Lallana's Left Peg

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.

The way he takes out his own teammate celebrating the last goal

If a bigger club can offer some sort of first team promises then he has absolutely no reason to stay at Saints, and our Board would have no chance of getting him to sign a new deal in my opinion. We'd be best off selling him in the summer to get £10 - 15m. There isn't a natural replacement in the rest of the squad (we sold the one we had this summer...) so it's another tough ask for the club to go out and buy another Premier League ready right-back. I know the club like Sam Byram - I wouldn't be surprised to see us renew interest in him.

Does anyone know the total amount of money that has been invested into the club and wrote off since the takeover? Whilst I like the talk of being sustainable and so on, quite clearly our growth has been fuelled investment rather than any other method. There has been nothing clever about that part of it.

I don't think he will change formation at all. The only change we've seen all season is 4-1-1 with Long in the number 10 role (which I absolutely hate). More change is as big of a risk as playing 'weaker' players. I would rather we stick to the formation we know and think is suitable for the game and slot players in - if it is a good formation then the impact of other players slotting in shouldn't be too negative. And Reed will play deeper than Davis if both play on Sunday.

Reed is ready it's just that there are other better options ahead of him in the pecking order. Injuries to JWP, Cork, Schneiderlin, and Alderweireld mean he should be given an opportunity. If not he may as well join a bigger club and not play because plenty like him, Man Utd in particular.

I sincerely hope we do not become one of those clubs who patch up their squad with senior players whenever we have an injury crisis or whatnot. We have one of the best Academies in the world and whilst you'd prefer to ease the kids into the fold in a more controlled manner one of the very few things I actually enjoy about modern football is seeing youth players come through the system. If we turn our back on that a little I'll become even more uninterested.

Would be surprised if he got a new deal. Even if Alderweireld doesn't sign I wouldn't expect the club to offer him a new deal. His role could / should be fulfilled by Stephens or Turnbull next season.

Quite clearly Koeman plays a system where all of the creativity comes from the wings and all of the midfield three need to be able to defend as well as attack so that very much leaves him out in the cold. Can't see him playing another game for us.

The new look team that has played together once all season

Best not to confuse it with the role that Recruitment plays in HR in a traditional organisation. His work at Saints was based around establishing the framework and process that all footballers are assessed / analysed - both within the club and outside. This is about creating a process that focuses on the attributes of a footballer that are important to the club (that fit our 'profile') - both on and off the field, and using it to determine whether the footballer is the right fit for our club. What comes out the other side is a list of transfer targets for the club. Conversely, these principles are also applied to players already at the club, all the way down to the Academy. He determined how we appraise them and this in turn allows us to understand if they are making progress towards the first team (or rather, is one of the many things we use to determine that). He does not negotiate with players, and nor does he ultimately decide who we sign. He simply presents a list of players to meet a certain requirement asked of him based on his process and method to appraise players. To help him in this process he has scouts and analysts in his team. The 'black box' is simply a bespoke room designed to focus those inside it at the task at hand, and the 'software' we use to assess players is simply a database with player cuttings and clips to hand to allow us to compare and review things at speed. Paul Mitchell helped establish the structure that we now operate in recruitment and player assessment, him leaving does not mean the end of the world but it does mean Spurs will be looking to copy what we did. I have no doubt he will be able to replicate it - whether or not it has the same effect on Spurs is another matter as that will be down to other people, namely Levy and Baldini. But if you are going to get your salary doubled / tripled, then why not take the risk - he is a professional like anyone else.

It certainly didn't click in the final third but I wasn't unhappy with our general performance whatsoever. We looked by FAR the better team and kept going. We stuck at it and kept grinding away. I am pleased we dug out a point after what was a bad day at the office - but not one where we left Villa Park with nothing. A few lessons to be learnt for Koeman, but that is in no way a criticism. It's certainly an opportunity missed but not one to beat ourselves up about. Disappointed but not downbeat.