mrfahaji

Very much agree with your first paragraph. Not sure about the rest... as much as Redmond has been woeful at times this season, he currently deserves his place in the team. For as good as Tadic is, it is fair enough to question the number of times he lacks determination to put his mark on a game. It's not always easy for a creative player to play well when the team aren't seeing much of the ball, so I tend to be more forgiving of that in itself, but would like to see him show a bit more resilience in those situations, rather than fading and resorting to trying to win free kicks for soft fouls, which often get waved away by the ref.

True, I may have worded it badly but the point I was trying to make was that it's hard to have a rational debate/talk/critique when someone can just say "well that's what I believe".

The reason a lot of people make a point about defending muslims is because they know there will naturally be an emotional backlash against them, and that creates further division, which in turn causes more people to feel ostracised and more likely to turn against their own country and fellow citizens. I expect many of those same people actually have reservations about the religion, and the disgusting and/or stupid people that use it as an excuse for committing unforgiveable acts. Unfortunately religion as a whole is an irrational, illogical, intangible belief that cannot be disproved and therefore cannot be argued against.

Not sure you can take the best performance out and then continue comparing... Perhaps if you want to discount the best result from every season, or even deduct a few goals from the Sunderland game, but to scrub 8 goals from the record entirely doesn't exactly make for a fair comparison!

Surely his terrible finishing makes him the perfect replacement for Davis?

I think the most likely scenario is that teams below us in the table would likely be interested in Davis, but teams above us likely wouldn't be. He has plenty of excellent attributes which we miss when he doesn't play, but he also has glaring weaknesses - the most obvious being his inability to finish - which is why he is often identified as a player who could do with being upgraded. Unfortunately top quality attacking midfielders are hard to come by (and expensive), and most people end up realising that Davis is a reasonable all rounder who does a solid, if unspectacular job, in the absence of a star player in that position.

Like.

Yes, you are right. Pulis and Allardyce sides are always physical, they use every trick in the book and are generally not nice teams to play against or watch. Tottenham, Chelsea and United are also example of physical sides. However, Hughes clearly gives instructions to his Stoke team to kick lumps out of opposition players to either antagonise them or make them cower. There is a difference and your response has perfectly demonstrated why I posted in the first place - people seem to give them a free pass because they are "battlers" but also because they do play decent football from time to time, when actually it's a lot more sinister than that. I don't disagree with your take that we are not a strong enough side athletically or physically, but it wasn't really related to point I was making.

Just reflecting on the weekend games, Mark Hughes says Diego Costa was "practising dark arts". Everyone knows what Costa is like, he is a bit of d1ck and often goes way over the top and should concentrate more on the football, which he's quite good at. However, I don't think enough scrutiny is applied to Stoke and their frequent dirty play. Under Hughes their style of football has undoubtedly improved than when under Pulis, but he has no qualms about telling his players to go out and kick the opposition all over the park. It's pretty shocking really. Even BBC match feed commented that virtually every Stoke player had "kicked" Costa, trying to provoke him into getting a second yellow. They were pretty dirty against us this season, Arnautovic getting sent off, but the one that sticks out was our 3-2 cup win against them a season or two ago - Pelle scored the winner if I recall. We were 2-0 up at HT, and clearly Hughes' instructions were to go out in the second half and kick us off the park. It nearly worked. Just find it shocking that they deploy such blatant dirty tactics but equally that no-one ever seems to pick up on or highlight it. It's just "Stoke, playing much more attacking football than they used to".

Even though we finished highest last year, I felt Koeman's first season was our best in recent memory. We had all the foundations of a Pochettino team - good passing, fitness, pressing, but also went direct at times which was often needed to make our attack both unpredictable and more exciting. By the second season we were very much a Koeman team, and that brought a fair few games of dire football.

I'd prefer "Mouth for War"! "The Saints are Coming" was pretty perfect given the words and the feel of the song, and I'll always be a stickler for Queen's "One Vision" given that it was the song when I was growing up watching us at the Dell - also a song with a great build up, and the players nearly always timed their run out to when the guitar kicked in! Ah, nostalgia.

I imagine "decent" is the operative word in your statement, as Clasie, Hojbjerg and Reed are all more suited to that position than Davis.

I hope Everton don't finish any higher than 7th. Even if they get Europe I wouldn't mind as it will give Koeman fewer chances to take his precious holidays. I'd like that to happen to Spurs ideally, but would also enjoy cheat-mode-enabled City missing out, or seeing Mourinho's incredulous face. Not sure I could put up with Jose's inevitable moaning though!

There were people questionning the same thing last season too. Last season I took the view of "of course we want Europe, otherwise what is the point of aiming for 8th every season?" However, given that we've been in Europe two seasons running, and this season our league form really suffered as a result, I wouldn't be unhappy about missing out. The reason is, if (and I know it's a big if) we can keep this team together and make one or two additions, we potentially have something really good and I reckon we can surprise a few people next year by being more than a team that hovers around 9th or 10th all season. Listen to me, complaining about the prospect of finishing 9th or 10th... But a season of challenging or at least being on the fringes of that top 6 is much more appealing, and more attainable if we're not juggling Europe - plus it would mean getting back in Europe the season after anyway!

I'd agree, but he hasn't been given much of a run in the team of late. Ward-Prowse has been pretty awful at times this season, but playing every week, and once a week, seems to have helped him a lot. I wonder if the same might be true of Hojbjerg?

I too thought Trippier was keeping him on, from the pattern on the grass. Also, check this out (not you specifically, shurlock, this is for everyone!): First of all, anyone who tries the test will find it bl00dy difficult! But secondly, go to 6:55 and look at the result of Clip 16. Pretty sure all pundits would say he was at the very least "just offside there" but they'd be wrong. I don't know what the exact ruling/definition is but I'm guessing this training video is correct.

Only saw the last half an hour, but from what I did see we certainly edged the play. That didn't turn into many good chances though. Davis had some nice touches in their half, but defensively he is weak. Was too slow to move the ball on when Dier tackled him, then later is twisting and turning on the touchline before passing it straight to the striker who Romeu then has to foul and get booked for. Long's too-early runs are frustrating, however the one following the intricate edge-of-box play was because the pass was fractionally delayed (perhaps Long could have bent the run better), and the last one I thought was onside! But obviously Spurs appealed so it was given. Rodriguez summed up his inability on a couple of occasions. Most of the time he wasn't anywhere to be seen, but once he was on his heels when Yoshida prodded the ball forwards and we were hit on the break, and another time he took the ball down excellently from a high pass, but then showed no awareness, pace or conviction to do anything with it. See that too often from him. And as for Boufal... well he was quite horrific. All he thinks about is how he can pull of a trick or skill to beat his man. Sometimes it's good for him to do it, but not every time. I knew that he was looking for the nutmeg on Vertonghen in the corner at one point, so I daresay Vertonghen did too. And then we finally build an attack, get the overload and he shoots. Ok, not a dreadful effort, but again it's all about him... knock it through to Cedric, ball across the face, good chance of a goal. But no. He has ability, he can be a great player, but not playing like he did today.

First time Saints have had a player (or players?) in the England squad that haven't been one of the best players at Southampton...?!

I only saw your post after posting mine, that would make more sense. Hopefully anyway, else it's very disappointing!

Trying to be pragmatic about the situation - Austin is most likely to be back up, or used in midweek-rotation, with Gabbiadini. Austin scores goals and is undoubtedly an asset. If he weren't injury prone he would be worth a lot more money. Are we going to go out and sign someone of equal ability for 15m-20m so they can sit on the bench? If Gabbiadini gets injured, and Austin then picks one up too, we play Shane Long. He might not be a reliable figurehead and goalscorer but he's not bad for a third 'emergency' option. We'd be unlucky to lose two or three strikers for a long and simultaneous period of time, though of course it can happen, but not sure we should be ploughing money into a back up striker when we have spots in the first XI (central midfield) to bolster.

For all Heisenberg's posturing, it is a bit of a concern that we apparently didn't sell our players for as much as we thought. Most of the time fans were ok with the sales because we at least seemed to be getting a decent chunk of cash. Or, if so22saint is correct, is the whole paradigm of transfer fees misleading? When we hear figures of £25m and £30m, are they always inclusive of wages? And therefore, even if we are getting a few £m less than expected for players, is that acceptable because the entire transfer market is also constantly overstated, in every single report and rumour?

I'd be surprised if anyone ever wanted any Saints player to do badly. I wouldn't say I am a massive detractor of his - I've defended him in the past when people have been extremely impatient with his development, he clearly has strengths but equally there are elements of his game I can see need improvement before he should be considered one of the first names on the teamsheet. The fact that he hasn't managed to nail down a starting berth until very recently despite both Clasie and Hojbjerg being underwhelming supports this, yet according to some he's had a consistent and excellent season.

Oh come off it! I know some people go OTT on the criticism of him but player of the season? Ahead of Bertrand?!

A bit harsh on McQueen! Defenders normally take longer to reach the required standard, and McQueen played excellently on many occasions when called upon. In fact, I'm not sure he had a bad game when I saw him. He has probably overtaken Targett in the left back pecking order and is back up to Ryan Bertrand, and England international and unquestionably one of our best players!

Clearly he hasn't had a consistent season, but he has had a few good games lately.