Simon3737

1) Is he a better wide-forward/winger than Redmond and Tadic?: Yes 2) Does he have a better attitude than Redmond and Tadic?: Yes 3) Will he get more goals and assists than Redmond and Tadic?: Yes 4) Is he less likely than Redmond and Tadic to demand a “move to the next level” after a few good performances?: Yes 5) Will he accept lower/equal wages to Redmond and Tadic?: No 6) Is he younger than than Redmond and Tadic?: No/Yes 7) Would he notice Gabbi’s runs more than Redmond and Tadic (and actually consider passing to him)?: Yes Conclusion: Should we buy him to improve on Redmond/Tadic: Yes (Score: 5.5 out of 7)

To save repeating what I said a few weeks ago, here’s why I’ve voted Out... I also think we need a new manager to motivate the players and convince them that the strategy has changed (and because they don’t respect Pellegrino ... and he doesn’t know how to pick our best team ...or win matches).

Sounds like a loan option!

VVD’s dream of inheriting Jason McAteer’s Number 4 Shirt is fulfilled:

Can’t wait to see him in a Nivea advert! That’s what little kids dream of when they idolise footballers

So, the second half (which we lost 3-2) was a great performance he thinks. Let’s try to lose every half 3-2 from now on! . Europa League here we come!

IMHO: ------------------------------Forster------------------------------ ----------Stephens----------Hoedt-----------Yoshida----------- Ward-Prowse---------------Romeu--------------------McQueen -----------------Lemina----------------Hojbjerg----------------- ------------------------------Boufal------------------------------- ----------------------------Gabbiadini----------------------------

Does this moronic grapefruit have his coaching badges? Worth a try! The fact is manager’s are employed to pick a team and motivate them. If one player cannot be motivated, don’t pick him. If a whole team is unmotivated, the choice is either change the manager or risk changing 25 players and let the manager pick new ones (last time we tried anything like that, we got relegated by Honest ‘arry).

You may well be right. That was kind of my point. Either McCarthy is a capable Premier League ready keeper (in which case it’s surely time to give him a game) or he isn’t (in which case there’s no point having him here and we must buy an upgrade in January who we’d be happy to pick to play if Forster doesn’t improve).

He became a coach/player liaison person in summer 2016 and ever since then our players motivation hasn’t been great has it! May well be a coincidence, but...

IMHO: -----------------------------McCarthy----------------------------- -----------Yoshida-----------Van Dijk-----------Hoedt----------- ---------(Stephens)----------(Hoedt)---------(Yoshida)--------- Ward-Prowse-------Romeu---------Hojbjerg---------McQueen -----------Gabbiadini--------------------------Boufal----------- ------------------------------Austin------------------------------ I’m not sure if Van Dijk will play for us again, so I’ve suggested alternative back 3s. I don’t think our reserve full-backs are good enough defenders, so I’d go with a back 3 with attacking wing-backs who won’t need to defend too much. I’m generally a fan of Steven Davis, but I think his position is the one to sacrifice to fit in a third centre-half. I’d like to see Gabbi tried on the right, so long as someone actually notices his runs and passes to him! Austin picks himself now and we simply have to give McCarthy a try. If he’s that bad, we must buy a decent Premier League ready keeper in early January. Prediction 4-1 or 0-3 depending on the players’ attitude. I’ve got a feeling it won’t be close.

Actually... http://www.dailyecho.co.uk/news/5564048.Wadsworth_was_the_real_reason/?ref=arc

What Mr Gao doesn’t know about the attributes of Premier League Senior First Team Coaches isn’t worth knowing!

This!

Totally agree. I fully supported the idea of keeping him back in the summer, but it’s turned out to be a disaster. It’s demotivated many other players (unjustifiably in many ways, but still). Our team spirit has been terrible for 18 months now (except the League Cup run). Keeping him was designed to send a message to the rest of the squad. It certainly did that! It’s made many of them furious (as they were anticipating being allowed to move to a bigger club after year or two in the Saints shop window). It’s nice to think a massive pay cheque and luxury lifestyle should be enough to motivate professionals, but they are pampered millionaires, not robots. Obviously, it is essential that we get a good price and re-invest wisely (although, I suspect a large chunk of the money has already been earmarked to fund Mr Gao’s debt from buying the club).

So 3-6-1 and loads of wide players to put in crosses to a striker who’s no good with crosses! Maybe it’s a genius move to confuse Chelsea so much, they lose... If we lose the next 2 games, we could be behind Palace and Huddersfield by Christmas.

I think the problem is that Les changed the successful formula 18 months ago. His decision to start signing players (and Koeman he hoped) up to long contracts was a fairly radical change in his ‘formula’. Unfortunately, this change in approach has been a disaster as it’s demotivated the players. They want playing for Saints to be a stepping-stone/shop window. I wish they wanted to commit to us for 5/6 years when they signed extended contracts, but their agents just encouraged them to sign, take the pay rise, and still move to a big club after a season or two.

I agree with all of that. Boufal and Bertrand are forming a great partnership.

Yep! The players seem to have suddenly started caring and working hard again. Remarkable improvement over the last 3 games. We’re one more clear the air meeting away from a European place.

Or 4 points from last 3 games. Good enough for 51 points!

IMHO: ------------------------------Forster------------------------------ Cedric-----------Van Dijk------------Hoedt------------Bertrand ------------------Romeu--------------PEH------------------------ ------------------------------Davis-------------------------------- ---------JWP----------------------------------Boufal-------------- -----------------------------Gabbiadini---------------------------- I’m not convinced we need to rotate loads of players just because it’s 3 games in a week (Puel’s obsession with resting players didn’t exactly work out too well!), but I think Austin probably isn’t as fit as the others, so I’d save him for a sub appearance, then a start at Bournemouth. If we rotate too much, the team will lose momentum and our goal difference could get badly reduced. I think Gabbi deserves a chance as he’s done nothing wrong. Maybe his runs could catch City out (if someone passes to him!) I think Tadic did much better against Everton, but I think someone needs to make way for Romeu to return (to help PEH and Davis try to hold City back, with JWP helping out sometimes too). Assuming Lemina is not yet fully fit, I’d save him for Bournemouth and let PEH hold his place. I’m sure he’ll be motivated to perform against his old manager too. I think we all expect Forster to concede goals against City, but if he messes up easy saves again, I’d try McCarthy against Bournemouth. I admit Forster did nothing wrong against Everton, but that doesn’t say much. It would be crazy to give McCarthy his debut against City anyway, but if the management don’t trust him to ever play, we need to sell him in January. I’ve got a feeling we might score a goal (but still lose). Finally, please no Nathan Redmond! Maybe a spell in the under-23s is the way to go. It seemed to help PEH a lot (who’s only a year younger).

To be fair, Aaron Lennon was very unlucky in having to play out of position Right Back which flattered Boufal and Bertrand and later Tadic and Long. Overall, very positive performance though!

Are we assuming JWP right, Tadic left, Boufal in the centre?

Les Reed deserves massive credit for his contribution to Saints over the last 7 years, but maybe it’s now time for someone else to take over with some fresh ideas and a new strategy. I don’t believe the players aren’t good enough, although Mane was a huge loss obviously. Our players are better than performances suggest and our recruitment (Redmond excepted) is pretty good (Lemina, Hoedt etc). I think buying black-box bargains rather than proven ‘names’ is the only sustainable strategy for a club our size and we’ve had more hits than misses (and Les deserves great credit for establishing our recruitment infrastructure). However, I think we have to accept (unfortunately) that most modern Premier League players are pampered millionaire prima donnas used to getting what they want and many of them have been very unhappy since the summer of 2016 and this has impacted on the pitch. I think the reason they’re unhappy is because Les radically changed our strategy for player contracts in early 2016. I think we have to conclude that this strategy has failed. We have gone backwards ever since. His strategy was to get the players and manager to commit to long-term contracts. At the time, I thought this was a very sensible idea to stop the constant loss of our players. It seems pretty clear that Koeman wanted to see out the third year of his contract, then leave us for a bigger club, and Fonte wanted to move to Manchester United after winning the Euros. Letting these things happen was against Les’s new strategy so he insisted Koeman extend his contract or leave immediately (and earn us a transfer fee/compensation) and Fonte was denied his one last chance to move to a top club. This destabilised many of the players. In a normal business, the strategy was very sound. We didn’t want to risk players and managers running down their contracts and leaving for low transfer fees or for nothing. Unfortunately, this is not a normal business, the players are pampered millionaire prima donnas! Koeman and Fonte clearly refused to act ‘professionally’ and caused trouble when they couldn’t get what they wanted. Despite this, many of the other players then signed-up for long contract extensions in exchange for big pay rises without appearing to have realised that committing to longer contracts meant they were delaying their chances of getting the dream move to a big club that they feel entitled to. In a functioning market, the players agents would have explained to their clients that the ‘price they were agreeing to pay’ for their big pay rises was to delay their next career move. Unfortunately, the agents get bonuses every time a new contract gets signed, so they have an incentive not to explain these pitfalls to the players. Keeping van Dyke this summer has clearly woken up the players on extended contracts to what they signed up for and many of them seem (unjustifiably) furious about it. I think this damaged morale is what has primarily gone wrong for us this season (that and persisting with Nathan Redmond and Fraser Forster!). It’s extremely unprofessional of players to behave this way and the idea of reducing player power by getting them to commit to long contracts was a nice idea, but it has caused our team to go backwards fast since Koeman left and Les Reed has caused this. He tried to defeat player power, but is losing the battle. Finally, I think it’s interesting that (apparently) the ‘non-millionaire’ staff disliked Cortese, but the millionaire players and Pochettino thought he was fantastic. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that Cortese’s background was as a Swiss banker specialising in High Net Worth Individuals (like Marcus). I’m guessing he was very good at massaging the egos of pampered millionaire prima donnas. My conclusion is that our team won’t improve until the (poor unloved) players are happy. Either this means changing half the players or changing the strategy. What these players want (and feel entitled to) is for Saints to embrace being a stepping-stone club and shop window for Champions League Clubs. This strategy was working pretty well until 2016 (on reflection) and the key is the club getting a good return on investment in the form of high transfer fees and using those funds to develop and recruit suitable replacements. I don’t see Les agreeing to change strategy, so I think it’s now time for a new Director of Football. I’m sure the Black Box has identified dozens of potential replacements because Les has told us the Southampton Way is bigger than any one individual! Now that’s off my chest!

Worth watching just for the phrase “murky washing machine”