No 2 to Maybush

That's the plan for next season in the Championship

This. Had no pace and was scared to cross the halfway line most of the time due to the gaping hole he left down our left flank. Really liked Harding, he was great for us.

#ReedOut #PellegrinoOut #KreugerOut

I agree on paper the squad should be good enough to stay up, but team selection and tactics are what could do for us in the death. Does Pellegrino even know his best 11 after half a season? Serious question.

Due to the fact that other teams in our league have strengthened, while we haven't. Ergo, weaker squad than last season in relative terms. HTH.

I thought "The Southampton Way" was 4-3-3 played at every level throughout the club, the premise being that players from the lower age groups could slot seamlessly into the next level team. At least that's what I thought Uncle Les laid out. In which case, yes, it has been ditched.

So who would be the other striker up with Long, presuming Romeu is at the base?

That's strange - where I sit in the ground there is immense dissatisfaction with the state of the team (Itchen). I disagree that it is a small group.

I'm quite amazed by the flippancy of the happy clappers on this site who seem oblivious of the fact that we are being sucked into the relegation zone with each league game we play. Tactically we are frankly inept this season and if the manager keeps on repeating the same mistakes he has made ALL SEASON we are going to be fighting for survival come May. We have poor strength in depth and a first team who are playing to the tactics of the manager which are being exposed as inadequate for this league. The hubris and arrogance of the executive in thinking we will survive in the premier league playing the way we have been is breathtaking! What has happened to this football club? It is evident that the executive are making a percentage play here. Well I'm sorry, this is not a computer game. This is starting to look so much like the last time we got relegated, and on this board especially - so many people making excuses for poor performances, where we are tactically exposed by the opposition. The bulk of our first team finished 6th in the league last season! Have all the other teams improved so dramatically while we have trodden water? Or are the managers tactics being exposed? All the guff about this being a season of "transition" and we should just suck it up is delusional! If this run of results continue, we will soon be down in the bottom quarter of the league. And don't give me the story that there are 3 worse teams than us. On current form there are only 2. Can't see us getting a result against the Hammers at home. And that is really galling.

This is the problem with your thesis. The Prem is an unforgiving league, and the amount of time available for a player to eventually become as good (or almost as good) as the player being sold, is finite. Can we afford a whole season for a replacement player to become "almost as good"? Hodjberg is a classic case in point. At the beginning of the season I was very pleased with his recruitment - there was definite quality to be seen, and I thought he would quickly get up to speed in the League. But he seems to have gone backwards as the season has progressed. Is that because of rotation, or coaching? How long can you give a player like him to get up to speed when your team results have you heading to the bottom regions of the league? One season? Two? Clasie is another case in point. Do you continue to give these players time to develop, with an eye on the profit from a future transfer, to the detriment of the development of the team? Or do we accept that the team will not develop, and we are merely in a holding pattern (spiral) while we seek to generate annual profits from our transfer policy? It is a fine, fine line between this strategy being a success and a dismal failure IMO.

THIS! With bells on.

If we don't start scoring goals, you can say goodbye to a mid-table finish. Especially when other teams have sussed that you only have to get a shot on target against us to have a 50% chance of scoring a goal. We might me able to squeak a few 0-0 points, but we will need to do that in every match until the end of the season to have a chance of staying up. So to all the happy clappers I say Get Real! We have serious problems that don't appear to be being addressed.

Don't quite get this. Are you suggesting Puel is being told which players to select based on our playing schedule? On a separate note, I notice Puel keeps saying that the players can't play twice a week. How did we manage to get promoted from League 1 if that's the case? The games came thick and fast when we were down there.

I agree with this. Puel's risk-averse, possession football is absolutely dire to watch compared to the football we have been blessed to watch over the last 5-6 years. Very pedestrian. As to MoM, I thought Clasie had his best game in a Saints shirt today. Now he has to maintain that standard every time he plays. Quite why Puel plays him, JWP and ROmeu together beats me - sooo negative.

Well, Zerohedge IS Fightclub

It's obviously such a hoax that Scott Foval and Robert Creamer have resigned from the SuperPACs they were associated with. And Robert Creamer (a convicted felon) visiting the White House over 200 times during Obama's tenure has nothing to do with the dirty tricks campaign that the Democrats have been pulling for decades? http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-10-18/robert-creamer

Like you I am fascinated to see that so many people are feeling the same way as me - for all the same reasons that are expressed here. Has the premier league franchise hit its peak domestically? There is certainly disenfranchisement being displayed clearly for all to see. As has been said earlier, everything will change with a Saints win. Looking forward to Thursday - hope we tear them a new one.

Can't argue with that, but I would pose this question: do we have a squad capable of finishing in the top 6 of the Prem, the last 4 of the Europa, FA and League Cups during the 2016-17 season? That is the level of ambition that I feel the Club should be showing right now. That is assuming that no further player purchases will be made. And if the answer is no, then I don't think the club is being ambitious enough. In My Humble Opinion

"We are a small club, but we're the kind of small club that can beat anyone. We can embarrass Liverpool, cause Mourinho & Chelsea to go into breakdown, cost Arsenal the title, cost Spurs their top-2 finish. A last-minute equaliser to draw at Old Trafford is the worst result we've got there in three seasons. We're starting to become universally disliked by almost all of the big clubs for one very simple reason; whilst we're a small club that they constantly feel they should take 6 points from, not one of them can ever count on beating or even sneaking a point against Southampton. We've inflicted battle scars on all of them. Big time." Love this! Think I might get it framed.

Can't imagine JWP will be going out of his way to give interviews to the Mail from now on!

Henderson's battle with Plantar Fasciitis means he is unlikely to manage the demands of tournament football. Players playing with pain are not going to be operating at an optimal level, and for that reason alone I don't think he should be in the squad. This season it has been evident that he has been struggling with this problem. No disputing his skills, just think he's now past his peak. Wilshire is just one ankle tap away from going back to his wheelchair. A shame, as the lad has talent, but he needs to have a run of games to show he is over his problems. Wouldn't be surprised if he got crocked in the friendlies.

People find it odd because Woy explicitly stated when he took the England Manager position that he would pick players on Form, not Reputation. And guess what? He's shown himself to be a ***t by doing just that with Wilshire and Henderson.

Christ, did you just do a copy and paste from the EU website? Reading that fatuous, self-aggrandising list at least 50% of those claims can be challenged as being borderline lies.

My response was with regard to the short term consequences of leaving the EU. Anyone who can claim to predict the long term consequences - I would like to talk to about who is going to win the Prem in 2030.

I find it amusing that a significant number of posters seem to think that the Rump EU will go out of their way to screw us over in any trade deal should the UK vote to leave. We are Germany's second largest trading partner after China; the German Car industry relies on components manufactured in the UK to make their cars, on a just-in-time delivery model. Do any of you seriously think they would go out of their way to mess that up? Do you think BMW, VAG and Mercedes will advocate tariffs on these components that will drive up their COGs price and adversely affect their bottom line? European countries are still reeling from the negative impact the imposition of sanctions on Russia has had on their respective GDP's. Frankly, I believe we would be in a strong position to negotiate an equitable trade deal with the EU should the Country vote to leave.