eelpie

A magnificent second half performance! Morgan is King - and our top scorer Morgan Le God!

Can the criticism of bedwetting and negativity stop too.

Expectations are surely going to be disappointed. But I still hope for one quality defender and a fast winger (either side) who can score goals to give us more options. I hope to be amazingly surprised.

Does anyone actually know what Van Gaal's training routines are? And how does this compare with Pochetino's at Southampton?

The plan is now we can offer another tenner to tempt Townsend here.

But do they encourage Pelle?

Good spot. Sign Pinder

Whatever the actual income from season ticket sales was, it is more than the club would have got had they not pushed the purchasing dates forward, before we realised that there was going to be a fire sale of our best players. That was a cynical ploy to hoodwink supporters. And supporters will not forget this. The club has shot itself in the foot. (I did eventually buy one btw.)

I think Taider >3 is potent, but he shouldn't cut his own hair.

Or what Cortese verbally promised to them. I'm thinking of Schneiderlin's moan that he had been verbally promised he could leave for a top club if circumstances arose when he signed his long contract.

We have to take our goalscoring opportunities. Simple.

We have to take our goalscoring opportunities. Simple.

That seems reasonable. 12th seems a good bet considering we will be fielding several new players. But I can't see Palace above us and I think Sunderland might well do better than 16th.

While it is correct that we conceded roughly as many as we scored in second halves and we were certainly vulnerable at the start of second halves, averages don't detail the number of games that forfeited leads or draws by late goals conceded. I'm talking about late in the second half. I don't have the stats for this, but I was there, and by heck it hurt - on too many occasions.

Ok, perhaps not so much silly mistakes as mistakes caused by exhaustion towards the end of matches when we conceded advantage and points several times. As Poch used to put it 'we lost concentration'. Previous seasons are not pertinent to the topic. What is pertinent is that 60% of goals conceded last season were in the second half and a high percentage of these were in the last 20 minutes or crucially later.

“Training is slightly different in that it’s not so intense compared with the regime under Pochettino, but we do a lot more short, sharp work on the training ground as well as prolonged hard running sessions, so it’s slightly different, but all of the lads are really benefitting from it. Read more at http://www.saintsfc.co.uk/news/article/16082014-ward-prowse-enjoying-working-with-koeman-' I wonder if this will mean that Saints will manage tempo in games better. Last season we swept everyone away with our high temp, but seemed to make silly costly mistakes at the end that comes with tiredness. What do you think?

Last year we needed his scoring impact off the bench when games stalemated with MoPo's 'we'll never play differently' policy. Now we seem to have a much more versatile squad that will be be able to follow big Ron's tactical nous to suit situations. So Punch is not needed now.

I think this is close to the team, but I would be surprised if Taider is not somewhere in midfield with Cork coming on as an additional defender if the defence needs shoring up, probably with Gaston leaving the pitch.

'Pulis, 56, met with chairman Steve Parish earlier in the day amid reports of friction between the pair over areas of responsibility. The former Stoke manager has been frustrated by the failure to land a number of his transfer targets during the summer.' BBC This does put into perspective the progress here. I think we owe Big Ron and others gratitude for the way they have managed to land some very promising players and we may now well have the nucleus of a good squad. It was a shock to lose the quality we had so suddenly. But on reflection we have much to be grateful for. I do feel for Palace. We know how difficult it is to adjust to the Premiership and surely they would have been relegated had not Pulis arrived. He will not be without a club for long.

It's too early to say. Apart from needing time to adjust to the best tactics, some players have not played in the Prem before. I think we will have a tough intro to the season, but then rapidly improving as a team and results.

We may need Cork instead of Morgan, and Gardos is still injured and needs time achieve match fitness.

He played on Saturday

Taking the jobs our boys don't want to do

Oxy and Moron come to mind

Our squad has now changed so much, and includes many newcomers who do not have proven Premiership experience, that it is going to take some time before the manager, experienced as he is, will be able to assess his best options. So why sell a proven good premiership quality footballer now. Surely it would be sensible to wait until January when informed decisions can be taken.