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Team from Saturday with Puncheon in for Guly. Anyone new will only make the bench if they sign in time. Stick the ball in the box and we'll cause problems against flappy De Gea and their makeshift back line, so I'm hopeful of snatching something.

Is that obvious? I'm convinced that he'll be used more sparingly this season as the 433 isn't designed to revolve around him. Our wingers aren't up to much and Rodriguez has been the best option in a not particuarly illustrious group. I doubt it's a permanent thing, hence why we've brought in Mayuka and Ramirez. Would we really have been much better with Puncheon or De Ridder wide against Wigan? I'm not convinced.

------------------------Gazzaniga Richardson-----Stephens-----Seaborne-----Shaw ----------------Hammond-----JWP ------------------------Chambers Puncheon---------------------------------------Lee --------------------------Sharp We'll need to be extremely tidy if we're going for Stephens and Seaborne at the back. We can't let them get expoxsed.

Forward thinking here: Lambert is 30 and won't play for us forever. Take him out of the equation, add 2 or 3 quality players and the prospect of playing 433 looks much more attractive. We're not far off getting the system to work for us. We'll be far more formidable as a team when we get it to work and harsh as it seems on Lambert, he'll just have to adapt or get dropped. Take Andy Carroll. He's a good player, but Liverpool play a 433 with a central striker on the shoulder. Carroll is a target man and running off the shoulder and poaching the early balls aren't his better qualities and thus he's been crap.

Go to the pub folks - it's on TV!

What the absolute ****? -----------------Davis Clyne-----Fonte-----Hooiveld-----Fox ---------Morgan-----Davis ----------------Lallana Puncheon------------------Rodriguez ---------------Lambert Basically what we've been practising. City's fullbacks aren't world beaters, and if we do get anything, chances are it will come from us getting in the gaps between centre back and full back. City's middle is formidable and we're unlikely to get any change out of Toure, De Jong, Kompany etc. If it doesn't work, it's nonetheless practice playing like that, which we'll need to do a lot this season.

Seems mightily unprofessional that Bologna would agree a fee, then decide they want more after he agrees terms. When one agrees a fee, isn't it normal bsiness etiquette to stick to it? Doesn't reflect well on the Bologna president.

So beyond plan A we have throwing the match as our backup plan. Nice one.

Don't think the 433 is being enforced from anywhere. It's quite simple that we need the extra man in the middle to compete in/dominate games. Any moron can tell you that. The plan to have all of our teams playing the same way to streamline player progression was never a secret. We're just doing it to the first team now because we've realised that momentum alone won't move us forward and some fairly serious change was needed.

Not sure where Blackmore gets the Barcelona comparison from. We have an academy that develops players technically good enough for the first team and that's about as far as the comparison stretches. I don't know how he rigidly defines 433 as 'Barcelona stye'. Fat Sam does not play Barcelona style. It is a 433 though and at times last season it was a very effective one. Udinese weren't Barca style either, but it was still a remarkably clinical, counter attacking 433.

Man City to win by 2 or 3 unfortunately I reckon. If we make new signings this week, they'll probably only make the bench, so can't see that making a whole lot of difference, although a good signing does act as a morale boost. Although we're llikely to lose, we'll be well up for it and make some positives to take forward. -----------------Davis------------------ Clyne-----Fonte-----Hooiveld-----Fox ---------Morgan-----Davis------------- ----------------Lallana------------------ Puncheon-------------------Rodriguez ---------------Lambert----------------- Subs: Gazzaniga, Seaborne, Richardson, JWP, Guly, Chaplow, Sharp Bench could change if we sign anyone this week, but otherwise stick with what we've been working on. I'm tempted to start with Gazzaniga and JWP, as they can both add something to the team, but a possible roasting like this game probably isn't the time. Maybe against Wigan.

Not really. At least not as a priority anyway. There are certainly other positions that need strengthening first.

Experimenting with the formation? We're doing it now so that we can use it when it actually matters. If you went to the pre-season games and can't see what we gain from it, then I would suggest taking your head out of your arse. The team that started the Bristol match, like it or not, is pretty darn close to how we will line up against City. It's widely agreed that we need a few signings. I am fully confident that Les Reed, Paul Mitchell and Nigel Adkins aren't sitting on their backsides, deluding themselves that we don't need anyone. I don't pretend to know what happens at the club, but can you see that being the scenario? With the olympics going on, the rumour mill has taken a back seat and as we know, selling clubs/agents like to get their business out in the open to raise interest, so the market will have slowed down. The market generally has been quite slow in the last few weeks and I expect it to pick up once to olympics finishes.

I'd say Lallana has done pretty well in the middle. It's fair to say that he doesn't get as much time and space, however he is one of the most technically gifted and intelligent players we have, so I think the advanced midfield position suits him more so than it does anyone else. Lallana's role has been to make himself available and to link the play. In the middle, he isn't often breaking beyond the defence to get chances on goal, preferring to stay deeper, keep possession and pull the strings. This is the bit I think Lambert would struggle with. He has feet like sledgehammers, a frame built for winning headers and 30 goals last season. He'll be getting right into the attacking mix whether we want him to or not and I'd worry that he wouldn't put his full commitment into making himself available in the middle. 433 wingers get a lot of chances too and Lallana's finishing leaves something to be desired. Rodriguez has played wide before and the wingers are practically strikers anyway. Lallana was born to be a creative number 10 and now we're playing with one, he'd be the first player I'd put in that role. Playing your most creative players out wide for the sole reason that you don't know what else to do with them is pretty old hat. The only Saints manager who hasn't done that with Lallana was Poortvliet and although we were crap, Lallana was probably the shining light in that sorry side.

The striker in a good team often doesn't do much with the ball and spends most of his energy trying to get in behind defenders. At home against teams we fancy ourselves against, we can probably do that, but against City, the striker will need to get involved more to compete on the ball. The 3 in the middle is something I think we'll stick with except of course in situations like last night when we just want to throw men forward to try to rescue a result. With the 3, our possession and our pressing are ever so much better. Changing from 442 to 433/451 is notoriously difficult, but the teams that do it successfully reap rewards. In the scheme of things, we've done pretty well.

We need more defenders NOW or we're doomed, doomed, doooooooooooooooomed! I'm of for a cry. Dead certs for relegation with 0 points.

If wingers stay on the outside and run to the byline then no, he's not one of those. Think of him as more of a wide-forward. He'll get chances.

That's basically a Lambert +1 though and despite the lines, looks a lot like the old 442 system that we're trying to move on from. Once a striker, always a striker and I think we'd have a job holding Lambert or Rodriguez back into midfield. At least on the wing, players have the freedom to make attacking runs. Lallana is a player who specialises in playing in the gaps and is comfortable playing mainly in front of defenders and playing other people in. It makes sense to have him in the middle. Swap Lallana and Rodriguez and that looks alright. The 2 wingers are part of the front 3 really. We don't expect them to hug the touchlines and whip crosses in. Hopefully we can manage to get our fullbacks to do that. They'll come in and run the channels and probably get some chances while they're at it, so we want some good finishers there. As much as I love Lallana, his finishing isn't his strong suit and I'd worry that he might fluff an important chance. Because the wingers aren't shackled to the touchline, it's less important for them to play on their stronger foot and our wingers should be comfortable on both sides.

Agree with most of this. Guly was indeed a bit pants. One moment that sticks out for me is when he had Fox in acres to his left and he decides to take on an audacious shot. He's had better games for sure.

He scored a free kick against the UAE in the Olympics. He looked OK in a poor Uruguay side and I'd be surprised if we could sign him. Forward-minded midfielder.

D Don't we have our own players for the development squad? We're only signing a goalkeeper to make up the numbers.

-----------------Davis------------------ Clyne-----Fonte-----Hooiveld-----Fox ---------Morgan-----JWP-------------- Guly----------Lallana-------Rodriguez --------------Lambert----------------- Can see us winning this one.

Rodriguez still looked dangerous out wide. Add a couple of weeks sharpness and he may well have scored a not-offside goal. To play him down the middle would mean dropping Lambert and based on last season, we'd need a very good reason to do that.

This team! That middle 3 is jizzworthy.

Attacking fullbacks leave big holes. It's down to the team to keep the ball and press the opposition back so the gaps don't get exploited. Harding will have got done either because we didn't retain and press or just as likely he wasn't that good.