Saint Pete

Yes, I must have missed that Ross is now Director of Football Operations. That's a new development isn't it? Thought he was head of scouting and recruitment before? Stealthily promoted whilst putting out that we are "considering" approaching Mitchell? Sent from my Moto G (4) using Tapatalk

And Ings scored from a through ball at Palace.

We seem to like putting out names of who we are "considering" approaching nowadays don't we? Via Jeremy Wilson of course. Last week it was the Norwich guy (not mentioned at all in this article), now it's Mitchell. We saw the same in the summer transfer window with players and ended up not delivering the big names that were bandied about, so I would rather we just got on with it rather than flagging names that we might approach in this way personally! Sent from my Moto G (4) using Tapatalk

That match was unrecognisable from the boring substitution fests that international friendlies were before this competition. Fair play to uefa, a good idea for once! Sent from my Moto G (4) using Tapatalk

Yep reckon so, as Webber is apparently out in Florida currently with Norwich squad on a break. Telegraph piece said we were considering approach "later in the month" so can't see anything happening for a bit. Sent from my Moto G (4) using Tapatalk

Agree with you about lack of confidence and decision making - some of that can be put down to the coaches and manager, but I think a lot is about players taking responsibility for their own actions on the pitch in those critical moments of the match. So many matches are won and lost based on what happens in the last 15 minutes. We don't have enough leaders on the pitch who can keep us playing calmly and producing our best football in that critical period, and too many who go into headless chicken mode and stop picking their passes and being brave in possession. When you are in front with 15 mins to go, there should be opportunities to pick off the opposition who are coming on to you, but you need to have players who are calm and brave enough to get their heads up and use the spaces that are opening up at that stage of the game. And you need players with the mentality at the other end of the pitch to step up and take the chances to kill the game. We just don't seem to have players with those qualities right now, and that's not all down to the manager.

The only thing that can be concluded from that interview is that there will be no significant improvement at Saints until Krueger is removed. Sent from my Moto G (4) using Tapatalk

This had to be done and should have happened at the end of last season. But what worries me is that Krueger is presumably responsible for choosing a replacement [emoji51] Sent from my Moto G (4) using Tapatalk

Probably won't happen but I would consider starting him against Watford. The team is in desperate need of freshening up somehow and at least it would give the home crowd a boost to see a youngster with some enthusiasm rather than continuing to plug away with the tried and untrusted likes of Long or Austin? Sent from my Moto G (4) using Tapatalk

Indeed. I can certainly see the appeal of the Championship because it's a whole lot more even, competitive and unpredictable than the premier league. But we were extremely lucky in how we fell on our feet with Markus and Cortese when we went into admin before and the success that followed is why many are quite misty eyed about the prospect of going back down again. There's absolutely no guarantees that the same would happen this time and it's highly unlikely that it would. If relegation happens under the current leadership, it's hard to see anything but a quite lengthy period when things get a lot worse rather than better. Be careful what you wish for!

Much better to start to the half but when you defend like that there's no chance.

We've got a bunch of defenders who seems to think their job is to stand and watch!

Quite like the look of the line up today with the exception of the obvious. However, whatever line up or formation we pick, it's hard to see our current crop of players coping with Hazard and Giroud. Just hope we try to start positively and get some service in to Ings and Gabbi.

Great news if true. Would much rather see Yoshida or Bednarek picked in the league side as Hoedt is absolutely crap at defending. I don't buy all this "he will be good eventually" stuff. To me, he looks like he doesn't have the defensive instincts or attitude to be a success in this league. Sent from my Moto G (4) using Tapatalk

So, it's not relevant that Hughes actually achieved much better league placings than Pulis in nearly all of his seasons at Stoke, contrary to what was said above as if it was fact?

Which it was. Wasn't it headed in from about 1 yard in front of Mccarthy's starting position before the kick? There was also fault elsewhere but he definitely should have come for it and punched it out. He's otherwise been excellent though, so an isolated mistake hopefully.

I don't get your point here - are you now blaming Hughes for our decline since 2015/16? And I can't be bothered to check back on what happened at Fulham and QPR, but Hughes definitely had higher finishes at Stoke than Pulis ever did in the 3 consecutive years when they finished 9th! But don't let the facts get in the way.

Absolutely. But it's far easier to just blame everything on the manager, right? The players need to stand up and take responsibility themselves, not constantly look to the sidelines. But I won't hold my breath on that one. Easier for them to hide behind the manager and let him take any flak. The Brighton game was a classic case. To my mind, Hughes set the team up well and we were totally dominant in the first half. But when Brighton committed more bodies forward and challenged us earlier on the ball, the players once again were found wanting in terms of composure and bottle. I don't see it as a tactical issue personally. There should have been opportunities to play it through Brighton's more intensive pressing, but the players didn't have the bottle to keep playing and resorted to kicking it long and aimlessly so that Brighton could just keep building the pressure. And then the usual defensive frailty. Obviously the coaching team need to help the players address these issues but the players need to take more responsibility, it can't all come from the sidelines. Sent from my Moto G (4) using Tapatalk

I absolutely agree. It is not only a lack of quality of players in terms of skill where we are suffering but also a lack of character. We have lost all of our leaders from the team and replaced them with players who seem to back away when we are challenged in games. Some of the players, particularly the likes of Bertrand and Lemina need to do a lot better in terms of leading the team through difficult spells in games. Sent from my Moto G (4) using Tapatalk

So, what you are saying is when the players do something outstanding it's "lucky" and therefore no credit can be given to the manager. Whereas when they make mistakes and miss or concede goals, that can all be put firmly down to Hughes influence [emoji23] That's nice twisting of the facts to suit your agenda even by saintsweb standards. Sent from my Moto G (4) using Tapatalk

I think you are over estimating the quality of our squad to be honest. We have a lot of bang average players now, and unfortunately many of them go missing when a bit of bottle is required. You mention Zaha and the impact he would have had if he had played - a perfect example of the kind of quality that we don't have any more. Hughes is far from my favourite manager but I honestly don't think we would be better off getting rid of him and chancing our arm on who else the club in its current state can attract. Sent from my Moto G (4) using Tapatalk

I thought his final ball was decent in the first half to be fair. Great ball in for Elyonoussi header which should have been buried. Not so good in second half, but generally I think he's heading in the right direction so you've got to think the end product will come if he continues in this form. Sent from my Moto G (4) using Tapatalk

We are better than we were last season. But there's still a long way to go to rebuild from the disaster that was Pellegrino. Our home form is really concerning and today shows we still have the same demons in terms of lack of composure and a soft centre when the opposition up their game. That's what Hughes needs to find a solution to, but he needs some help from the senior players on the pitch. Nothing to be gained from continually blaming Hughes for everything though. I believe we are better off sticking with him and giving him a sensible period of time to continue the improvement we have seen since he took over. Sent from my Moto G (4) using Tapatalk

I absolutely agree. It's so easy to blame it all on substitutions. The players on the pitch need to show the bottle and composure to see games like that out. It was just typical of our team to concede such a soft goal seconds after going 2 up. Centre backs and keeper should be commanding their area in that situation. And from that moment on we continued to show little or no composure on the ball. Sent from my Moto G (4) using Tapatalk

Should have won this comfortably. Why have we not got any players with composure and common sense? For me it's not about managerial tactics, it's about players showing the composure to see a game through and make sensible decisions to see the game through when in a winning position. Sent from my Moto G (4) using Tapatalk