Ultimatt

The club will be making a ton more $$ next season. With a similar league position and a couple more live TV games next season we'd be looking at an extra £45-50m from the premier league payouts. Europa league group stages + telecast is a few million. I guess the Under Armour deal is worth more than the Adidas deal. 2014/15 revenue was £113.7m, next year we'd be looking closer to £170m. The cash is there for us to make Wanyama/Mane/Koeman decent offers and i'm sure we will. Will come down to whether they get a better offer elsewhere (all the other PL clubs with extra cash too).

We've now beat every team in the PL in Koeman's 2 years. 6th is on the cards and that could be automatic group stage, no extra-early preseason which will help, especially with Euros stopping some of our lads from getting a break.

We're not even trying to be creative. No linkup, no 1-2's, we're either hoofing it to Pelle or slowly getting it to Martina to cross to 6 waiting defenders. JWP/Davis happy to plod along in the middle. Fullbacks not bombing forward eagerly like they should. There's no spark.

Any chance the deals done but we're waiting for Celtic to finish their CL qualifying? Wouldn't seem wise for us to put all our eggs in 1 basket only to lose out 4 days before the transfer window shuts. A lot of things seem to suggest this to be the case.

Hasn't played many minutes in his 2 years at Schalke. http://www.whoscored.com/Players/115519/History/Leon-Goretzka . I wonder if this would work as a loan deal, if we can give him more minutes in the PL than he's getting at Schalke. Seems a hefty price for an unproven player with barely any football last year.

Kukesi vs Legia match abandoned after a Kukesi fan through a rock and hit a Legia player in the head. Glad we didn't have to travel to Armenia COYS

We don't possess the attacking talent to break teams down. Ever since the Leicester game they all know they can sit deep and we'll struggle to score and they can try on the counter. What good are fast attacking wide players that Koeman loves when theres no space to get in behind and our only target is Pelle surrounded by 10 defenders.

Over 900 minutes without a PL goal.

You're asking the question in the right thread. Only Fonte/Yoshida look dangerous on crosses, no-one else seems to ever get near it.

I think all his goals have been in games where the opposition wanted to attack. If a team defends deep against us he's useless. Everyone knows how to play us now ever since the Leicester game in November.

His technique was wrong on the 1st. Looked like he barely tried to save it. Most keepers wouldn't save it but it would be nice to see him give 100% effort on it and actually dive and use the better-reaching hand. 2nd goal you'd expect a keeper to save more often than not. He got a good hand to hit but was under the ball. The ball was well inside the post. The shots to save ratio flatters him because of how many shots come from outside the box. Lovren was part of an amazing backline last season, those around him made him look better than he is. Same deal with Forster imo.

No surprise there. Luckiest team in the league this season. Don't think any teams benefited from more red cards.

Started and played 76mins in todays U21 Cup QF. Anyone know how he went?

"Southampton manager Ronaldo Koeman..." Stopped reading there.

The JWP-Davis midfield doesn't work great IMO. They both sit too deep when 1 or both of them need to push in to the box. Just leaves Pelle isolated. It was a lot better when we had the midfield 3 of Wanyama/Spider/Cork because they could get forward knowing they had capable defensive mids beside them; 10 goals for those three, 0 for Davis/JWP.

Only played 476 minutes this season, subbed on or off for every single appearance. He can't break into a lower-half bundesliga side, whats the deal? Doesn't fit the system? Out of form? Is he actually good enough to do a job for us?

Sports science is quite advanced these days. I don't know what Saints use but I've seen some of the methods used by AFL teams over here. Players have GPS and heartbeat sensors that give a clear picture of their condition. Every player has benchmarks so the medical team know when someone's condition drops. There isn't necessarily a correlation between fatigue and more injuries but fatigue is measurable by speed/recovery benchmarks.

The Dutchification continues. Full Dutch youth international, youtube tells me he sits deep and can play a killer through-ball. Our starting lineup next season - - - - - Boetius - - - - - Depay - - - - - - - - Elia - - - Clasie - Vilhena - - - - - - - Wanyama - - - - Bertrand Toby Fonte Clyne - - - - - Forster - - - - -

He'd be at liverpool instead of Mario+Lambert.

He's had plenty of time to practice it.

Whoops Fixed. Changed my formation and forget to drop Tadic. - - - - - - - - - Boruc - - - - - - - - - - - - - Fonte Alderweireld Yoshida - - - Clyne - - - Morgan Vic - - - Bertrand JayRod - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Elia - - - - - - - - - Pelle - - - - - - - - - - JayRod/Elia prefer to come inside so they'd alternate being the 2nd striker near Pelle while the other swings wide to assist the fullback for the overlap. I'd pick Boruc at the moment but Forster is younger and has the potential. I know Boruc is likely to never play for us again but he's still one of our players. Bournemouth were undefeated in their 1st 17 games with Boruc only conceding 13 goals, he's still a very very good keeper.

3-5-2 - - - - - - - - - Boruc - - - - - - - - - - - - - Fonte Alderweireld Yoshida - - - Clyne - - - Morgan Vic - - - Bertrand JayRod - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Elia - - - - - - - - - Pelle - - - - - - - - - -

Cork photobombing with his pants half down...

He's obviously got talent, you don't get 20-odd Dutch NT caps and signed by Juve/Bremen without being pretty special. Seems to have great physical attributes with his strength and speed. Fantastic skills on the ball typical of a dutch player. Sounds like it was all a mental thing that stopped him from succeeding at other clubs. He comes across quite shy/softly-spoken/humble in his interviews so perhaps he needs confidence to shine, and he seems to be getting that from Koeman and co.

Heart 4th. Head 6th.