ScepticalStan

I can't for the life of me fathom why Gaston isn't given a chance either. Against Liverpool not only did he get the assist, but also slotted in Pelle for a very decent chance, and had a moment where he picked up the ball in our left-back position, beat a few players and won a free-kick deep into their half. We've hardly seen anything of the sort for the past three or four games now. Mane doesn't want to release the ball because he doesn't trust talentless try-hard cloggers like Davis and JWP to be able to give him a return pass in so much as a simple one-two, and the rest of the team doesn't have the ability to beat a man. Heaven knows what Gaston has to do to get a chance. And I don't mean 15 minutes at the end out of position whilst we're defending a 1-0 lead away from home - but a real chance.

In the words of Ian Malcolm; I hate being right all the time.

In fairness I did say take 3 out of 5, rather than all five. Plus I made the point that you could say that about an awful lot of teams. You may have a point re. how crap the bottom three are though. That's the main bone of contention when I get into this debate with one of the lads I go to SMS with. However, whilst I don't think for a second we're in real danger of relegation, I am very ****ing grateful for every point that we've managed to get on the board so far.

Funny how when I gently pointed out that our squad had serious issues a month or two ago I was shouted down and told that we were good enough for the top six and were better than we were last year In all seriousness, we've probably built up enough points to give the players that we do have an achievable target of staying in mid-table till the end of the season, but we certainly need to keep an eye out for replacements (particularly for Mane and Wanyama) right f*cking now. Get the scouts out there and make sure we're first in the queue come the summer for the next Dele Ali/Riyad Mahrez/Sadio Mane. If we aren't ready to rock and roll in the transfer market come July 1st, I really will be furious as there won't be any excuse whatsoever. Take 3/5 from Fonte, Bertrand, Mane, Wanyama and VVD out of that squad and we'd get relegated. No question. Now granted you could say that about many other sides in the league, but the difference for us is that we know now at least two of those key players will definitely be on their way, another will have a lot of interest from big clubs and another will have aged another year in his 30s.

I love Southampton and have been a season ticket holder for the past 8 years. Here's my impression of a Portsmouth fan. Eh-hem... "James Ward-Prowse is a fantastic footballer! He dominates the midfield, wins tackles, covers the back four and has a mean free-kick on him! He might have literally never scored barring one penalty but the goals and improvement are still to come! Southampton should start him every game!" That's what a Portsmouth fan would sound like.

JWP isn't fit to lace Barkley's boots and every club in the Premiership would laugh at the embarrassing comparison. Well given that he's such a talented player and a free-kick specialist (with 0 goals from free-kicks), that's the only explanation isn't it? He must basically be choosing to put his free-kicks wide! ...Jesus wept.

Absolutely none of those players play the position of a technical, ball-playing central-midfielder other than Clasie who's been injured. Let me ask you a question. In the summer. Do you think any big clubs will come in for JWP? How much will they bid? Conversely, same question with regard to Mane and Wanyama

It certainly looks like it at the moment. We would probably be a good 5 or 6 points worse off without him in the side. Much as I think we're far weaker than last season (mainly because of the loss of Schneiderlin and the resulting collapse of our midfield), 3/4s of our first-choice defence, Bertrand/VVD/Fonte, are actually still very good top-half Premiership players. Thank God.

Interesting how absolutely no managers have made a bid for him despite his supposed talent and potential, coupled with the fact that we're a club obviously willing to sell at the right price. Funny that isn't it? And incredibly inconvenient for those that insist that his getting selected by Koeman (with no other options available to him of course) proves that experienced footballing minds actually rate his ability. Mane was written off after 10 matches in which he showed bags of ability and will be the subject of bids for £30Mn+ in the summer. JWP has been given 'time and patience' after having absolutely no impact on the 100 or so matches he's played in and will attract no suitors whatsoever in the summer. I wonder why?

With 0 goals apart from a charitably-given penalty in his 88 appearances for Saints I wouldn't bet on it sunshine

Twaddle. Beckham could shoot and score from distance and in the box. He could score free-kicks, he had a decent left foot, could most certainly tackle and win fifty-fifties and actually, had reasonable pace in his youth. Besides which, his range of passing and crosses was on another level to JWP's Yes! I'd like him to be a good player and not a bad one.

Cannot beat a man for pace in a foot race Cannot win a 50/50 where he's shoulder-to-shoulder with another player as he has no strength Cannot use his left foot Cannot burst into the box and arrive late to score goals Cannot beat a man with any sort of flicks and tricks Cannot win headers Cannot shoot from distance Cannot tackle effectively and consistently enough to shield the back four Now like I say, these are the 'indisputables' insofar as most people who defend James Ward-Prowse and his inclusion in the team don't really contest any of what I've just said - but say that his vision, range of passing, dead-ball delivery and other qualities offset and overcome all of them. Really? Really?

Right, so when I posted this thread we didn't have a stronger first XI but were stronger because of greater strength in depth, and now you're telling me that even though we have greater strength in depth, all it takes is the odd injury to reduce us to a mop who gets outclassed and concedes six at home. Southampton F.C. Loudly and proudly. Overrating your players results in a petulant sense of entitlement and all-around crap atmosphere at matches full of fans that think we ought to be challenging for the top six and that our failure to do so is down to lack of effort from the players or somehow Koeman's fault. I believe its healthy for a club's fanbase to have a good handle on the ability of of their players on the pitch. Our players are simply not that good. That doesn't mean you should support the team any less.

I said this a while ago; though the club is well-run at the moment and we won't be getting relegated, we as fans would probably have to accept a slight step down in first-team quality, but no-one was having any of it. As my wise old mother used to say; "if you don't hear, you must feel".

Well well well...

Yep, 'fraid so.

Anyone going to take me up on my request for examples of definitively reserve-list centre-backs at clubs our size or smaller who are better than Yoshida?

I'm surprised everyone's talking about how bad he is when he's barely kicked a ball for us. Don't get me wrong - the manager obviously sees the players day-in-day out in training and he's clearly seen enough to make up his mind - but people are talking about Martina being terrible and awful and whatnot as if he's been in the starting XI for half a season.

Fair point. I suppose Koeman can't completely escape responsibility for that one. I must admit I do remember Twente fans on the Facebook pages and whatnot reacting to the signing with utter bemusement (especially after we had just finished 7th and for two seasons had been equipped with arguably the best full-back pairing in the entire league). Still, not Yoshida's fault though.

They were defending him at right-back were they? They were saying words to the effect of 'we-don't-need-a-new-right-back-as-we-have-a-competent-right-back-in-Yoshida were they? If you can find me an example of anyone saying anything of the sort I'd be amazed. You shared the opinion of 100% of the forum. Yoshida is a reasonable third-choice centre-back for a club of our level. He is an awful right-back and I've yet to see anyone seriously make the case for either of the two points above. If anyone can find a centre-back for a club of our size or below who with a fully-fit first team, is a distinctly reserve option but is markedly better than Yoshida, then I'd be amazed.

1) Yoshida is not a right-back. 2) We, as has been mentioned, have sold £28Mn worth of young right-backs in the past two summer windows 3) We have replaced them with the just about tolerable, slight step-down in Cedric and the completely inadequate Martina (who I'd assume will be moving on within the next 6-12 months, possibly via a loan move). 4) Koeman evidently thinks that our transfer committee has failed in this regard (given that in certain games such as on Saturday, he's not willing to play either despite the fact that they're fully fit). 5) As such, Yoshida is being asked to deputise in a position he's not qualified for. He's been asked to do someone else's job. None of these four factors are Yoshida's fault. Hell, if we had a bread-and-butter pace-and-cross traditional right-winger (Young, Valencia etc.) we'd probably sooner have them deputising at right-back than Yoshida. The only thing I'd add is that whilst a lot of Yoshida's critics seem to be taking some kind of pleasure in his mistakes for them to be proven right, I have never, not once, seen anyone on here claim that Yoshida at right-back is good news. People have defended him as a decent squad player and an all-around good guy, people have defended him as a reasonable third-choice defender for a club of our stature to have at our disposal, but absolutely no-one has claimed that Yoshida at right-back is completely fine and hunky-dory.

Much improved second-half performance but if people seriously think that we'd have won or drawn against City away if it weren't for Koeman they need their heads examined.

What's far more revealing is how much that shows the extent to which City have targeted Yoshida.

There's no point complaining. We just don't have a particularly good team.

Sorry where are the reports that he's died? Surely it should pop up on Google somewhere? It is astonishing how many planets had to align so to speak for him to actually make an appearance. Not just the injury crisis that led to us being that desperate for players, but also the fact that Sounness was busy on the Friday and couldn't watch the training session which he took part in, on top of the fact that a player Dia could replace got injured during the match, plus (the big one) Dia was actually due to play in a ressies match on the preceeding Wednesday but it was cancelled due to heavy rain! Real shame that there's no footage of the match. You see tonnes of players who look absolutely awful on their debuts! Yet to be so bad that a manager can be 100% confident that you've got no chance of being anywhere near adequate you surely have to be utterly terrible! Bearing in mind how little players actually have the ball at their feet during a game (hell, I think I read somewhere that even Messi only has the ball at his feet for 3-5 minutes per game) Ali Dia must have been ridiculous. Still, I admire the guy. He literally lied his way onto a Premiership football pitch with nothing more than brazen, big brass balls. Fair play I say.