DrunkenSaint

I'm glad the Koeman has now seen we can score goals without Pelle in the mix, maybe just maybe he will drop him in the future. Not saying he shouldnt never play, i think with a front 3 of Mane, Jrod and Juanmi we would cause more problems with pace and the fact all 3 of them would press much better.

Pretty much agree with you apart from Tadic, thought he was pretty crap tbh, tried too hard lost the ball quite a few times when an easy pass was on, got very lazy. Now Pelle, he scored 2 goals thats good, his first 20 or so mins were also very good but from around the 30min mark all the way up to the 85 mins mark he was utter dog ****e. Time after time he was standing about 2 yards away from the ball and he just stood there, if the ball didnt go to his feet he just stood there. I never really noticed this til my friend pointed out that he gets very lazy when things don't go his way so i decided to act like a scout and watched him, i was quite amazed really. Now take a look at Mane, he was everywhere, always closing down defenders running his socks off, now if the other 2 fwd players were doing the same i think the whole game would of been completely different. Pelle and Tadic seem to go in strop mode when things are not going to plan. In my conclusion, we had no width at all, the one time we did get a good cross in Pelle scored, now if we were to play with width most of the time and get those crosses in, im sure Pelle will score a bucket load of goals and with that he wont go into lazy mode. We gave them far too much time to play the ball from the back, we needed all 3 fwd players closing them down for 90 mins not just the first quarter. I would drop Tadic for Juamni.

The 352 is a very good, attacking formation but we don't have the players to do it right. Two of the 3 midfielders are suppose to be attacking midfielders, JWP and Davis are average at best, they don't support the attackers and they don't offer any attacking abilities at all. The full backs are suppose to be up there when attacking also, look at the Brazilian team when they had Carlos and Cafu down the wings, they were always up there in the attack. The whole idea of the 352 formation is you attack in numbers knowing you have 3 CB's covering so why pick this formation if we don't have the right players? Even in the 433 formation, it's all wrong in the middle, you are still meant to play a more attacking midfielder to support the striker, we always play Davis, he aint attacking enough! we need someone in there who can attack, who can run at the defence and create stuff in the middle of the park. We got away with it last season as we had a very tight defence and a midfield general in Morgan, but its all gone and we aint replaced the ones who have gone with equal quality players. In all honesty all we have is a bunch of average squad type players now with no backbone and no spirit but its ok the board are sitting on a huge pile of cash and will think everything will be fine and it will turn out good in the the end....

This, its been Morgan all along which made our defenders look a lot better than they really are. Fonte is also getting on in premiership terms, so we really need 2 new defenders this window and Caulker don't count!

He was nicknamed "The Clown" at FC Twente, im not expecting alot from him.

Wow, jwp and Davis is the same type of player so not really changed anything.

Cause of Pelle, if we swapped him with lets say Jrod or Juanmi, we would probably play good passing on the deck football.

I love the 352 formation but you just simply cant have 3 defensive type midfielders in midfield, you need a more attacking one and 2 box-box types. The whole point of 352 is you can comfortably attack knowing you have 3 defenders behind you, attacking with numbers! Yes Caulker is crap we need to get rid, he only had a England cap cause he played a few games for Spurs, he would of never had that chance if he was not at a "top club".

The zombie one is the best

He speaks the truth though, when your playing with 2 defensive midfielders the 3rd midfielder in the 3 man midfield must support the striker! It happened a few times the other night where a few pull backs from Soares went to around the penalty spot area, no-one was running in from midfield into that position and that is what Davis should be doing.

I thought Juanmi was a striker or could play on the left wing? why couldn't we try something different and play him as a striker and drop Pelle? My reason for saying this, what happens if Pelle gets injured or goes on another 14 goal draught? Friendlies are there to test stuff and I'm sure Juanmi played well last season as a striker which is why he caught our scouts eye.

Still reckon we are after Martins-indi, we were linked with him last season and koeman knows him well so fits the bill....would be a big signing probably cost around 12-15m at a guess.

Like I said yesterday my Dutch friend told me 15m done deal.

Dutch friend told me last night a deal has been done, saints will pay upto 15m for him ( probs 10m with another 5m in instalments ) reports in Holland that he's flown out quickly as his wife is expecting, he always wanted to join up with koeman again. Just from what he's heard btw nothing official. His little report of him... He's one of the best players to fight for his team, very passionate, won't score many goals but makes that up with his tackling, a great player but a bit on the short side. Feyenoord Fans are hard to please and they love him.

Yep Dutch friend has just told me that the deal will go through tomorrow.

He's right though just ask a few Dutch ppl and they will say he can play in many positions in defence but he's not that good.

H Saves me the typing.

Just asked my Dutch friend he said...championship player at most a strange choice, he thinks he played under koeman a while back.

FFP has been lifted this season, teams can spend alot more money and wage caps i think have also been allowed to rise.

Well didnt we play it with Morgan and Vic in midfield? it was like playing with 5 defenders, we really should of dropped Vic and asked Morgan to play as a box-box. You dont really have a defensive midfiedler in the 352 as the sweeper is that, 2 box-box and 1 attacking midfielder, 2 strikers and 2 wing backs who are allowed to get into the oppositions box, it has more attacking to it than ppl think. When you defend you defend with numbers and when you attack you can attack with numbers and you'll always have 3 defenders vs 1 or 2 attackers. Think brazil before they became ****, Carlos and Carfu as the wingback era.

The main thing about Pelle is the system. 433 is a system often and mainly played by attacking teams with a non target man type in the centre, the striker or fwd (as they are often known as) needs to use pace, flair and movement to beat the oppositions defence. The wingers in the 433 have to come off the wings when the ball is on the opposite wing or when the fwd moves to the wing (in hoping in taking one of the central defenders with him) to use their pace to break though the heart of the defence, this upsets the oppositions man marking system. The three midfielders should consist of 1 "more defensive" midfielder, a box-box type and a more attacking who has the intelligence to get into spaces, if there is space on the wing, the winger who would be in that position would then go infield and play as a 2nd fwd in that move. It's all about movement and having a great football mind and hoping all your attacking players are on the same wave length. Now as you can see..Pelle does not fit into that fwd type of player, he has no pace, no flair and next to no movement off the ball. Our wingers are often stuck onto the wing in which does not help Pelle and the 3rd (more attacking type of midfielder) never really helps Pelle out either or gets onto the wing allowing a winger to move more central. We also have no midfielders who are a massive goal threat. Davis or Jwp are probably used for the more attacking midfielder as Morgan and Vic are the more defensive ones, none of those 2 are any goal threat what so ever. Yes Pelle did well at the beginning of the season, he was an unknown but we also had our midfielders helping out more and our wingers cutting in giving Pelle the support which they need. Something since around the Sunderland game has changed, yes we have won games since, but we havn't played or looked good infront of goal since apart from against Everton at home when we played a different type of system (352) and dominated them. I really don't think we should play this 433 formation unless we change the fwd to someone who fits that role. We have the wingers both in the first team and the academy, we just don't have the fwd who can move the defence around or run at the defence to create something out of nothing. If koeman wants to use Pelle, the 352 formation would suit us better. He used it in Holland with great success, we should use it more here, its a really good formation when played right.

Seager is far better imo

He's had his moment now its time to push him aside unless we change a system he likes, this system does not suit him. I do think a change of system is needed, 352 i reckon with either Elia and Mane upfront ( pure pace ) or on of those two with Pelle.

There are 2 fwd lineups id like us to test out..probably wont happen but here goes...Vic and morgan will be needed in the defensive role. Elia Pelle Djuricic ......Mane Vic Morgan or Elia Mane Djuricic ......Tadic Vic Morgan The reason why i would leave out Davis and jwp is when u have both Vic and Morgan in the team the 3rd midfielder needs to assist the striker a lot more and they just don't do that, they are not attacking enough (if we are winning they are both good to come on to close the game down). Having Djuricic in there is a risk as we really don't know what he's really like but Tadic is dreadful there and goes missing in most games when played on the right. I would really like us to go back to that 352 formation which worked both times we tried it, it seemed to suit Pelle a lot better but with the wingers we have now i don't think that would happen now.

Forster Clyne Fonte Yoshida Targett Vic Schneiderlin Davis Elia Mane Pelle Hit them with pace their defence is slow.... or for more pace.. Forster Clyne Fonte Yoshi Targett Vic Schneiderlin Davis Djuricic Mane Elia