Saint Fan CaM

I had a ticket to this. When it arrived I realised it was for daytime when I was at work. Oh well.

Top post Sir...completely agree with your point on partnerships etc. IMO, if Vestergard and Yoshi can’t sort it out at CB then no other pairing can...height and experience...that’s crucial, but also being able to anticipate and react quickly is hugely important and unfortunately I don’t see these traits in Hoedt or Stephens. Bednarek is slightly better, but still not of a level on his own to cut it at Prem level.

General problem with these forums...it’s in the nature of most of the attendees to focus on making their own voice heard rather than listening carefully to the answers and then challenging those issues. Chimps.

Good summary. Not his fault, but Armstrong going off forced the change that made the whole team perform better.

This. He needs a fresh start and I think Saints could be a good fit for him.

This will be a boring 0-0 or loss without us scoring. Can’t see where the goals are coming from again this season, especially against a tight knit defensive side like Burnley.

Nothing changing in the front line will mean just one thing. Few goals and lost games leading to a relegation struggle. Again.

It may have been a friendly, but the key is the manner of the defeat and the amount of improvement seen since the start of the summer. Little has changed...same system, same poor performances and most worrying same poor recruitment decisions (i.e. dilution of team quality). The worst issue is the failure to address the awful lack of attacking quality IMO. Who knows, it might all click into place over the next week. My money is on bottom 5 for a good proportion of the season and some panic decisions come the New Year.

Well after a promising start to the window, it seems its going to fizzle out. No new striker means, lack of goals and lack of wins, meaning lower table struggle from the off. A Facebook post this evening claims Austin has picked up an injury in training. Great news if true....not. To my mind Les and the rest of the recruitment team are in danger of making what could have been a great window, look like another disaster.

Errr...attack. Anyone who thinks otherwise could not have watched us last season, even after Hughes rocked up.

I do hope we're working hard to sort out our attacking options. I dread to think what position we'll find ourselves in if Ely, Redmond and Austin are out...the quality of attacking options in the squad is paper thin.

Should not take anything from the result as such, however the performance itself should be a good indicator of the quality within the squad to do the basics like score goals, high press, pass accurately, positioning and communication in defence. There’s a hell of a lot of work left to do before we are near the levels required to aspire to even mid-table...on this showing therefore it’s not surprising some are feeling nervous already.

Only intereted in Saints - I think we will struggle again but not quite as bad as last season. 14th or 15th.

Welbeck would offer us something different and would likely score more than Long, so probably a good move. Not sure how suited he would be to playing our system, but only time would tell.

Don’t think we’ll see another striker...Austin, Long, Gabbi and now Gallagher seemingly ready to push on is probably seen by the club as enough. With Ely, Redmond, JWP, Sims, Davis and Armstrong as AM’s we do look very lightweight in supporting attack, although we should not underestimate the ability of Romeu, Lemina and Hojberg to get forward. It’s that initial ability to break at pace by 3-4 players that seems to be the missing component. I hope that the next signing will go a long way to plug that gap.

Is Leslie’s son (the agent) going to gain from this potential deal I wonder? If we’re not selling Scousehampton our best players we’re offering silly money for their crocked players...must be a connection somewhere.

A surprising but welcome addition.

Relegation would have been tough or rather the consequences would have been. I think we’ll have another struggle this year without a better striker coming in...goals win games.

That’s old news from just after Hughes took over and just assumed we’d be after him. I don’ think there’s much chance unless it’s a cheeky last minute raid and I’m not sure £20m is good business either...£15m max. player for me given Stokes situation.

As a Tadic replacement he looks spot on the money. Let’s hope he works well with the rest of the team and Hughes.

The fact he’s back in training with the 1st team looks promising, although that does not mean he’ll not be sold if a decent bid comes in. Hope he reaches his full potential with Hughes this season because I think he has something special to offer.

Pleased to know we’ll not have to endure the statue between the sticks and I actually like watching McCarthy.

Even 26 year old players get crocked to the point where their game time becomes limited. And Davis is at a different point in his career. I think Les is thinking we have Tadic replacement already in more game time for Boufal and Redmond sadly, so in effect Armstrong is a Davis like appointment.

Renewed this week. Close call decision after last seasons shambles, but I’m intrigued to see what Hughes can do with the squad. I waited so many years to be able to afford an ST and my seat is great, I’ll find it hard to give up.

This could be the steal of the season....he can shoot, but against Prem keepers/defence he’ll not be as productive. Plus I get the feeling this is a player on the decline physically, which is why he’s not been seeing as much game time. Overall, if we were in the Championship I would be cheering this addition a lot more.