striker

Isn't Elyounoussi also supposed to be able to play striker? If so that could be why we haven't signed a 4th striker (behind Austin, Gabbi, Long/Gallagher), and it could make Elyounoussi a "jack of all trades" player for us, filling in at 3 or 4 positions.

I bet we still sell him, just for more money

As i mentioned before, I really like Austin and Gabbi together up front. They link up pretty well, and both are a goal scoring threat (unlike a Redmond or Long). I think a 3-5-2 with Austin and Gabbi, Armstrong, MoEly, and Lemina may be the ticket.

Mo Ely, Redmond, Lemina, Cedric, and Austin make a big difference to the attack.

If Austin stays healthy this season, you can easily see him getting 12-15 goals. Flame away on the "if he stays healthy", but its true. Unless we bring in a top guy for $30M+, Austin is our best guy. I also think Gabbi can get 10-15 too. Thats why I think we are ok with those two if we improve the midfield attackers. Sure it would be great to get Salah, but we're not going to. Austin and Gabbi together is not a bad PL tandem.

..................McCarthy ......Hoedt...Vestergaard...Yoshi Cedric....Lemina....Hoj....Bertrand ........MoEly............Redmond .................Austin.................... First subs - Armstrong, Gabbi, Romeu

I was talking about the amount of goals he's made versus the time he has played, which is impressive. I agree his injury record since he's been here is an issue, no denying that. He's played roughly 1/2 of each of the 2 full seasons. However when he's on the pitch he is very productive.

Not sure why some think this. Even though he's been injured, when he has played the past 2 seasons he has average a goal every 1.5 matches or so in the PL. That is much better than anyone else we have, and up there among all strikers in the PL.

I didn't realize the Saints had a 3rd goal called back for offsides, another Austin to Gabbi score.

There is a very vocal minority who just don't like Austin for some reason. Good thing most of the fanbase does like him. He was a bricklayer (or something like that), and he doesn't try to be what he isn't. He's a normal everday bloke who happens to be a really good striker. Bash him for getting injured during his stint here, I guess thats fair. But he seems like a good guy who the teammates like, and his scoring record of goals/minute is near the top in the PL and right there with players costing 10-15x what his cost was. The one season he did stay healthy he scored 18 for QPR. I absolutely think Austin with Gabbi can be a good tandem, playing each to his strengths depending on the matchup.

If Chelsea can sign 38 year old Rob Green at GK, after he bombed out at QPR, Leeds, and Huddersfield, anything can happen with FF.

This is getting ugly fast for Dijon. Also every twitter feed mentions Bobby Allain?

It hard to tell just by following twitter, and with it being a friendly, but they sure don't look to good.

It says we made 4 changes, but only mentions Austin (because I guess he got the assist to Gabbi). Who came on?

Lousy defence there by Dijon. Their twitter feed isn't happy. 2-0 us.

Thanks. It gives funny results though. Here's one from what I guess was a Dijon shot on goal at the 31st minute: 31 ' Superb web of Jules #Keita forcing McCarthy to parade! (0-1) #DFCOsaintsfc Ha ha

The Dijon FC twitter feed is much more active than ours, too bad I can't speak French.

At least on these twitter clips it looks like Bertrand is just running free down the left side, and getting good service into the box.

Thanks. Yep that was Gabbi, Long passed it up to him and he tried to one-touch it into the net (at least thats what I can see on that weird twitter clip).

Looks like we are playing a little differently. Long and McQueen are starting. I can't find any streams though, are there any?

I think with Yoshi and Cedric back, plus Vestergaard, the backs should solidify. I think out biggest issue is the attacking mids. We had 1 last season, Tadic. We have basically swapped Tadic for Mo so I think thats a wash. We still have the remaining Redmonds/JWP's of the world left. These guys don't score, and don't feed much to the strikers (whichever one), so they get isolated. Our best mids are defensively minded players, we need more attackers there. Maybe Armstrong is going to help, or Redmond starts to play much better, lets see.

He would be great as a guard at Buckingham. I could definitely see that. Maybe as a Beefeater too.

What should he do, ride that bike around and not talk to anyone? I think this was part of the plan, no? He seems to be liked by his teammates, so who gives a crap? Better than moping around like Boufal.

The attacking midfield needs to be fixed or any striker is wasted. Gabbi and Austin have both shown they can score in the PL when given proper chances. The issue we have is with the Redmonds and Boufals of the world. We are woeful in winning the midfield and starting an attack. Hopefully Mo and Armstrong can change that, especially since Tadic is gone and was our only decent option. No striker in the world, not even Bale, is going to be effective when they have to drop near midfield to touch the ball, or when all they end up doing is making runs that never get passed too. Its way too easy to just say "its the strikers". Look at Derby, yes I know it was only a friendly so doesn't matter, but our mids never really got an attack going to get the strikers involved. Almost all of the time they were losing and just defending. Whatever that setup/scheme was I hope Hughes throws it directly in the trash.

Boufal did close to nothing for us, I don't see how his subtraction makes us weaker. In fact, based on his attitude, it could be a plus getting him out of here. Bad attitudes are infectous. This is likely why they kept him away from training, and why they just wanted to move him along.