Itchen_block4

Fox just doesn't have as much pace as Clyne. That's fine, but we'll need to be realistic in that he's not going to get to the byline as much as Clyne would. He can still attack and get crosses in. The ball can travel the length of the pitch faster than Usain Bolt could run it, so attacking fullbacks are about keeping the ball and not giving it away cheaply as much as they are about pace. The old 442 wasn't as good on the ball, so Fox will have had more defending to do. Fox has a great left peg an him and I don't think crossing from slightly deeper will be bad for him.

Fox just doesn't have as much pace as Clyne. That's fine, but we'll need to be realistic in that he's not going to get to the byline as much as Clyne would. He can still attack and get crosses in. The ball can travel the length of the pitch faster than Usain Bolt could run it, so attacking fullbacks are about keeping the ball and not giving it away cheaply as much as they are about pace. The old 442 wasn't as good on the ball, so Fox will have had more defending to do. Fox has a great left peg an him and I don't think crossing from slightly deeper will be bad for him.

The bulk of the problem lies with the grassroots coaching far more so than the clubs. The clubs like ours that have money use it to be at the cutting edge because it's in their interest to be there.

We controlled that game. The sharpness will come. We have 4 strikers who will score goals. We've still got 3 more games to work on the new system.

Injured and therefore doesn't exist. Us fans think like that.

Doubt Davis will start. If he is fit, I reckon he'll come off the bench. JWP has some nice ability on the ball and I'd like to see us use it now so we can call on him during the season.

---------------Davis----------------- Clyne----Fonte----Hooiveld----Fox --------Morgan----JWP------------- Puncheon----Lallana----De Ridder -------------Lambert--------------- Can see us using the 4231, trying to get the ball down and move it. It's how we can compete against teams with more talent than us and this friendly is a good opportunity to put that to the test.

---------------Davis----------------- Clyne----Fonte----Hooiveld----Fox --------Morgan----JWP------------- Puncheon----Lallana----De Ridder -------------Lambert--------------- Can see us using the 4231, trying to get the ball down and move it. It's how we can compete against teams with more talent than us and this friendly is a good opportunity to put that to the test.

What proven PL players can we realistically attract/afford who can take us to the next level? There aren't many.Our targets will generally be the best of the rest who we've done some scouting on and can do a job for us. We don't need players like Anton Ferdinand, Shaun Wright-Phillips, Joey Barton etc. Players with more reputation than substance on huge salaries.Give me Rodriguez, Davis, Clyne and Gazzaniga over the sorry bunch of reputations on the slide that QPR signed any day. We'll sign 2 or 3 new players before the window closes, no need to worry there.

4231, Lallana/Guly in the space, attacking wingers. Play some nice keep-ball and get our fullbacks forward.

Our pair have one leftie and one rightie for that bit of balance when we play out. Centre halves get injured or suspended quite a lot and we'd quite quickly need to call on all 4. The PL is more physically demanding than lower down and there will be rotation. It's a squad game and there won't be many players rigidly defined as backup.

Good point about Seaborne. Extreme example is Gerard Pique - fairly average defender, but because him and the rest of his team are so good on the ball, he's rarely tested. Judging by the match highlights, Seaborne and Stephens were pretty stingy against Carouge and Evian.

Or like Ryan Giggs playing centrally instead of wide -take your pick of comparisons.

Ben Reeves showed his quality. He'll probably be sent out on loan.

From the sound of things, Forest weren't actually that good, but they were all about that Bamford lad who was bigger and better than everyone else. He's at Chelsea now, so I don't suppose Forest gained much from the win apart from the million or so Chelsea paid them. It would be like our youths playing with one our senior strikers up front. They'd win games, but they'd end up taking the striker for granted and playing quite lazily. We'll have the last laugh for sure when we get Shaw, JWP, Chambers etc into our first team. On a side note, anyone know when we announce the next lot of graduates?

Agree with the comments about Germany. They had the quality to beat Italy, but clearly suffered from a tactical gaffe in the semi final. They showed the fluidity, the movement, the energy and the potency to really be a force. I think it's a more realistic and more effective model to aspire towards. PL teams are very tough to break down and it's very hard with overly patient football.

They produce kits cheaply for the very reason that they start to fall apart after a few washes and by the end of the season look so ragged that you go out and buy the next one. Clubs realise that they can make huge margins by selling shirts at massively inflated prices. It's the main reason I don't make a habit of buying one. I don't especially like it personally, but to me a kit is just a kit. There will be a new one next year and I really don't get why some saggy old c*nts get so irate. It's not like all our kits have been red and white stripes of equal width or that stripes are a foundation stone of the club.

Did Beattie play in the Macedonia match at St Mary's?

Celebrities get a lot worse than people asking them nicely for a photo and an autograph. He's lucky to be greeted so amicably.

£800k is a lot of money for Palace. They aren't a rich club. If they had £800k, they'd have bought a defender and let us send Martin elsewhere.

******** would palace pay £800k! He has goals in him, but Palace wouldn't pay that for someone who barely played last season. I do wish him luck for the future though.

Why pay to be a full member if it ****es you off so much? Saints have a pretty active section on not606 that's free.

Big defender plays for Toulouse. We're supposedly close to signing him. Watch the Jay Rodriguez video, about 3 minutes in there's a shot of Jay Rodriguez with Ade Akinbiyi on one side of him and this lad (below) on the other. The customary video, although it's hard to do a centre half justice with one. Won player of the year at Toulouse.

The club puts players up in Ocean Village until they sort themselves out in the area.

Doubt he'd go to City. He'd be waiting a very long time to shift Joe Hart, who is one of the World's best and still fairly young himself. United have a young keeper already in De Gea, Chelsea have a poor record of bringing through youngsters and Liverpool are a circus atm, so competition amongst the others should be hot.