Dman

Well using Valery is a poor comparison as he would never have been a starter for us. The fact we needed to sell 1 or 2 of our best players to buy 2 full backs which cost a combined fee of c.15m is an absolute shambles, to start. But it doesn’t really have any relevance to Eggs point that Ings would have almost certainly put the chances Armstrong hasn’t, away.

So in simple terms, without all the fancy fluff, Tino is a good solid right back who’s also pretty decent going forward.

Can anyone enlighten the non football manager / fifa players / Althetic readers / non Football hipsters, what against the ball actually means…. Is it a hipster way of saying pressing, ‘reading the game’ Or being good at 1 - 1 defending?

Not really, he was utter shite in the highlights videos we saw before we signed him as well. Most with any sense could make a very solid, educated guess, he’d be useless. He was the cheap option and he’s, very predictably, absolutely fucking rubbish.

Tweaking things abit…. He brought in 4 genuinely top class players in Tadic, Mane, Pelle and Toby. Here, he’d have to make do with players like Adams, Redmond and Stephens. We don’t have the budget to bring in the type of players that Koeman would need to play his way and be successful. At the very least, we’d need a big target man.

What’s it been, something like 5 wins in nearly 30 games, now? I’d say it’s only Natural that we’d be looking at alternative players. Yes, defensively we’ve improved this season, but we don’t / haven’t really looked like winning a game this season (I guess natural when you lose a striker of Ings quality). We seemingly either are good going forward and pathetic at the back or vice Versa.. there is no real balance to his teams. I loved koeman and he done a fantastic job with the Netherlands as well after us, but I don’t think we have the squad for him to take over now.

Long gone are the days under Poch and Koeman, where we went into every game thinking we could get something.

More based on what we’ve seen from Che and Armstrong to date. Armstrong looks completely ineffective as a lone striker and Adams is Adams. Broja and Armstrong would be our strongest partnership, but all round, Broja offers more than Armstrong for me. Broja is going to be a serious player.

Why? He’s better than them both.

Sounds like that American chancer in the press a few month back. De Grosa was it? If they thought we’d reach or get anywhere near the level of City, they’re either incredibly rich or incredibly naive. Given FFP rules basically making it impossible for a club like us to be that size now, I’d go for the second. The amount of investment needed would be staggering.

Wouldn’t we all, but currently, that’s impossible for a few reasons; 1. The transfer window is shut, we can only look at players who are currently without a club. Imo, we’re desperate, we can’t wait until next season. 2. Were skint. Good up and coming keepers will cost a decent amount of money, we don’t have that. 3. With an up and coming star in our price bracket, there is risk. We tried that with Gunn, he was highly rated but ended up being rubbish. We cannot afford another Gunn situation. Romero seems an absolute no brainier.

He doesn’t need to be a world beater, just better than the current dross we have, which isn’t hard. He’d improve us, without a doubt.

I believe SKD lost his contact at the club a while back. Very found memories of the Poch years in particular and said the club lost its ‘family feel’ when he left. (I get the impression everyone at the club was a huge fan of him as a person, not just a manager). Also he was a Friend of friends of a couple of players who have now left.

Agree, however The vestergaard replacement should have been the upgrade on Stephens. Sounds like this new fella will need time to bed in. Time is something we don’t really have.

Fine is an understatement. Fantastic start. The trouble is, will We keep this up for 90 minutes? We’ve seen how these usually end up. Oh, also, Djenepo is a terrible footballer.

Playing further forward than JWP it seems. Certainly our weak link atm. very good start, need a goal whilst we’re on top though, not really created much of note for all our dominance

I’m not from Glasgow/Kenya/ a big fan of breaking bad, if that’s what you’re getting it. Southampton (well just slightly north) born, bred and still living. I am a genuine fan (not just on a wind up), probably more so than most on this site in terms of actually travelling to watch games (I keep all my ticket stubs/old season tickets so happy to prove 😉), just maybe more pessimistic than most on here. As for the well ran club comment, it was more in relation to previous years, people have been peddling the well ran, net spend champions, sustainable club as some kind of achievement. Using cases like Pompey if we dare to spend more than we make in player sales. I do agree that the current board are running us as well as they possibly can, but are obviously working with their hands behind their back with Gao’ slack of investment.

And yet people still bang on about how well we are ran as a club. So well ran, we have to downgrade on every position we sell and can’t afford to add quality to a vital area for us (GK).

What qualifications do you need to be one of these FM researchers?

They’re both shit. Both pretty stupid deals for a club as skint as us. However, if I remember rightly, Long, for large parts of the season we offered him a new deal was keeping Adams out the team and developed a decent partnership with Ings. Theo has been rubbish from the moment he re-signed. Which was obvious to be fair, he’s been pretty substandard for years now.

Agreed. A terrible footballer, with a questionable injury record as well. Adds nothing to our squad other than more averageness. I get this, however, it’s such an important position for us it seems a bit of a risk going into the season with 2 substandard goal keepers and a ropey back 4. Id have thought we could have found 5m or so from somewhere to pick up a free agent, like Romero. I’m sure if we subsidised the wage of Fraser or McCarthy, we could find a home for them on loan. Feels like an area were really neglecting and not appreciating the importance of. Just more proof of how poorly we’ve been ran for the past 5 seasons (excluding this and the last where we’re seemingly getting, or at least trying, our act together).

I always thought he’d kick on under Ralph and would suit a role a bit narrower in our 4222. Not blessed with pace, but neither were Lallana and Tadic. Does Moi have the technical ability of those 2? I guess time will Tell. Clearly has something about him, but is he good enough / suited to the premier league is a different question. Personally, I think he deserves a go. He can’t be any less effective than Theo is. No better time to give him a go than off the back of a hat trick, all be it against pretty poor opposition. He’ll be full of confidence. A big weekend ahead for him I think.

Personally, I find it amazing anyone can look at that list and say we have no need for a striker. Especially given behind Armstrong and Adams (both pretty unproven at this level), we have one ‘being eased in’, one being managed out (obafemi), Tella who’s probably our best winger and Long who put simply is no longer effective at this level. Yes we may have numbers, but we certainly don’t have any really quality there. The general feel at the end of last season was that we needed Ings, Adams + another then a youngster. Effectively, what that would look like isArmstrong replacing Long, Borja to replace Obafemi, imo we still need a striker to replace ings. That being said, we also need 2 CB’s and a goal keeper. The trouble is in recent years we’ve stockpiled a lot of very, very average players to the point where we’re lacking quality in depth across the park.

Rubbish. He was a young lad, He made a mistake, was late into a tackle and got sent off. He was properly buzzed up with adrenaline and keen to make an impression. It was a bad one, granted, however many players make foolish mistakes yet go on to have fantastic careers. Look at beckham in 98 as an example. Ralph has his card marked long before the United game, loads were shouting for him to get a chance even before that game.

Every need for a striker when our option off the bench Saturday was Shane Long. Where is this lad from Chelsea? Is he injured? Tella can do a job up top, however I think he’s (along with Armstrong) needed to be our wingers. We won’t be spending 13m on another player though and if we did, I’d rather we prioritised a keeper. On that note, Romero is still available on a free. Seems like a no brainier to me, even if it’s a short term deal.