saintsmike25

More goals please Spurs, more chance that this joke of a manager is sacked. Shout out to Redmond for that no look pass, superb stuff..

I think the management will write off the game against Man Utd and then sack Pellegrino to start the New Year, i think these two games following the Huddersfield defeat will simply mark the end of Pellegrino. You can tell the players just know that a change at the top is coming, and play as if they expect to lose.

Okay so we're playing as we have done in recent weeks - a few things that stand out. Jack Stephens is having an absolute shocker, positionally he's so far behind the play and can't read anything, they keep picking out free men time and time again like for the second goal. Oriel Romeu seems half the player he was last season, the man marking on Kane was simply embaressing he didn't even try and jump! or put his body on the line. Holgberg and Targett are our best players currently, both working so hard and Holberg is trying his best to support Long and play a defensive role as well. Boufal shows the best and worst - he almost scores and has a couple of lovely passes, but then his pass to Targett was an absolute disaster and a few other nonsense balls. Shane Long doing what Shane Long does and working hard. But overall we're simply not good enough to hang and live with any team that is worth their salt, this should be more than enough evidence that Pellegrino is not the man for the job. The sooner he's sacked the more we'll see players like Romeu looking "themselves" again, the problem is more than belief the players simply aren't proud to be in a side managed by this joker.

I'd say that's nonsense - Tadic and Redmond are poor this season (they weren't under Koeman) and Tadic has been a creative force in the past but has lost his spark, the black box doesn't cater for natural dips in form. Davis was never recruited with the black box, he's been a very good performer for a number of seasons and is our best chance of scoring goals from midfield (Palace and Brighton anyone) - but this season what is CLEAR is he's now championship level and has lost his legs, he simply looks slow and cumbersome and weak compared to Mario Lemina. Forster, he's been awful for two seasons but recently he has improved a bit and made some stunning saves, you could argue his hand on that header saved us a defeat, but he has had good seasons as well as bad. But the issue is we are too scared to play a second keeper if Forster is in bad form, this is a management/club issue. We always had two keepers that battled for a place before, this seems to have stopped. Long - he's a bad finisher but has had good moments with us and many good games where his effort doesn't get reward, i don't know how happy he is playing third fiddle to Austin and Gab, but you can't argue that he offers us an outlet against bigger teams when his pace keeps them on their toes. Boufal, should be played above Tadic and Redmond EVERY week our best player on the ball and most creative, he needs a consistent run in the side. He'll thrive under better management and with better players. He's a case of a player who in my opinion is probably too good for us, but we don't know that. He seems a step ahead of the other players, when he gets the ball he's always looking to make something happen and take a man on. What the problem is no-one supports him when he does his brilliance leaving him surrounded by 3-4 players without an option. The issue is very much a team one, a team who lack identity and belief and have no leaders off the field or on, there were times against Huddersfield where no player had a n option within 30 yards, because no-one has faith in each other, the support wasn't there, so we never properly attacked as a team. We do defend as a team but when it comes to pushing and pressing, it's very much the occasional one man press rather than three or four which it should be. This suggests the players are confused and don't understand MP's methods. The management change couldn't come soon enough, our players are good enough but they need someone who can give them that fire again. You can see they really don't know what to do once the game kicks off, we're a team crying out for a new manager to inspire them.

Fans being annoyed because we're losing against a team we should lose against... We could still get an equaliser, Chelsea have looked poor and we've lacked ambition. At least it is better than the turd served up on Wednesday. Redmond so frustrating, looks like one day he may resemble a decent player but so many decisions let him down. I think we're far too scared against teams like this who don't have the same pace as Leicester, the key is always closing down Hazard/Willian and then Chelsea struggle. They're a much poorer side than in previous seasons and are shaky at the back.

Pellegrino and Reed had an almighty shouting match in a private room after the game..

There's 3-0 absolutely embarrassing.Relegation scrap coming up..

We are playing horrendously. It's like the players aren't even focused or bothered. It's a poor showing and could mark the end of MoPo, it's the nature of the performance that worries me not the losing itself. We are being outclassed by Leicester.

Notes: Davis awful - slows us down. Austin we have failed to involve him. Both Romeu and Lemina having poor games especially Romeu. Bertrand/Cedric failing to have any decent crosses so far. VVD needs to close down. We're too frightened to make a challenge on Mahrez/Vardy and this is costing us dear.

People moaning at Tadic forget he set up the goal and created two very good chances. He blows hot and cold but today was one of his better games.

FFS. Could see it coming.

Dunno what is up with the line up, more worrying is seeing Tadic and Redmond ahead of Boufal. JWP has had chances to make an impact and simply isn't, other than his excellent set pieces he offers very little and when you have a player like Bertrand who can also hit nice set pieces his inclusion doesn't add much. Romeu and Holberg is a decent pairing, but only one of them needs to sit, i'd like to see Hol go further up and become more of a box-to-box midfielder. Looks like our game plan is very much centre'd on scoring from set pieces and hitting Arsenal on the break, i think Pellegrino thinks Boufal is likely to make mistakes or slow us down, but Redmond is FAR worse for that.

Our own fault not just Hoedt we played FAR too many backwards passes and we encouraged the press and it cost us. Davis should have clipped the ball up the line. But with Austin up there - we have nothing to try and get in behind. IMO we need to take off JWP/Austin at some point.

Boufal working harder than any other Saint out there, VVD looks shaky and unmotivated, Romeu looks decent. Austin isn't suited for this game, we need someone like Long or Gab to get in behind. This will be tight, we had our moments but Bournemouth look dangerous. Josh King looks excellent.

The one key change which I thought was just stupid was Long being taken off for Austin. As soon as that happened the Man City keeper was far higher up the pitch and there was no fear factor in the defenders to be closed down. Meaning we were dropping deeper and deeper and were hemmed in. In reality we had some great chances but they are a cracking side and should have scored 3-4 against us if they were sharper, it's gutting to lose in the way we did but they were the better side overall. So had that been us scoring the late winner we would have said "deserved". The positives are for me we have games against inferior sides to city like Arsenal and Chelsea - there's no reason why we can't be more aggressive and take the game to them. Lemina was excellent as was our full backs and VVD/Hoedt, Romeu played his part and fought for his place in light of Hoj good form. Redmond was terrible as always. Boufal - classy. Long, battled hard. Yoshida - mixed game, made some mistakes in posession. Forster - Excellent game made some nice saves Overall though as a team there was belief and there was a togetherness. I think the manager has finally got it into their heads that they have to play for the shirt, we look better defensivily and attacking in our last two games because the players are beginning to feel confident in each other. Boufal is the key to our fortunes in attack, if he plays well then we look a threat. I wonder how Gabbi feels being in the cold with Long/Austin looking like first choices, but Gabbi hasn't been firing on any cylinders this season.

Put it this way we can go in with confidence against bigger sides, we were superb and the team spirit was 2883832848 times better than the awful performance against Liverpool. I'm gutted but delighted with the way we played and defended and threatened City.

Holberg reminds me of Romeu last season. Fantastic showing.

Our best player has been Holjberg.

Hoelt basically gives up tracking and when it's too late he claims it's offside. Problem is neither VVD or Hoetd are as good as they think they are, we lack any actual idea of what we are doing. Shane Long is clueless upfront, and Tadic is clearly elsewhere as he has been all season. The problem is 50/50 players and the manager but the people at the top are oblivious to the obvious problem of motivation. I can handle us getting tonked, but not in this timid fashion where we can't even muster an attack.

Sad to see Tadic and Redmond both starting when both have been so utterly awful throughout the season. Tadic appears undroppable at times. Also this game was crying out for good delivery by JWP, even if he is poor on the field for me it's a toss up between him and Davis - although Davis is far superior positionally (hence his two goals for us this season!)

That sums up Redmond looks pacy but the decision making of a five year old.

Please take off Tadic and replace him with a footballer.

Game is crying out for Boufal (on for Romeu) the way the game is set Davis could sit in with Lemina.

West Brom defending very deep and compact we lack width so the onus is on the full backs to offer it, but they're not as of yet. So our play look stunted and will often end up with a failed Hollywood ball.. we've seen this before.

I think the formation is really a 4-5-1 with Gabbi operating as an attacking midfielder, Davis will play a bit further inside and the width will come from Cedric. Still would have preferred Boufal, but I think the key is to keep West Brom quiet and stay solid as WBA can hit hard on the break - and would Boufal do the same defensive work? He'll be better coming on in the last half an hour.