Lallana's Left Peg

Absolutely hilarious watching that online. Very even first half although had had much more intent than Brighton. Second half it went crazy. We had legitimate penalties completely ignored by the Ref, two penalties given that were not penalties, and the best bit was seeing Brighton completely lose their discipline picking up 5 yellow cards and a red card mainly for dissent! That was quite humiliating for Brighton and quite an apt serving of humble pie for Poyet after his comments on both Saints and racism this week. His team are poor. Will be great viewing as the main game on the Football League show tonight!

The transfer window presents a nice problem for Adkins, but it isn't straight forward. The best time to strengthen is when you are going well, I've no doubt about that but when you look at what appears to be Adkins approach to getting results it is based on a close group where everyone contributes. If the squad size swells then some people will be unhappy, so I can't see the squad going without some departures. Forte and Dickson certainly seem surplus to requirements, and I'm not 100% convinced we'll see much of Barnard this season, especially if we get another striker in. Adkins has mentioned a few times that the goal this season was to be Top 10 by January and then strengthen accordingly. Right now we're at the top of the pile and in a great position to attract some good players, but how that opportunity is weighed up against disrupting what we've got is a bit of a challenge (albeit a good one).

You can't bring someone in loan, them be a part of a team that takes you to the top of the league, and then not try to sign them. I get the feeling the chances of a deal occurring would be no more than 50/50 due to the negotiation process and our stance on walking away from transfers in the recent past.

I think it will be someone with pace. We saw today that Saints are trying to mix it up - Adkins alluded to it in his post-match interview. The opposition know our strikers like it to feet and try to press high up the pitch to suffocate the space knowing Lambert / Guly / Connolly aren't the quickest. Today we saw Lambert come short then peel away looking for the ball over the top. Now if we had a striker who had genuine pace (and quality) to do that not only does it become a more viable ball the player also creates space for others as teams won't press us so high up the pitch.

Based on what I saw today I wouldn't be keen and think we can do better. Whilst he only had scraps to feed on when he had the ball to his feet he didn't really show much quality. He is a real handful in the air due but that is due to his size. I've no doubt he'd look better in our team than for one struggling at the bottom of the league, but are we going to spend money on him to be third or fourth choice striker? We want someone to provide real competition for places.

Schneiderlin MOTM for me. Game was far more interesting than it needed to be. Which we would deal with the long ball in a more assured manner - but that was only negative. Passed the ball well and used our quality when it mattered and crowd stayed behind the team. Delighted to see Adkins make the right decisions with the subs as well. Nice two week break now to recharge the batteries and push on.

When I looked at the fixtures at the start of the season I thought the first 3 months of the season were tough then November and December looked kind to us.

This is where things may get interesting. Firstly I am delighted to come away from the game with a point - it is a real plus point and the mentality of being used to winning and drawing games helps here - the players will be thinking all the time they can get back into it. However, Adkins has mentioned it may not be time to rotate. But we don't have many options to do this. So players who may not be hitting the peaks of the first few months may have to play - and how many 'passengers' in terms of productivity can we carry? How many should we carry? This is a real challenge and it will be interesting to see how Adkins approaches it.

What a brilliant result and performance. All done without Lallana, the belief in the squad must be off the chart.

A little late to the party with this news but I play football with an old colleague of Chell at Man City and he has nothing but positive things to say about him. Chell left Man City as they were making decisions at Board level which he didn't agree with regarding the pricing structure of hospitality at the club. Prices effectively increased 50% and Chell was opposed to it. During the upheaval Chell was one of the fall guys. Chell was proved right as the season they implemented the change hospitality revenues were down £1.5m. The economic downturn had an impact but the increased costs undoubtedly did as well. Chell was well liked at Man City by his team but with his run-ins with the Board I hope Cortese gives him the autonomy to make decisions and does not undermine him. If this is the case, it sounds like we have a good man for the role.

Confirmed - Hammond dropped for Schneiderlin. Unchanged from team that started at Burnley otherwise.

We weren't at the races today, and part of the credit for that is down to how hard Burnley worked. If they had an ounce of creativity in their midfield to provide chances for Austin or Rodriguez, they could have been a few up at HT. As it was, they got tired in the second half and we got most of our joy through throwing crosses into the box rather than passing our way through them. Quite happy with a point here, and will be interested to see whether Adkins mixes it up for Cardiff. Chaplow and Schneiderlin are worthy of starts - not sure who would drop out though.

He can join Fonte and Puncheon there, who both left Saints for Newcastle last January and this summer respectively.

Yep - he doesn't like making it clear to the opposition whether players are fit or not. Remember the Lallana saga last season!

I wasn't at the game. When Davis had the ball, how far up the pitch did Cork and Fox go? One thing I noticed at Leicester was that they went right up near the half way line, the central defenders split out left and right to receive the ball, and Schneiderlin came a little deeper for the ball. Just wanted to see if we did that again.

Fee set. £275k up front, rising to over £400k based on certain stipulations (which are not disclosed by Saints in their initial article). Huddersfield made a slow start to the season, not sure if they will go up. http://www.saintsfc.co.uk/page/NewsDetail/0,,10280~2442037,00.html?

Yes they can. It was only a year ago we signed Ryan Dickson from Brentford for a fee that went to tribunal.

According to this article, we find out how much we get for him from Huddersfield today. I reckon we'll get about £150k for him, with £100k in add-ons. Tribunals always end up lower than the selling club wish. http://www.examiner.co.uk/huddersfield-town-fc/huddersfield-town-news/2011/09/05/huddersfield-town-s-oscar-gobern-heads-for-southampton-transfer-tribunal-today-86081-29362712/?

No thank-you After seeing as a few times now I can see how full-backs are absolutely key to the Adkins system that he wants to play in this league. Fox looks very assured on the ball and I wouldn't be surprised to see another right-back come in to be fair. But as for Richardson in the middle, not for me.

I think 4-3-3 is too disruptive for us at the moment. Never liked us playing it in League 1. Quite like the 4-4-2 with the wide guys cutting in, a striker coming deep, and the full-backs bombing on. Very fluid while at the same time players know their responsibilities defensively as we're essentially starting 4-4-2. Although the thought of three in the middle is appealing we're good enough with the ball that players need a bit of space to operate - don't want them getting on top of each other. We saw at times today on the edge of their box that when we get too cute it breaks down. You need space to be incisive.

As positive as you can be after a loss. We started slow and paid the price, and got punished for our mistakes. Just as we came back into the game the third goal went in which was a foul. Even the Leicester players were embarrassed to celebrate. Second half performance was fantastic, and with some more incisive finishing we could have even had all 3pts. There will be games like this and we must react to our first defeat in a positive way and not dwell on it. 4 days to strengthen the squad and get a win at Swindon, then we work hard in anticipation for our next game.

Seems quite a powerful player, and left footed as well. Can see why we'd be interested, especially at that age.

A player being injured doesn't stop a medical being passed as long as it looks like the injury is healing as quickly and and in the manner expected at that stage of recovery. If there is something about the recovery that doesn't seem right, the club will understand the risks associated with it and make a decision. Medicals aren't really about a players fitness in terms of capability of running etc., they are more to do with long-term health risks around the heart, bone density, etc. - things that impact a player long-term and also their ability to recover from an injury in the future.

Have heard he signed for Portsmouth tonight. £2m, £16k a week.