Saint Pete

Disagree to be honest. It's a lack of goals that has cost us in the second half of the season, particularly away from home. You can't consistently score so few goals and expect your defence/goalkeeper to compensate. Don't think we were ever going to keep up the amazing defensive record we had in the early part of the season even if Forster had been in goal throughout.

Some have suggested on here we should sell Gardos and use Stephens and/or Turnbull as centre back cover next season. Think that may be a mistake on the basis of the play-offs. Swindon conceded 5 in the 2nd leg of the semi and now another 3 today so far.

Found it quite amusing when some of the Southend fans left the ground towards end of extra time thinking it was over, then turned round and tried to go back in for the penalties! Why on earth would you leave early when your team are only 1 down at Wembley FFS?

http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/transfer-news/liverpool-forward-rickie-lambert-line-5712930

Absolutely agree - he could easily have tried going down in build up to first goal, but was rewarded for keeping on his feet. He has good strength on the ball, so hope he keeps using it like he did in this game. The speed of his reaction to the rebound on the second goal was also superb, and great finish for the third. Was a great day all round - really good to finish at home on such a high note after the disappointments in recent weeks. Whatever happens next weekend, 60 points is a brilliant achievement after everything that happened last summer.

Djuricic hasn't done nearly enough to earn a permanent deal. We should be looking at fresh targets. I wasn't encouraged when he chose to go down looking for a penalty 30 seconds into his debut against Liverpool when clean through on goal. Showed a complete lack of confidence in his own ability to score, and in his appearances since then, there's been no cutting edge to his game.

I think that's a bit unfair - he has had very few opportunities due to the great form of Toby, Fonte and Yoshida this year. If we were able to sign Toby permanently (possibly a big if!), I would see no reason to change our line up of centre backs in the squad for next season.

If true, glad we are looking at a potential permanent GK signing rather than a loan. However a word of caution on the potential reliability of the story: the Mirror are also saying that Chelsea are weighing up a move for Rickie Lambert!

Trouble is, we often don't as it's so obvious he's diving! Against Spurs, there were a number of times he went down looking for fouls and wasted good attacking opportunities. The bad reputation he's in danger of getting may also influence refs not to give us pens when he really has been fouled.

Thought this was our best attacking display for many months and should have won, bar a couple of isolated defensive lapses. Pelle and Mane were both dangerous throughout, although someone definitely needs to have a strong word with Mane about his diving, which became utterly embarrassing in the second half - consistently falling over literally any time a defender went to ground. It's frustrating because he could be doing far more damage to the opposition if he stayed on his feet, as he had the beating of the Spurs defence, no doubt. Some of the criticism of Davis on here is way over the top, thought he had a very decent game in all aspects except for in front of goal. Clearly, he has zero confidence in shooting positions at present much like Pelle until the last couple of games, but he's still a good player and an important part of this very successful Saints team. I also though JWP had a good game, involved in a lot of good moves and ever dangerous on his set plays. Sad to see Morgan limp off near the end - could be the last we see of him in a Saints shirt?

Thought Mane had his poorest game for a long while against Hull, whereas Long looked a threat and won the penalty.

Davis Clyne Fonte Toby Bertrand -------Schniederlin--------- -----JWP---------Davis------ Tadic-------------------Long ------------Pelle-------------- Thought our midfield looked much better in the second half on Saturday when we moved to this kind of formation, so would like to see us stick with this. Use Mane's pace off the bench later in the game.

Well, that certainly won't work! He's even more likely to keep ranting now whenever his players get punished. I have sympathy for Matic in his reaction, but the ref was right to send him off as it was violent conduct. The mistake the ref made was not recognising how bad the Barnes tackle was so that was what the FA should have been putting right by punishing Barnes.

Don't understand the logic of reducing the ban. Matic was still guilty of violent conduct no matter what the provocation, so it should still be 3 games surely? Whether Barnes should have been punished for his tackle should be a separate matter.

But the advantage is it releases Clyne and Bertrand to really bomb on and attack down the flanks. The onus would also be on one of MS and VW to be a bit more forward thinking with the extra insurance behind them.

This is what I would go with if everyone's fit. We need to get Tadic back on song and that may be the best formation to do it?

Sorry, but I don't accept he was "right to go down". The minimal contact from Can was nowhere near enough to seriously affect him going through and potentially scoring a goal. We need players in the team who are hungry to score goals and Djuricic seems to be more hungry to hit the deck at the slightest contact on this evidence. Even he seems to be half admitting the first one probably wasn't a pen in his comments (quoted by coxford_lou).

Watching the Djuricic incident in the 1st minute again, have to say I don't think that was a penalty and really disappointed that Djuricic chose to go down in that situation. His first touch was great and he was clean through on goal. What a start that could have been for his Saints career, but he chose to go down and try and get defender sent off instead of backing himself to score. Maybe another player with a lack of confidence in goalscoring positions? That said, the second incident after Liverpool scored was a nailed on penalty and outrageous that the ref didn't give it.

A bit surprised at that line up, particularly the choice of Djuricic over Mane from the start in such a huge game. Koeman must have a lot of faith in him.

The bottom line is we need the likes of Pelle and Tadic to recover their early-season form from here on in to hold off the big clubs on our tails now. We have proved we are an excellent solid side at the back and in midfield who can dominate a lot of the play against top half opposition even without some of our key players in the team, but you need to create and score clear-cut chances to get the 3 points, and in my opinion, it's Pelle and Tadic that we most rely on to do that. Maybe the 10 day break will be what Pelle needs to rest up and come back refreshed for the Liverpool game? I think Tadic needs to come back into the side for that one, as personally not keen on both Elia and Mane alongside Pelle. Tadic brings more balance and creativity (if he can recover his form).

That's harsh! In my opinion, we don't need to replace Pelle, but we definitely do need more competition and realistic alternatives to him up front. If you look at all the other sides at the top of the table, they all have more options in striking positions than we do and are able to rest players and keep them fresher. Admittedly having a couple of the injured players back would help matters but even then, you have doubts whether they are the sort of players who can play the Pelle lone striker role effectively.

Absolute bull. Not a chance that what happened on Saturday could be viewed as a sackable offence. Pardew didn't even get the sack for nutting an opposition player! Cotterill trying to cover up Sky's embarassment for getting it all wrong.

I think the main issue with Pelle at the moment is we are not able to give him a break as we don't have a similar player in reserve who can cover his position. This has resulted in us over-playing him a bit when he could do with a rest or at least coming off earlier in games when tired or not playing well. He's not in the best of form at the moment and doesn't look as dangerous as he did earlier in the season, but is still very important to the way we play, in terms of holding the ball up and bringing others into play, as other posters have said. Overall, he's had a very good 1st season in the prem.

Good news - maybe Bertrand committing will encourage Clyne to do the same?