SaintJackoInHurworth

I don't think either of these questions were answered. Personally, as well as my Fantasy Premier League team I have also got a Telegraph Fantasy team and one on Sky Sports. I also do Super 6 predictions. If there are Saints Web leagues for any of these I would be interested in joining. Thanks!

So, what are the potential options for Saints to replace Vestergaard? Here are some of the possibilities including some of the names that have been mentioned and a couple that haven't: Nat Phillips, Liverpool - Age 24 - Strongly linked over recent days but rumours now say he is not currently of interest. Duje Caleta-Car - Age 24, Croatian international. Plays for Marseille. Two years left on current contract. Ozan Kabak - Age 21, Turkish international. Plays for Schalke 04. Nikola Milenković - Age 23. Plays for Fiorentina; Serbian international. One year left on contract. Boubakar Kouyate, Metz - age 24 - linked with Saints recently. Also linked with Newcastle and Norwich. Flavius Daniliuc - 20 years old and plays for OGC Nice in France. Has been linked with Saints and West Ham. Thomas Delaney - age 29, Borussia Dortmund. Defensive midfielder. Now linked with a move to Sevilla. Ainsley Maitland-Niles, Arsenal - Age 23, usually left back or central midfield - flexible to play in a range of positions. Rob Holding - age 25, has dropped down the pecking order at Arsenal following the signing of White. Had been linked to Leicester. James Tarkowski - age 28, only one year of contract left at Burnley. Phil Jones - still on the books at Man Utd and only 29 but has had a career blighted by injury. Issa Diop, West Ham - age 24, we were linked with him a few weeks ago. Japhet Tanganga, Spurs - Age 22, he has been mentioned as possible acquisition, but has also been linked with a loan to Galatasaray. Omar Colley - Sampdoria centre back aged 28 yrs and reportedly of interest to Brighton, West Ham and Leeds at present. Philippe Sandler - Man City reserve centre back, aged 24 and Dutch, with only a year left on his contract. Has been training with first team following return from injury sustained on loan at Anderlecht last season. Erik Palmer-Brown - Man City reserve centre back, aged 24 and US international, with only a year left on his contract. Potentially about to move to Serie A side Venezia. Jason Denayer - Belgian International, age 26, only a year left on contract with Lyon. Andreas Hanche-Olsen - Age 24, Norwegian International, playing for Gent in Belgium. Two years left on contract with Gent. Gary Cahill - age 35 and available for free. Surely he is too old?? Takehiro Tomiyasu - Age 22, plays for Bologna and Japan. Apparently about to be signed by Spurs. Any others that I have missed?

Interesting article about Phillips here: www.thisisanfield.com/2021/08/nat-phillips-still-not-in-training-as-options-open-up-for-15-million-move Personally I think he sounds like an alright buy even if he is very similar to Vestergaard. I remember one match last season wheer the pundits were heaping praise on him for his performance, so let's hope that if we do sign him we see some of that!

This sums it up for me. I agree that it feels like we need to do something about our goalkeeper coaching. I seem to remember that a few years ago we brought in the England goalie coach but FF seemed to go downhill instead of getting better! Nevertheless, I don't know if that is the same coach or coaches that we have now. I also agree that AM is better in a few respects than FF. While I do appreciate the statistical analysis presented in another post above, I think that is only part of the story and doesn't give any weighting tom the relative merits of each keeper. It also only gives and average rather that what each keeper is like at their best. For me the ultimate question is which one is technically the better shot stopper and I believe that is AM. Nevertheless, his big problem at times seems to be concentration and consistency. In terms of distribution, FF is very poor but has learned that he just has to get rid of it by booting it up the field. AM is mildly better at following the preferred approach of passing to a defender, but as others have said he isn't actually very good at this. I sometimes wish he would just do what FF does and ignore the club preference for passing it out to a defender and instead just boot it up the field!

Mate, don't take it personally - I wasn't laughing at you, so no need for being aggressive! My LOL was simply at the thought of Hoddle being the lynchpin battling defensive midfielder in any side. Nevertheless, I will concede that he did probably play himself in a deeper midfield position a few times at the end of his career when he was player manager at Chelsea and Swindon and on a few occasions that may even have been as a sweeper (though not as a traditional central defender). He was hardly there in the Romeu-type role though. In those days the role as it was implemented in many clubs was more about playing within a diamond formation; as such he acted more as a link player between defence and attack, making keys passes. Also, Hoddle was the manager so was able to select himself to play that role. Whether anyone else would have selected him to play that role is perhaps questionable.

LOL - Hoddle never played as a defender nor even as a defensive midfielder! Actually the player in his era who perhaps did have that level of flexibility was Saints captain Steve Williams, though sadly he went to Arsenal and his career pretty much bombed after that! That is an interesting question and assertion. I actually think that even if we have only gone sideways in terms of first team quality, we have actually done far more than that in that we have strengthened our options/depth in reserve and for varying our formations and tactical set-up. With that in mind it is also worth remembering that in the first half of the season we were challenging at the top of the table with strong hopes of making a challenge for a Europa League place at least! Of course, we all knew it was a false position, but if it weren't for our massive injury problems and lack of cover, who knows how much better we might have performed; and now that we find ourselves with a squad with greater flexibility and depth, who knows if maybe we can maintain a higher standard throughout the season? In addition, while last season COVID prevented the club from making full use of its conditioning facilities for treating injuries, etc., hopefully this season we will be able to make more use of these, benefitting the squad even more. Nevertheless, I would love to see at least one addition to the squad and for me the priority is probably a centre back. As far as left back is concerned Salisu, McQueen, Stephens, Diallo, Djenepo, Livramento and Valery can all provide cover there should Perraud get injured, though McQueen is still not listed on the Saints website, so I wonder if his six month contract is more about providing support for him while he rebuilds his fitness.

I was part of the old Saints Web Fantasy League but haven't been part of it for last few years - even last season when I did have a Fantasy football team. I have joined for this season and at present have got Ward-Prowse in my team, though I am concerned as he is injured and not sure he will play on Saturday.

It definitely sounds a good deal, though I'm sure there is that nagging fear of 'what if Armstrong doesn't deliver in the EPL, while Obafemi goes on to become the next great striker in the Championship?!' I doubt it, but who knows?!!

I would like to see him stay but would not be surprised to see him go to Spurs or possibly West Ham. Unlikely to be Everton unless he is content to sit on the bench waiting for Calvert-Lewin or Richarlison to get injured! We would be daft to accept anything less than £30 and should be pushing for as close to £40 (or more?!) as possible if we do sell. Ings should be worth more than Hojbjerg because: He is a striker - strikers typically demand bigger transfer fees than defensive midfielders There are more clubs interested He is a bigger name star player Presumably we are not going to be negotiating to buy another player from the club to which he is sold - unlike with the Hojbjerg & Walker-Peters transfers Spurs are only going to be buying him if Kane is sold and the fee they receive for Kane may potentially inflate all transfer fees that they need to pay to replace him. If he is going to leave then, if we can afford it, we should try to keep him until at least January and bring in Armstrong to get established in the comning months before he goes. Letting him go would be madness if we don't also have confidence that the fee he commands allows us to improve the squad beyond what we lose by selling him. If he stays without having signed the contract, there remains the possibility that he will sign during next season. If he doesn't sign and then gets injured, it reduces the likelihood of another club signing him and increases the likelihood that he may accept the offer on the table anyway. If he doesn't sign this summer but we have an even better start to this season than last year (without the injury difficulties excacerbated by a lack of access to conditioning facilities because of COVID), he may be convinced that Saints can and will achieve more in the future and may see value in staying on - even if only with a one year extension or something. I believe that Ings is committed enough to Saints that even if he isn't going to be staying hw will continue to give his all for us in the season ahead.

If you want a song for him, how about this to the tune of Paradise by Coldplay: "When he played down in France, Saints came in to take their chance. So he left came to Saints to play, To show off the Southampton Way. And now it's Perraud, Perraud, Perraud Life! Perraud, Perraud, Perraud Life! Perraud, Perraud, Perraud Life! Every time we close our eyes!"

Is anyone playing Fantasy Football for the Euros? https://gaming.uefa.com/en/uefaeuro2020fantasyfootball Is there a Saints Web League for this? I have created my own team and would love to join a Saints Web League if there is one... or I am happy to create one if there isn't. Thanks!

*** NB This is NOT a repeat of the other thread discussing whether or not players should be taking the knee and the rights and wrongs of booing them when they do so. If you want to comment on that then feel free to find that thread and comment there. This is a thread aimed at those Saints fans who are supportive of the act of taking the knee and believe it has value in challenging racism. *** Having established the above, I want to make some brief comments, to pose a question and to make a few suggestions for us as Saints fans... * In taking the knee many players still feel that this act still has value in challenging racism within football. This includes Saints players. It is a campaign supported by the 'Kick It Out' and 'No Room for Racism' campaigns and has no direct association with any other organisation or political campaign. Footballers themselves seem perplexed as a result that fans are booing it and continue to renew their determination to challenge racism by taking this simple act. In particular, the England team have renewed their determination to take the knee, following booing by some fans during the friendly against Austria on Wednesday: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/57370117 * In the light of the above, what can those fans who are supportive of the 'Kick it Out' and 'No Room for Racism' campaigns (especially as expressed through taking the knee) do to express our support and to silence those who are opposed to this campaign? * I want to suggest a few possible actions that we as Saints fans can take at the start of next season if the act of taking a knee continues: Join the players in taking the knee Cheer in support when the players take the knee to drown out any boos Chant other things in support, e.g. "Kick out racism - racists out!" or "We are Saints; we hate racism!" or similar Report anyone booing the players when they take the knee. What other suggestions do people have for what we can do to express our support for the campaigns to eliminate racism from football?

No-one is taking it to mean anything other than what it does, except the 'lovers-of-the-word-woke' brigade! Taking the knee has always been a symbol of protest against racism started by black sportsmen in the USA, with no agenda except to challenge racism. Within football in the UK it is linked with the 'No Room For Racism' and 'Kick It Out' campaigns and has absolutely nothing to do with Black Lives Matter (if that is what concerns anyone!). As for those who claim that footballers are only taking part because they feel forced to do so, I can accept that that may be the case for some, but there are plenty for whom the action remains an active demonstration of opposition against racism. As a demonstration of this look out for the fact that a number of footballers do not just kneel, but raise their arms in protest too. The problem is that too many of you criticise the actions taken to protest racism and then argue that you are not racist, but are protesting becuse it is 'ineffective'. If you are so concerned that the protest is ineffective then can I suggest that instead of criticising the protest, why don't you come up with something more effective? Until you do, your claims to be anti-racist are hollow and meaningless. I think one of the big problems, as in so many of the issues within football, is that the fans are not involved. So, I want to suggest something completely different than just abandoning the protest and going back to things as they were before... I want to suggest that those of us fans who do, genuinely, want to see racism kicked out of not just football but society as a whole, why don't we join in the protests as well?! I believe that if fans take the knee too, just as fans protested against the actions of the big 6 over the Super League, so the game will be forced to listen and to act.

Until that goal this was not looking like a good day: 1. I am hating every moment of this biased commentary from Efan Ekoku. I have heard some biased commentary before, but this takes the biscuit. 2. I can't believe the ridiculous refereeing decisions - that was not a penalty and should have been our free kick and then just before their secoind goal they were given a throw in that should have been ours. 3. Every ricochet in their area seemed to be falling to a Burnley player. However, we are now back in it with that goal, so let's see us go on to equalise and then go on to win this game.

I think the abuse some of our fans give him is disgraceful. I am not saying he doesn't have areas of his game that he needs to work on, but he is definitely a quality player. I actually think a lot of the criticism he receives actually come out of situations which he is instrumental in creating! The fact is that sometimes he can move the ball well from midfield towards attack and create (near) openings. Unfortunately, it is at that stage that he tends to let himself down with a weak final ball or shot. I don't know why our fans are so scathing to some of our players. JWP received the same abuse, but is now one of the first names on the team sheet. Tadic was abused and he left to go to Ajax, taking them to near Champions League glory. Davis was abused and he returned to Scotland; and so the list goes on! Consider this: Antonio was a hopeless lump when he played for us. His touch on the ball was dreadful and he looked to be a just a clumsy oaf. Now, however, he is scoring loads of goals for West Ham and is knocking on the door to play for England. That is what happens when a player is given confidence. Now, I believe Redmond has twice the talent and potential that Antonio had, so let's get behind him - becaue maybe, just maybe, in a few years we will be enjoying hearing the pundits tell us how much he has improved!

The Sheff Utd game is clearly a huge game for us. However, they struggle to score, so if we don't do anything stupid we should definitely be able to avoid defeat. The harder challenge will be scoring. Despite their position in the league, they don't typically concede many goals. If KWP and Diallo are fit for this game then my preferred line up would be: ..................McCarthy KWP.....Bednarek.....Vestergaard.....Bertrand ..........Diallo............Ward-Prowse .....Djenepo....................Armstrong (or vice-versa) ...............Ings...........Minamino (if fit) Bench: Forster, Salisu, Jankewitz, Redmond, Adams, Tella, NLundulu, Stephens, (one of) Ramsey/Ferry/Watts/Chauke A few comments about this: Forster was incredibly lucky that the second goal was disallowed. Even if McCarthy's performances have been a little under par recently, he would still have done better than Forster. Bring him back and let him show his quality. If KWP is not fit I would still like to see Bednarek remain in the middlle with Vestergaard as that is where he is most effective. I would consider playing Salisu at full back, though I recognise that potentially that would mean left back with Bertrand switching to right back. Despite all the boo-boys on here who seem to have a vendetta against him (just as they did against Romeu, Ward-Prowse, Dusan Tadic and Stephen Davis before him) I actually think Redmond is a good player - especially when bringing the ball forward from midfield. Sadly though his shooting is not great and sometimes his decision making in the second half of games isn't always the greatest. I believe Djenepo is better and more likely to go past a player if he attempts to do so - though sadly sometimes he deosn't have the confidence to take on players when out wide for some reason. Adams works hard and sometimes makes some nice touches but his final pass and his shooting too frequently fall short of the standard required at present. With Redmond also struggling in those respects, I think Minamino or even Tella should be the ones to partner Ings.

Some of you wrist slitters should just give up supporting Saints and go and support P*mpey. All it takes is one Skate in our midst to criticise Hassenhuttl and you are jumping in bed with them and joining in. LET'S BE ABSOLUTELY CLEAR: at a time of poor investment in the club, following on from a period of bad investment and mismanagement of transfer policy, Ralph Hassenhuttl has steadied the ship and got us playing decent football. If he leaves, we are stuffed! I would far rather the wrist slitters take their fishiness down the road and let real Saints supporters get behind the club. To put it simply: if you don't like it, get lost!

When we made complaints against officials a few weeks ago I found it odd that we didn't also complain about Graham Scott for his part in the VAR decision in the match against Villa. Now we have seen him again making dodgy decisions against us. While most referees have moved on from the crazy interprtation of the handball rule which plagued football at the start of the season, it seems that Graham Scott has used the uncertainty as an excuse to give a big decision against Saints. No doubt he will be on the phone to his mates Deam and Mason to celebrate tonight. 😒

We need to get them on the back foot in second half, but personally I would be encouraging Jack Stephens to stay back a bit. A couple of their goals have come from situations where they have found lots of space on the left because he has still been upfield. Bednarek has been trying to cover that but it has left him all over the place - and hence his own goal. Redmond has actually done ok on his own on the right, so I would let him continue to take charge down the right wing. However, I think we should be sending a lot more down the left where Bertrand and Minamino can combine.

He is on the bench today. With Vestergarrd starting and unlikely to last 90 minutes, might we finally see him come on for a few minutes at the end of today's game?

Just a thought but... can we still sign players on a free after the deadline closes? If so might we be planning on signing a full back on a free?

If we don't sign anyone, this is where we stand in the positions that we are concerned about: Centre backs: Bednarek, Stephens, Vestergaard (soon to return to fitness), Salisu (Soon to return to fitness) Left back: KWP (soon to return to fitness), Valery Left back options: JWP, Diallo (injured), Redmond, Armstrong, Smallbone (injured), Stephens Right Back: Bertrand, Ramsay Right back options: Ferry, Armstrong, JWP, Diallo (Injuerd), Watts(?), Jankewitz(?), Smallbone (injured), Stephens Central midfield: Ward-Prowse, Romeu (Injured?), Diallo (Injured), Smallbone (Injured), Jankewitz It would not be an ideal situation, but the point is that as more players return from injury our options will improve. In particular if Salisu can finally play for us then Stephens becomes a significant full-back option. I would love to see us sign someone as a full back but I'm not going to panic if we don't!

Interesting stuff... Are you ITK?!! Despite the uncanny nature of your prediction, though, I think it is fair to point out that Jankewitz only came on for a few minutes at the end and didn't look like he was ready to provide cover this season... yet!

I agree with those who are saying that it is strange that we have agreed to loan out Vokins BEFORE signing a replacement. Hopefully this does mean that the loan signing of either Brandon Williams or Ainsley Maitland-Niles is imminent. One thought that no-one has expressed is whether there may be some chance that Sam McQueen could also soon begin training in his return from injury. It has been a long time (and I know that ACL injuries take a long time), but it would be great to hear that he is on the road to returning. If we don't sign anyone and if McQueen is not likely to be fit any time soon, then I guess we will just have to go with any of the following options as cover for left back: Kayne Ramsay Diallo Ward-Prowse (potentially with KWP switching to the left) Jack Stephens (as above)

I haven't followed all the ins and outs of this tread, but there are so many possibilities for why it has teken so long to get him ready to play. I'm just pleased he was finally on the bench tonight. However, both Bednarek and Vestergaard are playing well at present so he has got fair competition to face before he gets selected as first choice. I would suggest any of the following (and probably a combination of more than one) have been contributory to why it has taken him so long to get to this point: Injury Coronavirus - a bad bout with noticeable symptoms and a subsequent long recovery to re-establish breathing, etc. Health/Dietary issues resulting from a condition, e.g. allergies to dairy, gluten, etc. or crohn's disease, diabetes, thyroid problems, ME, IBS, etc. Cultural adjustment to British diet Cultural adjustment to British standards of expression - e.g. maybe he had another issue (e..g. Health/dietary) but felt it would be impolite to volunteer this information, etc. Social adjustment and settling-in Mental health issues