HarvSFC

PSV looking really good tonight. Xavi Simons looks a great talent at 19, shame PSG have a buy back on him. Gakpo had one good finish disallowed for offside and setup a goal from a corner. Van Nistelrooy schooling Arteta with 20 minutes to go.

His teammate Dele Alli has 1 goal and 0 assists in 6 games. We dodged a massive bullet there last January, one thing we should be grateful to Everton for. And Besiktas will never sign an English player again.

Indeed, just from current highly thought of Brazilians in the Premier League, Alisson went to Roma, Antony to Ajax, Casemiro and Fabinho to Real Madrid, Coutinho to Inter, Ederson to Benfica, Firmino to Hoffenheim, Fred and Willian to Shakhtar, Jesus to City, Gabriel to Lille, Martinelli to Arsenal, Guimares to Lyon, Moura to PSG, Richarlison to Watford, Thiago Silva to Porto. None had a little jaunt in the MLS, where the not so good South American's get picked up. A lot did however go to elite clubs at first opportunity, clubs that we can't compete with on paper. However, if we can be seen to be a Premier League pathway for these players then we might be able to pick some up before they go on to the elite clubs, similar to what we're doing with young European talent now.

Watched Burnley vs Norwich. Certainly wasn't a classic. Tella's probably had better matches for them, wasn't really in the game tonight despite a lot of running. Rodriguez scored a penalty against Gunn to win it and Cork was named the man of the match in the stadium, so quite the Saints reunion. Kompany's doing a very good job there, they don't even play like Burnley anymore, so considering the transition and they're now top of the Championship.

Bournemouth made West Ham work for that victory, as they did us. They're just also missing a goal scorer, and while Solanke is shit, Kieffer Moore is a big drop off in quality. Seems to be the theme of the season and they'll also be glad the World Cup's around the corner with Solanke out.

Would be good to get some expertise on the South American markets, as that's one we haven't really explored before. Although, again, you'd have reservations regarding whether he could manage as well in Europe, or at a smaller side than River Plate.

Indeed, I suspect many of us on here have sat in the wrong end watching Saints during our lives. I was in the Stoke end when Begovic scored against us due to being in Uni up there at the time and I was in a hospitality box at Millwall when Lambert scored two late penalties to give us a 3-2 win as my dad knew some Millwall fans. So, similar to when you get away fans in our boxes these days. For my own safety I never made it clear that I was a Saints fan and acted as though I was a home fan, as is the expected etiquette if you are to go in to an opposite end. Guess it's for a few more likes on social media, if they make themselves known and think it looks cool if they're mouthing off in a home end.

Nice to have some proper centre-backs again and not Salisu plus an egotistical bellend, who epitomised everything that was wrong with the team in the last few months of last season and couldn't fight his way out of a wet paper bag. The team is weird though, a few weeks of turning up meekly against Aston Villa and Wolves, losing 1-0 and you're wondering where the next point even is going to come from. Then we face West Ham, Bournemouth and Arsenal in a week, finish unbeaten and taking 5 points from the three. Maybe this is the start of one of those good runs we've enjoyed under Hasenhuttl through the years. Every point counts, we only won 9 matches last season and stayed up as comfortably as the rest of the teams above us, while Everton won 11, finished below us and for a period were very much shitting themselves. 15th in the league, still better than five others. Wolves and Leeds are struggling a lot more than us without a goal scorer. Up the Saints!

The treatment of Adams is bollocks and baffling in equal measure. If there were any doubts regarding our best forward before the season started then he’s definitely answered them this season. At least we know the ball won’t stick up top. Attack vs defence. A long afternoon at St. Mary’s.

Wolves need a goal scorer with only 5 goals in 11 games to their name. Raul Jimenez looks to be riddled by his injury and then they spent big on attackers in Guedes and Kalajdzic in the summer, while you'd imagine Costa's picking up a nice wage. So, you wouldn't think they'd have too much to play with in January. They've also committed to another Terry Connor situation, so you'd like to think they're going to struggle from this point forward. Forest didn't have a plan in the summer, got overly excited by the names and lights of the Premier League and it's now showing. One of those sides who many say won the transfer market, but perform terribly when it counts. 1 win in 11 and 3 points adrift, got to get their act together soon. Leicester, score plenty of goals, the most in the bottom 10, but can't defend. You'd imagine if they get a competent goalkeeper in the winter window then they'll move to a comfortable mid-table position. Aston Villa, have big issues even without Gerrard. A lot of money spent on dross/unmotivated players. Coutinho and Ings aren't motivated by football anymore, hence why they ended up at Villa Park in the first place. Watkins and Mings are poor Premier League footballers, Buendia, Bailley and Traore have all flopped and Martinez and McGinn are having bad season's. Wonder if they can do any better in the manager hunt. Leeds, also missed out on Gakpo and are also now struggling for goals, even with Bamford back. They can't rely on their defence either, as seen in previous seasons. We'll hopefully and probably be competing in January with them for an attacker, though. Everton, poor manager, who for whatever reason has full backing from the deluded over there and long may it continue. Also struggling for goals with two less than us, but you'd imagine Pickford and their defence could grind out the required results. Bournemouth, still persisting with Solanke, should probably go down. So, I reckon we've got to do better than three of these and so far after 11 games we're doing better than 6 of them, so it's not all bad!

I reckon we lost to Villa because we couldn’t face Bednarek. How he manages to jump out of the way of every shot is a skill in itself, would never have made a block like Lyanco’s last night.

Three points is three points. Wasn't pretty, but over the last few years we've had really shit spells of form mixed with great runs of form. Hopefully tonight is the start of the latter with some confidence getting back into the team. 4 points from West Ham and Bournemouth was key. So far this season we're doing well to be better than three other teams in the league and may it continue. Adams was very good tonight. Good header and bullied their defence on occasion. Was well up for the fight, which is very much needed in our current situation.

Last season you could excuse the second half performances as our players being knackered. This season, we don’t press and we don’t dominate the first 45 anymore. I just don’t get it. We don’t have any control at all. Bournemouth should be the side looking tired after the first 45. And great. I know KWP’s not having a great season by his standards, but him joining Lavia and ABK in the physio room is just what we need.

This ref is really poor.

Blackburn play high pressing and either win or lose, no draws this season, 9 wins and 7 losses in 16 matches. Sounds quite similar! Although, they're top of the Championship, so it's working for now. I think we need someone more solid, someone who knows how to grind out results, not it's either good, or bad.

As said a few pages back, Pompey claim to win the league and that they'll be playing us in the next after two games with each passing season and by the end they get nowhere near. Plymouth are this year's runaway side. We're bad, but we're not losing 3-0 away to Charlton on Sky in League One bad. 4 of their players on the pitch tonight started against our B team last week and two more were unused subs, so at least they got their big day out for the season.

On the topic of Djenepo, what's happened to him? Done alright as a makeshift left-back in a time of desperation. Signed one of those charitable contracts we like to hand out and then hasn't got near the pitch since. I know it's picking the best of a bad bunch, but surely he should be ahead of Walcott in the attacking pecking order with reports of him starting yesterday and his moments are better than anything Elyounoussi's produced. Seems like we've tried everyone in attack, but him.

We're all Charlton fans tonight.

Norwich at home, 22 games ago, which says a lot to be fair.

Wanted 4 points from West Ham and Bournemouth, so I'll await the midweek result to bemoan another dropped two points. We played well, up until we went a goal up and Adams could've got a couple as well, but after that we were dire and West Ham didn't give us a touch of the ball. We need to stay in touching distance of the rest of the pack and spend the Gakpo money on a star attacker in January, not do the old spread it around 3 mediocre players. But, then again, we could barely string a few forward passes together today and an attacker isn't going to change that, levels need to be upped still.

Red and white stripes have served us well previously.

A reminder of the last time Pilchards pretended to be ITK regarding a managerial change:

He's deleted his Instagram account, so he may miss out on any Goncalo Ramos updates.

Fair points. I still don't think Shields is completely proven either. As said, he very much relied on his Man City youth contacts in the summer. It will be interesting to see how he gets on with a much bigger budget while looking to secure the higher profile players. I don't think he has actually proved anything here yet, but the early signs were promising. But, also, there was probably a better number 10 out there than Edozie, who was ready to be a starter from day one and there was probably a better left-back than Larios. Also, probably a better CDM, as you said, while he was also fixated on Delap, again the Man City obsession, who's struggling in the Championship and didn't secure us an alternative, leaving us weak up top. So, his only summer window wasn't entirely successful and I don't think Chelsea will accept Man City youth players, other than Lavia, who is an extreme talent.

I guess his legacy was liking that Benfica striker’s Instagram post.