chiknsmack

It was eminently clear before that that he wasn't bought to be the club's only DM. He impressed enough in preseason to get the starting role over Romeu, in the same way that Livramento impressed enough in his first preseason to get the starting role over KWP. But just like Livramento he wasn't bought to be an immediate starter, and just like Livramento he broke down because teenagers can't play every game in the PL and instead should be backup to, or backed up by, established players. It is because of the good start Lavia made that letting Romeu leave was even considered. It was not part of the plan when Lavia signed.

A teenager was not signed for us to play every minute in the PL as our only option in the most important position on the park. Honestly I don't understand what planet some of you live on. Lavia was signed to start the season as Romeu's backup/apprentice before taking over around mid-season as the main man once he had gotten up to speed with men's football. Perhaps Romeu could then be let leave in January, but more likely he sees out the last six months of his contract as Lavia's backup before leaving.

The club set itself on fire to keep Romeu warm. We had a couple of season of "If Romeu doesn't play we suck". We finally sign a teenage apprentice to back him up in that hopes that we won't have to suffer through a period of "We suck" for once, and what does the club do? Let Romeu leave. The club did right by him, I can't begrudge him the move, and even in a footballing sense it wasn't the dumbest move the club has made in the past few years. But while some of those dumb moves (eg. not signing a striker) made a big difference in the club's fortunes, they were out of the club's control ("We tried to sign Gakpo/Ramos/whoever but it didn't work). Romeu staying or going was entriely in the club's control, and arguably made the biggest difference to the club's fortunes of any move. And they pulled the wrong rein. I firmly believe that if Romeu sees out his contract we don't get relegated. The club had the option to not let him leave. It is a perfectly cromulent stick with which to beat them.

Bazunu?

If we go up, Martin probably gets a chance to show what he can do. If we don't go up, Moyes will think he's too good for us. So it's probably moot. I'd be much more excited post-promotion about giving Martin the boot for Moyes than I was about giving Adkins the boot for Poch. You'd expect us to be the inferior team in most games, so a counter-attacking setup like West Ham under Moyes would likely be more successful than trying to play Russball. And it'd actually suit players like Alcaraz and Sulemana who want to attack and score rather than just keep possession (I'd rather a manager build a gameplan to suit them rather than one that suits Bednarek and Smallbone). But you'd have to think Moyes would find a job before the January window if he wants one.

I don't suppose they watched Leicester/WBA in the sheds before the match yesterday? Seeing Hamza Choudhury clear the ball off the line three or four times could've gotten into his head.

Give De Gea £1m for ten games with a £15m bonus if we get promoted. "But he's no good with his feet and so wouldn't fit Martin's system". Ok, give Mourinho (or any of the other myriad unemployed managers) £2m for ten games and a £30m bonus if we get promoted. Bazunu and his skillset are at their best when we dominate possession. We're more likely to dominate possession against inferior opposition. The important games in our future (the playoffs, and hopefully the battle to avoid relegation from the PL next year and the runs at Europe in the years after that) won't be against inferior opposition very often. Therefore, he's not the keeper we need. He might end up being very, very good at some point in the future. It's unlikely to be (and shouldn't be) here.

ABKCDAJFUWHII.

Even the smallest Premier League club is an eight- or nine-figure company. I don't believe they can't afford lawyers. If all three of those clubs were punished severely and in a timely manner (got relegated to the National League to start this season) we'd still be in the Premier League. ---------------- The proper solution to the whole mess is a salary cap. Either the PL+FA bring in a hard salary cap for the top four leagues and treat any breaches harshly, with clubs allowed to have players under contract but not in their PL squad; if a club wants to sign Ronaldo or Messi for megabucks to only use them in Europe and the cups, that's fine. A 45-year-old Ronaldo leading Man U against Eastleigh in the fourth round of the FA Cup would bring some hype to the competition. They could even have completely different league and non-league squads; that'd shut up some of the whinging about fixture congestion while still keeping English clubs competitive in Europe (the main argument against a PL salary cap being that PL clubs would be outspent by other big European clubs). Or a soft salary cap and luxury tax like the NBA; for example clubs can spend £45m per year on player wages, and then for every £1 they spend over that they also pay £1 into a pool which is distributed at the end of the year between PL teams that didn't exceed the cap (50%), Championship teams (20%), League 1 & League 2 teams (10% each), and an FA Grassroots Fund for non-league and women's football (10%).

Or it shows that if you're at the top of your league you probably have more possession than the opposition by virtue of being the better team. Does rain cause wet roads or do wet roads cause rain?

I noticed him on the weekend appearing to be "sauntering around" but actually covering ground surprisingly quickly, particularly out of possession. It may be that he looks like he's not working hard even when he is.

He can't do much for us on the pitch when he doesn't suit the manager's gameplan. He'd be brilliant under Hasenhüttl or similar in an up-tempo attacking/counter-pressing team where he gets to run around and attack and make things happen. Not so much under Martin in a controlling, possession-based team where he's supposed to protect the ball and pass it around a lot. He's one of our best players and will only get better, but he's a square peg in RM's round hole system. Given the choice of selling a young player for big bucks and boosting our reputation to help us recruit more elite young talents, or sacking Martin and changing the gameplan to suit Alcaraz while betting on him sticking around like Le Tiss to warrant such a change, we know what the correct choice is. And like you say, there's always a chance we go up and keep him. Maybe he'll even fit in better in the PL, where we won't be finding it as easy to dominate games and someone to run around and attack and make things happen is exactly what we need.

After reading this article about the restructure of the club's academy setup linked in another thread, I came across this recent interview (with an edited transcript) of Selles. It starts out talking about his current gig at Reading but goes into his time at Saints and his past before that.

The obvious thing to make of it is that he should be starting every game, preferably up front and central so he can shoot a lot.

There's only one Kyle Walker One Kyle Walker Not that shitty arsehole from City Kyle Walker-Peters is the man.

Crazy. He's, like, really old and could never be better than Mason Holgate as a 4th choice CB in the Championship/part-time U23 CB. Happy for him though.

My "problem" (I'm fine with Stephens as club captain and third choice CB since he's fine in those roles at this level) is that he was taking more risks in possession than the other players in the defence/defensive midfield. Not just the obvious (square balls to no-one across the area), but when he was pressed he waited that half-beat longer than everyone else to move the ball on. If anyone else was pressed and had the chance to pass before the opponent got within two yards of them, they would. JS was waiting until the opponent was within touching distance to do so. Whether he's braver or slower (physically and mentally) than everyone else, I don't know. But that looked to me to be the main cause of his problems.

Southampton: 19, 18, 20, 17, 17, 15, 17, 18, 19, 17, 18. Subs: 18, ? (U18), 17, 20, 17, 19, 18.

*Unintentional deflection off the back of his head. Next you'll be saying you think the defender didn't touch the ball for Che's goal. (He obviously did; the flight of the ball from Arma's cross would've seen it bounce knee-high to Adams; the contact by the defender saw it bounce chest-high instead.)

Note that the article doesn't mention Jones as one of the managers he worked under.

We should not. We have Perraud to return if we go up this year so, as much as Manning's defending leaves a lot to be desired, bringing in another LB in the winter window isn't necessary. At Swansea, Sorinola was behind Manning in the pecking order so wouldn't be adding much in terms of quality. Bree should be back by the end of the month. Holgate is still here in the worst case scenario of three better FBs being unavailable. Swansea under Martin often played a 3-4-3, so even with KWP+Bree+Manning+Meghoma+the U21 FBs all unavailable we wouldn't need to resort to Holgate+Stephens at FB; we could instead play a back three and repurpose some midfielders or wingers to play defensively in the wide midfield positions.

It only has three words. It naturally speeds up for the fans that want to speed up every song. To the tune of the Itchy and Scratchy Show theme song: "The Saints, The Saints, The Saints The Saints The Saints, Southampton, Southampton, Southampton SOUTHAMPTONNNNN" (Repeat with furious clapping) Bonus points if someone sneaks a xylophone into the stands to play the intro.

Sounds a bit like the Gambler's Fallacy. "If, like me, you like a flutter and you see that black has come up on the roulette wheel a sack full of times in a row (as an example say it's landed on black 10 times in a row but not red) then it’s the kind of situation where I might be tempted to bet on red." There's also the fact that your stats come from past results, and past results aren't necessary a predictor of future performance. Saints might have scored 3 goals for every ten shots on target this season, but against an above-average keeper the conversion rate may be lower (and against a shit keeper it may be higher). Ditto if we (somehow) have worse finishers than usual taking these shots. Regression/reversion to the mean is a thing, but over a single game the numbers can stay well away from the long-term average without it being a statistically-crazy outcome. So while you can just say "We've had five shots on target in the first half for no goals - below our average conversion rate - so I expect us to outperform our conversion rate in the second half and therefore score at least one goal", that doesn't mean it'll happen.

I can't see us signing Aaron Wan-Bissaka, Victor Moses, AND Danny Drinkwater in one January window. Well, maybe January 2019.