Lallana's Left Peg

In a season when we depended on him making the step up because of the loss of other quality in the team he hasn't quite done it for us. Progression for young players is of course not linear, and whilst exposure to first team football is very important that also doesn't appear to be as important to JWP as it should given his vast experience for his age. He has a lot of good qualities as a footballer, but at the moment the areas he is lacking are impacting his ability to influence and play well in games. He will play to the level of the team and no better - conversely when we are struggling he is rarely the one who still puts in a good performance. He has a long way to go but we should be patient and give him that opportunity - especially as for me there is no better alternative to him right now.

Well if you were to look at it in the cold light of day we lost three important players in the summer and only really replaced one of them (with VvD). The replacements for the other two are nowhere near up to the level which is going to happen if you sell high and buy low. If that is the ethos of the club then they need to stop the talk of European football for a while because only teams that have a net spend get better in this league year after year. Others, like ourselves, will have good seasons and bad seasons.

World class players look after the ball far more and have better concentration. He's very good at certain things and very bad at others - which means he'll be a player who will suit some roles and not others. He still has a lot of potential to fulfil though as relative to his age he hasn't played much football.

Some ITK's said the club were very happy and patting themselves on the back with this signing and they considered it marquee. I am just going off that.

U21's have players on loan as they aren't good enough to make the step up (or aren't getting a chance) and U21 football will stifle their development. The better U18's then get bumped up which leaves them short but the coaching / management at U18 level has been an issue ever since Dodd and Williams left. I don't know the exact reason they left but the rumour was that they (read: Les Reed) wanted a more modern approach to the coaching. Anthony Limbrick was the U16 coach at the time and highly thought of and the club were aware that the U18's weren't going to be that good so for the sake of continuity they appointed Limbrick. However, at the end of his first season it was clear that whilst he was a good coach as a Manager he had some areas lacking, particularly around his experience of the game. Craig Fleming was brought in to help him. This summer Limbrick went back to Australia - again I don't know the reasons but Fleming now appears to have assumed the role of U18 Manager. Is he suited to it? I am not sure. However, the U18's are lacking in talent - only a few U16's got scholarships and the rest of the group who are new are made up of rejects from other Academies (from bigger clubs like Arsenal and Chelsea). The reason our intake is lacking is because these are the kids that joined us as nippers (8 - 10) during our plummet down the leagues when our scouting and set-up was not as good and other clubs could make better offers. So it will be lean for a few years but things should pick up again in 2-3 years which is effectively when intakes post-takeover will start to come through. As for the U21's I don't know why Martin Hunter wasn't at the Norwich game on Monday night so it will be interesting to see what the news is there.

A marquee signing who can only play one game a week and even then can't really deal with the physicality of the league? A bit concerning unless there is more to it.

Poor result but I thought the performance was decent - just lacking that confidence and finish in the final third. On another day we could have won by five. Stopped the rot of losses at least. I'm not as worried as I was.

And they also have third parties buying players for them!

It will of course be reinvested into the team but how we do it is restrictive. If we are to continue to fund both transfer fees AND wages from the transfer fees we receive for players then I want to know what happens to the spare wages we free up from this system. If it is a FFP thing then fair enough but this summer with the expected increase in commercial revenue coupled with the guaranteed TV revenue increase it's time to start spending more (including wages) because our competitors are and they are clearly catching us up.

Wilson says that Man Utd did bid for Mane in the summer but also ever other somewhat credible journalist said that it was just a leak to deflect from missing out on Pedro. Maybe I am reading too much into it here but if Wilson has been briefed by Saints it feels like they are positioning him for a move. As inevitable as a move may be (especially given some of the other turd we're buying for the squad) I'd rather Saints play the game a bit more and issue hands off warnings.

That by the way is nothing to do with fitness or sharpness, it's concentration and awareness, two things he isn't going to get better at all of a sudden. The only mitigating circumstance can be the silly formation and players in certain roles at that time but in general he should know to keep up with his defence at all times.

I'm not a fan of standing off too much but we did very well away from home last season by standing off and using our shape and organisation to stifle the opposition and see out games. The difference I see now is that the quality has diminished which makes standing off more of a risk plus when we break we do so less incisively as we are scared of losing the ball and giving a goal away. We're a bit stuck in that regard.

Caulker a good 5 yards behind the rest of his defence which allows the striker to pretty much make any sort of run he wants to create a clear one-on-one opportunity. As it goes the striker makes the right run which is running from blindside of the defender so he can't see him and across him to ensure he is onside when the ball is played and then running onto the ball.

Same team but Fonte in for Caulker. Simple as that isn't it?

Think that is unfair on Koeman. In the games I go to (almost all away from St Marys) Koeman is active enough in his technical area. Sometimes he says things sometimes he doesn't. The players are well coached and he trusts them to implement what they have talked about before the game. He cannot legislate for mistakes or massive brainfarts like the one above from Caulker. Caulker himself will know he did wrong, he doesn't need a bollocking mid-game from 50 yards away to know this either. Koeman trusts his players to work things out and stick to the plan.

This time last year we were third. This time last year we lost 5 games in a row (4 in the league) before a team meeting was called and players agreed to run more for each other. Next game was a 3-0 win against Everton (on the 20th).

It was the same this time last year and then we stepped it up a bit. Lets hope for the same reaction this time around.

What are we doing in the League and FA Cup that would be so important that a potential Cup Final doesn't matter? We're going to finish midtable in the League no matter what and the FA Cup is another cup competition that we're 5 games away from Wembley in whilst the Capital One Cup would have been 2 games (the Semi-Final).

He makes saves but he doesn't make good saves. He makes the saves you'd expect any keeper to. He had a bad night but considering the circumstances in which he was brought in he is adequate. Five things for me: 1. We appear to want to play the same way we did last season but we replaced Schneiderlin with someone who is 5% as good off the ball and it has ruined our team. Clasie may be better on the ball but that contribution nowhere near makes up for the stuff we've lost off the ball. 2. We aren't giving players who are going to be wanted in January and the summer a reason to stay at the club 3. Padding out the squad with 'so-so' players is a strategy that ultimately fails - why on earth did we do it? 4. We've lost our identity - I couldn't tell you what sort of team we are any more. We're lost in big games. 5. Caulker needs to be sent back. What is he doing that Jack Stephens on a fraction of the wage couldn't?

£27m owed in transfer fees. Strong rumours that many had contracts which had clauses which made it financially difficult. Summer 2014 cleared that £27m but then there was the question of the training ground spend. This summer I think we underspent.

In for Yoshida at full back?

My own belief is not that we haven't spent money, but that we haven't spent money particularly wisely. ~£10m on Juanmi and Romeu when a single £10m player would have much more difference for example. That said I think VvD and Cedric are great business.

The current 16's / 18's were kids scouted and attained during the years we plummeted from the Premier League down to League 1. Supplementary players - certainly at the U18 level the last few years - have come from other Academies (many were rejects from Arsenal / Chelsea rather than being talents who chose us over them). The overall quality is not as good as it has been. A few aside it will be a lean few years from the Academy. However, in the post-takeover era things have picked up and I told the current 14/15 year olds who came to us 6 years ago are decent as long as their development continues as it has. We just have to accept that the next few years won't be as good.

Report on official website said Jaidi was in charge. Anyone know where Martin Hunter was? If he was there some of the players would be making the journey back with limbs missing...

Juanmi got into some nice positions but in the last quarter of the match Mane decided to do everything and anything by himself. Quite frustrating.