ScepticalStan

Quite. And this is something that will be ruthlessly exploited by every team in the Premiership. The position in football that presents the clearest 1-on-1 dynamic is full-back vs winger. If you're a full-back and your opponent can do you for both pace and strength, it doesn't make a blind bit of difference how good your positional play or tackling is; they'll kick it 10-15 yards into the space behind you, run past you whilst overtaking/firmly shouldering you aside, and you'll be left huffing, puffing and chasing after them as the ball is whipped across the face of your goal.* This has happened for between 2-4 of the five goals we've conceded in two matches.** *Watch Ronaldo when he's really got a full-back on toast, you will not see him (probably the most dexterous and skillful winger in the game) do a single step-over unless he has to. **Wijnaldum + Lukaku's 1st goals being clear and obvious examples, with Cisse and Barkley's goals not being exact examples, but nevertheless the ball coming from out wide with our weak full-backs being exploited. I'm very worried and I think, justifiably so.

Over-powering in a 50/50 battle is fine. However, Lukaku picked the ball up in Everton's left-back position, took a moment to control the ball, and despite Cedric charging into him with all his momentum, he couldn't even slightly inconvenience him. I'm not asking for our full-backs to be able to shoulder a target-man to the floor here. Full-backs should be at least one of the two. If they're not, you'll be beaten very comfortably by some very ordinary teams who are no more technically adept than you are. Almost all full-backs are physically shorter than centre-forwards and yes, you're right in thinking that if you're the attacking team, you want to try and circumnavigate the centre-backs and expose that mismatch with the full-back. Was Cedric really over-exposed? Lukaku got the ball with his back to goal in Everton's left-back position with Cedric *right there* and yet still ended up charging towards our penalty area with Steven Davis having to give up a yellow card to bring him down. That simply shouldn't happen. A full back should be faster or stronger than an opposing forward. It'll be addressed if he's fundamentally good enough. I'm very, very concerned that he isn't.

However, thing is it wasn't a piece of skill that outfoxed him, it was raw pace, power and physicality that Cedric couldn't possibly match up to. Physical attributes aren't really something that can be learned or really improved upon, that's what's so concerning. We were sat on the Itchen North/Centre and it happened right in front of us; Cedric charged towards Lukaku full-pelt in an attempt to shoulder him off the ball and despite having all the momentum on his side, simply bounced off him. Then, moving onto plan B, he tore off after him but couldn't even close the distance (indeed, Lukaku actually managed to lengthen his lead in the sprint) If your full-backs can't match up to their opponents in either strength or pace, you're in a world of trouble. As it is, neither Targett nor Cedric can do so.

As always you do have a point Adrian but bear in mind what you've said there could easily be flipped round as 'once Targett isn't being babysat, doesn't have Champions League-level players around him and is actually charged with real responsibility he struggles hugely'. Being honest, I'm very concerned about the lad. You can learn positional sense and even a fair old degree of technical ability but physical attributes are a lot, lot tougher to really change by a huge degree https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JPuBs_EPS2A. He looks simply too slow and too weak, especially compared to the strong, stock and yet inexplicably fast freaks of nature that we were spoiled with in Clyne/Shaw/Bertrand.

Delusional. Today we played a team that'll do well to finish in the top 6 but who had absolutely no trouble completely controlling the game and winning the midfield against us. Everton scored three and could have easily had more. To describe that as a match that 'on another day we could have won' is ridiculous. I walked away from that game applauding Everton and honestly feeling like there was nothing I couldn't reasonably complain about, we were well beaten by a clearly vastly superior team. Its been a long time since I've walked a game feeling like the reason for the loss couldn't be attributed to any sort of underachievement but just 'they're players are better than our players'. The games against City were the only ones last season.

At the game. We are getting utterly teabagged. I did warn you all, but was shouted down for pointing out that our replacements are well below par. This could end 4 or 5-0. They're passing it through our midfield utterly effortlessly. At least now that he hasn't got MS to babysit him the garbage about Steven Davis being anything above bang average should die out. Especially as he hasnt won a single 50/50 so far

This is even more cringeworthy than my current, (happily enough, soon-to-be-ex) employer writing their own Glassdoor reviews!

Ha! One of the most misunderstood Shakespeare quotes. In the context, 'wherefore?' actually roughly translates as 'why?'. (Juliet is musing about why she had to fall in love with Romeo as opposed to someone more 'suitable'. She is not, as many would believe, leaning over the balcony and asking where he is). Anyway, back to football, Romeu was very highly regarded by a lot of Chelsea fans and many were sad to see him go. Seems like a very canny signing. Definitely good to get some physical strength in the midfield.

Bait? Bites? I can understand you personally feeling differently, but can you not even imagine that someone might be giving an honest opinion? Especially when they go out of their way to specify that they still appreciate how well that club has been doing overall? Why so confrontational? I'm simply reporting my own thoughts and asking if anyone else was feeling mildly concerned. There needs to be a sticky about what fans on the forum have permission to think!

Shameless repost here but: 'Flabbergasted' might be a strong way of putting it but...seriously? Am I being all that unreasonable if I say that I'm a little disappointed by the recruitment so far? I don't know...it seems a little underwhelming to be fair. (I of course realise that the club is fantastically run, has a brilliant manager and is in the best position its ever been in and as a 24-year-old, the majority of my time following Saints growing up as a teenager and young adult was in the lower leagues, so I don't need to be told to appreciate where we are now!) Its just that having said all that, speaking WRT to this transfer window alone...it is kinda disappointing.

If you were only talking about this summer specifically you might have a point. Until proven otherwise you have to assume that Clasie won't be as good as Schneiderlin, and it certainly seems that Martina & Cedric combined will never come close to adequately replacing Clyne. Add to that the fact that we haven't signed another top-quality centre-back to replace Alderweireld (as Caulker certainly isn't a like-for-like swap) and you could be quite justified in believing that we haven't covered for the loss of our best three players particularly well to be frank. Compare that to last summer's outs, ins and replacements: Lambert = Pelle Lallana Lovren Boruc = Forster Shaw = Bertrand This summer's window has been markedly below that in my opinion.

So, yeah. That'll be everyone.

At ****ing last. Some sense. Everyone on here *****ing about Mane missing 'sitters' as if they were tap-ins rolled across the face of goal, when in fact, he was essentially faced with the task of beating two players and the goalkeeper and almost managed it twice! He's an unbelievable talent. The goals will come.

Not a single Newcastle ball in has been delivered with any quality whatsoever, yet they're all causing us problems. As has been said, an all-out attacking front four doesn't work if we can't get the ball. Worrying.

I can't for the life of me see how playing away on a Thursday night will be anything but a hinderance to performances on Sunday. As such, we should go with the weakest team that's nevertheless capable of avoiding a three-goal defeat (which, lets be fair, should be more-or-less any XI we pick). I'd much rather lose 2-0 after putting out a team that won't be playing on Sunday than win 2-0 and have to knacker our best players out for absolutely no reason.

He's obviously not useless. No-one is saying he's useless. He's a pretty good Premier League player. However, he's nowhere near good enough for the top-4/top-6, which is where we, last season, were trying to be.

Verlaine sums it up once again. No-one wants to give any of our players a disproportionate amount of criticism but one very often finds that they simply have to in order to counter the absurd level of praise directed at Steven Davis. I think that Saints do have a disproportionately chauvinistic fanbase to be quite frank. Players like Lambert and Steven Davis are deified whilst players like Mane and Pelle are written off after one bad game. The cold hard truth last season was that having an attacking midfielder who can't score goals is a major, major handicap. (and to those who say that Steven Davis isn't an attacking midfielder; he has been the most advanced player in the side for the past three seasons apart from the three dedicated forwards) In those three seasons he has scored 4 goals Premier League goals, with a big fat 0 in the most recent one, so its not like he's shown any signs of improving on what has been a clear weakness in his game for quite some time now.

Sorry about typing all those facts and hurting your feelings. The fans of other clubs saw plenty of both strikers (and indeed saw their own teams face both Lambert and Pelle)

Pelle scored more goals for us from open play last season than Lambert did in either of his seasons in the Premiership with us. Pelle would also have scored just as many in the Championship and lower leagues as Lambert. Fans of other clubs, without the sentimentality that our lot have, were constantly telling me that they thought Pelle > Lambert was a huge improvement to our squad from season-before-last to last season.

The problem with Turkish is that whenever a contentious point comes up, he'll immediately act as if everyone bar him took the opposite point of view and act as if he was the only one swimming against the grain. Some wanted the Ropey League Some didn't. Some were quite keen on the novelty but acknowledged that it'd probably have a negative impact on our domestic campaign a la Everton last year. I think most people are more-or-less a bit of all three. Nothing to see here.

Can't see us failing to score in the away leg what with Vitesse having to go all-out gung-ho to turn that score around (if indeed their ambition isn't limited to just trying to win on the night in their home stadium). Means we can go with more-or-less a second string with a few of the first-teamers on the bench if things get hairy. Something like: Gazza McCarthy - Turnbull - Caulker - Martina Reed - JWP - Wanyama Davis Long - Juanmi

Slacker with a back-to-the-wall computer working his notice period at a company he's soon to depart which is going busto in six months anyway. I'm the prototypical football forum poster.

Sentimental twaddle. The guy's legs had gone towards the end of 13/14 and I was completely unsurprised to see him fail to add anything to Liverpool. Rather sad as he became a bit of a laughing stock for fans of Everton, Manchester United and the more self-deprecating Liverpool fans. Sorry if that sounds harsh but that is the reality.

https://cbsdetroit.files.wordpress.com/2011/08/autism-speaks1.jpg