Saint Without a Halo

Mopo inherited a reasonable team but in half a season had developed a compact team playing his way without the hamstring problems Jurgen klopp is getting at scousehampton koeman inherited some reasonable players bought in some good additions that clicked and got off to a tremendous start but now seems to have lost his way a little however Mopo has a clear philosophy and a way of playing dependent on hard working fit young players and always seems to get there as demonstrated at Spurs ( look at what he is getting out of Lamela where all others saw nothing in him) i think Mopo would certainly have done more in trying to mould the youngsters to his philosophy than Koeman has, probably because Mopo has a philosophy that depends on tailoring youth to his way which is a lot clearer than Koemans

Two points 1) Is the chairman solely to blame for transfers I believe in Corteses time saints did them by committee involving Chirman manager and scouts so are we sure he was fully responsible? From the outside it looked like Gaston was certainly pushed by Cortese but Osvaldo was certainly Pochs recommendation 2) If Gaston and Osvaldo go on Corteses minus side then the pluses of the likes of Lambert Fonte Rodriquez Davies Clyne and many other players who played key parts in the fantastic rise we had from obscurity as well as bringing in a string of good managers like Pardew Adkins and Poch surely means the pluses far outweigh the minuses we should look at the likes of Leeds Nottingham and Birmingham all big clubs who would love to emulate the success we had in getting back and establishing ourselves in the premier so quickly even if it took a few minuses along the way.

because we have sold our best in the past we have increased the expectations amongst our players their agents and other clubs all of which unsettles us every time a window opens effects our commitment and teamwork and our results I cite our migtylland ones and poor start and our recent slump as examples Last season we got away with it largely because Morgan buckled down and accepted the situation and we had the nucleus of a good team spirit for the newbies to settle into quickly this has.not been the case this year as our mix of locally grown talent versus journeyman or players using us as a stepping stone upwards has changed too

Window opens Wanyama loses interest Mane loses commitment Koeman loses the plot! The problem with selling all our players is those remaining expect to go and agents can smell easy money not easy to form a team spirit in these circumstances unless we use academy players and we seem to have run out of good ones too

The form table over the last 6 show us what is happening we are bottom 2 now only villa worse we had some winnable games in this 6 (Westham Norwich Villa Palace )yet the only one we won was the one we expected to be our hardest 4 points from 6 not so hard games is a miserable return in any ones books!

Unfortunately I am old enough to remember the side going from 7th at Christmas to third from bottom in the first three go down season of 1974. One win in 6 with no wins against the likes of ''Villa and Norwich is worrying this needs turning around quick before it becomes a habit

We are down to 10 we get a corner so we take a short one and work the ball back tom skeltenberg when all our defenders have gone in the box

Relegation battle here we come, just like old times. Its the too good to go down syndrome we need to worry about!

If Reed and Mane had come on at the usual 60 min point we would be going for the win now

Clasie's usual 70 mins

Apparently we are making changes now it is too late

What the hell is Koeman playing at no subs at all on 60 and that's the result

So bloody obvious

Why the hell leave Wanyama on an accident waiting to happen

3 matches in 8 days all players fatigued and we make no subs

So much possession so many won balls in midfield but such poor end product

Tadic the latest to avoid shooting

despite the lions share of possession only two on target so far the usual tame JWP scuffed one to the keeper and Longs header into the ground

Wanyama booked

We looked a lot more comfortable defensively as well as dangerous up front with Clasie JWP than we did at Westham without them

Worrying thing is the form table over the last 6 shows that there are only three teams worse than us and one is Manu We need to turn our slump around as the battle to avoid the third very open relegation place could engulf us rapidly if we don't! Need a win or draw at least. Norwich's centre backs need to be turned like Arsenals I would stick with Mane and Long if they are fresh and bring back Clasie and JWP who gelled well in midfield till they went off against the gunners.

Why is it on both their parts it was porch who knew him and believed he was value for money the chairman backed his manager which is no bad thing the manager was wrong! Had Cortese refused and bought his own player he would probably have alienated porch and many on here would have accuSend him of interference in areas he has little knowledge of

He has already played in the premier and scored too

I would before the Arsenal match but after it? Not really