Lallana's Left Peg

Pelle back for this one, and with Long in 'look like a really good footballer in everything I do except when I am near the football' mode I would expect him and Tadic to come back in. Watford are decent but beatable. Score draw as we inch towards a crossroads of either Koeman being backed and staying or Les Reed hitting the reset button.

I don't think he is a huge loss. He didn't take away any IP from Saints. The system he helped to establish is the one we have in place now. Without knowing what we have changed since he left or what he has done at Spurs that he may otherwise have done here it is hard to speculate. I was surprised we replaced him with someone from Huddersfield Town though. And who knows - maybe lots of talent was identified in the summer but we couldn't convince many of them to sign? I know Les Reed said we signed all our major targets but he'd say that no matter what.

It's very much been self-inflicted, so I can't put this down to having two good seasons previously and law of averages kicking in. Koeman has already started to publicly position himself away from the blame here. He is as responsible as anyone else (and there are others who are responsible too). The moment you have a Manager who uses the media to absolve himself of blame then it's not good news. I gather this evening he has started to set expectations in the media that we may make signings.

One more reason to envy it today. Both teams in the 4th round of the FA Cup, and one of them knocking us out.

You don't need to apologise at all. We have played well in games but we fail to convert chances. And then when we need to dig in we leak silly goals. For me football can be made quite complex but it can also be made quite easy. My view is that quality shines through. We don't have enough of it and we are paying the price. I don't point the finger of blame at any individual but it is a collective effort. No doubt some players have been below par this season, and in addition Koeman has made some peculiar decisions which have cost us, plus the transfer business has been appalling. Combine that lot together and you get a squad in the state we have right now. We're nowhere near as good as last season, and we are hurtling at quite some speed down the table. I don't know how it will stop. Smashing the champions elect gave us 45mins of momentum into the next game and the moment the opposition scored we all knew what would happen and the confidence drained from the team. We're pretty rubbish at the moment. Whether or not that is acceptable will be down to preference but I think as an overall body of work given expectations and the money we had at the start of the summer this is one of the worse seasons we've ever had (relatively speaking of course). I don't really see how anyone can defend it.

You didn't answer this in the match thread so I will ask you the question in this one: If we aren't rubbish why have we lost over eighty percent of our games in the last two months?

We failed to spend any money at the business end of the pitch this summer when the last half of last season the goals dried up and the issues were there for all to see. Then to compound that issue we failed to adequately replace in midfield and defence to ensure we could at least remain solid and resolute. Net result is a return to that feeling I haven't had for 7 years of now expecting to lose most games and being pleasantly surprised if we get anything out of it.

After his comments yesterday? Season is done, I'd rather know the kids aren't good enough via watching them play than see some of the current flops stink the place up.

What is the reason we LOSE 80% of our matches in two months then? It's not bad luck. So there must be a reason?

Clasie being saved to he can get some minutes being bullied by Watford on Wednesday.

Losing most of your games does that unfortunately. As does the sense that the moment you are behind in a game you never come back. It doesn't really promote getting excited and vocal.

Blame for the state of this season isn't attributable to any individual, but I think it is fair to say that the players, Manager, and transfer committee have all made mistakes which have contributed to this mess. Several mistakes makes one big mistake.

Wouldn't mind our defenders taking the same attitude.

It's so clearly apparent to anyone with eyes I don't know what Koeman / the club were thinking in the summer. Build a foundation of a team on two physical mobile midfielders, sell one of them for £25m and then sign a player with the body of a 15 year old boy and supplement him with a £5m player. Bonkers to me I don't know what the thinking was.

Clasie is not cut out for Premier League football but it's ok people on SaintsWeb in the summer said Santi Cazorla is small and plays in the middle of the park so Clasie can.

Which I wouldn't mind if the defence and midfield were solid and cut out the schoolboy defending and mistakes. But we can't even defend properly these days and we can't score many either.

Not a surprise considering the lack of goal threat throughout our team.

Well their position on the field means they will be attacking. Whether or not they are good attacking full backs is another matter! If you are suggesting that as they are better defensively than attacking then in effect it is more of a 5-3-2 than 3-5-2 then I'm with you. They will be the only width on the pitch and neither of them can beat a man and in terms of crossing I think Targett is ok but Martina I am not sure about. But it might be one of those ones where by just taking up wide positions they create space for others and won't see much of the ball themselves.

It's definitely 3-5-2. It's not a back 5 - no-one does that.

He's suspended.

Yep. Palace team:

He has a lot of the intangibles you can't coach - determination, leadership, desire etc. Just need to see what his quality is like. He likes to defend and will have a career in football - it's his level of quality that will determine in what league.

Well we still couldn't beat them!

It's always hard to tell but Ryan Mason was a nobody at the age of 23 in Spurs reserves and somehow last season Pochettino polished that turd so much he got an England cap. EDIT: Sorry - meant that in reply to your post two posts up.

Pochettino leaving is nothing to do with the discussion. Pochettino is almost arrogant in his insistence to give young players a chance and to motivate and push them on. He won't do it blindly of course but if he sees potential he will push it. He turned Chambers into a £16m right back over the course of a summer of repositioning training and then playing him in half the games we had that season. Alli's played half a season and he must be worth a ridiculous amount now compared to what they paid for him. It is possible to integrate kids into our team and be no worse off than we are, I believe that.