it would be a shame to pick on any particular individual.

I'm the other way around - at the beginning of last season I wasn't convinced Cork would be up to the job, but our results with and without him back up the argument that he really was a key player (and underrated). I think Cork's downfall is that he is the ideal substitute as he is so versatile. If any of our midfielders were out through injury or suspension I would have no qualms knowing that we had Cork as a replacement.

Just an alternative opinion, and if I've got facts wrong then please pick it to pieces (without resorting to abusive or sarcastic comments, please). At this stage of our "development", gate figures are far less important than TV revenue. for example, the difference between a 25,000 and 30,000 average attendance @ 35 pounds per ticket is only just over 3 million over the course of a season. The difference between 30,000 @ 35 pounds and @ 20 pound per ticket (for arguments sake) is around 5 million. With the latest TV deals, and ignoring the extra "facility fees" paid to each club (which is based on whether it's based as a 1st pick game or something similar I think), then that money can be generated by improving our league position by 3 or 4 places. Of course all revenue is important and an extra 3 million would pay most of the wages for 1 new "star" player, however, the higher up the table we are (at the same time continuing to play attractive football) the more times we are likely to get picked for prime TV games (and, in turn, generate more revenue). At the moment, the club has it priced right (much as I hate to admit it) as they are still filling 90% of the ground. Rather than reduce prices, they would do better to take a leaf out of Stokes book and give free transport to away games. It would cost a fraction of the cost of reducing ticket prices (less than a million a season, based on an average cost Of 10 pounds per person and an average away following of 5,000 which is an over-estimation). I believe having a large (and positive) support make a difference to any team. It's a bit of a catch-22 situation, but I bet the teams with the best away records are those with the highest amount of away support. Of course, one of the reasons they take more fans is because they are more successful and hence, win more games anyway. Even the players acknowledge that the fans make a difference. It's probably something that can't actually be proved as you will never know the results if they didn't have so many fans, but I bet statistics would generally bear that out (always exceptions to the rule of course). The more successful we are, the more likely we are to fill St Mary's (and to take a sizeable away support). The club wins all round. Of course, there is the risk that more fans would choose to go to away games rather than home one if they think they are getting something for nothing, so maybe you give a voucher at every home game which gives you access to 1 free travel pass (meaning season ticket holders get free away travel anyway).

You're right....my bad. Still think the side I mentioned should have enough about it to beat Barnsley though.