SaintTex

Lot of truth in that.. look how ordinary Liverpool has looked without Mane. Along with scoring goals, he opens up the play for others. Further, I think Tadic was most effective playing off Pelle. They always seemed to know where the other was gonna be or where the ball needed to be put. the dynamic is just completely different this year.. we don't look fluid. Hopefully that will come.

Come on!! You are comparing pre-injury Jay stats to post-injury Jay stats and blaming it on Puel?

i am thinking that he won't. This has got to be one of those "suck it up, you are a professional" type games. It is a BIG GAME. The adrenaline alone will probably get most of the starters today through the match next Wednesday. Unfortunately, might have to start some of our fringe players for the FA Cup Arsenal game - that was a crappy draw. Would have been nice to draw a League 1 team and rest players. games are coming every 3 days again.. Sun 22/1 Leicester W Wed 25/1 Liverpool EFL Cup Sat 28/1 Arsenal FA Cup Tue 31/1 Swansea PL Sat 4/2 West Ham PL Puel will be criticized game to game for lineups, but he has to manage the ENTIRE season and prioritize matches.

that is probably about right. I would be alright with Clasie starting. For Davis if injured or for Hojbjerg, as his form has been suspect of late. The big question is: is it the same starting XI for Wednesday? I think at least back the 6, Redmond, and Tadic need to be the same. There should be a min of 3 changes between Sunday and Wednesday IMO. Could see.... ------------Forster------------- Cedric Yoshida Virgil Bertrand ------------Romeu------------- -----Clasie----------JWP------- Redmond-----------------Tadic -------------Long--------------- I think Long and JRod play both games, but subbing for each other around the 70' mark.

Reality. The top 6 big clubs require 14 other clubs in the league to play. Do we want to be one of those 14 clubs or not? If not, they certainly can find another club willing to participate in the bread and circus. I reckon the average supporter would like us to stay in the Premiership. How do you do that? One way is being smart financially and profitable. Check. Another way is have enough quality on the pitch to not be in the bottom 3. Check. 3rd way? Is to maintain a successful academy that rounds out the squad, so you are not constantly having to pay high prices for risky international players. 4th.. you might argue, is expand your brand globally, ie: Southampton Way Story/Mythology, opening camps in the US, UnderArmour Kit deal, etc. sure there might be an anomaly every now and then, but the realistic attainable goal is finish somewhere between 7 & 17. End.

you also warned us years we finished 14th, and 8th, and 7th, and 6th. Your warnings don't hold much water.

likely thought 3 games in 6 days was too much and they will play against Everton. I thought the Starting XI was spot on considering schedule and availability. Just didn't work out.

no, we are not. Sunderland(14pts), Hull(13pts), and Swansea(12 pts) are in danger of going down. Hell 35 points is the safe zone considering how few points those teams have at the halfway point.

With Redmond's suspension and Tadic seemingly fit again, I hope we are going to finally see Tadic and Boufal together in the Starting XI on Saturday. (and then Boufal is off to Africa! Just great.) Defensively, we need to be tight, because I fear if we give up a first half goal, 3 points won't be possible. I am a bit down about the team today and I have been maybe a bit spoiled from past seasons. I miss the offensive creativity and fluidity we used to exhibited (we have potential, see JRod's first goal against Bournemouth [Davis/Boufal], but it has been far a few between). There used to be such joy and teamwork amongst the players, something is missing. Tadic really misses Pelle, I imagine. When those two clicked it was a thing of beauty. We don't have that same dynamism at all this year. Don't see that changing much for the rest of the season; every game is going to be a slog and I reckon our overall goal differential will hover around zero for the rest of the season. However, A top 10 finish is still very do-able. This summer is going to be a very crucial summer in my opinion. We still have a good team with good players, but we have had a blip; gone backward slightly. The question is: does that trend continue next season or do we get ambitious this summer and correct it? lineup for the game: Forster Martina Yoshida VvD McQueen Clasie Romeu Højbjerg Boufal Long Tadic not normally what I would prefer at the back four, but would rather have, Cedric, Fonte, and Bertrand available for Everton away.

yeah, in that line up our FBs would have to live in the final third to get goals. we would pay Morgan's wages and a £13m transfer fee to have him rotate games with Romeu? And I would imagine there is going to be less rotation after the New Year ( I could be wrong, but we have fewer matches). Romeu is two years younger. I'd rather re-sign him. Yet he can't get minutes with a team that has allowed more goals than Southampton this season? 11 PL minutes this season. Not sure when the last time he was on his game. 2014/2105 seems like ages ago. sorry all, I loved him when he was here, but I can't think of more pros than cons if he returned. Reasonable minds can disagree, but this is where I stand.

I am trying to figure out how he is exactly what we need. Honest question.

in January? probably not a whole lot if you look at it. Put yourself in the mind of Katrina, Ralph and Les.. why do we need to strengthen in January if we don't sell any players? 01) we don't need to strengthen to avoid relegation 02) strengthening would likely not propel us into the Top 6. 03) strengthening would have little to no impact on the EFL Cup run. (I guess you could debate that, but how many January transfers make an immediate impact?) 04) we really aren't on the cusp of anything that strengthening the team in January would put us over the top. Now I agree, it might be prudent to get a CB in here January instead of late August, as it looks like Fonte is going (possibly in Jan) and VvD is looking around, but honestly.. I would be surprised to see that much movement from the club this winter, especially with historically inflated prices for January transfers. So, if Fonte and VvD go this summer, we are looking at £60mil to play with. Where do you put it? GK For all the whining, we are set here. Good backup too. CB - (£15mil) (add one player) I think we go out and get a real quality CB and give Yoshida a starting nod at the other CB position 2016/2017 (I have been one of his harshest critics, but he has really stepped up this season in the CB role). It's risky, but it's really hard to imagine 2 new CBs in the starting XI next year. FB We are good and have depth. Don't forget, Pied will be back (fingers crossed) midfield - (£33mil) (two players) we have a TON of good (not great players) here. Tons of depth. Defensively sound, but we need to find ways to get more dynamism into the offense via the midfield. Someone mentioned better link up players, those who think forward first, instead of backwards. The bulk of the transfer kitty after getting a CB should be injected here. wingers we are good strikers - (£12mil) (add one player) Maybe we add another in the £10mil to £12mil player to add depth and competition, but really, with proper distribution JRod, Austin, and Long have shown they can get the job done. (Long to a lesser extent) or I could be full it

ha, as much as loved Pelle, you don't think he would be sulking if he was still here while knowing he could pulling £260,000 per week in wages in China? Pelle is currently the sixth highest paid player in the world.

huh? all we have are holding midfielders.

by my calculations.. we were 5-6-4 last year after 15 matches .. 21 points... gave up 18 goals ..........(with Mane, Pelle, and Wanyama) this year we are 5-5-5 after 15 matches.. so 20 points.. have given up 15 goals. ..........(while the squad was stretched thin fighting in two competitions during that time) we may not finish in a flurry like we did last season, but it's not all as dire as some make it out to be. We aren't getting relegated and we still have a very real chance to play for a Trophy. Chins up!

you have made the mistake the last 3 years. Is this the year you make no mistake? Probably not, but even if so, your average sucks.

want to hear something that will make you sick to your stomach? 48 teams in the Group Stages Goals Against 1) Schalke 3 T-2) Southampton 4 T-2) Manchester United 4 T-2) Young Boys 4 5-48) 5 or more

Pelle was entertaining. I miss that guy. No reason at all we should have sold him.

It's going to be weird if we go up 1-0, knowing that our position will still be just as tenuous. However, I guess you could optimistic and believe that at 1-0 you are a goal score closer to putting it away than you were previously. but this place doesn't ooze optimism.

all 3 goals were easy tap ins for Palace. They really haven't had to work for it. oh well.. we were really flat today and seemingly unfocused; maybe looking ahead to a really HUGE game on Thursday at St. Mary's. Let's get to the knockout stage! COYS!

let's just say: that saying "We don't even know what are best Starting XI is!" is usually a bad thing for most clubs.

Will they have Mane available? (AFCON) Will we have Boufal?

says the team that just played Leeds. They can **** off. We are going to have to go through Arsenal, Liverpool, and Man U (likely) in order to win this thing. If we do, it will be well earned.

or next Thursday.