mulletsaint

Pfffttttt! That's the funniest thing I've read in ages. Thx, I was feeling a bit down in the dumps.

How about the shorts and socks?

One man's bland is another man's refined. I like a lot of the simple shirts that companies are going with these days. Umbro are at the forefront of this with many more classic style shirts. Some of Adidas and Nike's are goddam awful and have been for years. The only Nike kit I'm reasonably keen on is the French one and that's because they've kept it simple. Christ mate, if this sort of thing fills you with dread then god help us if things get squeaky bum next season! This I do agree with you on. Really thought the sash was a good opportunity to make a fresh and individual start. However, there ain't a great deal that you can do with a white shirt with a red sash, so the commercial people at the club and kit company would never have gone with it.

Count to ten. One… Two… Three… I think his posts are based more on many people's comments on this thread. I don't really like where it seems to be going this season to be frank, but am willing to wait and see what the complete kit looks like on release before making a final judgement. I'm sure the club will be sh*tting themselves at the thought of you withholding your hard earned Euros. Fortunately I'd imagine that there will be plenty of fans willing to fork out for the new shirt if only to commemorate our return to the top league. I also believe that the club could be covering themselves with the possible white and red away shirt. If some people prefer that it'll still mean that the home fans are all decked out in red and white.

I'll suspend disbelief for a moment and make like you actually believe this and aren't just on a wind-up. Remind me what do you do for a living? Having worked as a graphic designer for getting on for 15 years, alongside many photographers and retouchers, I can tell you that definitely ain't a retouch job. The rather odd look to the scarf is caused by the same thing that's making JRod himself look a bit superimposed. They've got him stood beneath a tree on a dull day with no decent natural light and as a result the background is slightly dull. I think the photographer's used fill-in flash which has brightened him up but also removed many of the shadows and this flattened some of the detail. I'm sure a photographer will be along and explain it properly should you wish. In the meantime you can sit back and grin as you get another bite, unfortunately I couldn't resist.

Fur trimmed? Now that we're back in the big time of the Premiership we could probably afford it, eh The9?

I replaced all the blue with white but the trim on the end of the arms is hiding due to my amateurish choice of white as a background colour. I imagine they could add more white on the cuffs and hem. Personally I'm not a big fan but it's hard to tell the overall impact without seeing the shorts and socks. Black shorts and white socks and it might be more Saints-like.

This then?

Great finish by Welbeck shouldn't disguise a poor performance. At least at the end of Capello's reign we had begun to play a more modern fluid brand of football. Roy comes in and we're straight back to 4-4-2. No control of midfield whatsoever. Switch Chambo to the right, Young to the left, stick Gerrard in the ten position and move Milner to defensive mid alongside Parker. 4-2-3-1. Job done.

Christ, give the guy a break! I mean, success was so last season. That party finished like what, weeks ago? Get over it, we're obviously doomed to fail in the Premiership (that one's for you The9) now that Eden Hazard has chosen Chelsea over us. J Rod, who's he anyway? Spunking £7mil on him leaving no more than two brass farthings to rub together to strengthen the rest of the squad is just plain idiocy. A guy's allowed to get depressed whenever he wants, why wait until we've lost the first five games on the trot?

Let's face it bugger all that we know about is happening on the Jay Rod front at the moment so what's the harm? If the press is to be believed nothing's gonna happen until he's back in the country next week. I'm sure as soon as there's some more news this thread will be back on track again.

You make valid points but also completely fail to understand (or purposely ignore) what others are getting at. Admittedly I typed that up on my phone which always ends up with me cutting things short. I'd be pretty damn thick to put Rickie in the same league as Rooney. However they are both the attacking focal point of their teams. While we go long to Lambert regularly, he is just as likely to drop short or pull out wide and link up play allowing our other attacking players to overlap. We don't necessarily need him busting a gut to get back in the box in seconds á la Rooney, he didn't do it last year and we were successful enough, we scored 1.25 goals per game from other sources. Undoubtedly if we'd had Sharp and Lee from the start this number would have been greater. Add in J Rod and hopefully we'll be even more potent. I'm aware we'll be playing against better players but also, as last year proved, there are plenty of shocking defenders in the prem.

Like Rooney you mean? 27 goals wasn't it? Now I know RL ain't Rooney and we ain't Utd but that's a damn sight more than 15 goals for someone playing essentially a number 10. Lambert made plenty of runs down the channels last season. He made 14 assists in the Championship, which put him in third overall. I can remember several that were made from crosses out wide. As for chasing punts upfield for 90mins, that ain't the 'Southampton Way'. We'll either pass it into his feet or straight onto his head as we did for most of last season.

This is just the sort of player I think we're in need of. Maybe rather over eager at times but strong and energetic, just perfect for giving the back four some welcome protection.

I was wondering if there are any qualified refs on here that could clear something up for me? On Friday my son's school football team, Forest Hill Boys from SE London, played in the u12 English School's FA National Cup Final at Stamford Bridge. It was a great game between two good footballing sides. Despite having the better chances we were only 2-1 up with four minutes to go when the following happened. On of the opposition's players was tripped just outside the right hand corner of the penalty area. I can't remember exactly what happened next but the player either stayed on his feet or the ball broke to another player from the same side, so the ref waved advantage. However as the player entered the area he was tripped again. Instead of signalling penalty the ref pulled the game back and gave the first infringement. Cue huge sigh of relief from our supporters and cries of outrage from the others. Is this the correct action to be taken in this situation or should the more advantageous infringement be awarded. Personally I thought that the law was to give the first infringement but I realised I didn't know for certain. FIFA's Laws of the Game document doesn't seem to cover it.

I've been more impressed with Ince the few times I've seen them both this season, year younger too I believe.

Lots of good points on this thread. I think it was a huge mistake by the football league to restrict subs to five last season. If more were allowed I'd hazard a guess that we'd have had a youngster on the bench for most of the season. This would help them get used to the atmosphere etc and who knows, during some of the more comfortable wins one or two may have got a late run out or two. As others have said no two players develop at the same and unfortunately clubs can't necessarily afford to keep slow developers on the books when they are due to turn professional. This is pretty understandable and there will always be players that resurface later in their careers. However I don't think enough is done in this country to allow young kids to develop at different rates within the academy system. There is still an issue with academies going for bigger and stronger kids first. I remember reading that several other top European nations run their academy system with overlapping age groups. This allows for more flexibility in what group kids play in. It also means that kids who develop more slowly don't drop out of the academy completely. Players can move up and down as their bodies and technique develops. I spoke to a Chelsea scout last year who told me that they quite often have players from 8 to 14 only to let them go when someone better comes along. The European system would allow at least some of those players to drop down a group and stay with the club an extra year or so and give them that little bit of extra time to develop.

Lol! Typo city. Effin iPhone. Makes it hard to re-read also. Still, hopefully you get my drift.

Not thought it through fully yet but I think maybe 4-1-4-1 or 4-2-3-1. Both would utilise a new defensive mid and SRL up front. Second could also have Morgan sitting as deep lying playmaker. The exact formation's probably rather misleading as I tend to think of it as having a defensive unit and an attacking unit. Lallana and Guly like to shift positions and join the attack so they'd be more attacking than it looks on paper but with extra defensive cover. Adkins seems to favour a kind if total football in advanced postitions and this in my opinion would give the attacking players more license to do so. You could tweak it to something like 4-1-3-2 if you wanted more fire power up from. For me a standard 4-4-2 is more predictable and easier to defend against. Our great strength is that when we're playing at our vest we're unpredictable with players swapping positions, Rickie occasionally dropping deep or running the channels. It makes it harder for the opposition to assign markers. When we play 4-4-2 it's not always a standard version which can be great in attack but can leave us exposed in defence.

Me neither but then I've not seen a huge amount of his play. Seems to be an out and out winger and not sure we play that way. From the equally small amount I've seen of Phillips he seems to be a more flexible type of player.

I actually met Huw a few months ago. Fulham seem to be putting more investment into finding young players from new areas. They have started up a number of development centres across London and both of my boys are at a new one in East Dulwich. One night I was there I spotted a bloke I thought was Huw Jennings. It was only at the end that I became sure so I went over for a chat at the end of the session. He seemed genuinely pleased about Saint's prospects for the season just finished. Sounded like he still had a soft spot for us but was equally determined to ensure that Fulham should outdo the Saints academy at every opportunity. On the subject of academy players breaking into the team next season, I believe it's more likely that the majority of those who've outgrown the u21s will go out on loan.

Can't believe they have fans who still believe Sharp 'diving' lost them promotion, despite all of the photographic and video evidence to the contrary! Maybe if they concentrated on playing football and not getting into punch-ups they may have been promotes instead. In the end we'll never know but I for one don't give a ****.

Quoting this as I think it sums up the pretty blinkered view of many on this thread. Personally I think that Saint John, Adriansfc and a couple of others are closer to the nub of the problem. The way we play involves the fullbacks providing our attacking width which often leaves them exposed on the counter. A lack of an out and out defensive midfielder purely exacerbates the situation and often leaves the CB's in an awkward position. The same happened at times last year but the quality of our opposition's attacking play has gone up a level since promotion so we are being caught out more often. I notice one poster mentioned that there is no ambiguity in our tactics, we have two sitting midfielders. ******. We have two CM's who sit more than the others but neither could be termed a DM. Last week against Boro there was one move in the first half where Fonte picked the ball up just inside our half and drove forward with it. One of our sitting midfielders Cork was already in a more advanced position. The other, Hammond was passed by Fonte but instead of sitting and covering his run he also began to move forward with him. IMHO we need a decent DM to sit next season and offer our back four protection. I'm not saying we don't need personnel but I don't believe it's as bad as some have made out. I think Fox will be fine, as will Jos. I don't think Fonte is as bad as some of his performances have been this season. Indeed, I think his bad reviews from the Boro match come purely on the back of giving away one free kick which lead to a goal. There is not one player on this Earth who will not make at least one mistake per match, no matter how good. Paul Scholes has a 93% (or something nearly as inpressive) success rate on his passing since his return. However, this still means he has misplaced 7% of his passes. A lot of stick is given to our fullbacks but if you watch a decent amount of Prem football you will know that this is the position that probably suffers the most in the modern game. Richards, Clichy, Walker, Evra, Ekkoto and even Cole have been made to look like numpties at least once this season and we'd jump at the chance to have any of them in our team. Johnson has made a career of doing it and for the last couple he's been England's no. 1 right back!

This. Wasted too much time on there when it seems the alternative number was the was to go.