OnceaSaintalwaysaSaint

Singing his name when he came on yesterday was pretty tongue in cheek. He hadn't been seen in ages and people remembered he has a German cap but you only had to see him warming up to realise he was unfit. When he sat down looking injured, someone nearby shouted 'sub him for Jack Stephens' which pretty much says all we need to know about ABK's standard.

Came away from the Brentford defeat at Christmas thinking it couldn't get any worse and along came today! In hindsight, when the team is realistically relegated before Christmas, this type of performance is predictable. Nothing to play for except pride and what's that worth to these multi-millionaire players? They really looked like they didn't give a toss today. As for ABK. It was laughable that he got the biggest cheer when he came on but that didn't last long. He promptly couldn't keep up with one of their players who eased past him and in fact looked like he's spent his time outside the team eating! Where do we go from here? In the short term, I'd change the formation and stack the midfield and play some of the kids. Must admit, I'm losing faith in Juric. He looks like he's given up too.

I see Paddy Power has tweeted to Leicester fans that just when you think it couldn't get any worse and you've got the worse team ever, remember there is a team called Southampton FC. Well stuff you, Paddy. I've just lumped on with a 2-1 home win (well, ok a fiver!) and not with you Paddy because your odds are so skinny!

Would like to see them try different formations. This one of leaving a hole in midfield that Juric seems to be trying at the moment isn't working. No real justification for saying this but would still like to see TP in the middle, Archer one side and Sulemana the other.

I see Leicester fans are turning on their Director of Football as the cause of their woes. This is going to be a big summer for Mr Spors. Does Juric stay? Will he find an attacker who can scores us goals?

Have to agree. I can't remember a season when I haven't looked forward to a forthcoming game. Agreed, seasons often been a relegation battle where the thinking has been "if we get three points, there's still a chance" etc etc, but now we're out the FA Cup and our position in the league is hopeless, there's not a lot to get enthused about. I'm still interested to see which players make an impact though players like Will Smallbone really do need to be left out the side. It's not that he's hopeless - a lot of our players are hopeless - it's just he seems to run about the pitch everywhere the ball isn't, which for as midfielder is quite an art.

But that's my question Saint Fan CaM. What is our strong midfield? We need Big Les stepping up and playing a defensive midfield roie, but to strengthen the midfield it needs bringing one of the attacking midfielders back more.

I'd like to see us have a stronger midfield but don't know who we've got to do the job. Big Les and Aribo together are far too slow. Downes is all over the place and just does pathetic fouls and hopefully Juric saw enough of Smallbone last week to realise he shouldn't be playing for us.

Now you mention it, the list of players recruited that have been way off the mark is a lot greater than those that could have turned out to be good for us. It's also noticeable how we've recruited for a particular style (ie Tall Paul) then dropped that style and recruited a different manager.

A lot of posters complain about our scouts and who they've brought to the club. Granted there have been some horrendous choices (Carillo!), but does the fault lie with them especially in recent times? You see Charlie Alcaraz playing a blinder for Everton, Brooks a regular starter for Bournemouth. Yesterday Joe Rothwell played a big part in Leeds' comeback. Charles is Sheff Wed's best player. And then there's the players here like Sulemana who perhaps aren't as bad as we thought after all. Personally, I still think Archer will make a mark one day. So maybe it's more we aren't playing to the players' strengths than recruiting players who aren't capable.

They've hijacked our song and like Newcastle fans, they think they're a bigger club than they are. I vaguely remember the days when us and them were vying for promotion to the old Division 1. Back to Dragan, he seems to have made changes at the top, so it'll be interesting to see Spors' impact in the coming months. We need to make sure we're doing a Sheff Uld/Burnley next year and challenging for promotion rather than taking too long to get going like Luton.

Two years ago when relegation was becoming obvious, I really despised quite a few of the players because you could see they were journeymen who didn't give a shit about our club. This time it's different. Apart from maybe Downes, we have players who are trying - they're just not very good. So there's more positivity and the starting point for a team rebuild is better this time. Plus we won't go back to possession football again!

Don't think he's increased his stock that much this season. Always liked his attitude. Last season, when he had time on the ball, he could see a pass and seemed to cover well. This season, the game in the premier league the game is faster and he's not had time to make his floaty passes or get back in to position and has looked off the pace. Don't know with the right fitness regime if he can physically get quicker (he looks to be carrying an extra few pounds) but I'd like him to stay.

He's getting a tune out of players that did nothing before. I don't mind him playing the remaining matches this season like a series of one-offs and mixing and matching the team to see which players will work next year...but I do want to see him also try out different formations. I recall Ralph stumbling on 5 at the back against Arsenal winning that game and then did it for a couple of games before reverting to a back 4 because it suited the players. I would like Juric to experiment too.

So is our scouting really at fault? Tall Paul would look like Pele in another team...ok, maybe that's stretching it, but Alcaraz was the closest thing to Tadic we've had since...well...Tadic

This is the point. Yes, we're crap. Yes we haven't got much quality but surely we can work out a way of having a few shots on target.

When you're being overtaken by Smallbone in the pecking order, something is amiss. Probably a bigger disappointment than THB in how this guy has turned out. Last season the analysis seemed to show that when he wasn't playing we lost. This year, when he played we lost. Absolutely ineffectual in midfield this year and those pointless, wafty yellow cards he seemed to receive every week to me summed up his attitude. Half hearted and half arsed.

Presumably Spors will take a few weeks to understand the lie of the land, but then what does he do? Apparently, his expertise is talent identification, recruitment strategy and squad development, so does he go out finding players himself or does he use existing scouts? Our previous talent identification expert (Wilcox) only seemed to raid Man City for youth, bring in Sulemana and Ross Stewart, so I hope he does more than target his contacts at Genoa. And is recruitment strategy based on a style of play (we read he likes the high press) and does squad development involve building up a supply chain of players through Staplewood again. He is going to be based there. My wish is that he identifies and brings in players who will form the spine of our team. We didn't do that last summer and recruitment to the outsider like me seemed scatter-gunned at best.

There is, and who knows, it might still be Juric. I heard on TV about a quote from the Irish rugby union manager when asked about his team's success. He said he focused the team on being the best at things that require no talent. You inherit an ordinary bunch so you focus on fitness, on tracking back, on set pieces, on marking or whatever. The old phrase, do the simple things well is what we need to do.

This is where I sit. Last week went home happy, but disappointed with that team selection yesterday and he does seem to like the 5 at the back and man-marking which isn't for every situation. I'm looking for a manager that can pick a team that plays to its strengths and is prepared to adapt. Hopefully we'll see that in the coming matches.

Never forgave Poch for that Cup team he put out against Sunderland. Juric hasn't got any credit in the bank and he's already making basic mistakes in team selection. Agreed we're bang average and the team lacks quality but you can still show some intent and it's up to Juric to pick the team to instill that in the players.

Juric knows that he hasn't got many opportunities to make an impact but the Cup is definitely one of them. So, he'll be putting out a full strength team, Burnley are resting some of their first team players - what could go wrong? 2-0 Saints.

And watching us against Ipswich last weekend cost £30 which makes that £17 sound excessive. The money men at the club know their finances, but it's not just the gate receipts. The additional concourse drinks and food must also add to the coffers...and it's difficult to put a value on goodwill and atmosphere.

He's getting more from a number of players. From what I've seen, he's getting a tune out of Sule, Tall Paul & Big Les. Fernandes seems to have more freedom. Even Bree has improved. The football has been a lot more interesting so overall I like him even though I was also there to witness the Brentford debacle first hand. The chasms at the back need to be addressed where teams seem to walk through our central defence but I think he is starting to make an impact.

FFS, I'm going to have to go back to English school to learn how to pronounce half our team. This guy, Abakar Sylla, Rento Takaoka. What happened to good old British names like Nathan Jones.....ah, I see 😀