derry

He did say that he now felt ready, after 100 games, that he was now ready to make the step up to Premier football. He felt that some players moved too early and ended up in the reserves. It sounded to me that he was not ruling out a move sooner rather than later.

What utter garbage, we have played 24 games this season, McGoldrick has started 23 of them and came on as substitute in the other one. People who make stupid comments on this forum totally devoid of facts are the joke.

Surman doesn't run games in the championship. He is an adequate player that I would like to stay but certainly replaceable. Lallana is an enigma, looks great sometimes with shimmies, flicks, feet changes, but really no end result. He mainly plays in positions of his own choosing, not his assigned position, doesn't hurt the opponents and is blocked off too easily because of his headless chicken, all action, positional play and is too easily sucked in ball watching. One of the senior coaches has told him to stop running about all over the place and try and pick out dangerous positions, where he can hurt the opposition. He obviously isn't listening.

It wasn't his job to hold the ball up, it was Robertson allegedly playing up front, he was either not playing as the support striker or not playing wide. Lallana was not playing those positions either. Both of them were self indulgent, headless chickens, dribbleing in circles and going nowhere. Neither of them played in their assigned positions, neither gave us width, got into dangerous attacking positions and followed the ball around like playground football. Our lack of a player wide, apart from James doing his best to fill two positions, was a disgrace and down in no small part to those two.

It's what he said, I heard the interview. If he goes to a premier club he will play a lot of reserve football. In any event if Surman or Lallana are sold for decent fees it would suit me fine. Surman better than Lallana, but neither are delivering.

Dyer, Thompson, Lallana, McGoldrick, James, Robertson, Surman, BWP, it doesn't matter they have to play wide. When was the last time Man Utd, Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Barcelona, Real Madrid, Inter, AC Milan etc ever play without attacking players wide on the touchline? NEVER! So why do we think we can do it better than them, and play a revolutionary narrow formation?

We have hardly ever done it. Most forwards are a liability defending and don't mark anyway. I would like to see us leave 3 up, that would need a min of 4 to defend, probably 2 further would fill in outside, the box then add the corner taker. That would leave only 3 or 4 to mark for the cross, that would stop a lot of our problems. Also allow the goalkeeper room to manoeuver However the coach would need to have some balls to do it.

If that is the case, there is no way he could play at 100%. I somehow can't see either club allowing that, as a severe blow on already fractured ribs could kill him.

Lallana and McGoldrick need a bloody good talking to. Their roaming all over the pitch, like playground football, chasing the ball, is destroying our ability to score goals. They either have to play in the manner their designated position requires, whilst being self disciplined enough to get into dangerous positions or leave them out.

Robertson or Pekart?

Cross purposes here, I'm saying it doesn't matter about the so called system, 442, 433, 4d2h2w1h1f, 532, whatever, the same basic rules apply, the time to attack with pace is immediately on winning the ball, we don't do this, as we can't do this, because of the way individuals are not using width. The opposing defence is allowed to play close together. We have to open up the defence.

The designated wide men do not quickly get wide when we win the ball. They stay narrow, the left side is a little better than the right. Either McGoldrick or Lallana don't have the self discipline to do this, as they prefer the mid positions and don't bother going wide, staying narrow. This means our wide play needs the full backs to get forward wide. That takes too much time. As the players on the ball have to wait for the wide options to appear eventually, the ball is passed sideways and backwards allowing opposing players to get goalside en masse. That then means we have nowhere to go and really are not going to get into dangerous positions. The two wide men have to be on the touchline available to receive the ball and drive for the byeline supported quickly by the nearest players. In the meantime the other wide man is making a run for the corner of the penalty area, covering anything coming onto the far post, getting behind the last defender, who is likely to be pulled in, to cover the centre backs exposed by the quick break. So now we have two problems both McGoldrick and Lallana allow themselves to be sucked in to the near post area consequently the right side is empty and we are not getting past the defenders. The players who win the ball have to break quickly towards one side or the other, the wide men have to drive forward, the outnumbered defence has to be pulled across to cope, the other players breaking go for the box and the far post. The time to pass the ball around, is if there is rapid lateral interchanging movement from the front players, pulling defenders around and creating space to allow a quick break. We tend to move up the pitch in straight lines, the frontman static and marked and the others passing the ball around and nobody going anywhere except into a massed defence.

FFS it's not the bloody system, numbers mean nothing. It's the way the players are not driving forward as soon as they get the ball, together with no wide outlets, available immediately to receive the ball and drive for the byeline. Then supported by other players, busting a gut to get into the box.

The big problem is that we have four players holding the ball, whilst running in circles and except for BWP, nobody scoring, or even getting into a good position to score. We should let Robertson go back, we need a right sided wide player badly.

He has ability on the ball, but he doesn't have the self discipline that is needed to keep his position and get into dangerous areas, by gambling on runs into the box on the offchance, if playing in the hole/up front, or staying wide and attacking the far post if playing wide. We are not playing anything like total football, as the empty spaces would be taken up by someone getting into them.

For a start he was 21 0n 29th Nov. Secondly KD was awful, his shot stopping was his only plus. It seems Webster going has turned him into a half decent goalkeeper, coming and catching or punching crosses, distributing well and aiming his long ball wide, instead of at the central defenders. I would now be sorry to see him go. McGoldrick has had a few decent high energy games but sad to say there have been too many, like last night. Low energy, following the ball, poor positional play, running up blind alleys, ably assisted by Lallana. Both of them played like schoolboys, just wanting to run round in circles with the ball going nowhere, whilst neglecting the positional role they were given. Our right side attacking is absolutely rediculous relying on a full back to eventually fill the empty space.

This is exactly what I'm talking about, as well as James played, going forward into a totally empty right side, with Lallana then McGoldrick or Robertson never moving over and providing width. By the time James got forward the whole of the opponents team was goalside. I am beginning to think the coaches know damn all and are allowing Lallana and McGoldrick to do what they like. Well, I for one am getting fed up week in week out with bloody great empty spaces on the right hand side, whilst the player supposed to be providing width is running in ever decreasing circles somewhere else. It hasn't even dawned on the prats that the reason they haven't got someone wide to pass to, is because one of them is supposed to be wide for the early ball.

Lallana, McGoldrick and Robertson were like headless chickens. We had no shape up front and the three were playing like kids following a ball. Lallana roams all over the place, looks pretty, dribbles in circles, can't shoot and doesn't threaten in the box. He is never in the vital areas when supposed to be playing wide, wide on the line, driving for the byeline, attacking the far post as the last man. McGoldrick never gambles, would rather spectate, rarely takes responsibility, only shows effort in posession of the ball. He never goes on decoy runs and is only interested in receiving the ball. He scuffs rather than shoots cleanly, never tries to lift the ball over the diving keeper when one on one, and when he does hit the ball it ends up halfway up the stand. Robertson couldn't trap a bag of cement, is not physical enough, lacks pace. Nobody is much good at heading, but as we never get to the byeline to hit in crosses it hardly matters. None of these players discipline themselves and are prepared to get into dangerous positions. They roam around all over the place, they are never in the dangerous position, to take a quick pass and drive forward at or outside the defence driving for the byeline. Their lack of discipline allows the opponents to mass their defence and block us off.

FFS. Its not about passing the bloody ball sideways and backwards, we should only do that if there is nothing on. As soon as we win the ball we should be driving forward, like Surman did for BWP's goal on Saturday. As Palace did last night. Lallana and McGoldrick don't do this and continue to roam, consequently nobody out wide to drive down the flank. By the time we've made the mandatory ten crossfield passes involving most of the team, our opponents have everybody goalside. It's not bloody rocket science FFS. If Jan sat in the stand he would see a lot more, and maybe do a lot more.

1) We are not getting to the byeline. We don't break quickly enough and drive for the byeline getting behind the defence and crossing back into the box. 2) None of the forwards not actually on the ball are making runs into the box on the offchance of a ball dropping, they are taking the easy option and waiting for a pass or a cross to them. Our players have to drive into the goal area on the chance of a breaking ball. 3)Adam Lallana is playing everywhere except where he has to play. Energetic, tries hard, skilful, but entirely wasted. He is selected as our important wide right player to give us width. He plays very narrow and hardly ever wide on the line, it is ruining our shape and allows the defence to mass in the centre and block us off. It means he will hardly ever be in a position to take on the wide defender and drive for the byeline. Our passing game is less effective and slows down as the full back, Lallana or another Saints player has to spend time moving wide, giving the opposition time to track back and get goalside in numbers. He allows himself to be sucked in and ends up when the play is down our left, more near post, than hanging back on the back right edge of the penalty area, which would allow him to attack the far post. We have nobody there and have seen a proportion of crosses from the left wasted. Lallana has to be more perceptive and discerning, he is wasting a lot of his energy and whilst he could be a very dangerous player, is playing in areas where he can be blocked by numbers and is not helping the teamplay.

Probably the best right back was Alf Ramsey, an England international at Saints, then a Spurs regular. Bill Ellerington was an England Right back at the same time for Saints. This allowed Ramsey to be sold to Spurs. Probably in the poll as the above won't be remembered, the classiest was Mick Mills, closely followed by Ivan Golac, Jason Dodd was fair by comparison. Stuart Williams was a classy veteran by the time he came to us. The worst probably Mark Wright v Watford at the Dell in the League Cup home leg.

Dave Watson was a big ball winning, fairly mobile, centre half, who went for most of the aerial challenges. Claus was mobile and more of a secondary sweeping centre half, I think they would complement each other. Dave Watson whilst stll an international, probably had his best years before joining Saints.

If they don't want him, we could save them money and take him back, provided they paid three quarters of his salary.:smt117;-)

There isn't going to be much of a sale, fee wise as Skacel, John, Euell, Raziak, Saganowski and Davis maybe Thomas are out of contract at the end of the season. We could save a lot on wages though.

Southampton is the biggest hub that Flybe have, with about 20% of it's fleet based here, flying to about 30 destinations. Flybe made about £20m last year having taken over BA Express/Regional and look as though they might be taking over BMI Baby/Regional. They are carrying out due diligence at present. It is no surprise, as they obviously feel over the years that football gives good exposure and results, having sponsored Birmingham, Norwich and Saints and not surprisingly Exeter. They are owned by the Walker trust plus 10-15% by BA. The Walker trust owns Blackburn Rovers, a legacy from Jack Walker.