Lallana's Left Peg

Can anybody informed on the new passed Financial Fair Play rules tell me if Saints gain any advantage from getting all these new contracts sorted before the end of this season? I'm not suggesting that if there is an advantage then that is the reason we've renewed so many contracts it but I'd be interested to understand what impact (if any) the new contracts being sorted now has, assuming it increases our wage bill ahead of next season when the rules come in. It might be that there is no impact whatsoever but just curious to understand and whether or not it is something that gives us more opportunity to increase the wage bill in the summer.

A decent point given we're away from home and the quality of the opposition, then plus with Wigan losing it feels good as well. Sunderland and Norwich winning mean they are right on our tails but ultimately with Villa and Wigan facing some tricky games you have to say the final relegation spot is between those two and I feel like Saints will be fine (though not all my worry will go until we're mathematically safe). Bit worrying about Pochettino mentioning Lambert struggling with injury over the last month or so. I know last season he had a hip problem we had to manage throughout the last few months of the season (same with Lallana's groin) so lets hope that clears up for the run in.

Not sure if anyone else caught it on Talksport but Redknapp appeared to blame the Loftus Road pitch today. Claimed it wasn't great for playing football on and hard for a team to establish a 'brand' of passing football on it. Yes, that is right, Excuse #1267 out of the Redknapp book, blame the pitch for season long woes. The man is really a nonsense. He then had the cheek to suggest the owners may want a cheaper Manager next season, as though he might be doing them a favour by walking away in order to save them money despite the amazing job he is doing. Having been on the verge of the England job a year ago, his career is now utterly ****ed - I think you'll all join me by declaring it a massive shame for him.

I only think the assertion that we couldn't cope with it is based on our squad as exists today, as I am assuming you are taking a position that our potential for a decent league position next season would be compromised with Europa League football. Under the conditions that the squad exists as it today, I would agree with you however I don't think those conditions are based on reality. The squad will improve over the summer (we won't stand still, but I don't expect the same number of signings), and the circumstances that impacted our start to the season (unexperienced players, unexperienced Manager, lots of new signings) won't be present at the start of next season either. Therefore under the assumption that a) our squad will improve and, b) the start we had to this season won't occur next season due to the circumstances that caused it not being present, then I see no reason why we shouldn't take the opportunity to compete in Europe. And *if* we did get the chance to play in Europe, and *if* we did start slowly in the league there is no problem just to stop playing our best team in Europe and concentrate on the league. I can't see any circumstance where the club would turn it down given our agenda for growth as soon as possible. Also, if anyone thinks we shouldn't compete in Europe, then I wonder if Swansea (3pts above us in the table and sell their best players every summer) and Wigan (7pts below us in the table) fans and players think the same, or whether they are looking forward to it next season. I can't see either of them turning down their opportunity so would they be as silly as us for getting a chance to play in Europe?

Are you suggesting we don't enter the Europa League next season so we can focus our efforts on qualifying for the...Europa League? I imagine the club will take the chance if given it. They want to play in Europe and won't care how we qualify. I doubt they'll be so ignorant to assume we could take on the extra 10 - 20 games in the season without a squad big enough to also deal with the league.

Very interesting player - great distribution and passing and a good 'sense' of how to defend in terms of positioning and reading the play but as slow as I've ever seen play for us in any position. Originally I wondered how on earth that would work with our high line but I can't remember too many times when the centre-halves have had their backs turned with balls dinked over the top since Pochettino took over. If anything it's been the diagonal over the full-backs heads but either way Forren looked like he needed lots of conditioning and fitness to deal with the pace and power of our league irregardless of a high line. But it would be nice to have a central defender in the team who when he passes it forward knows what he is doing.

Don't understand this forum sometimes, there was a thread on Scott Sinclair several weeks back where it seemed 80% wanted him at the club despite the fact he probably earns 60k+ and hasn't played at all this season and in his career has cobbled together two good seasons in the Championship and Premier League yet we get linked to a player who has had a bad season but has a body of work that has seen him play nearly 70 times for Real Madrid and people don't want him

I don't think anyone is so stupid as to suggest he is great no matter what, but if you want to build a case as to why we should seek to replace him in the team, then purely focussing on the mistakes is going to make it particularly justified. He's come back brilliantly under Pochettino and been part of a starting 11 that has beat Chelsea, Liverpool, and Man City. Of course he has his limitations - I don't like his distribution, he has the turning circle of an oil tanker, and sometimes he doesn't look too comfortable doing his work which can give the opposition something to build momentum on. However aerially I think he is our most accomplished defender, he doesn't try to complicate things, and he's been a part of a team that has safely steered us away from relegation, so to hang him out to dry like this is short-sighted. You'll find that there have been plenty in our squad that have made mistakes this season, just as there will be in every single squad top middle and bottom in the league. I think in time he will be replaced, but not because he made some mistakes, it'll be for other reasons that are a consequence of us trying to push on rather than him not being good enough to contribute at all.

Just to play devils advocate, if we had a striker, say, a striker who has scored over 100 goals for the club in under four seasons, and he misses a good chance to score which he should really put away at least once every four games, would we want him replaced?

Much of our progress over the last 3 years has been aided by a financial advantage over our rivals (not to diminish what has been achieved though). We're not too far away from a place in the league where that advantage no longer becomes ours and instead belongs to our rivals (or at the very best we are equals). So I'll be interested to see how he approaches things and how much patience he has in that position when it can't be about how much money we've got, but about how we spend it to even the playing field.

Lucky suggests complete fortune when in reality he was promoted to the first team squad in the summer and he has always been earmarked to be someone to play for our first team sooner rather than later. We did try to sign a left-back but the deal fell through - if we had extreme doubts over both Fox and Shaw I would imagine we'd go the extra mile. It's been great how quickly Shaw has adapted and I think most have been surprised at how good he has been straight away, however I think lucky is the wrong word to use in this case. Otherwise you can also suggest we're lucky how well other players without Premier League experience have done - which would be most of the team.

Football is far more enjoyable when you stay positive, even when you recognise things may not be great at certain times.

Academy Manager at Everton.

I think the fans choice will be obvious but I'll be interested to see who the Players Player of the Season is.

If you want proper football analysis and discussion then there are publications and podcasts / radio shows that will do it. BBC know they need to counter to a football supporting audience that is by and large made up of morons and so tailor their content accordingly with lots of nothing discussion and obvious statements by profiled individuals. I can hack that because their editing of the matches in highlights is very good and I shudder to think ITV ever get anywhere near the Premier League highlights again.

Not convinced existing demand justifies the suggested financial outlay required to expand the stadium, especially after just one season back in the league.

I don't think they would be teasing contract news in this way. The club wouldn't tease significant news (or at least if they are, it is a big departure from their existing policy). I suspect it is just some photos for the programme or something like that - nothing to get excited about. But a bit of fun for the Media team to see how the fans react.

If you'd have told me at the start of the November that come mid-April we'd be upwardly mobile, 6 points clear of relegation, -7 goal difference, 11th in the league and 100/1 for relegation I would have bitten your hand off. And in case you forgot what the table looked like after the West Brom result: http://www.statto.com/football/stats/england/premier-league/2012-2013/table/2012-11-05

Has a good head and a calming influence about him. Keeps it simple and does it very well. Very tactically aware as well. Fills a few gaps in an inexperienced squad.

We've not started at all and the passing has been terrible. Need to adapt quickly.

It's a pointless exercise trying to plot positions in the Pochettino system. You can plot a standard 4-2-3-1 as a base formation but the team play so high up the pitch and you can have up to four players chasing the same ball at times which means attempting to attribute positional discipline to our tactics is missing the entire point and principle of how we play in the first place. I'd much prefer to see heat maps of positions of when we have and do not have the ball - that would tell you more.

Should have just said 'Don't be a **** supporter like you've been all season and I know the novelty of players passing a ball will be new to you under my management so try and get behind the team for once'.

We're capable of performances to break into the Top 7 but over the course of a season I don't think the current squad can. Teams in the existing Top 7 aren't getting weaker so it isn't as though a spot is opening up for us either. The other thing that will be interesting to see is how the team plays when there is no pressure. For the past four seasons we've had something to play for. Next season, if we stay up and have a better season (say, comfortably mid-table), it will be interesting to see if the drive is there. Not suggesting it won't, but it will be a different type of challenge from what we've had.

It just goes to show how different tactics and systems can either accenture or hide weaknesses and strengths in players and defenders are no different in that regard. Where we do have a big problem at centre-half is distribution against teams that sit back on us. Fonte and Hooiveld have poor distribution into midfield and attack and while Yoshida is slightly better it isn't good enough. I guess that is where Forren comes in but we'll have to see how he goes.

I spent the last three years telling friends who supported Premier League clubs that they shouldn't be moaning too much about Refs as what we had in League 1 / Championship was worse. After this season, I'm not so sure. I don't recall the Refereeing being this bad in our last few seasons before relegation from the Premier League. I think the game is too quick for them these days. The decision making seems to be getting worse and inconsistencies are far more frequent. Something has to change.