Lallana's Left Peg

Not necessarily. But shouldn't we be finding out that the Assistant Manager has left from the club before the local newspaper? That would feel like a transparent thing to do.

Well freezing players out which clearly makes them appear surplus to requirements was never going to create a bidding war for them and that was nothing to do with Les Reed. Signing lots of crap players was everything to do with Les Reed. Loans help with trimming the wage bill and reducing the squad size to something where Hasenhuttl gets the harmony he's looking for but it doesn't nothing to allow for signing new players (unless they are also loans). Letting players go cheaply sets a bad precedent for the future as well. All in all we're basically stuck.

I don't think its his application though. I think its just his nature. I don't think its a conscious decision - he's been blighted by consistency issues his entire career. I don't think he chooses to be this way, I think that's just how he is. So I don't think he is a flawed personality and all the negative connotations that go with it. If he hadn't asked to leave most of us would have been quite excited to see what he may have done under Hasenhuttl given the alignment of his abilities to the aggressiveness of our tactics.

I think that's a little too harsh. Ever since he's stated he wants to leave lots of supporters have gone very negative on his abilities as a footballer. Not saying you have as I'm not on here enough to know, but until he asked to leave he was very much 'in the building' and was a part of Hasenhuttl's squad. He would not want him around if he was not good enough, and if he didn't believe he had the right quality. It's true that Lemina has little consistency and his performances vary wildly, but he has a lot of very good traits for his position and he can affect a game both with and without a ball and for a central midfielder that is rare in the Premier League. It looks like many clubs like him, although he is not their first choice. That's about right for a player who clearly has ability but has struggled with consistency. We're a lesser squad without him, a lesser team without him when he plays well, and we'll miss him if we don't replace him. Quite clearly Hasenhuttl only wants players here who want to be here, but lets not make it out that his poor attitude has cost him his place in the squad - its his lack of desire to be here.

Second half was awful. Know its only pre-season and different combinations are being tried out but every time I see the 4-2-2-2 it looks like we have neither the personnel or maturity to play it and most teams would find it too easy to walk through the middle of us and exploit a defence which struggles unless it has three at the back in the middle. Nice to see us win games though.

Utrecht to get 10% of the fee. Utrecht want Clasie. One to keep an eye on...

Yeah both wingers letting us down in this system. Doing nothing with the ball, very ineffective without it as well.

Club had made noises about expecting Austin and Lemina to leave this week, unless something surprising happens tomorrow then we would have failed in that hope / expectation. Only concern is that the longer it takes to shift players the harder it comes to delay signings in the pipeline and convince them or their owning club to wait.

I think it depends how you want to play. If you want to press, it means a high defensive line, which exposes you to long balls and any defender without pace. Certainly against West Ham away last season they simply dinked balls over the top and it tore Stephens and Bednarek apart, the latter was pretty much our best defender last season (as he did most of his defending with the ball in front of him).

Bonkers price here, there has to be more to it than meets the eye. When on form hes our best midfielder, and while he can be inconsistent I'm surprised he won't be given a chance under Hasenhuttl. I can only assume we rate our chances so grim of giving rid of some of the other nonsense in the squad that we're selling wanted assets to fund improving other parts of the team.

I think its telling we're having to move on sellable assets we'd prefer to keep ahead of all all the deadwood we've signed over the last 2-3 years. How much cash must that lot be on if some of them aren't even being linked with moves in the media despite clearly being surplus to requirements?

Doesn't mean nothing is happening in the background of course, but absolutely nothing in the media (according to my lazy Google searches) around Cedric or Hoedt leaving even though they are clearly surplus to requirements.

They maybe want to announce it in one go when all roles have been fulfilled.

Has to be a right back otherwise it makes no sense.

I think we've got enough to stay up, but I don't understand why we've used this transfer window to negatively impact your chances when the financial penalty for failing is so significant. I get that Hasenhuttl wants to keep all members of the squad motivated, and that is hard to achieve with a big squad. That said, only the following moves make sense without a replacement: Davis Gabbiadini (given the emergence of Redmond as a striker) Letting Hoedt and Cedric go was a mistake without replacing them because: a) If Valery gets injured then who exactly plays wing-back? Stephens? A midfielder? Bad move. Then of course if you take Stephens out of the back line that assumes we must have Vestergaard, Yoshida and Bedernak available cause if one of them is injured then who plays at the back considering we play three at the back more often than not now? b) We only have four senior centre backs for three positions, and as mentioned one of them appears to be the backup right back. That is very thin. People can try and defend the moves all they want but we have easily come out of this window with a weaker squad and that means our chances of staying up have been negatively impacted. To what degree we'll find out in May, but it just feels a little silly to me.

He appears to have been frozen out but hardly mentioned in the media regarding potential moves or even discussed by Hasenhuttl. Anyone think there could be more to this than meets the eye?

Hard right now to see how we get anything from this with Shane Long our only fit and available striker.

Thought it was a pretty poor performance really against a team that wasn't interested until we gave them every reason to get their tails up and attack us with lumping balls up top and picking up all the bits and pieces. I thought our shape was pretty good but our quality was dreadful. If anything its yet another game where fringe players have a chance and none of them really take it. I thought JWP did ok as did Slattery. Redmond did well but had he got his head up a few times he would have a few assists and two goals. Targett wasn't at his best but he was better than Cedric. The two centre backs were atrocious on the ball. Elyounoussi offers nothing, I've no idea what attributes we thought we were buying but he can't run, has no quality and seems so downbeat. He's seriously challenging Carillo for worst signing ever relative to fee. At least when some of these players get binned off they can't claim they were never given a chance. If we do manage to stay up this summer a complete revolution is required.

First chance to see Jankewitz play.

100% from the Liverpool end due to the journo and the shoehorning of this: "The 27-year-old has rarely played over the last two years due to injury but made a successful comeback when he started against Manchester United recently." Yes, DEFINITELY due to injury. Definitely.

He's had chances under three managers and done very little. Even if you think Hasenhuttl will motivate and attack more Boufal is hardly the physical runner he typically likes. JWP has been told to roll his sleeves up and he's a million times more physical than Boufal, what makes anyone think Hasenhuttl is going to want to work with a lazy show pony?

See this game as a learning opportunity - get this and the FA Cup game out of the way and it feels like the season starts then. A bit of a shame as I think any team that can defend half decent could stifle Chelsea and threaten to get away with something, but clearly that team (in terms of defending properly) is not us right now.

Hard to take Wilson seriously any more after he did this: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2017/12/28/southampton-keen-daniel-sturridge-ready-make-audacious-move/ Club probably think they could tell him the earth was flat and he'd print it.

Many of players you've listed are better than their counterparts in most of the other teams in the bottom half of the table though. There aren't many squads in the bottom half of the table I'd swap with ours. No doubt the overall quality of player we have has decreased considerably the last few years, but a good Manager gets more out of this lot.

How do we have a shortlist of candidates when our esteemed Chairman told us that we were going to undertake a thorough review of our football operations now Reed had be sacked? Turns out it was more BS from Ralph, and they are quite happy with the structure they just want a better candidate.