Lallana's Left Peg

Our momentum is vitally important to us. We don't have a game for a week after the Ipswich game. There is no reason why we shouldn't play a strong team without taking any unnecessary risks with players. For me it is not about whether or not it is a cup game, it's about keeping the momentum going and that is why we should play a strong team.

The resiliency Love a good old battle like that - brings different things out of the players. Definitely a major test passed.

And here are our fixtures over this time:

Yep - absolutely crazy appointment. The chasm between what it takes to be a successful Manager in the Championship and what it takes to be a successful Manager in the Premier League is widening all the time. Someone told me a crazy stat the other day - in the last 10-15 years (something like that) only ONE foreign Manager has got promoted out of the Championship. Yet the moment most young British Managers get into the Premier League they look like lost little puppies.

Mane up front

What formation is that then!?!

Yep Merry Christmas everyone - it's been another great year for Saints and we're in a great period to be a Saints supporter despite the fun and games over the summer.

No, but it isn't a question of whether you can tame a character like that, it's a question of whether you can get the most out of them on the field. You can't change a person from football training. You can only try and hope that they enjoy their football to make a contribution that doesn't come at the expense of other elements of management around team spirit and togetherness. It's 50/50 whether or not it happens but in football talent always gives you another chance. Always.

Too many cooks in that Liverpool team. Sterling was to do it all. Coutinho wants to do it all. Gerrard wants to do it all. Markovic is just crap. There is no cohesion and no balance, and what is worst whilst trying to find it Rodgers completely negates any sort of shape or defensive work when they don't have the ball. Poor Lallana is trying to be inclusive in his play and build things up but he's playing in a team of 'me first' players. That said, Lallana too is snatching at things - maybe in a desperate bid to impress or maybe he is just out of form. I do know the best Liverpool team likely won't be full of their best players, but until Rodgers can work things out it's quite funny watching the train wreck.

I don't have any stats to hand so I took a quick look at Wkipedia for the clubs I suspect would have a lot of Academy graduates play for them: Man Utd - 15 (Rafael, Evans, Welbeck, Scholes, Cleverley, Fletcher, Fabio, Lawrence, Wilson, Januzaj, Mcnair, Lingard, Thorpe, Keane, Blackett) Arsenal - 9 (Szczęsny, Wilshere, Fabianski, Coquelin, Mannone, Gibbs, Gnabry, Miquel, Akpom) Aston Villa - 12 (Clark, Lichaj, Baker, Albrighton, Bannan, Herd, Agbonlahor, Gardner, Delfouneso, Wiemann, Robinson, Grealish) I don't think any other club would be anywhere near us four.

We've been back in the Premier League for two and a half seasons now. In that time we've had the following Academy players either make their debut for us or play for us in the Premier League: 2012-13 Adam Lallana (sold summer 2014 to Liverpool for about £25m) James Ward-Prowse Luke Shaw (sold summer 2014 to Manchester United for about £32m) Ben Reeves (released summer 2013) 2013-14 Calum Chambers (sold summer 2014 to Arsenal for about £16m) Harrison Reed Sam Gallagher 2014-15 (thus far) Lloyd Isgrove Matt Targett Jake Hesketh Dom Gape So that's eleven players in under three seasons which is absolutely prolific no matter what way you look at it - even more so when you consider the progress we have made as a club and that we have always spent money to improve the team as well.

He's a very good footballer with a lot of upside. England U20 Captain (or has at least captained them at times), solid defender, great mentality, very good on the ball. Not explosive like Luke Shaw, isn't going to be up and down the left hand side all day but another great Academy graduate who will have a very good career.

The enthusiasm from Koeman is tangible I hope Reed plays well, I really like him.

Time for the Academy to shine. And tired? Awful reason to be unavailable for a game. Unacceptable.

Change the way we play to get the most out of a 7 goal a season striker? No thanks. Shane Long isn't good enough for us to change the way we play to suit him. Whilst I agree he has qualities we need, his overall game is not up to scratch. He's busy, he gets into the right positions, but he hasn't got a touch and can't finish. Both of those things really let him down and drastically impact his usefulness to a team like us. He's better off in a more direct team where he can play with a partner up front. We need our strikers to be a part of our play where we move up the pitch as a team, so they need to hold up the ball and bring others into play. Not run around like a headless chicken overrunning the ball and flicking on the ball to no-one. You can't defend the signing right now, it just looks like an epic waste of money. He won't get better, he is what he is - I don't blame him whatsoever he's been exactly as advertised when he arrived but just a peculiar signing altogether as it has emerged how Koeman likes to play.

Mane may be infuriating but of all the players on the pitch tonight he was always the most likely to make something happen. His general play may have been of a poor standard, but for me he was putting himself about and in positions to make something happen. Long worked hard but was still Shane Long. Bertrand - just no, never again on the wing please. JWP - no point playing him so far up the pitch if he is going to pass it 10 yards further back than the person he received the ball from. Mayuka - well, words fail me. Looks like a lost boy out there.

Just back from the game. What a thoroughly pathetic performance that was. There wasn't a lack of effort, there was just a massive lack of quality. Little belief on the ball, poor technique, terrible movement, no cohesion, no-one being brave, being outfought, not thinking properly. 11 strangers on the pitch. Schniederlin by far our best player, he deserves far better than to play with the mess out on show tonight. Gardos was an absolute car crash tonight, for a big lad he is soft and slower than an 80 year old running in wellies. Hate JWP in forward positions, Mayuka is a joke (think Ali Dia), Long winds me up no end - such a nothing player, and a left back starting a game on the wing. As for the support, there were far too many people there tonight looking for trouble and it was embarrassing. Saw one Saints fan punch another on the concourse after the game - pathetic. We lacked so much quality and spirit tonight it was disheartening. These are professional footballers and far too many of them looked like they didn't fancy the pitch (which was shocking) and conditions (which weren't great but they're professionals - deal with it). But you get on with it and you adapt - we couldn't adapt and paid the price. Confidence is absolutely shot - time for Koeman to figure some things out.

But he was one we could afford last season, and we had a net gain of £30m+ from summer activity. So I don't think any sort of financial constraint meant he had to go unless it can be proved otherwise. The deal in isolation seemed good though, so I am not saying he shouldn't have left, but what doesn't make sense to me is that at the start of the season Koeman wanted all creativity to come from out wide and now when we have a few injuries he selects Jake Hesketh (who is not ready) ahead of other better players because he wants an offensive central midfielder, when all along Ramirez would be perfect for that. Even then, why not play Reed alongside Wanyama at Burnley will Davis further forward stitching together play? It's confusing and I don't see the logic behind it personally.

Talk on the Sheffield United boards that they may go with a 4-6-0 'False Nine' formation. League 1's changed in the few years since we left it

Never going to happen. He's the finished product at the top level. He's never scored many goals and people who thought he might when we signed him were deluded. Whatever he brings to the team as a striker, it isn't goals. I can see the appeal of a club like us having a player like him but we shouldn't even pretend to think he's going to score many goals for us.

This is must win in my opinion. Lose and we are proven to be nothing more than a momentum team which half the Premier League can claim to be.

He's correct. But this is nonetheless still highly amusing.

Mane may be frustrating but he is the sort of player who's unpredictability and directness we may well need to get by Burnley. It doesn't even need to be clever, it could just be him running at the defence and we get a lucky break or bounce that another player benefits from, but you've got to make the pitch big against teams like Burnley and ensure they can't defend with the ball in front of them all the time.

I know you are messing but I'll take the flat track bully tag all day - Arsenal annually finish Top 4 despite getting mugged off by all around them in the immediate vicinity in the table and often putting in performances like ours against Man Utd on Monday. It's converting draws to wins against the 'lesser' teams that will make the biggest difference to our season.

What's more annoying than a plastic? Someone who bleats on about what a 'proper' supporter they are. It's football. There are no rules about how you should support your team and how you should enjoy it. It's turned into a consumer industry that attracts all sorts. Just because you went to the Bescott Stadium on a cold December Saturday 5 years ago it doesn't make you any better than the person who has started going to games now we're back in the Premier League - perhaps he / she has a different reason for going to the football than you - what a disgrace! Throw them out! Enjoy football how you want to, but don't impress it on other people. It's pathetic.