Lallana's Left Peg

The interviewer(s) clearly pushed him to give specific answers and he was clearly in no business to give any. If they think the biggest reason the first half of the season has been awful is the 'mood' in the club then that is down to them for keeping VVD then they are mental. And even if they do think that, then they need to be accountable for it and say they got it wrong.

Brilliant player, won't alone solve Liverpool's issues but will go some way to making them better. Obviously there are question marks over his character. Don't imagine it would cross his mind at all but contrast the way he has behaved and the way his new team mate Coutinho has and it speaks volumes.

Don't really know loads about FFP however I do know that £75m in and £80-100k a week off the wage bill doesn't mean we can sign £75m worth of players unless £20m fancy playing for peanuts these days. I'd genuinely settle for a couple of astute £20m signings that make a tangible difference to our team.

A bit torn on this one. On one hand: 1. This is an incredible fee for a club of our size. 2. This is a great opportunity for the club to sort itself out after some less than impressive decisions the last 18 months. Considering our predicament, its lucky as well. Don't mess it up Saints. 3. He wasn't playing like a £75m player at all, though I'd argue him sulking and playing still means hes a better players than his central defensive colleagues this season. On the other hand: 1. We said we wouldn't sell to Liverpool and we are. 2. It's an example of the board standing strong and the player winning. You can't always control how a player reacts of course, but Saints don't look too clever. 3. It's another numbing example of how Saints will never amount to anything big - we had chances to break through and players still wanted to leave. That is perhaps one of the biggest disappointments - we all know the reality of course, but secretly we all hope Saints can push on. A few opportunities the last 4 years have gone because the game simply doesn't allow a club to challenge the established hierarchy.

Free header for the best striker in the league 5 yards out. Players don't like they care, I'm not far off it.

Playing like strangers. Either the players have been coached badly or the players have given up. Either way, grounds for change.

I think we'll play so defensive that we will only lose narrowly, but a loss is the only possible result that will occur. The squad and Manager used to have some ******** and we'd go away to the bigger teams and set-up defensively but show a bit more ambition when we had the ball. These days its not even a free hit against the big teams, its trying to keep the score down and its pathetic.

I don't really know what I'd consider par for this squad or Manager but together they seem like an absolute disaster. A bunch of disinterested players coupled with a Manager who has no ability to impress a tactical blueprint or playing style. The end result is performances like this. It's not like its really bad because we don't compete, its just that it is really really bad because we compete and still churn out muck like this because the players seem confused and seem to just give up and do their own thing. Pathetic from the players and poor from the manager.

This article from the BBC claims Man City have opened talks with us over VVD: http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/42439000

Lunchtime drinking

There are definitely three teams worse than us in this division, maybe four. The big issues for me are: 1. We have already played many of our 'easier games' (home games against bottom half teams) 2. We don't really look like winning away from home - our counter attack game is crap which means against the better teams we're playing for a 0-0 and against the 'lesser' teams we play like we do at home (which is going so well...). 3. I don't mind rotation but we don't have many players who can step in and play the same role, so with rotation comes a different dynamic and the players have no continuity and it stifles us. We'll be ok but I think this season is a big reality check for many at the club - players and staff alike. I don't know enough about our owner to know how he will behave, but I imagine he is wondering what his £220m is actually doing for him right now. Even if I knew nothing about my investment, if it was my money I'd start to get involved. And that could be dangerous for the club - however they only have themselves to blame.

There is nothing fancy to Leicester - they play quick and they play direct (moving forward, not pumping the ball in the air) and its scary how exposed we look when a team wants to move the ball quickly. We're set-up to block teams out who want to keep possession but Leicester take risks and they are cutting through us with incredible ease. But when we get the ball we want to take three touches when one will do and that just slows things down. This is a lesson in how to play football when away from home. Hope we learn it.

Usually when I see a team and wonder what on earth is going on I'm proved wrong - and I hope I am today, but that team is just really very peculiar. Are we really still in a place where we need to play players out of position

Even if Guardiola and Redmond are both telling the truth (and I have no reason to think otherwise), its just completely inappropriate for Pep to storm onto the pitch at the end of the game and act so animated at an opposition player. He just needs to be told to act with responsibility and awareness of his own actions - and remarkable that someone on such a huge unbeaten run managing the best team in the country needs to be reminded that. Turns out he can't even differentiate himself from many of his peers by not being a knobhead.

Well we only sacked Puel three weeks after the season ended so I doubt we're going to sack another manager three days after a bad defeat that encapsulated all the issues he has failed to resolve 5 months into the job.

Out for me. Didn't expect us to do much this season but don't think its acceptable to be a few weeks off December and not know your best team or formation and be unable to impose a playing style or identity on a team.

Imagine paying £200m+ for a football team that plays like this

This team is desperately searching for an identity. It won't get one solely on the manager attempting to create harmony in the squad. You need the personality to manage players earning millions a year, the tactical awareness to instill a style of play and belief in your players and the coaching ability to impress it on the players. As it stands I am not sure what Pellegrino is bringing to this football club. That's not to absolve the players of any blame of of course, but they need coaching and it seems to me like they either aren't or don't believe in what they are being asked to do - and it shows.

I don't really have a preference - I think both could do well for us with balls coming into the box early. Austin is obviously the better finisher and has the goalscoring instincts but I think Long's movement and presence unsettles defenders as they can't account for him when he runs across them. I feel for our strikers - they get no early service and almost have to manufacture their own chances as the midfield spends too long messing about on the ball. We need to up the tempo and whilst we can do that with out existing formation I just don't think the current crop have it in them to create decent chances when teams put bodies behind the ball. Crossing is more of a lottery in that respect but I think it is harder to defend when you commit more mean in the box. The counter-attack? I think you have to concede that is possible and attack with a little more conviction than be pre-occupied with what happens when you lose the ball. It's a bit cowardly in my book. I'm not saying be like Liverpool but you need to give teams something to think about. Organised is all teams have to be in order to shut us out. You'd like to think they would need some quality too.

Personally, considering we have zero goal threat from midfield and they don't create chances for the strikers, I would go with a 4-4-2 where the width still comes from the fullbacks and the strikers have some service from out wide where they aren't the only player in the box capable of scoring and thus aren't marked by two men (or more). Then of the four in midfield I would either go with a flat four or a diamond - one of them can be Tadic, Redmond or Boufal and then the other three must come from Romeu, Lemina, Davis, Ward Prowse and PEH. We need to retain the quality in midfield to maintain a foothold on the game and cover for the full-backs but at the same time have enough threat in the box to score a goal. Continuing with the same as we've had the last few seasons is going to end in tears.

For the majority of my Saints supporting life we've had teams far worse than this, but there is something about this year that doesn't sit right more than any other which is causing me to be more apathetic than I can ever remember. I can't remember a Saints team underperforming as much as this ever, and such a lack of desire by anyone in the club to do anything about it. Lemina aside, we don't appear to have done anything this summer - personnel or coaching wise to address the quite alarming gaps we have as a squad. Right now I think we're paying the price and it will be a painful season. Relegation fight - not a chance. A rather sobering lower half finish which leaves us with a of questions to answer in the summer and our better players leaving - they can quite rightly point to the chance the club had this summer to push on and what has (or has not) happened. We've no divine right to be good of course, and it is absolutely normal to have bad seasons as well as good ones. And par for us as a club is probably lower half of the top division of course. However its ust disappointing the manner in which we're heading back there. If thousands of fans can see something is wrong how can the people who run the club not?

It was quite bad considering we were playing a promoted side. We passed the ball badly, showed little cohesion and overall lacked any sort of quality. That's not the hallmark of an ordinary side, its one of a side which is fundamentally broke and needs better coaching. It was like watching a national team that individually has good players but they don't play well together and as a consequence massively underachieve. Some of these players need a rocket up their arse but what I'd like most is to understand how we're trying to play the game as right now it appears they are just sent out there and asked to get on with it.

Bilic should be doing better but the transfer policy at West Ham is horrendous. They only seem to buy players who have no point to prove and take sideways moves just for more money. Taking one look at their team tonight: Hart - on big wages and very poor. Replaced Randolph who was doing well for them Zabaleta - legs gone Fonte - moved for money and old. Arnoutovic - sideways move for more money Hernandez - could have joined many better teams but demanded high wages for a player with little resale value at the end of his contract Ayew - sideways move for more money Is it any wonder none of them care or look motivated.

Shot to save ratio.

Also, how many goals have we conceded from rebounds, fortunate deflections falling to a player or someone having a go from long range? And if we are conceding goals like this why aren't we giving ourselves a chance to score from them by doing the same to the opponent?