Saint Pete

Nice one big Vic

This is what worries me a little about us potentially signing Clasie as a replacement for Morgan and/or Wanyama. I'm sure he's a good player but we already have a number of short midfielders in the squad with Davis, JWP and Reed, so we could be leaving our midfield a bit vulnerable to more powerful opposition. Perhaps we should be targetting a midfielder with more stature like say Leroy Fer of QPR to give us a bit more balance in the squad?

Personally, I don't think the Europa League thing really has much impact on the Clyne situation - it's more about whether Man Utd are serious about making an offer for him or not.

They're being linked with Arturo Vidal from Juve a lot at the moment - not really a holding midfielder in the same mould as Morgan, but if they spend big on him, can't really see them offering a big fee for Morgan as well.

Don't think anyone can really argue with anything Morgan is saying here. If a Champions League team comes in with the right offer for the club, he'll go. If they don't he may well stay.

Think we would be wise not to expect too much from Jay Rod straight away! I would hope we will sign another central striker to provide more options.

Totally agree about Djuricic - I also find it odd that some see so much potential in him when there's nothing in his record in other leagues to really justify it (unlike say Mane who despite being out of form earlier in the season always looked like he had the potential and previous record to come good in the end). Hope we move on to other options in the summer.

Overall a terrific season for us and a great start by Koeman, after joining the club at an exceptionally difficult time. Defensively, we have been the best I can remember in my 30 odd years of supporting Saints, and really hope we can keep our back 4 together next season. I do feel some frustration that we faded in the run-in despite what seemed like a reasonable run of fixtures, and feel like we would have achieved 5th if our attacking play had been just slightly better in the last couple of months. But I think this has been a reflection of the lack of depth in our squad, which has meant we haven't had good enough options to rotate players who are tired or out of form. The strength of the squad in terms of attacking players who can weigh in with goals is the main area we need to address in the summer, particularly if we are in Europe.

Disagree to be honest. It's a lack of goals that has cost us in the second half of the season, particularly away from home. You can't consistently score so few goals and expect your defence/goalkeeper to compensate. Don't think we were ever going to keep up the amazing defensive record we had in the early part of the season even if Forster had been in goal throughout.

Some have suggested on here we should sell Gardos and use Stephens and/or Turnbull as centre back cover next season. Think that may be a mistake on the basis of the play-offs. Swindon conceded 5 in the 2nd leg of the semi and now another 3 today so far.

Found it quite amusing when some of the Southend fans left the ground towards end of extra time thinking it was over, then turned round and tried to go back in for the penalties! Why on earth would you leave early when your team are only 1 down at Wembley FFS?

http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/transfer-news/liverpool-forward-rickie-lambert-line-5712930

Absolutely agree - he could easily have tried going down in build up to first goal, but was rewarded for keeping on his feet. He has good strength on the ball, so hope he keeps using it like he did in this game. The speed of his reaction to the rebound on the second goal was also superb, and great finish for the third. Was a great day all round - really good to finish at home on such a high note after the disappointments in recent weeks. Whatever happens next weekend, 60 points is a brilliant achievement after everything that happened last summer.

Djuricic hasn't done nearly enough to earn a permanent deal. We should be looking at fresh targets. I wasn't encouraged when he chose to go down looking for a penalty 30 seconds into his debut against Liverpool when clean through on goal. Showed a complete lack of confidence in his own ability to score, and in his appearances since then, there's been no cutting edge to his game.

I think that's a bit unfair - he has had very few opportunities due to the great form of Toby, Fonte and Yoshida this year. If we were able to sign Toby permanently (possibly a big if!), I would see no reason to change our line up of centre backs in the squad for next season.

If true, glad we are looking at a potential permanent GK signing rather than a loan. However a word of caution on the potential reliability of the story: the Mirror are also saying that Chelsea are weighing up a move for Rickie Lambert!

Trouble is, we often don't as it's so obvious he's diving! Against Spurs, there were a number of times he went down looking for fouls and wasted good attacking opportunities. The bad reputation he's in danger of getting may also influence refs not to give us pens when he really has been fouled.

Thought this was our best attacking display for many months and should have won, bar a couple of isolated defensive lapses. Pelle and Mane were both dangerous throughout, although someone definitely needs to have a strong word with Mane about his diving, which became utterly embarrassing in the second half - consistently falling over literally any time a defender went to ground. It's frustrating because he could be doing far more damage to the opposition if he stayed on his feet, as he had the beating of the Spurs defence, no doubt. Some of the criticism of Davis on here is way over the top, thought he had a very decent game in all aspects except for in front of goal. Clearly, he has zero confidence in shooting positions at present much like Pelle until the last couple of games, but he's still a good player and an important part of this very successful Saints team. I also though JWP had a good game, involved in a lot of good moves and ever dangerous on his set plays. Sad to see Morgan limp off near the end - could be the last we see of him in a Saints shirt?

Thought Mane had his poorest game for a long while against Hull, whereas Long looked a threat and won the penalty.

Davis Clyne Fonte Toby Bertrand -------Schniederlin--------- -----JWP---------Davis------ Tadic-------------------Long ------------Pelle-------------- Thought our midfield looked much better in the second half on Saturday when we moved to this kind of formation, so would like to see us stick with this. Use Mane's pace off the bench later in the game.

Well, that certainly won't work! He's even more likely to keep ranting now whenever his players get punished. I have sympathy for Matic in his reaction, but the ref was right to send him off as it was violent conduct. The mistake the ref made was not recognising how bad the Barnes tackle was so that was what the FA should have been putting right by punishing Barnes.

Don't understand the logic of reducing the ban. Matic was still guilty of violent conduct no matter what the provocation, so it should still be 3 games surely? Whether Barnes should have been punished for his tackle should be a separate matter.

But the advantage is it releases Clyne and Bertrand to really bomb on and attack down the flanks. The onus would also be on one of MS and VW to be a bit more forward thinking with the extra insurance behind them.

This is what I would go with if everyone's fit. We need to get Tadic back on song and that may be the best formation to do it?

Sorry, but I don't accept he was "right to go down". The minimal contact from Can was nowhere near enough to seriously affect him going through and potentially scoring a goal. We need players in the team who are hungry to score goals and Djuricic seems to be more hungry to hit the deck at the slightest contact on this evidence. Even he seems to be half admitting the first one probably wasn't a pen in his comments (quoted by coxford_lou).