Lallana's Left Peg

He is calm in possession which is good BUT when you combine it with poor technical passing and poor awareness in possession it can make for some infuriating moments. Time for the coaching staff to work their magic as when we don't have the ball he is a man mountain in terms of his presence (when fit!).

Lets hope Lovren is ok too. Apparently he was in quite a bit of pain at the end.

Nice to see us grind out a result. A better team may well have punished us but at the same time as the quality of our squad improves we'll start to pick up more results like this. Very happy to get back to winning ways and hopefully it'll be a shot in the arm for the squad heading into the last part of the season.

Clyne in for Chambers, otherwise same team that started vs. Liverpool.

Can't honestly say there is anyone at those clubs who interests me much on the basis we'll only be signing better than what we have. Only outfield exception may be Michu but bigger clubs would be in for him and Swansea aren't going down anyway. Ruddy as a keeper may be a good shout though.

Our U21's take on Man City U21's this Monday. The game is being played at the Ethiad Stadium - KO is 7pm. Tickets are £3 and there is free car parking at the ground. Two good teams at that level so should be a good game.

Whomever it is will need a great record at working with young players (both development and integration into the first team) and have enough of a presence to inspire the current crop whose form is very dependent on momentum. Preference is for Pochettino to stay and maybe have a bit more of a say in transfers to see what his system can really do if we were behind it.

I suspect our transfer budget (and wages we can afford to give new players) will be offset a bit by new contracts which are owed to players. Rodriguez is contractually obliged a new deal as he has now made 45 appearances. Cork (if he wants to stay) is due a new deal. Many of our younger players on long term contracts should (unless the contract conditions aren't the norm) have wage accelerators in them associated with appearances and age. I am not sure how long is left on the deals of players like Gallagher, Reed, Targett etc. but anything less than 2 years means it is time to tie them down if the club believe they have a first team future. I think it is a given that Osvaldo will leave and we will sign a new striker. The rest is hard to predict both in terms of departures and arrivals regardless of obvious needs.

I'd love for the new Board to be set as soon as possible so that then the Manager can decide what he wants to do and we can move forward. The longer we leave it the more I worry about players looking for moves away as well.

They get tucked into all sorts. Kolarov, Garcia, and Dzeko especially.

Big Vic's inconsistency makes him a leading candidate but my dark horse will be the unfortunate Rickie Lambert depending on how well this summers striker recruitment goes.

I hope he stays. I worry about important players who will seek to leave if he goes and potentially going into a new season with a new Manager, important players leaving, and several new ones arriving isn't a recipe for success. He's done a great job and most of all the way he has brought several players on in their development and increased their value massively is incredibly important for the club.

And we should also be thankful Fonte wasn't sent off as well. Suarez would have been in on goal. Fonte should be sent off by the rules. Ref will get marked down for that, even though he used common sense in knowing the penalty was the last kick of the game and Liverpool had already won it.

That is a bit harsh. When this season goes in the books, barring an absolute disastrous finish, it'll go down as a very good one which has seen an incredible amount of progress and the squad (laden with 18/19 year olds) establish itself in the top half of the league. When we look at things on a match by match basis we'll be more frustrated as we've generally had more good performances than our points total suggests but in games that can be decided either way we more often than not come up with the short end of the stick with our wastefulness in the final third. But the good news is that can be addressed in the summer.

Agreed but he came on in an impossible circumstance today. It's all a part of his development I suppose. He showed enough against Arsenal to suggest he may well have a good future. What we don't want to be in is a position where we have to rely on him before he is ready for it. That really isn't a good situation for the club nor him.

I thought we carried on from where we finished in the first half but with Gaston on the pitch ahead of Davis I thought we'd either create a better chance or he himself would offer more of a goalscoring threat. The second goal killed the game and I don't attribute that to Ramirez at all.

The right sub was made at HT. Gaston is far more threatening in the final third and Davis quickly runs out of ideas 25 yards from goal. We were a goal down and needed to try and win the game. Davis is a good player for us though. He just isn't the right player for all games.

We were back in form after the New Year however we killed our momentum with the Sunderland game and haven't recovered since. The inexperience in our team at this level (both with respect to the age of players and only being in the league for less than two seasons) means we are very much a momentum team to whom goals and then results have a big impact. Quite simply we messed up the Sunderland game and are now experiencing the hangover. Not in terms of overall performance as I think we're performing at a good level but when it comes to the crunch and the moments that decide games we're not on it unless we have some momentum behind us.

The game was a perfect example of the good things about our team and the not so good things. Overall the performance was above average but playing well and losing 3-0 is an issue for me. Get the goal we deserved in the first half and the complexion of the game changes but it is easy to say that. We are incredibly wasteful - to the point where I would suggest it is the biggest weakness we've got. It's a decent weakness to have as they go, but it is really starting to frustrate me. Poor finishing, heavy touches, hesitancy - how much longer must it go on before we suggest it is an inherent issue with our players rather than something to do with confidence or form? When we get some momentum the game comes easier to us, but when we play in tight matches the players are too anxious. It needs to be addresses as mentality is a huge part of the game at this level. We keep going and working hard but at choice moments we rarely get it right. I have no issues with the bigger picture but if we are starting to hit the limits of what some players can do for us we need to decide whether to stick or twist in some cases.

Looks like there is some sort of depth chart on the whiteboard behind Luke. Could be for the next match, for a training match, or long term. But interesting to see Jordan Turnbull listed as second behind Fonte there. And can't work out what the name in red is below Wanyama and Cork in the DM position.

Can't see Clyne making it if he has lost his place in the team to Chambers. Although with a squad size of 30 you never know.

If anyone is gutted about this season thus far I'd question how long they've been supporting Saints! I don't think it could be much better. We always knew once we had a few injuries that our replacements were not up to it. The club took a calculated approach to replace what we had with the best we could find, not to upgrade every position marginally and bloat the squad. I think that is the right approach. And above all, the progress from the kids this year has been staggering too. Very exciting times.

At 16 Sims has already logged gametime with the U21's and trained several times with the first team as well. EDIT: Although whisper it quietly, I was told he came to us after being at Portsmouth.

I'm getting confused now. There was outrage when we departed from stripes, are we now saying that we don't want to return to stripes either and instead want to return to our unique designs from specific past seasons?

With Ralph Krueger said to be starting his new role this week that somewhat blows the 'announce all the new Board members at once' theory out of the water. I wonder what the delay with the CEO is?