st alex

Personally I’ve thought we need new wingers. Decent wingers or attacking midfielders who perform consistently. Djenpo and Walcott were useless yesterday and were for much of last season. Would happily see them and Redmond leave if replaced with some PL quality players.

Amazed that people consider that a strong bench. Valery as one of two right backs and Elyounoussi.

Would be disappointed if a Vestergaard replacement is our last transfer of the summer. Our squad was desperately short of quality players last season and we limped past the finish line. It felt like we needed 3 or 4 decent players to come into the first team. We've brought in direct replacements for solid first teamers who've gone, who may or may not be as good, in Armstrong for Ings, Perraud for Bertrand and someone TBC for Vestergaard. Livramento certainly seems like an upgrade on Valery/Vokins, Simeu could be a good cover and is prospect at the back as well. And then Broja as a replacement for Minamino. And that's it. In terms of improving a disappointing team from last season that doesn't seem to have happened, or be likely to even though we've finally got rid of some big earners like Gunn, Hoedt, Lamina (as well as the decent players mentioned above). Walcott could be useful but I'm fairly indifferent towards him, like Djenepo and Redmond he's inconsistent and injury prone. Would happily have got rid of those 3 and started again with attacking midfielder's wingers for some who can stay fit and perform consistently. Hoping that Tella can push on this season, and that all our signings slot in well and turn out to be decent PL players otherwise we'll struggle. If JWP goes or we have any kind of injuries or suspensions to our central midfielders we look very thin on the ground there. Likewise creatively we don't seem to have genuine threats to come off the bench and change games (or even in our starting 11). The prospect of Armstrong, Adams, Armstrong/Walcott, Redmond/Djenepo wouldn't seem particularly threatening if I were the opposition.

Lots of players going cheap (by comparison as well). Demari Gray, Ryan Gould, lots of decent frees too...

It would be nice to think that, but Ings seems keen to return to the likes of Liverpool to be fourth or fifth choice, when he's allegedly a Saints fan who's getting first team football.

As much as I'd have wanted to us to win as with every match, Brighton are a half decent team, as are we and they could also be higher up in the league were it not for a run of poor results (they've also been hit by injuries and bizarre refereeing decisions).

We've had the luck with decisions for once. Thought the penalties probably ought to have gone the other way. Would be 4-0 if they had. We've not been that bad though, big gulf in quality, certainly being competitive.

By that logic Lewis hasn't conceded any yet for the first team so he should be number one. Generally I prefer Mccarthy to Forster. They both have their strengths and weaknesses. If Forster's worked on his and has improved since his last stint as our number one then great. Personally I tend to feel nervous when he has the ball at his feet, and think he's had the effect of making the team and the crowd nervous previously. Difficult to compare them based on this season's performances so far as other's have tried to point out Forster can only beat what's in front of him which so far has been Freefalling Liverpool, Shrewsbury, Arsenal Reserves, Wolves Reserves, Everton, and Sheffield Utd. So it's not really a like for like comparison, but it'll be interesting to see how he gets on over the next few games, and how Saints do. I would also argue that there is a difference between Saints doing well with him in goal, and him doing well in goal (putting in good personal performances). Valery and L'Nudulu also started for us against Liverpool but there's no campaign for them to play regularly as the key to our success.

What about players from last season's relegated teams? There's quite a few players that Norwich, Bournemouth and Watford have held onto, but if they don't go up this season would have thought they'd be more likely to sell this summer as it'll be a much bigger gamble holding on to them next season (is it still 2 years worth of parachute payments they get?).

That feels like strange logic to me as he's not the reason we've been struggling. There are bigger issues elsewhere on the pitch. For me that's equivalent to having a faulty clutch and battery on your car but rather than address those you swap out the CD player for a tape deck.

Assuming the reference is to when we played Wolves and then Wolves again in the space of 4 days.

Exactly this. For people to suddenly be saying Forster's got good distribution and a commanding presence. What? Those are the exact attributes he lacks and why he was dropped. Our entire game plan involves playing out from the back and he has terrible distribution, he can only hoof it long. He's poor with the ball at his feet and he doesn't come for crosses. He's got decent reactions and is a good shot stopper, but Mcarthy is the better all round keeper for me.

Why do people think Forster's going to solve all our problems? He'd got decent shot stopping and reactions, but his distribution and command of area are very poor. Mcarthy's been relatively steady if unspectacular and I don't see him breading nervousness into the back line which I think Forster tends to do more. Would rather see Redmond dropped and Adams restored to the staring line up, or at least for the coaches to teach Redmond how to connect with, and deliver crosses.

I think Redmond and Bertrand can take equal blame for the 'Mcarthy mistake', Redmond didn't need to play the ball back to him when we were on the attack and Bertrand could always have taken a better touch. We really need to learn how to score when and to adapt when our Plan A is not working. We've got good hight in the team. The delivery into the box was awful today. It was terrible conditions, but it was the same for both teams. I wonder if we do all our training in the dome, if so we need to get out and train in the pissing rain because the conditions need to mimic real life.

Really? I think if it were just Darlow and Almiron left we'd have still struggled to get anything.

Fingers crossed the pitch gets so waterlogged the match gets abandoned. (Can that happen during a game, and what's the protocol for the rescheduled game, continue from where they left off or start again?)

Surely if you have ex players reviewing VAR decisions then it raises questions of impartiality. You'd consistently need players with no previous connections to either team and with no grudges against players or teams. The players would also need to be free from any club ambassador roles, coaching roles, probably even media roles in order for them to have any chance of avoiding accusations of bias or self interest.

Genuine question as several posters have eluded to this. Has he actually asked for a move away / handed in a transfer request?

Demari Gray was the obvious alternative that we'd been linked with but he's gone to Leverkusen. Lookman could be an option if Fulham don't sign him from RB Salzburg but not sure how similar a type of player he is. I wonder if it's a concern of clubs that more of the better English players seem to be moving to European leagues, especially now that there's more restrictions on us being able to sign European players. We've had a recent history of signing young relatively unproven French players (Schneiderlin, Folly, etc). Will we still be able to sign non international players like Diallo? Or is it all based on salary thresholds?

Have Saints had more Japanese players than any other English team now? with Yoshida, and Tadanari Lee that makes three...

Would have thought we look far more ambitious now than when he joined us from a team that was about to win the league. If he wants to play week in week out for a club he supports then he's in the right place. Personally I can't see why he'd want to go back to being a rotation player at 'big' club just to get paid a bit more. He did the Liverpool thing and it didn't work out. He's played in this league long enough to have earned enough to set him and his family up for a very comfortable life. I've no idea what his wages will be but really what can't you buy if your on £30k a week that you could buy if you're on £60k a week? Are there teams out there that can still afford big wages - surely all clubs finances have taken a massive hit? Spurs have got huge debt from a stadium that's made them no money so far. Saints have resurrected his career, so to leave a club he supposedly supports feels quite disingenuous and ungrateful to me. To think of the stick that the likes of Lallana (who was not local and never claimed to be fan) got for wanting to leave after years of service in the lower leagues, and now when Ings possibly wants to leave, after what 1 year, people seem to be incredibly forgiving and understanding?

They were similar opportunities but all our shots on target were routine saves really, whereas Morrison's finish would take an exceptional save to keep out. On another night could easily have gone the other way.

I'm not sure most people are fearful of getting the illness for own sakes, it's getting it and being symptomless or having mild symptoms that's worrying people. As that's when you can easily pass it on to a more vulnerable friend / relative / neighbour / person in supermarket and they end up dead because of it. Well over 1,000 people a day are dying from it in the UK at the moment so it's not something to be blasé about. They've all caught it from someone who either didn't know they had it or thought they knew better and didn't care to show any caution.

I think Pelle is available...

Thought Valery was good when he came on although he often looks like he's holding back slightly and needs a bit more belief in himself. Nice to see him in a more attacking position in midfield as his defensive qualities aren't great. Great result though, especially given how many regular senior players were out and how many youngsters we had in there.