Useful Idiot

The away match was the most gutless performance I can recall watching. It's as if we thought that we were playing Barcelona or PSG. Worst part was, the way that we played we really didn't deserve anything more than a point. It was a cowardly display. Hope we actually have a go at them for 90 mins, regardless of which team is put out.

Austin's a box player. I'd sort of hoped we'd be looking at someone who can hold the ball up to bring others into the game. Saying that, if he does win us four games, then he is worth every penny. His movement does seem very good, and the timing of his jumps is impeccable. Still, it'll be interesting to see how he fits into the squad. If he can outmaneuver premier league defenders to win headers from open play crosses then he'll work wonders.

Every video that I've seen, or story I've read about him seems to say he's very similar to Austin in style rather than Lambert or Pelle. Essentially a box player, who doesn't offer much outside the area. Problem being, for that sort of player he doesn't seem to offer Austin's goal returns.

More likely he'll be called "something head-a-ball." Apparently he can't really kick one.

I think the problem is that no one who is half decent is interested in joining us. We look like prime relegation fodder at the moment and about as attractive as a lump of dog poo to any footballer with ambition. Only realistic options are possibly loan moves with future fees agreed if we stay up, but that's hardly attractive to the selling club unless the loan fees are huge. Its probable that we'll just have to make do with what we've got, unless we can spot someone from a weak league who can improve us. I thought that's what the black box was for? Not just picking big-club bench players.

Now that City have missed out an attacking player, do you think there's any chance we could flog Redmond to them? After all, Pep thinks he's one of the best players in the Prem 1v1...

I rate JWP and Oakley higher than Davis, both of them were quicker decision makers. Davis seems to be quite indecisive, especially with the ball.

To be honest, I think Targett's delivery from out wide is very similar to JWP's, he's very good going forward if he doesn't have to beat a man. His problem seems to be stiffness and lack of agility/balance rather than anything else. He's not slow, but he's not the fastest either. He seems to have difficulty shifting his weight quickly and adjusting to opponents movements when dealing with 1 on 1 situations, either attacking or defending. McQueen is quite agile, and much, much better with the ball at his feet. Don't think his crossing is anywhere near as good, though. His positioning isn't as good as Targett's, but he is able to compensate for that by keeping his balance and changing his body shape quickly in response to the movement of an attacker.

Clearly you don't understand! Referees and their assistants never make mistakes and their work is always unbiased, unaffected by the pressure put on them by fans, or the relative size of the teams in question and therefore their relative importance to the Premier League brand. Referees and there to impartially enforce the rules of the game, which they do perfectly all of the time. Just look at Mark Clattenburg for instance, he always applied the rules of the game in a forthright and objective manner.

Surely the time to do that was when Puel was in charge. I can't see him being who we need, now. He's no quicker than Tadic or Boufal and I don't see him being much of an improvement upon either. Sure, he's a talented player, but I think it's unlikely that he'd score more than a couple of goals before the end of the season. Still, I suppose he's another player for Mopey to stick on the bench and bring on for the last 5 mins.

Growing what as a team, exactly? Mold or fungus? Or does he mean growing the habit of dropping points after the half-time team talk. We've seemed to get steadily better at that over the course of the season.

What are you talking about? As has been said by other -more knowledgeable- posters than I, we clearly have a squad that's easily capable of finishing in the top 8, if only we had a better manager! If you average out the goals scored per game over their career for our best starting XI, between them we must get an expected return of about 1.1 per match. (Obviously, without Austin that drops to around 0.8, if we add this journeyman that we seem fixated on signing, then we might push it all the way back up to 1!). Any weakness in our defense is more than adequately compensated for with that fearsome firepower up front. All I can say is that the transfer committee obviously know exactly what they're up to!

To buy Redmond and Boufal to replace Mane is like buying a Suzuki Swift and a Golf GTI to replace a BMW M3.

This is exactly as I see the situation as well.

To be fair to Gardos, I don't think he really recovered from his cruciate ligament injury. Before that he wasn't exactly quick, but these days he makes Per Mertersacker look like Eusain Bolt.

I hope that we are going for Sviatchenko. From what little I've seen of him he looks like he might have a bit more mental toughness than the snowflakes we have in the squad at the moment. Even if he's a cheap buy, it might offer us some drive on field, which might help lift the whole team. We are desperately short on character and determination.

Not many teams decide to sack a manager for being too defensive and then employ an even more defensive replacement. We're a special club that does everything The Southampton Way™ and we're moving rapidly to our new level, as promised by the board.

It's always good to read a thread that begins with a post that offers so much elusive knowledge and valuable insight. You've hit it out the park again 9-3, you're absolutely awesome!

I'm sure Whitey Grandad will arrive soon to tell you why you're completely wrong. All referees are perfect.

It's all part of our standard recruitment strategy. 1) Leak exciting targets to the fans to keep them happy 2) Have them go elsewhere 3) Try to sign a loan player in at the last minute 4) Fail with that, too 5) Sign a free transfer who is nowhere near match fit to fill the gap after the window closes. (I'm going for Chamakh, or Jo Inge Berget as our main options for striker, and Diego Capel or Osvaldo (not Dani, the Brazilian one) as our realistic wide options.

3:1 loss from 1 up at half time. Manager sets up to defend and we concede the equalizer after 65 minutes, Long misses a sitter at 1:1 and the players heads drop and we let in two late Deeney goals as he batters Stephens and Yoshida in the air. Mope says we have to lean to control games better when in this league. We drop into the bottom 3.

To be fair, 4 in 28 is prolific compared to our forward line (Austin excepted).

Pretty much this, although I'd say for point 5) it's more not getting in players with the correct attributes to replace Mane and Pelle. Someone who is physical and can hold their own against defenders, but also able to lay the ball off quickly and someone who is really quick and can play wide but get themselves into the area and hit the target. Part of this was probably due to Claude wanting to play 4-1-2-1-2 with mobile forwards, though. I quite liked him, but think on balance he was probably the wrong manager for the players we had at the time. If we'd got in someone with a different philosophy who would have looked to play 4-2-3-1 and had asked for a target man as their signing instead of Gabbiadini (who I also like but who doesn't really work as a lone striker in the system we're looking to play) I think we'd be in a much stronger position. Either that, or Mope should try playing the 4-1-2-1-2 as Gabbi and Long might work OK together with Boufal/Tadic behind them and Hoj, Lemina and Romeu all together in midfield.

Mahrez is far quicker than Tadic, can dribble and beat players as effectively as Boufal and has a better shot than either of them. Redmond isn't a fast sprinter, he is quick over 5 yards and has poor natural movement. He never attacks the area. Gray is fast and direct. Vardy is a horrible little turd, but is far more effective than anyone we have at the club. Slimani hasn't had much of a chance there, his goal record with a possession based team that looks to pin their opposition in is excellent though. Think he doesn't really suit Leicester's counter attacking style. Iheanacho is a natural poacher with good pace but isn't as good as effective as Vardy, which is why he doesn't play much. Okazaki is better with the ball than Long, but isn't as quick. As a team they're much quicker and more physically powerful than our players in similar positions. Now we've lost VVD I think their central defense is better than ours, we still have better fullbacks and CM than they do, though. Their goal keeper is miles better. Overall, they have a far better balance of players than we do. Probably not much to choose between our teams in defense, but up front they're miles better.

Time for the fabled MP 1-0 half-time team talk and sitting back on the edge of our area for the entirety of the second half.