Bewildered

The refereeing at the end was diabolical, but doesn't excuse the fact that Shane Long had at least two clear chances to give us the lead in the second half and he made a total mess of them. Finishing from the side needs to improve fast.

https://www.whoscored.com/Regions/252/Tournaments/2/Seasons/6335/Stages/13796/TeamStatistics/England-Premier-League-2016-2017 offensive stats, last season in brackets. 2nd for shots per game, (8th) 8th for shots on target (9th) tied 15th for dribbles (20th) 3rd for crosses per game (2nd) t-4th for through balls per game (t9th) 16th for long balls (13th) 4th for short passes (11th) General 3rd for possession (11th) 4th for pass completion (11th) 20th for aerials won (1st) Defensive 13th for succesful tackles (9th) 7th for interceptions (6th) tied 16th for fouls (7th) tied 5th for offsides won (2nd) 2nd fewest shots conceded per game (7th) Biggest discrepancy so far this season is how bad we are in the air, suggests we are lightweight which has been apparent during games so far.

There going to be any excitement/exasperation tomorrow? Or is it going to be a non event for us?

GK took the deciding penalty and missed.

Adam Blackmore said he was going up there, but only to provide updates rather than full commentary.

https://www.whoscored.com/Regions/108/Tournaments/5/Seasons/5970/Stages/12770/PlayerStatistics/Italy-Serie-A-2015-2016 11 assists in 33 games for a side that didn't score that many goals last season. Only Pjanic and Pogba got more with 12 a piece.

Makes no sense. They u turned on keeping Rodriguez because they swigned Boufal, who they would have been confident was going to sign when they originally made the decision to not loan JRod out after all, whch itself was a u-turn. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-3764115/Sunderland-s-striker-search-goes-David-Moyes-fails-bids-Danny-Ings-Jay-Rodriguez.html?ITO=1490&ns_mchannel=rss&ns_campaign=1490 according to this, Sunderland were also interested and also willing to pay a 2m loan fee, but got told no because we told them he is staying.

The article that discussed our interest in him in the English edition of gazetta dello sport suggested we would struggle to convince Empoli to sell so soon before the deadline and to convince the player to leave Italy.

Seems strange to have Tadic, Boufal and another number 10 if the manager will only play one attack minded player in the diamond

Just some wum talking **** on Twitter it looks like.

Oliver Burke, who a few on here thought CDAJFU is off to Red Bull Leipzig for £15m apparently.

http://www.gazzettaworld.com/news/transfer-market/southampton-empoli-saponara/ Gazetta dello sport think we will make an offer for Saponara from Empoli before the window shuts. However, the article says it would be hard to convince the player to leave Italy or Empoli to sell so soon before the market shuts. But, at least its a rumour

when he said one, maybe two I assumed the one was Boufal, who is nailed on to sign unless his medical goes wrong and the "maybe two" was in reference to a player that wasn't that far along and as such Puel was not confident enough to guarantee would join. Of course as his english is a work in progress it is hard to say.

No surprise, not outwardly charismatic and was not the big name many wanted the board to appoint. Predictable that people would jump on his back quickly if we didn't start well. If we are still playing like this after 10-15 games, then I would start getting edgy about whether he should be here.

For perspective last seasons first three game. Newcastle (a) 2-2 Everton (h) 0-3 Watford (a) 0-0 A lot to work on for Puel no doubt, but let's not pretend we came out all guns blazing last season and this seasons bad start is a huge turnaround.

Forster - 3rd game in a row where all he had to do was pick the ball olut the net really. No saves to make otherwise Cedric - Looked better today, got forward well. Fonte - Not at the races, dumb penalty to give away. VVD - OK Targett - Hurry back Bertrand Romeu - Sloppy, not good enough to start. Hojbjerg - Fairly good Davis - Just there, could play Clasie or JWP and you'd notice no difference really Tadic - Bright start then faded badly. Team improved when he went off and Redmond played in the 10 position. Redmond - Not a CF, looked good as a number 10 since he either played the ball quickly or ran at their defence. Offsi...Austin - Seems to have forgotten about the offside rule. Subs: JWP - Just there again. Rodriguez - Did very well, maybe he showed enough for Puel to reconsider loaning him out. Long - lots of running, but no quality. International break now so time for them to work on the shortcomings in the tactics/team. Hopefully we get a good DM to replace Romeu and change tactics in one of two ways - Go back to 4-2-3-1 OR - Be a bit more adventurous in the make up of the diamond. Play Romeu (or hopefully a new DM)/Hojbjerg/Tadic with Redmond as the number 10 sionce he is more direct in behind two of Austin/Long/Rodriguez.

It would also help if both full backs actually attacked. Targett's fear of the going to the byline forces us towards the right every time and makes defending even easier for Sunderland.

Not good. Started off well, but once Sunderland got closer to Radical and marked him the game changed. Romeu Austin, Davis and Fonte have been dreadful, Redmond anonymous other than talking his way into the book. At least get Romeu off and move Hojbjerg back.

From france re: Boufal.

Spurs in talks to sign Zaha

So... is he saying that the English club in question (supposedly Saints) has sent someone to negotiate on their behalf for Stanciu? Would make sense if Les Reed and Ross Wilson are in France sorting out the Boufal deal.

http://sportwitness.co.uk/southamptons-bid-e14m-not-e20m-changes-everything/ L'equipe saying our bid for Boufal was nowhere near as high as rumoured, so this might rumble on. Is 6 days enough time for a saga?

He said earlier today that he would not play for another european team. He'll probably go to china or mls.

Looks like this one is getting close. Still hope we get Stanciu or a similar player as his injury and the AFCON mean it could be some way into the season before we see him at 100%. On the other hand, if his talent is as great as claimed, maybe we would not have had much chance of getting him if he had been fully fit.

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2016/aug/24/southampton-sofiane-boufal-lille-talks