Hodgey

Thanks DuncanRG - don't disagree we have more but others would so I tried to point out the ones where I feel there is no debate (ie those guys would get into multiple Prem teams as opposed to the bottom 3)

Positive actions: 1) Wanyama. Give clear instructions to sit in front of back 4 and give them protection, and pass it simple, rather than get frustrated and rampage fwd and give the ball away. Tell him if he does this well more teams will want him for the price we want and he'll get his transfer wish in the summer - if not we'll keep him here for another year. 2) Extra training on crossing on the run. The amount of times one of our wingers / full backs hoofs it all the way to the other touchline is unbelievable, this must be affecting Pelle's attitude of bothering to make runs in the box when 9 times out of 10 the ball is miles over his head 3) Get a decent sports psychologist in to stop them giving up when they conceed - if they have been outplaying a team previously and creating chances, logic suggests if they keep doing it then it will work. 4) Get Mane playing just off Pelle 5) Get Townsend in on loan so we actually have a right winger at the club rather than pushing Mane or Tadic out there - they are miles better central / left. 6) Find a midfielder (internal or external) who can help control our pace. This has been the biggest loss of Spiderman - someone who understands when to buy a foul, make a foul, slow down play with a square ball or try moving it forwards quicker etc. None of our midfielders currently seem to have the first clue here - hence the lack of game management and flitting from excellent to terrible in the space of 5 minutes. 7) Never play 3 at the back again, and contemplate 4-4-2 instead. We should be OK this season. It's not like when we went down where aside from Phillips and Crouch Prem teams were not bothered about our players. Wanyama, Tadic, Pelle, Ward-Prowse, Forster, Bertrand, VVD, Mane would have a decent pick of Prem clubs straight away - so if we have 8 Prem players then we should be comfortably mid-table.

I was genuinely happy with the first 15 - thought our attitude was excellent, reminded me a bit of our start against Man U without the goal. Then 2 sloppy goals and everyone knew that was that - players, coaches and fans. Can't comment on 2nd half as I assumed it would be the usual going through motions so didn't bother to watch. That game sadly showed that Toby is a better cb than VVD - he was excellent. We clearly need a game where we score in the first 15m and then try and hold on, I'm very worried about not only the mental fragility (which had been a strength last 2 yrs) but also fitness which seems worse than all other clubs bar Villa. Arsenal isn't a write off but we will need to convert an early chance - even a point will do to stop the rot

Frustrating game. Big positive is Gazza finally showing what others have clearly seen, top stuff. Like most games the margins were very tight, and it does come down to taking chances which we seem to struggle with. I'm more concerned whether the RK way of playing can continue to be progressive - we seem to be losing the race with similar teams who are now fitter and play the pressing game (we all saw this with Liverpool and Leicester). I can't see us improving the base talent of the squad (with our transfer policy and dry youth batch) so we have to improve what we have. It's annoying seeing Poch doing just that at Spurs (and Klopp and Raniere). I'm not giving up on RK but feel for whatever reason we have lost our way recently and need to start finding it again before too long. Not expecting many points in dec given fixtures but am hoping to see more hunger, better attitude, and much more composure.

But that's the point right ? He's not as good as a lot of people for that money but also better than others. So it comes down to whether we think we have better scouting / negotiation / black box than others. My opinion is we don't - henceforth as to my original post we shouldn't sell him, but accept he is vey average.

If ever you wanted proof of lies damn lies and statistics here you go. Long is not as good as those stats comparatively suggest for anyone who watches and knows about football. Here's one for you all - you have 12m to spend, you can have Long or Shaqiri (both sold for same price) - which would you go for ? (Btw I'm not a long hater, in fact love his attitude- just think he is average as per previous post)

It was a panic buy, and a bad one in retrospect. But at the time we had no recognised strikers (Pelle unproven in Prem) so no doubt the board were thinking it was a £12m safety net against relegation - which I don't have a problem with. His £50k a week I do and all things being equal I would be tempted to get rid, however as pointed out come the summer every average PL player is likely to be demanding £50k a week so it's pointless spending another £12m and £50k a week on a potentially worse player (given higher demand). What this does of course do is shine a light as to the difficulty our sell high buy cheaper policy may have in the future - may be a prudent time to change that to sell high / buy high to attract the right standard of player. I've said before that the £36m wasted on Osvaldo/Long/Ramirez + £7.8m a year wages is actually what has cost us in our squad depth issue. Made me laugh when Fonte pointed out that Liverpool had a £20m player on the bench, we've had plenty of £12m players on the bench over the last few years !!

Easy to over react after a big defeat. However I think we are on a downwards trajectory at the moment. I'm worried about our fitness, which has definitely gone backwards, and we are still looking for a replacement for Spider-man and clyne - even Koeman isn't sure about them. Can our new style overcome the press even lesser teams are adopting ? I've no idea but we do need a win against Villa to avoid relegation thoughts

Was worried about being bullied off the ball with that midfield - but in Ron we trust who had faith in those 3 ballplayers not being bullied and keeping possession. Good to see some professional closing game out tactics with short corners, ball in corner and bringing on another centre back as we knew we would have 6 minutes of hoof ball to deal with. Excellent third of season given our slow start and injuries and good to see us play like that without Wanyama - Claise coming along well, ironically it is now in attack where we are struggling for players - worried about Pelle picking up a ban (almost certain), we need Long or JRod to be back firing by then.

This us where Ron can show how good he is - to me this makes zero sense, Sunderlands best attacking threat has been their quick left back so I would assume cedrics pace would be better. Equally big SAM midfielders will be putting it about so a massive test for our 3 small midfielders. All that said there must be a plan (and I don't buy the revert to 3 at the back as who would play right back if not making a sub, and if you are why not just bring maya on?), and I'm hoping we are pushing our quality passing and fitness of those 3 who in that respect are better. Time to show we can cope without big Vic.

Think from a squad POV we are stronger - Juanmi, Romeau and JRod do add depth we didn't have (although JRod on history alone - I'm assuming here that he becomes something like the player he was - as so far he has looked poor). First team is a bit weaker - we really miss the composure of Toby and Schneiderlin when teams put pressure on us, it's been notable this year (wasn't the case the last 2 years) that we seemingly cannot turn around sustained pressure (Man Utd, Leicester, Bournemouth etc) and I think that is a concerning difference. I guess when talking strength of squad it's interesting to note that we could easily have a £50m bench for a game this season (Gazza (£1m), Claise (£8m), Ramires (£12m), Long (£12m), Yoshi (£3m), JRod (£7m), Romeu (£5m)).

I'm a big Pelle fan - but today I saw consistently what a lot of people moan at. The ref from the start wasn't going to give him any fouls, and instead of that driving him to adapt play or look to gain clever fouls knowing the ref he just gave up and became a sulking petulant child. What made it worse after all the whining to teammates was when he had a great chance and air shot then fell on his arse. Great player but needs to mentally change attitude - seeing that it was obvious why he went 4 months without scoring. More effort less attitude pls Mr Pelle.

Kelv wasn't good but I'm not convinced we would have won with Stek. This isn't the first time this season we have inexplicably completely lost the midfield which is a major concern. Yes poor subs, but isn't the issue that our squad has the same issues as last year - subs nowhere near as good as 1st team players. Hoping that playing the likes of Claise and JRod is short term pain for long term gain, but lack of options at rb and gk already a big concern, and I'm not confident we have much back up to Pelle , Bertrand or mane either. When everyone is fit we are a match for anyone but the squad remains worryingly thin.

I'm hoping for us to avoid a relegation battle and get to one of the cup finals - our first team is weaker so we can't expect a repeat of last year & quite a few other teams in our mini league have got notably stronger. Concerned about our squad quality more - I thought the ambition this year as a minimum was a better squad so we don't have dramatic drops when players get injured. At this time our summer activity looks at best erratic - and in some cases (Caulker Martina) bizarre and others (soares juanmi) oddky not fancied by the manager at all. Still think if we continue with Tadic Pelle Mane up front we will beat the weak teams and sail just north of relegation trouble.

I don't agree with people on this board or RK who couldn't see past JC being a back up to VW. Two completely different players and actually JC should gave been used more to break teams down at home as VW has a habit of constantly slowing the game down (great against equal or better opposition). Had we done that, and JC saw he wasn't just there in case one of them got injured he would have stayed. I also don't like it when managers make it clear that form is irrelevant and 1 player will always play behind another - which RK has done twice now - doesn't motivate the 'reserve' nor the player in possession.

Like other posters I'm not sure what the Southampton way is - was clear under Poch that it was high press/fitness and max possession - although to be honest we were still reliant on a big man upfront and often bypassed midfield (we were terrible without Lambert). Changes as far as I can see under RK has been : less fitness/press focused, 1 attacking midfielder playing closer to Pelle (rotated), reliance on fullbacks for width. I think pretty much all Prem teams play the same way - just attack/defend more in accordance to who they are playing and all reliant on a good att mid to break teams down. We've even seen this with Chelsea and Hazard being off form, and the flip is true for Leicester with Maharaz having a golden spell. Each team has a player they are generally dependant on from an attacking POV - Hoolihan/Richie/Mata/Erikssen/Coutinho/Payet/Sanchez/Hazard/Silva/Sissoko etc and pretty much if that player is on top form then that team wins. Ours is Tadic - but he only seems to be able to do it when playing on the left (and I simply don't get why Koeman keeps moving him to the right to accommodate JRod).

That window bar Alderwereld debacle was played pretty well, not Swansea well but not Spurs badly either. Interesting that of the 9 players in 8 are defensive which makes sense given losses. Worst 1st team but better squad IMHO which I'm hoping will balance out given our struggles last year when a few were injured. That said 2 clear areas of concern - if Pelle or Stek get long term injuries we are in trouble - but given cost of strikers (and our terrible recent record in buying them) and Forster situation I get the low risk gamble.

That doesn't work though in practise. We all know the rules of the game for normal jobs , that's why you sign a contract. Football players should know the rules of their job too - vast vast sums of money, doing something you love, adored my millions etc - and you know that you sign a defined period contract, which could mean you can't theoretically leave until it's over. It'll be a cold day in hell before I start to feel sorry for these childish multimillionaires crying foul from their palaces. If they want the same rules as us - fine go get a mundane office job and worry about trying to pay the mortgage.

Before yesterdays game I thought what team I would pick out of those available and came up with - Stek, Cedric, Caulker, Fonte, Maya, Reed, Romeu, JRod, Tadic, Long, Pelle - whilst I think that team would have had a better showing than the one that played, after looking at it I simply thought 'that team isn't good enough'. It's too late now to get any more decent players in as we clearly thought VVD would complete our squad. Assuming we get him (which we may not), theoretically the squad will be good enough for a 14th ish finish. But we may have a couple of very uncomfortable months whilst players settle and confidence building must now be a high priority. Also now we are out of Europe I'd be tempted to send the likes of JWP and Targett on loan as they are not good enough and I feel they are going backwards at the moment. As per a previous poster I'd also love a swap with Long and Austin but the reality is that with Longs wages and transfer fee he isn't going anywhere. What we should be thinking about NOW is getting replacements for Mane and Wanyama who will both clearly be off next year and start tapping them up - we also may need to turn the black box on and off again as it appears to be malfunctioning.

I'm worried that as fans we have become very arrogant. Nothing I've seen suggests a comfortable mid table finish - we are relying on a lot of players who have never performed at this level before. We're in a relegation dogfight until we are out of it - and I predict well need another month at least before we gel - which means an Everton style season hopefully just north of the relegation zone. We have 4 players injured at the moment - imagine if that becomes 6.........

Needs to be sent on loan. Our arrogant policy that no lesser football side could teach our young players anything has well and truly come back to bite us on the arse. Ridiculous statement which thankfully we are now rectifying via mkdons / swindon etc. Targett as well needs to go on loan - neither good enough to even keep us up at the moment.

It sadly is that - he's too physically lightweight. The Premiership is the most physically robust league in the world, especially for Defmids - Wenger's teams were invincible when they had Petit and Viera bullying people in midfield - since he has gone for a purist football vision they have completely failed (by their standards) and lost points to inferior bully boys like Stoke. Chelsea have always had big nasty bullies, as did Man City when they won it and every year that role (defmid) becomes even more important in the premiership. Yes you get the likes of Cattermole knocking about - but then again they play for struggling sides, look at the confusion over Wiltshire and where to play him, and to a certain extent JWP - Ron is spot on in his limited use of Reed.

We needed someone like him, our midfield as it stood was far too lightweight and likely to get bullied, he's big enough and brave with a clear nasty streak. Different player to Spiderman though - Morgan dictated the pace of play for us and helped us break quickly via interceptions - that is what we are truly missing at the moment - we have plenty of people who can slow it down and break up play (Romeu, Wanyama, Reed etc) but none who can play accurate forward passes (which I guess is what Claise has been brought in for - let's hope he works out). Overall though good signing who complements our weaknesses well. Incidentally do we think that Liverpool and Man Utd sudden defensive improvement is helped by Clyne/Spiderman or just coincidence - zero goals conceded for either.

That does swing both ways - yes you can get a bit more money from transfer fees, but it won't stop players going. It will however make it impossible to get rid of high salary poor performers. Imagine how much more we would have had to pay off Osvaldo and Mayuka - and have another 3 years of finding loan deals for Ramirez etc.

A low stake gamble. Know a few QPR fans who think he is an absolute liability. But clearly has talent from his past. Strangely think he may be another Osvaldo - clearly talented but can he integrate and can we get the best of him ?. We are learning though as it is just a loan