Ultimatt

Plenty of acestream's on reddit soccerstreams

Bertrand and Cedric are playing way forward while Davis+Romeu tuck in beside VVD/Hoedt. Looks positive. The problem is linking the ball to them. JWP/Tadic/Boufal need to do more.

We've replaced everyone we've lost with like-for-like the last 2 years. Pelle - Austin Mane - Boufal Juanmi - Redmond Wanyama - Hojbjerg Kelvin - McCarthy JayRod - Gabbi Fonte - Hoedt Cuco - Pied Clasie - Lemina We seem intent on having a strong squad, which with our budget means limiting ourselves to "good deals" on players (low contract remaining like Austin or backup/no longer wanted players like Hojbjerg/Hoedt/Lemina/Redmond). These players couldn't establish themselves at previous clubs so aren't likely to set the world on fire here which is what's happened for most. We've completely blocked the pathway for the academy (JWP only getting a game today because Lemina's injured). It seems most of our successful players of recent years were tearing it up for their clubs but we've gone to almost exclusively signing players that have no future with their current club therefore are cheap (just as all our managers are OOC) Personally i'd much prefer us throwing the dice a bit on a £25m player with an academy backup, or cheaper with higher wages than buying 2 £15m players. Easier said than done of course, but with our squad depth as good as it is right now we can get away with not buying a replacement for a year if we don't find the right fit. We're meant to have quality scouts. The players are out there in European leagues. Quality over quantity and make the academy relevant again.

It's a strange buy with VVD staying. VVD Yoshida Hoedt Stephens Gardos Bednarek, 6 for 2 spots. Not starting: Boufal £17m Hoedt £15m Hojbjerg £13m Bednarek £6m £51m spent in the last 2 summers for bench players. I don't understand what the boards fixation is with having 2 good players for every spot when our time in Europe has come and gone. The teams crying out for some quality starters like Lemina and then we could use our academy more to supplement the 25 man squad. We've spent £97.5m all up the last 2 summers and gone from Mane to Redmond, Pelle to Gabbi, Fonte to Yoshida, Wanyama to Lemina.

Sky TV money. The big 6 are still massively richer than the rest. The rest are now all rich enough to get decent players and pick points off each other. IMO the Sky money was the biggest reason a huge bunch of teams were close on points last season and its looking the same again this year.

The 2nd picture shows expected goals scored. You can just see our highest player in 24th, Yoshida, with 1.9 expected goals. Our player with the best chances this season is a CB As for Forster, we've only played 1 top 5, 3 top 10 sides. Better teams/players take their chances. Will be interesting to revisit 19 games in.

It's no different to players, anyone involved in sport wants to win, so does that make Le Tiss a nobody? Trophies aren't the only measure. Take Allardyce, he'll never be rated with the best but he's had a lot of success keeping clubs up. Poch is still young and i'd be surprised if Spurs are the biggest club he'll manage.

That's a bit disingenuous when our strikers rotated so much, so naturally none of them will have a high number of total shots. Also, if you look at who took most of our shots in prior years, Tadic took similar total shots, and Redmond took less shots than Mane (Same role, just way way less output). Our strikers actually shot more often than in 2015/16: Midfielder shots: 2015/16 - Mane(86), Tadic(56), JWP(28) 2016/17 - Redmond(83), Tadic(63), JWP(42) Striker shots: 2015/16 - Pelle(81), Long(63), JRod(17), Austin( = 169 over 4838 minutes = 3.15 Shots/game 2016/17 - Long(41), Austin(37), JRod(33), Gabbi(29) = 140 over 3799 minutes = 3.32 Shots/game A big chance is a 1on1 or almost point-blank shot. Big chance numbers are naturally going to go down when you lose creative attacking players. Lambert/Lallana and Pelle/Mane were great at being a pivot or a link to play someone in. Our current team has no one like that. Redmond doesn't create anywhere near as much as Mane/Lallana and Gabbi/JRod/Long don't linkup anywhere near as well as Pelle/Lambert.

He can ride the wave of their current success and make a big move when the tide turns. He'll be wise to jump to a bigger team this summer or next.

If only. Redmond wouldn't get near the Leicester starting lineup. They look so much stronger in attack than us. Vardy/Iheanacho/Mahrez/Slimani with Okazaki/Ulloa/Musa/Gray on the bench.

Everton officially in the bottom 3. £155m spent

You're dodging the question. Do you think he deserved a contract extension on last seasons form when he still had 4 years left?

You're saying you think he deserved that contract extension when he still had 4 years left? You're not worried about the message that sends when players get rewarded for no reason when having a poor season?

Watch him run during Boufal's goal. Ran 60m and ended up drawing 2 defenders at the end to give Boufal the 1on1.

I remember the same. It might not literally be written in but Boruc had no doubt he had no chance to fight for the spot. Forster starting was a certainty. Easy life when you have no competition and get a contract extension with 4 years left after your worst season by a mile. Every club makes mistakes and that's normal, but it's honestly baffling that he got a contract extension. It's probably the only thing this entire forum would agree on.

http://hoofoot.com/?match=Southampton_1_-_0_West_Brom_2017_10_21 "And Lemina's done well to get away from Nyom and off he goes... Gabbiadini ahead of him.. He might go all the way here Lemina, it's some run... Still Lemina! Look at that! OH What a goal!! That is absolutely sensational from Boufal!"

Fair. The stats say if we were as clinical as the teams against us we would've scored 19 in 11 which, given we played most of the top teams would've been a solid return. It probably wouldn't have felt so boring celebrating 19 instead of 9.

Look at our home prem games since christmas (Score. Shots. Chances created) Saints 1-4 Spurs. Shots 9-17. Chances 6-10. Saints 1-2 WBA. Shots 10-7. Chances 7-4. Saints 3-0 Leicester. Shots 20-11. Chances 13-7. Saints 1-3 West Ham. Shots 22-6. Chances 13-4. Saints 0-0 Bournemouth. Shots 14-12. Chances 11-5. Saints 3-1 Palace. Shots 25-17. Chances 17-13. Saints 0-3 Man City. Shots 8-18. Chances 5-10. Saints 0-0 Hull. Shots 11-9. Chances 4-7. Saints 0-2 Arsenal. Shots 14-11. Chances 11-9. Saints 0-0 Man Utd. Shots 17-11. Chances 10-7. Saints 0-1 Stoke. Shots 15-14. Chances 8-12. The only teams that took more shots than us were Spurs and ManCity. So for all the "boring negative football" we were playing, other teams were usually sitting back even more making it harder for us to score. Saints: 165 shots. 105 chances. 9 goals. 1 goal per 18.3 shots/11.7 chances Opponents: 133 shots. 88 chances. 16 goals. 1 goal per 8.3 shots/5.5 chances Our last 11 games under Puel only had 1 bottom 6 team so there weren't many "Easy wins". We played 2nd/3rd/5th/6th/9th/10th/11th/12th/13th/14th/18th. Our football wasn't anywhere near as boring as the scorelines suggested. Our attacking players just sucked at taking chances and only Spurs, Palace and City attacked us properly with the rest sitting back a lot.

Teams sat back against us at St Marys. We have no aerial threat since selling Pelle; Gabbi/Long/JWP/Davis/Tadic/Redmond are all 5'10 or shorter and lack strength to be a pivot. Gabbi is the only one of those 6 that takes his chances while the rest are awful finishers. We have no creative #10 to linkup with the #7/9/11. No more x-factor player like Mane. We're so incredibly easy to defend against when the other team wants to, and that's exactly what teams did last season.

It's true. They're possibly the worst run club in the prem. It's also similar to our new strategy tying everyone up to long contracts, not because they actually deserved it, but because the board got it in their head that they could hold onto players better. Is it any wonder some of our players look ponderous when they've been given a great new deal and have no suitors from bigger clubs, they'll happily finish their careers here. Looks likely that 2 of the established PL clubs will drop this season.

He'd do decently at Leicester. He'd shore them up in defence while playing some exciting stuff with their better attacking talent. I think it's a good match.

Shots: 2017/18: 118 (14.75/game) 2016/17: 550 (14.47/game) 2015/16: 519 2014/15: 509 2013/14: 534 2012/13: 516 https://www.premierleague.com/clubs/20/Southampton/stats?se=79 Funny that these 2 "goal shy boring" managers have our side taking more shots than the much loved Koeman and Poch (Admittedly Pellegrino hasn't played many tough sides yet so that'll fall). If only they had the same quality squad as their predecessors they could've achieved something. Did you know under Puel last season we had our most shots in a PL game since 2003 (34 shots)?

http://www.football-observatory.com/IMG/sites/b5wp/2017/194/en/ It's criminal the money he spent this summer for the results he's got. The squad cost the same as Bayern's. He's flushed so much money down the toilet.

The point was we replaced players regularly starting at bigger better clubs, or that became the 4th highest paid player in the world, with players that sit on our bench assuming they make the squad at all. It should be obvious to everyone that Redmond/Boufal =/= Mane, Hojbjerg =/= Wanyama, Austin =/= Pelle. So to expect similar play/performance with a clearly weaker squad is fanciful.

Wrong wrong wrong. Shots: 2016/17: 550 2015/16: 519 2014/15: 509 2013/14: 534 2012/13: 516 https://www.premierleague.com/clubs/20/Southampton/stats?se=54 Puel's team had the most shots since promotion. Equal most shots on target with our 2013/14 season. The difference was the rubbish transfer window where we sold Mane/Pelle/Wanyama and replaced them Boufal/Redmond/Hojbjerg. No goals because of bang-average attackers gave the illusion of more boring football than what was actually the case.