Saint Pete

Who's blaming the club then? Just questioning whether the club really have a right to be as ****ed off with Koeman as they are making out. I think when push comes to shove the club will prefer this outcome to having Koeman still at the club on countdown to leave at the end of the season.

I tend to agree with this. Koeman's line in public for much of last season was that he was happy to stay - to the end of his contract. He never really seemed that keen to extend his contract further than that, so I'm not sure really why the club are so apparently miffed and surprised that he wasn't prepared to commit when offered the extension (unless of course he was saying something different in private). I think the club (quite rightly) wanted him to commit further than just a year, but he wasn't convinced, and then obviously the big offer from Everton came in. At the end of the day, if Koeman wasn't going to extend, I think the club wanted him out rather than having the uncertainty of a manager on only one year left, and all the speculation that would go with that through the season. So, the Everton offer actually suited us in many ways as it got us out of an awkward spot in deciding whether to dismiss Koeman a year early.

All strikers are hit and miss to some extent - look at Lukaku's performance last night... and he's meant to be worth £65m!! Overall, Pelle's done a great job for Saints in the last 2 years and still looks like he's got at least a couple of good years in him. We should only let him go if we can get an equal or better replacement - and that doesn't mean hoping that Austin and/or Rodriguez get fit!

Interesting read and I'm sure a lot of it has some truth, but struggle to believe how if Koeman is such a **** hated by so many at the club that he managed to coax such a great run of results from the players at the end of the season - W7 D1 L1 in last 9 games!

Don't see where the evidence is for this based on the (very little) we have seen from Austin in a Saints shirt so far.

Whatever happens with the final league position it's great to see us put in such a storming finish to the season - excellent stuff! Last 8 games - W6 D1 L1, including wins against Liverpool Man C and Spurs. Great effort.

Wow, nothing for anyone to moan about in that team. I'm worried

-------------------- Forster ----------------------- ------- Fonte ------- VvD -------- Bertrand ----- Cedric ------------------------------------ Targett ---------- Wanyama ------ Clasie --------------- ---------------------- Davis ----------------------- --------- Mane ------------------- Pelle ----------- Subs: Stek, Yoshida, JWP, Romeu, Tadic, Long, Austin If Davis still not fit, would start with Tadic instead.

Well, on the positive side, we've got a strong looking bench!

Tadic is frustrating at times, but I don't see how you can say he has contributed less than Long. He has regularly created chances and goals since he joined Saints and even in Saturday's game when he didn't play well overall, he still produced one of the only moments of real quality from us in the match with his perfect early ball in to Pelle in the first half - which should have been buried by Pelle. Generally, when he is on song, so are we, so he is much more of a key player than Long.

Yoshida selection possibly to compensate for how small we are in midfield to help with defending set pieces?

Yes, agree with that on what I've seen so far - seems to find it hard to impose himself once the other team get on top. Early days for him though and needs a few more games in his legs before we see the real player I think.

Maybe so, but is it not a concern that we can't hold on to the ball even against a side with so little ammunition? Unfortunately, most sides we play for the rest of the season will be much better and if we play so poorly for half the game, we will get punished - just like against Leicester.

Better opposition would have taken advantage - there's no way we should have allowed them so much time and space.

A win is a win, BUT... That 2nd half performance was terrible, much worse than the Leicester game in my opinion. Difference was Bournemouth didn't have Mahrez and Vardy to take advantage of it. Koeman should be tearing them a new one after that, because if we keep producing that, we will lose a lot of points against better opposition. It's hard to understand how a team can be as dominant as we were in the 1st half and then not be able to string 3 passes together in the 2nd. You have to put it down to complacency, which is not good enough given what happened against Leicester. Some will be critical of Wanyama for his 2nd yellow, but a number of other players were just as at fault for allowing their player to run so far without any sort of challenge - which was typical of us throughout the half.

Bizarre substitutions from Koeman, it has to be said. With Leicester building up a head of steam and playing a fast-paced pressing game, it was the worst possible time to throw on a midfielder who is completely lacking in match fitness. Clasie was way off the pace and don't think that experience will have done his confidence much good. Romeu had to be the better option in that situation to try and get back some control in midfield. Credit to Leicester though - terrific performance from them in the 2nd half, although interesting that Ranieri gets credit for great subs at half time when it's baffling that he didn't pick Mahrez, by far their best player, from the start!

Really? Looks like utter horse**** to me! It lost me with the first line about us "working round the clock to prevent him from leaving", which is bull**** as we don't have to do anything to prevent him from leaving!

For those who are saying we should just get rid, consider the impact of that in the future. We can't allow players to just get what they want whenever they or their agents throw a strop, or they will all be trying it soon enough. The club are right in their stance of saying neither Vic or Mane will leave this late in the window, as enough have left already (which we are still working on replacing at this point), and it would not be possible to recruit good enough replacements in the time left. As for Vic's attitude, if he has any sense at all and cares about his career, he will apologise and knuckle down again soon enough once the window has closed, just as Morgan did last season.

Great to see Tadic back playing on the left and playing the way we know he can. Not really sure why we ever started playing him on the right last season as he just looks so much more comfortable on the left? Hopefully he will stay there now for a run of games. JWP also showed people what he can do - think a deeper lying midfield role where he can get on the ball, pass it and have more of an influence suits him well, but he needs to get more aggression and power in his game if he is going to be affective there against the better teams.

Just said on 5 live Tyler Blackett from Man U has signed for Celtic on a year's loan. A sign that VVD will be leaving?

I agree. As terrible as last night was, this is an important game for us, as we need to get our first win soon, before we start coming up against much better opposition than we've played to date! It won't help our cause if the fans are on the team's back from minute 1.

Our approach in last night's game was really worrying. There was so much long ball that it had to have been a tactic dictated from Koeman. It's not the way I like to see us play and it certainly isn't working, so hopefully he will revert to playing football again quickly! I know we have lost some very good players, but the ones we have left should still be capable of passing the ball to each other, certainly against a team as limited as our opposition last night.

Baffling game plan from Koeman tonight. Why play an excessive long ball game against a side known for being strong in the air? Why play 3 centre backs against 1 pretty limited and immobile centre forward? And his comments afterwards are even more baffling - we can only hope what he said to the team was somewhat different or it's going to be a hard season to watch!

So you are seriously saying that losing 3 players has depleted us from a top 7 side to a mid-table Championship team and there's nothing Koeman can do about it? He can start by not telling the team to play hoofball against a very average side. He can also not pick 3 centre backs to mark 1 very ordinary striker. As good a job as Koeman did last season, he's not covered himself in glory so far this season and is not immune from criticism when things go this badly wrong.

Koeman was to blame tonight, not JWP. If you play hoofball and by-pass your midfield, you won't get the best out of midfielders who can pass the ball.