Jai27

Nothing on sportsmania. Looks like a lot of streaming sites are going with the Plymouth/Liverpool game.

This. We should be fielding a lot of well rested experienced players who should be busting a gut for the entire game trying to push their way back or into the 1st team and make an impression. Sims, McQueen, Hesketh (although recently returned from injury so maybe not), Stephens, Martina, Long, Reed. All of this lot should show some desire and energy tonight.

It's still awful. I understand where they were coming from but it's too slow and cheesy. I preferred the simple 'The Saints are coming' which they used to play before kick off.

With their injury/suspension problems that team should be more than enough. There's absolutely no excuse for not safely winning this game.

My first thoughts as well reading that

Checking out some stats and there's some pretty interesting stuff to see. When compared to the rest of our midfield players he puts in the least tackles per game and attempts the lowest amount of passes (by some distance), suggesting he spends less time on the ball than the others and tends to go missing in games. He's also the second worst for dribbling completed in front on Clasie. However, it turns out he's our best option for completing key passes which came as a bit of a surprise to me. Romeu's tackles per game aside, one other clear detail that can be seen is that Hojbjerg is statistically our best midfielder.

Spot on.

Ouch. That's really not good. Do we know when McCarthy is due to be fit again?

For a general change in football, I'd enforce a rule about having 3-5 home grown academy players in each starting line up. Not only would this likely improve the international squad but it would also stop teams just buying their way to the top. I think it would also give each club more of an identity with academy players having more of an allegiance to the club which taught them their trade (in theory...). For Saints, I'm fairly happy with the way we are run as a club bar the lack of investment in the squad. If we sell a player then I expect us to put those profits back into the 1st team, not buy a half price replacement and pocket the rest. I'd also like to see us have a club playing style as an identity. Reed always harps on about how we bring in managers that fit in with our style of play and the 'Southampton Way' but the reality is Poch, Koeman and Puel all have vastly different ideas about how to win a game of football and our academy has to adjust each time to fit in with this. Surely this can't be good for player development in the academy and first team.

I don't believe it'll get to the stage of a half empty stadium unless we go down again. I do however believe that we need to make more of an investment in the squad this summer. We are sat on a 20mil profit from the last transfer window. Only Swansea also made a profit (5mil compared to our 20) and look how that's working out for them. If you loose players and don't reinvest in the squad then you'll start moving backwards. I fail to see how we are financially any different from clubs like West Brom, Stoke, Watford, even Bournemouth and Burnley, all of which made a substantial investment in bringing in new players.

Saying the club has a "lack of ambition" is kind of a get out of jail free card for a manager that wants out of a lower or mid table club.

GARDOS?! Good to see Seager back on the bench.

He's never been consistently selected by any manager though. Also, and I'm not saying I believe this, but he's currently our flag ship academy product so perhaps higher powers are pushing his game time?

I seriously doubt that our manager has his hands tied as far as tactics and selections are concerned...

It's a fair point that gets brought to the forefront every transfer window. We're currently 20mil in the green on transfers alone, meaning not a penny of the TV money, ticket sales, etc has been invested in the squad. Everything is adding up to a club sale really. I think all will be revealed in the summer once VVD is gone for a final big pay day.

Difficult to argue with that. Pelle was twice the striker Austin is. He had more skill on the ball, sharper movement, was better in the air, and was actually able to hold the ball up successfully. Boufal appears to be more of a trickster than Mane was but is slower, less direct and doesn't seem to make the same off the ball runs that cut through oppositions defences. Based on current performances it's possible that Boufal could become a player on the same level as Mane, but as it stands he's not as good. Romeu and Wanyama is pretty close, but Wanyama's physicality will always come out on top. Romeu has better distribution and is probably the more technical of the two, but in the PL it's Wanyama who has the better skill set.

Mancini would be incredible for us and his character is exactly what we need right now. I very much doubt he'd come here though, likewise with Howe, Pellegrini, and Emery.

Based on this seasons form, yes.

It's an interesting point about the penalties and one that plenty of people disagree on. Personally I don't think penalties should be included in a goal count when judging a players return for the season mainly because there are 10 other players on the pitch who could take it instead with a similar chance. Yes some players take penalties better than others but I bet even I could stick it in the net more often than not. Whereas a goal from open play is a usually down to a players skill and vision.

Exactly. I know several Liverpool fans who have ZERO connection with the city or the club (other than the fact that they are all complete ******s so fit in well with the rest of their fans). The greatest pleasure of supporting a football team is going to a match and everything which surrounds it, yet all bar one of these Liverpool fans have never even been to a game. I can't get my head around how you can follow a team which has no personal connection for you.

We have some fantastic players in that list. VVD aside, Bertrand, Cedric, Romeu, Boufal and Davis are all far from unexceptional and we have some very exciting young talent in Sims, Hojbjerg, McQueen and Reed (recently). I'm still struggling to understand the Charlie Austin love in that seems to be happening. Yes he's scored 9 goals but 4 of them were penalties and I'm yet to watch a match where he's been the best player on the pitch. I'd go as far as saying that at Palace Away he was embarrassing. Even if he was fit I'd still pick Jay over him.

He's our worst midfield option. He had a decent game against Inter Milan but since then he's been awful. He's been playing PL football since Nigel sent him out against Man City so has had more than enough time to develop and 'mature' into his role. He's not good enough and never will be in my opinion.

Exactly. Buying a football club is something the mega wealthy do when they run out of things to spend their money on.

I'm not entirely sure a move back to Crystal Palace is what Jose had in mind when he started all this...

Neil Swarbrick had an appalling game. It was the most one sided refereeing of a match I've seen in quite awhile. As previously mentioned there were no big errors such as a pen wrongly given etc, but over the course of the evening he rarely made a correct decision going our way. Shameful for a 'professional' really.