Smirking_Saint

Well, It was always going to be one of those games really, despite buying a few decent looking acquisitions (well, they looked good before I saw them in the flesh) it seems that WHU are sticking to their Allardyce credentials and basically are the new Stoke. A tough battling side, played with two wide target men with Chicarito looking to pick up on the flick ons. And they did ok at that, Arnautovic looked a bit of a handful, he makes life difficult for defences at least, well, until he lost his head anyway. As for us, again the first 20 mins was pretty good, playing with the same intensity that we started the Swansea game, quick incisive movement and again trying to get behind the full backs. Gabbiadini again was starved of the sort of service that he craves and for his industry and movement deserves. On more than one occasion he was left screaming at his fellow teammates for ignoring another curving run. Thankfully Redmond did find him once, and he showed what he does when you find him in the box. Lamina looked ok, took a bit of settling in, and there were a couple of misplaced passes (and a header) but in the whole he looks a great buy, strong quick and positive in his play. A proper box to box player that should compliment Romeu very well. A note on the defence, Yoshida had a very good game, and Stephens looks as though he is developing into a very able young CB. We do, however, miss VVD, or someone like him. We screamed out for a real physical leader with real arial prowess, far too often we were caught out to WHU long balls. Cedric had a positive game, playing the majority at right wing, but seems to have a good relationship with Tadic down the right, hard to think he was getting calls to be dropped so often last year. Ratings - Forster - 7 - Had a pretty good game, and would have scored more if it wasn't for the 1st goal, unlucky with the 2nd after making a great save onto the bar Cedric - 7 - Another top game, I really like him, his crossing is pretty good and links up well down the right Stephens - 6 - Reasonably solid game, struggled aerially but nothing really beat him on the floor, comes out with the ball well too Yoshida - 7 - A long cry from the mistake a game player we knew a year or so ago, looks solid, could do with a dominant partner but very able player these days. Bertrand - 5 - Has looked uninterested for a couple of games, none any more than today, a couple of times he didn't bother overlapping or chasing the ball down, beat too easily all day by antonio. Romeu - 6 - Game bypassed him in the main due to WHU tactics, but what he does he does well. Passes excellently and always has time on the ball. Lamina - 6 - A few dodgy moments, but could be a real crowd favourite, quick, strong, positive and no fear of a challenge. Tadic - 6 - Frustrating, does a lot right, and then slows the game down too much, and is too one sided. Wasted far too many crossing opportunities today aswell. Davis - 6 - Im a real long time admirer of Davis, and he adds a lot of industry, but isn't creative enough really, completely ignored a great run by Gabi down the right. Redmond - 5 - I just don't see it, he has stopped running at defences, and strangely his left foot is miles better at shooting then his awful right, anonymous again today, was lucky to see the game out. Gabiadinni - 8 - I thought he was excellent today, and a real shame that he was brought off, make some brilliant runs, scored a goal, hit the bar and generally looked dangerous whenever he got on the ball. You can see his frustration, we really need to get the ball to him more. Subs - Long - 5 - Didn't really make much of an impact Austin - 6 - Again, not massively involved, but fair play to him for stepping up to take the penalty JWP - 7 - I know he wasn't on long, but got involved straight away, his crossing is brilliant, a real surprise that he was dropped after last week, I suppose he may have been too lightweight ? Sorry its long guys

You might want to climb down off of your horse and actually read the rule, thankfully you have to learn them as part of coaching licences, but ive done the hard work for you and will paste the url here for you. I take it you've not read the rules since 1980 and need to catch up (but im not sure you are anywhere near that old) Ill point out the main points which are; Handball is a deliberate action of moving the hand towards the ball, not the other way around And The position of the hand is not necessarily indicative of an offence Ill stick to my original thoughts that none were really penalty worthy, as theres no way they could have done anything about the ball hitting their hand. The tadic 'shout' was our biggest, but the plank does his best to win extra points for exuberant style, so can understand the ref ignoring that one too.

Id go with; Forster Cedric Stephens Yoshi Bertrand Romeu Lamina JWP Tadic Boufal Gabbiadini Davis and Redmond didnt do much at the weekend to warrant starting against WHU, JWP gets in for his industry and set pieces, not entirely sure what others saw at the weekend, I thought he had a good game. Lets hope we can actually get Gabbiadini involved properly.

As much as I live my life very much in the mould of 'each to their own' I find it a bit strong to use yourchild as some sort of social experiment. The gender neutral arguement does confuse me somewhat however, sex is determined biologically, you dont get a say in it, you of course are under no obligation to adhere to any social stereotypes.

Exactly

Gabbi will be ok if we actually get the ball to him, get the ball into the box as he makes his run. In some situations we will get away with playing them both. I didnt see anything much to worry about today, another day it could of been a rout. It worries me that we didnt mix anything up, it did remind me a lot of the early days Pochetinho, high tempo, high press, try to walk the ball in the net. Instead of mixing up a few long shots, early balls etc My main criticism is that our best chances came from low balls across the box after getting in behind, and then we went away from that tactic.

Just got back from the game. Overall enjoyed the tempo, was much better to get back to a more entertaining, high pressing and solid possession game that we have generally been used to over the past years of Liebherr era football. Swansea however, did their best to spoil it, they looked like a team, who without Sigurdsson knew they lacked the creativity to pose a real threat today. The problem with them however, is that with the exception of Mawson they just didn't look adept at holding on to what they came for. It was one of those afternoons unfortunately, had Tadic have finished his early chance or the ball that hit the bar was half a foot lower then it could and probably would have been a different afternoon as the Swans impetus would have to have changed to that of a team that needed to come out of their deeply retreated position. My first impression is that, although we dominated and huffed and puffed overall we were just not incisive enough, and on too many occasions wanted to walk the ball in the net or retreat back to our favourite position, 30 yards from goal, even when we had opportunities to get early balls in the box or get in behind Swansea's frankly poor full backs. If I was Gabbiadinni I would be deeply frustrated, and I think that showed in the two snap shots he had in the second half, here is a striker with exceptional movement, and honestly, he was criminally denied any real service. The substitutions surprised me as well, surely against a team that was so determined to hold on to what they had it made more sense to leave Gabbi on and partner him with Austin, effectively giving their CB's much more problems and hopefully allowing for us to have more bodies in the box. The withdrawal of JWP was also disappointing, especially as we were winning corners for fun, it wasn't a game for pace, and so, should we have warranted the inclusion of Boufal I think, personally, redmond who was largely anonymous should have been the man to have to make way. Our full backs looked good, and full of energy, hugging both touchlines. It was a shame to see Bertrand pick up a knock, I saw him talk to MP after he landed awkwardly from an arial duel with Routledge. Our CB's didn't have too much to do, and at times both lost concentration when tied up with Abraham, who looks a good player. Both looked in good form for the start of the season, and I must say I find it a bit strange to see Yoshi get so much criticism as I thought he looked good. Here are my ratings for today; Forster - 6 - Didn't really have anything to do to be honest, could have been subbed for a striker and we would still been ok Bertrand - 7 - Full of effort, struggled slightly in the air but looked good overlapping down the left. Stephens - 6 - Solid enough, maybe tries too much on the ball from time to time. Yoshida - 6 - People must of watched different games to me, should have scored but all of his efforts were close, says it all when our CB came closer than our strikers... on 3 occasions. Cedric - 7.5 - Similar to Bertrand really, but looks solid, his shot at the end was wild but worth an effort, some of his crossing was too deep. Romeu - 8 - Booking was weird, but I love watching him, seems to have so much time on the ball, is underrated in his position. Davis - 6 - Too slow really, Lamina will likely be a step up, which is unfortunate, still useful, his vision and passing are excellent. JWP - 7- Disappointed he came off really, looks good, better central then his was wide, his set pieces are always a danger. Tadic - 8 - Needs to work on his composure, but showed he can shoot, his effort late on was a rocket, had a good game, ultimately one that slows things down too much. Redmond - 5.5 - Pretty anonymous for me, I like redmond, but not a game for him, he had no space to drive into, and he can't shoot. Gabbi - 6 - Isolated, which is unfortunate, not all his fault and he started coming deep and wide to find the ball, his efforts showed his frustration, unfortunately. McQueen - 6 - Not on long enough to form much of an opinion Boufal - 6.5 - Theres a player in there, and I really hope we get to see him in a saints shirt, ultimately his final ball is at times terrible, as were his set pieces. Austin - 6 - Good player, but his lack of movement gave Swansea's defence an easier time IMO, his touch looked off, and again came deep to try to find service. Plenty for us to be positive about, and Im sure the goals will come. We do definitely need to sort the VVD situation, or buy in a dominant CB. Possibly still need an attacking midfielder, which will unfortunately lead to one of the established ones dropping out, hopefully a midfielder that can shoot.

Talking of stupid Im pretty sure you completely missed the point of his post

Under 21 players under certain conditions do not have to be 'registered' so itll be interesting to see what the actual 25 looks like but basically it means we don't 'have' to sell to bring players in. There'll be a couple more loans and at the very least Clasie will leave too

Top signing this, I said at the start if we get through this window without losing anyone and sign a partner for Romeu and an attacking midfielder it would be a good one. All good so far I think we'll see Clasie move on

Im not even going to bother reading that, but Id suggest Les has done a pretty sterling job so far against a player holding a gun to his head If he manages to get our asking price or more I literally cant see how he can come out of this with much, if any criticism

Its difficult as we obviously want to avoid any further players leaving, but obviously we are sitting on a player worth 70ish million. Saints really need to stand firm here if we want to keep our better players as this will happen, as we have seen, more and more. As much as Id love to see him rot in the ressies for the next year or so I think we need to stand firm and suggest that IF our asking price is met then we will talk, if not then he stays. 70m gets us a top AM and CB.

I cant see it happening at all, but he would be a perfect signing for a club like us IMO. He isnt good enough to start at anyone in the top 6 for me, except maybe for Everton who seem to be sticking to their guns as far as wages are concerned . I think we will see what drives him really, its a world cup year, if he has ambitions to break into the england set up he needs an influential year with plenty of game time, that means the likes of us, WHU, Leicester, stoke etc. If he ends up at Spurs to make up the numbers then its money motivated and ill be glad to not have a player who sees money over fulfilling a potential. If he has something to prove though then I'd pay to get him but not break the bank, wages around 100k shouldnt be too unachieveable for us, but I wouldn't break any wage structures. Theres a good good player in there for someone to coax out of him

Imagine having to remind everyone every other sentance that you were a big club, once.

I wouldnt bin either of them, Redmond had a decent season last year, he can be a bit hit and miss but its moving in the right direction. With a bit more consistency in his final balls and work on his decision making he'll be a real talent. Boufal has bags of talent in those feet, but has been the majority of miss more than hit. I think a lot of that is to do with the league he left though. He had enough time to go into the stands and finish an episode of GoT and still beat his man in ligue 1. I do have faith in him though. That doesnt mean you dont look to improve on what you have, if we do get Lamina over the line I cant see us 'bining' Davis, JWP or Hojberg, it just adds competition, options and depth.

Its a sizeable fee for a guy that only played a handful of games last year, although he is reportedly a decent player that didnt get the best rub of the green at Juve. Very athletic and technically decent, could be very much like morgan was for us. Hopefully if given consistent game time he could end up fulfilling his potential A CB and a proper replacement for Mane now and Ill be very happy

Hernandez was probably on a completely over the top wage to begin with, let alone what he must have asked for to rock up at West Ham. Im not saying that their transfer policy is poor, they have bought in the areas they are weak, just seems a bit pay top wages for some average players. Dembele is a talent, but he isnt going to want to pitch up at a side not in a European competition unless its at a premium. All that being said, striker is the last position we need to strengthen, so can we stop talking about Defoe, Dembele, bony, vardy, koller, bierhoff or any other striker thats ever kicked a ball until we plug the obvious gaps at CM(DM) and AM

This is pretty much where my head is at, and I think it needs to start with putting our foot bown over VVD, itll hurt, but that is the real statement of intent here. Id of said this was likely the season to improve the squad, keeping our better talents and adding to the squad in the form of one or two well placed individuals makes sense. And we clearly have money to spend, if needed. I however wouldnt want to see us spending money unnecessarily however. Thats the problem this window, prices are inflated due to the TV deals, but id suggest we need to get used to that, within reason. For instance; 24m for Arnautovic probably is a good deal in this window 50m for Sigurdsson, as useful as he is, is over the top. If we keep VVD id suggest signing a CM and AM of sufficient quality will be enough for most reasonable fans to be happy with. No ambition is not always summed up by the monetary value of transfers but its an obvious pointer as to the direction the board wishes to drive them club. Ambition is however, from a sporting perspective determined by a clubs resolve over keeping the better players and adding and improving quality. In short, we need to stand firm over VVD and Bertrand etc for all but the most outrageous of offers. And, if the opportunity arises add value to the squad by improving the first 11. This of course, isnt paying over the odds for an average CB (smalling/Maguire) or an ageing and greedy ST (Defoe).

In this market Id be happy enough to pay 30m provided that he replicated his form at Palace, that is if it wasnt for the fact that I think we need an AM or CM as more of a priority

It wouldnt have been an issue if we hadnt of messed about and tried to look into the legals rather than just paying the extra 5m required

Anyone with half an idea knew Alderweirelds quality

Why ? Everyone has money to spend this year and everyone looks ready to spend it. There is no reason why we cant sign one of an AM or CM at the least that is better than what we have currently

Pretty uninspiring Would be nice to actually improve on what we have now

We very much need a CB, CM and AM in my opinion, and realistically we need to look at improving what we already have. The teams in the immediate position of us are all improving, and we need to do the same. We have some good young up and coming quality however we also need to be ready for the here and now. The main problem this year is the abundance of money in the prem.

Plus entirely unnecessary, an aweful lot of money for what is essentially a goalscorer, although a very good one, when we already have Gabi and Austin. IMHO we need, potentially a CB and another AM to strengthen, but ultimately the side, as far as a first 11 looks strong enough, and hopefully Pellegrino can get the best out of it