Lallana's Left Peg

I'm not too sure what people expect. Like every other club in the world, our transfer record is right in the middle between good and bad regardless of how players are targeted and signed. However, it has been good enough to support the aspirations of the club ahead of schedule the future has never looked as bright, so I don't really understand why people want to argue over it.

If Sharp was good enough for the Premier League and was available for just £1m, don't you think there would be at least 5-6 clubs in the Premier League after him? It appears there isn't so doesn't that sort of blow the 'Sharp is good enough and until he gets a chance you can't say otherwise' brigade out of the water? At the end of the day it would have been nice for all of the promotion team to get a fair crack at the Premier League but that is all it would have been - nice. There is no room for sentiment any more and the powers that be deemed Sharp wasn't worth keeping around when we were going to play a formation with one up front and four strikers ahead of him in the pecking order.

There must be something about Osvaldo that has made Pochettino absolutely convince the club that we must persevere trying to sign him. I know he worked with him at Espanyol but I can't see anything about him from the YouTube clips and reports I read about him that makes it clear to me exactly what would be so 'must have' about him. Its a bit weird.

I am not so much concerned about the depth as others, as much as I am about the quite diverse styles of the players we've got in the squad. If we were to assume that Pochettino likes to play a certain way regardless of the players at his disposal (which I think is the case from what I can tell) then it is a little concerning to think what the impact a few injuries may have on the team at this moment. For example, I am not overly concerned about Fox being our back-up left-back. If you look up and down the league you'll find that most teams have back-ups at full-back who aren't as good as the first choice. My concern is more that he doesn't appear suited to the way the team wants to play - he has average pace, is easy to be turned, and prone to lots of ball watching which mean his weaknesses can be exposed by being high up the pitch. So it is not so much Fox that is an issue, more that it is Fox being asked to play in a style which really places the emphasis on his weaknesses. So on one hand you may say it is good to have an array of talents in the squad to choose from, but when you are asking them all to play in a certain way there will inevitably be players who benefit and players who struggle a little, plus some players who may feel their strengths and key attributes can't be taken advantage of. Having said that, the biggest gap for me is in the final third anyway. The majority of our forward thinking players have attributes which support a slow, considered build-up and that is the opposite to the vision Pochettino has. Yes when we have possession and build from the back it is nice but the idea is to win the ball high up the pitch and create an opening very quickly through some incisiveness, and that has been dearly lacking at times this season. In fact I think Rodriguez's increased importance to the team has come from him being able to run at players, be direct, and take chances rather than have to slow everything down like he had to at the start of the season. It would be nice to have another forward player like him and I consider that to be our biggest gap at the moment. It doesn't need to be a winger, or a striker, or have to be an attacking midfielder - any of the aforementioned will do, but someone who can carry the ball and 'have a go' would be good to have. The consequence of this is that he attracts attention and opens up space for others as well, so it is far more than the individual benefit of having a player like this. If we're going to win the ball high up the pitch, there is no point slowing it down and letting the opposition get men behind the ball after we do it. We need to have purpose and try some one / two touch stuff to take advantage of it. Hopefully with the depth we now have with Wanyama as well as Cork and Schneiderlin we reduce the threat of the break on us that will occur when we lose the ball high up the pitch as well, but I definitely think we need something extra in the final third.

Doesn't mean anything either way but Banega trained with Valencia in Germany today.

I somewhat fondly remember him launching Paulo Futre into Row E at Upton Park many years ago but this challenge has completely escaped me: Run it off son

Steve - are you including Mark in that 11 or not? I'll make some enquiries tonight for other players if you want?

Steve said one of the pitches was 3G, but having seen the lineup we play all three games on the Saturday on different pitches so probably worth taking boots for all eventualities.

Banega is a very interesting player. I said this in the transfer thread at the start of the summer when he was first linked, but he is very creative without operating in the final third of the pitch. He carries the ball well, draws players towards him, and creates openings for others. He is a very important link between the middle third and the final third without being a player who necessarily creates too many assists. He facilitates the starts of moves and the fact he can carry the ball as well will be a massive help against teams that sit back and defend against us when we play at home. He'll lose the ball sometimes, maybe frustrate, but that little bit of unpredictability is starting to become important in the game as teams become so much more tactically aware and keep shape well.

Feels like the most significant signing of the past decade for a number of reasons.

Over the course of the season Puncheon was probably better, however Lallana wasn't the same after his injury - he kept getting little knocks and could never find his rhythm, and I don't blame him for that whatsoever. It was only back in early December when he got the serious injury against Reading that Saints fans declared it the end of the world and said we'd get relegated. The anxiety was off the scale. You don't go from a player who has that sort of influence on the team to one who isn't good enough for the team after one injury followed by indifferent form caused by a number of reasons. I'm not saying Lallana should be an automatic choice by any means - it is important we have competition and genuine options for the team, but all things being equal (i.e. he isn't carry knocks etc.) I would imagine Lallana would be a starter and would be so on merit. There is definitely more to come from him and he shouldn't blindly play, but lets not use the last 3 months of the season as a guide as to what he has to offer going forward. However, I'll agree on the Captaincy piece. I think there is an element of seniority to him given the age of our team and the fact he sets a great example of what the club wants to achieve, but on the pitch I think Schneiderlin and Lambert can wear the armband to greater effect.

With shifting perceptions you also get shifting expectations. It'll be very interesting to see how the team and club react to an increased level of expectation next season. There have been times last season when the moment we had a little cushion above the bottom three we simply stopped playing with the intensity and quality needed to get results against 'lesser' opposition. That simply won't do this season and so it will be interesting to see how Pochettino can keep the players 'at it'.

http://www.tv2.no/sport/fotball/forren-i-molde-solskjaer-innkaller-til-pressekonferanse-4086423.html?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter#.Ud6yhxHdBTg.twitter

Is this the same John Hartson who left Celtic for that European titan West Brom, a club so big they signed him after they finished 19th in the Premier League and got relegated?

Check the date...

I am not sure what the process of applying for a work permit is but I am pretty sure it'll take more than 24hrs as Kenya are ranked 124th in the world. The alternative is of course that a work permit has been applied for weeks ago (and granted) and we just need to update it the day he signs. I think we did this for Ramirez last summer.

I said it back in May when he was first linked but I'm not really keen on Sinclair. The reasons being for the wages he'd command from Man City and whether or not he would definitely improve us. I don't think he would (maybe I don't rate him as much as others do). But with Puncheon, Lallana, and Jay-Rod already competing for the two available 'outside right / left' positions in a 4-2-3-1 I think if we were to bring anyone in who play there they'd have to be better and I am not sure Sinclair is. Another reason is that I genuinely think we've got some great players coming through in those positions as well so even if this season is too soon for them I think in time they can contribute so I don't think it would be worth signing Sinclair on that basis.

Didn't Kelvin do that to him a few years ago!?!

At £8m I'm assuming we didn't sign Lovren to watch Premier League football from the bench. It is probably fair to say that all things being equal he will start for us. But who do you think will partner him? Yoshida - probably our best centre-back over the course of the season but fell out of favour towards the end of the season (perhaps he got tired?). Reads the game well, competes well, but not the biggest and distribution not great. Hooiveld - bad start, fell out of the team, but came back very strongly under Pochettino towards the end of the season where it seemed like it would be a choice of who would partner him rather than whether he would even play. Distribution not great and prone to getting a bit nervous at times. Fonte - bad start, but appeared to play much better when Yoshida came in. Suffered a bad injury in January but came back into the team well when asked and put in some assuring performances towards the back end of the season. But a theme developing here - bad distribution as well. Forren - who knows how good he is but was signed with a report card that suggested he was a 'modern' centre half who can pass the ball very well and start attacks. Appears to be incredibly slow as well. Oh, and to further complicate matters Lovren is right footed but in the stuff I've seen of him he appeared to play as the left-sided centre-half for Lyon. So for those of you who like balance in the back four that is another conundrum. I've no idea who I would make favourite to partner Lovren, but assuming Lovren is good enough in the air and can also pass it well, for some reason I think Yoshida may well start as his partner. What does the forum think?

First team football is the biggest driver and likely only reason assuming all other things would be equal.

I think you can only claim it is a waste of time if the process of chasing top level targets means we miss out on more attainable targets (note: target means someone we want, not someone supporters think would do a job for us). The transfer window is like plate spinning. You try to get the absolute best player you can whilst at the same time ensuring your backup targets are still there once you know one way or another with your primary targets. With six weeks left of the transfer window, I would be more concerned if we had moved to backup targets (unless of course the primary targets have already become unattainable or moved to someone else). This summer is a little different to last. Last summer there was some apprehension around the squad and we dropped a bollock in our pursuit of a central defender and winger. The fact we ended up with Yoshida at centre-half who came out of nowhere means he was never first choice, and our failure to get a winger meant we ended up buying Mayuka on the basis he could play there but it was really only the form that Puncheon showed which meant that decision wasn't punished on the pitch. This summer we've already strengthened the area we need to most, and the team has shown it is more than able in other areas so this is about really improving us, not reinforcements or depth. You don't buy for depth, you buy to improve your team and use any player displaced as the depth.

That formation simply doesn't work given the requirement to press high up the pitch. You can't press with just three offensive minded players as then massive gaps will start to appear. We may mess with three at the back in pre-season in a bid to solve how to break teams down who defend deep against us (allowing the wing-backs to push up and midfield move forward knowing there is plenty of cover behind them) but we definitely won't be trying 4-3-1-2 - if we did it would require 25+ years of Pochettino coaching and managing to be dropped in favour of a new way of playing.

Yes, but can you remember the official site ever referencing transfer targets by name before when discussed in a press conference during Adkins or Pochettino's reign? And they've both been asked lots of times. This is definitely a different approach.

I was firmly in the camp that thought Forren was signed for this season etc. however in his Saints Player interview today Pochettino was very non-committal on Forren. Clearly he has a future of some sort as he is training with the first team (you only have to see the others out in the cold who aren't) however when asked by Adam Blackmore if there was space in the Saints team for Forren Pochettino said something along the lines of 'we have to see how he trains over the next few days'. It might be that he just sees him as backup or I may just be reading too much into it, but it didn't seem like a very positive answer for a player. Maybe I am just too used to the 'has to train well and fight for his place' stock answer. I definitely don't think we need five senior centre-halves, regardless.

Interesting point actually. Unless injured, I can only assume the following players were asked not to come (or they trained with the Development Squad): Dean Hammond Jonathan Forte Billy Sharp Steve De Ridder Richard Chaplow Tadanari Lee Not sure on Lee's status, I know he wasn't called up to the Japanese squad but he was still playing football in June (I think) so maybe he has extended time off. But the others...