Dusic

Nobody wanted Jones but we have him and clearly aren't going to make another change anytime soon. Jones himself has said, this team hasnt won many games or kept any clean sheets for ages. He also has no Lavia, a returning KWP and all the other problems Ralph had because its exactly the same set of players that weren't playing well causing him to get fired. Yes I expected us to be miles better than we were yesterday but I certainly expected Brighton to beat us as they are just a much better team. He need to get an improvrment immediately if we are to have any chance of staying up, but equally the club need to pull their finger out and get us some better players if we really want to be a PL team next season. It might be a difficult window and a risk of overpaying etc. That is a fair comment if you are 11th and don't desperately need anything in particular. We are not in this situation and therefore will absolutely need to take the risk of doing major business in January. Its that simple.

If SR don't want to get relegated in their first full season then they need to smash this window. Only chance we have, and even then its a slim one unfortunately. If they don't act quickly then it will be too late. Dramatic but totally accurate.

According to Tanswell in the Athletic, Saints won't spend big in Jan despite being prepared to splaah £30m in the summer on Gakpo. January window seen as being more difficult and risky etc Gyokeres unlikely and someone else keen on him. Loans more likely. Targetting striker and possibly no 8 with Moi contract running down. Overall not a very inspiring message.

Surely 2023 will be an improvement on 2022...

No Lavia (or Walcott) in the training pics they just put on the OS. Rushing Lavia back to start the Liverpool game seems pretty foolish now.

Judging by the recent trainings pics, including todays, we won't see Lavia over the festive period.

Well yes. But as far as I'm aware rhe graph wasn't created specifically for Saints fans. It shows that XG, whatever people say, does give a fairly accurate reflection, over a number of games, of the attacking ouput of football teams in the PL. Its not perfect of course, but on balance is probably better than stuff like "Shots" or "Shots on target". Clearly any stats should be used alongside your own eyes and judgements of a game or season, but people saying its "bollox" presumably don't look at any football stats apart from the score?

Why? It shows what most of us think, we can defend in a manner that is similar to a lot of teams but in attack are poor at creating clear chances.

Wolves, bottom of the table, backing their manager with a big money new signing for 1st Jan. Over to you SR...

Its a token section the Daily Mirror lads.

Pretty obvious that this window is going to be massive if we are to have a chance of staying up. Whoever we sign will be under massive pressure to make a difference so hopefully they are ready for it. At least one of the new signings has to be a massive success and have an immediate impact. Others near the bottom will spend (Forest, Bmth, Everton), or already have done (Wolves), so it will be a telling reflection on Sport Republic as the current situation is certainly looking pretty bleak, especially as some of the teams down near the bottom like West Ham are extremely unlikely to go down and those we would want to suck into the fight probably have 3 or 4 points too many to be realistically troubled. Tick tock, and no Ryan Fraser.

Everyone putting Lavia in when it seems pretty obvious he isn't going to be fit for the next run of games. Imagine he will start with 3CBs and then change to a back four once it inevitably doesn't work. This is a massive one really, simply have to start winning or its going to look bleak.

Adams isn't really a problem, in fact he is a strength we have. The problem is that he is relied upon as the single source of goals.

This just never works for us, does it? None of the CBs aside from possibly Lyanco are good enough with the ball at their feet. Most of them prefer defending the box rather than being dragged out wide. KWP and Perraud are better arriving from deep as full backs rather than starting high, and they don't have a wide player to combine with which is where most of our better play tends to come from. We haven't got a no10 with enough quality to be relied upon to create chances in that role behind the striker and in a team with few goals it essentially adds one extra player who isnt likely to score (the 3rd CB) at the expense of another attacker (2nd 10/winger) who has a higher chance to. Seems Jones like this formation, but surely he will have realised that a back four is the way to go with this lot?

Do we need to add a defensive midfielder to our list of required signings? Lavia is obviously class but if he can't handle a few days of training without getting niggles then he isnt going to be much use in a relegation battle. AMN and Diallo not up to it, and we will likely need to use AMN as a starting full back at some stage in the next month too. The decision to let Romeu go seems at this moment to be a poor one.

Relegation rivals dropping some cash (potentially depending on clauses).

Armstrong yes but would say he is of a similar level to Adams. Also, if we are going to play a front two then we need someone to compliment Adams rather than try to do the same type of job. I think Adams as a physical outlet is pretty decent, and he has shown with Ings and Broja that he can combine well with a finisher who looks to run in behind or who can beat defenders 1v1. Personally hope we target someone of that type rather than a target man like Wood as don't think that would result in a good combination. Our forward line is often quite static and one paced so we need a dynamic player.

Jones seemed pretty confident on a couple of signings judging by the written section of today's press conference. Sounds like Ankersen is essentially leading it. From about 19mins here.

The Shields thing absolutely has to be a distraction. Would be odd if it wasn't! Even though there has been a good bit of time since he left lots of transfers are 6-12 months prep work at least. Doubtless our situation is also made more complex by a change of Manager who many targets won't know of and a league position that rightly suggests we may not be able to offer PL football next season. Will probably need to overpay to get players of the right quality.

Sounds like Walcott and Mara scored. If so, perhaps suggests it was for the players who are unlikely to start the upcoming games, to give them minutes - unless most players got 45mins but not sure how useful that really is.

Imagine we will go pretty strong for this, essentially first choice team - leading into the Brighton game. No real issue with fixture spacing over the end of Dec period.

Perhaps Crocker will turn up at Newcastle? They are looking to revamp their academy setup and he has worked under Ashworth at The FA. Statement makes it sound more like Crocker's choice than SR's.

New owners wanting to bring in their own people I would assume. As is their right.

Probably makes sense not to give too much away in terms of likely formation and style ahead of our upcoming games. Will be interesting to see if the Lincoln team is essentially the same that faces Brighton or if he decides to share minutes around.

Wood hasn't been linked I don't think. Not sure why Newcastle would loan him out anyway as Wilson is so injury prone. No way we would buy an expensive player at his age. Ryan Fraser still the strongest link we have seen. Not a fan myself but clear we need something in that kind of position. Whether he is any better than Armstrong, Elyounoussi etc, I am not convinced. Has to be a question on who is actually leading recruitment now Shields has gone and obviously Glover too, plus Ralph who clearly had an input. Rasmus is the Chairman of Goztepe so wouldn't have time to do it to the level needed. As much as Ralph played down Shields' role its clearly bad to go into a massive transfer window without a head of first team recruitment.