Saint86

I liked Dean Richards, killer and Claus (at the time) and martin is a useful player. I really think we will be fine. Sign the right players and come mid table. If that goes to plan, the team will develop and we can push on and challenge for top half and Europa as Newcastle did. All about surviving this year. We are capable of scraping for that as it stands and with the right signings - pacey winger and good cb - we will do more than that. I am ****ed we didn't go for hoilett though. Guessing that was wages related. I appreciate peoples views, they are from older and wiser heads than mine in terms of football experience. However I truly think that with a class winger and cb we have a team easily capable of midtable this year.

I am loving this and can't wait! Even if we get battered by City and Arsenal (I fancy us against Man Utd). I can see the points made by some that we are underprepared however a lot of you seem to be panicking and it is providing a real insight into your lives and how you see saints. Itsmaking me depressed for you!! We almost didn't exist 3 years ago - stop - let that sink in. Are next four matches are against the 2 wealthiest teams in the world with superstar squads and i fully expect us to give all of them a good bash. Even if we get hammered by city I am still looking forward to this. It is about a group of players and youngsters that have come up through the depths of the football league and have developed and grown together. I agree that they are very inexperienced at top level, but I also do not feel that this means they will fail. I think we have some real quality players, especially in midfield with Lallana, cork and Morgan (I do not think that Davis is a guaranteed start if we played 4-4-2). We also have Lambert, billygoat and JayRod up front and that is a decent and English attack. We will cause problems going forward. Perhaps not overly against Man City, United and chelsea, but once you remove those teams I really think that the defensive side of the league is not that scary and that we will have no issues scoring. Defensively, the idea of Silva, aguero, nasri and Dzeko playing pretty football through our defence terrifies the life out of me! But that is why we practising the 4-2-3-1 (or 4-3-3) formation. People need to stop panicking. WE ARE NOT GOING TO PLAY IT EVERY GAME - It is to compete with the world class midfield. I don't think the club are that worried by the average teams in the league and fancy us to hold our own with the standard 4-4-2 or even with the new formation. Our weakness is our defence - lets face it - WE HAVE 2 CB's. and one of these has the concentration of a drunk Portuguese squirrel on recent evidence. But they will address this with a new signing and I suspect that Martin can be recalled if required. The other issue for me is GK, we need someone to really push Kelvin. I hope he proves me wrong, but I suspect he will slip us a few goals, and I have nightmares of him trying to dribble round say Torres in the area ';.;' You all know he does this far to much!!!!! But all in all, lets look on the bright side. Worst case from first 4 games - zero points - Over the course of a season, the man utd, arsenal, and man city games would idealy produce 3 points, but zero would be expected. (6pts would be a wigan wonder run with their bags to the wall for survival). Therefore if we get zero from these 3 games it is just mentail negativity and panic that will set in that should be ignored as its just 3 of the hardest games and it is all down hill from there! Mini Disaster - 1point (assumed to be wigan) - if this happens - meh? I will be slightly disappointed. Goal - 3points - the standard points tally i reckon most saints fan will have? As above, the season gets easier once you get past the first 4 games so a bad start isn't going to be a massive disaster. Above average - 4points - fancy us to knick something from Man Utd Dare to dream - 5/6pts? why not, its just 11 vs 11 after all? Reckon we can get something from any of those games on a good day? I get the worries about us not being ready, but frankly, if Wigan beat us at home we are in trouble anyway, and they really are 3 of our toughest matches in the first month. We will be ready for anything after that, in fact, the average teams will probably be refreshingly easier to play against as the players only comparison will be the likes of silva, rooney, van persi etc. Still going to be optimistic and pitch for between 10-15th - I think you forget how many prem teams get knocked out by championship squads in the cups. If we survive I will be happy!

Portsmouth game for me. Its like someone turned the "do not concentrate" button to overdrive inside his brain!

Lock this thread and ban the above pompey supporter?

To be clear - are you suggesting that a striker, a RB, a GK and a CM can't play in a 4-4-2?? or a 4-2-2-2 for example? or a 4-5-1?? Can they only play in a 4-4-3? I don't think you should base us dropping the 4-4-2 on that evidence mate.

Don't panic and carry on ffs! We have had one bad beat - against a top champions league team - may I remind you all that we were League 1 only two season ago. We outplayed Ajax for 45min and that was their last pre-season friendly when they were at the end of theirs. We let in one goal against a team that beat Man UTD away in Europe, and that was a Jose "SIT" (shot in foot) Fonte Moment. We comfortably beat Wolves so we can assume we are better than a **** premier team at any rate, and we played city of the park in the first 45 with our strongest 11. My main worry is that we don't seem to be able to score goals - with the exception of Puncheon and Sharpedo. I still think we need a new CB because we don't have any cover (this is no disrespect to Danny S but we didn't see him last year so very hard to gauge his strengths at this time). We are expected to get nil points from from Arsenal, Man UTD and City. So please can we not have pandemonium on here if that happens. Anything above that is honestly a bonus and I hope and believe that we can nick some points here and there. As for the comments about a formation being forced upon us. Firstly, one quote that is missing from that article is nigel saying "i was awestruck by how well we played in the first 30min against Bristol" - does that sound like a manager who doesn't like the formation. He also points out and defends HIS stance on the new formation by detailing how no one like the diamond when he introduced it at first and states that this formation is just a new way to play and a new weapon in the armoury. He also adds that this is an addition to their existing repertoire not as a replacement. And in truth I believe him as he is using it to compete with the possession football of the top sides - i.e -Ajax, Arsenal, Anderlecht and sie Italianos. We will be okay, it will be a struggle but I'm going to stick with my pre-season estimate of anywhere between 10-15th, have not seen anything to worry me yet and unless we lose 7-0 to city I won't change my mind.

According to blue moon it is £50 for their fans also. They are moaning about it themselves. Also, only 5 teams sold out the away end last year.

Shawcross - bless the tablet x

We r linked with Shaw Ross quite heavily at the moment. Rumours abound for the last few days and accelerated since stoke signed that new chap

I would have thought it is top 10 actually. We are against much higher quality with many players who like and do shoot from range. No point defending the box if you are going to let in 25-30 yarders every couple of games. Personally I think the deep midfielders/defense don't close them down. But good luck with that approach against city, united, spurs, chelsea, liverpool etc - or just newcastle and cisse. Saints will have to address this and I really hope it is higher than 40th on the priorities list.

Cool cheers for the heads up guys

What's this chat about "do not forget to your seat backs" ? Me and my bro are thinking of going tonight but not liking the ominous sounding seats?

Wait what? Go back in to school and discover fractions and percentages. Then post statistical analysis - may be more readily accepted.

The Victorians used to cane the kids at school and what a disaster that was. Oh wait they conquered the work and pioneered engineering, health care, modern sports,democracy and education. Physical discipline is bad!

2004/5 was on the back of the cup final and Europe the season b4 so we had a good fan base. I think that this is a good marker to be in the similar region and assuming away fans attend we will be 75-80% full with minimal extra tickets sales. I think we can expect do get good averages this year which will increase with success and with Pompey dissapearing down the drain in the coming seasons.

Y don't you just follow the team.

I'm not sure of that. On pre season basis yes, but you have to factor in Cork and Davis, I can't believe we signed the latter to sit behind a 17 year old. However I agree with you and the majority of this board that we have another real gem here. I have been impressed by him every time I have seen him play and I do think he will be fighting for a starting spot or be on the bench in most games.

I agree, it is the same argument I make to my girlfriend. Minus pepper pig world

Wait, what the hell, I am agreeing with Dune! sdfgasjfhnasjldkfnasdfnasdlkfnasdlfnalfdnsldfnaldksfnaslkdfnaslfnasldkfnasldkfn WTF It is a **** name and an embarrassment and it comes from a banner which the "hard as nails" on here are lambasting our fans for using. Contradict themselves much. Personally, if we are going to faggots and call ourselves the scum army, or the saint army - i think we should go all the way and start a new branch of the YMCA

I have decided to join you on here as Turkish is boring me to death on the season ticket thread. I personally want Pompey to survive. I am loving everything that has happened, and until the last 5min I wanted them to go bust. But the truth is, once that happens we will no longer be able to gloat. Then our main rival is Birghton or the Cherries :/ OH GOD! I suppose it would keep poyet happy until he leaves Brighton. Instead, what I want, (in total agreement with Kraken above) is for them to trully suffer, to suffer a long and slow decline, I want to watch them struggle all season, never escape the threat of liquidation, have barely enough players (youth at that) and become like stockport. They will always be there, tinkering along, but will never rise again. In a few years I want eastleigh to be above them in the league. Then their humilation will be complete. We can still sing songs about them, and we will have got them back for the years of ******** they have thrown at us. I would also love that cup to be stripped from them, but ofc that will not happen. Now that I have written all that, I am judging the imaginary weight of two hands - one is pompey as a club with Barnet's stature, another is pompey fc (or some other retarded name for a newco) in Salisbury's league. Not actually sure which one i would prefer Lol. Either way, this is one hell of an enjoyable ride!!!!

Personally, I think that if we don't average under 30k, that turkish should get a season long ban from that account, since no amount of "i told you so" will discourage him in the slightest.

Lol you 2 are such a pair of mongs

I also agree with the original poster. I can see him sitting as a deep striker and JayRod being the main man up front. I love lambert to peices and think he is a quality player. But... his pace is lacking and their is no denying that, and he won't get the same luck with free headers (eg watford) that he got in the lower leagues. Another point. Managers will look at saints and go, who are the threats - top name will be lambert, and he will find himself man marked all game every game. I think he will play a key role for us with flick ons, passing, penalties and free kicks. But I would not be substantially on him being our top scorer. I would bet a couple of quid on 90-1 however Make of that what you will. But i think a fan who analyses whether he will be our top scorer is not quite as dumb as someone who blindly believes that nothing has changed with our promotion to the premier and that Lambert can instantly be expected to bang in 15-20 goals this year. - What if he gets another injury for example? Seriously dude, don't go lambasting your own teams fans for putting across a reasonable point.

Argh Adkins you stupid predictive text!!!!

I totally disagree with this view tbh. I think Atkins likes him and feels he is a solid backup choice. I reckon he will get a few games this year.