madruss

Such a shame, I was looking forward to playing Tottenham next season, given that they too are also bottom of their league and are therefore certainties for the drop.

Interesting you should use Warnock coming in at Palace as an example..spookily enough in his first 5 games as manager he amassed a total of 3 points, before things started to go very well indeed, leading eventually to the playoffs. Let's hope that's some kind of tenuous omen!! In answer to your original question. I genuinely think the team this season is more enjoyable to watch. For most of last season, the team didn't really have a plan and this often resulted in some very dire football. Compare that to this season, where we clearly do have a plan but can't always execute it. However when things do go to plan, the results are stunning. For example, I can honestly say I haven't seen Saints score a better team goal than the one we scored against QPR, since we were in the Premiership probably. Add to that the fact that the majority of the team is made up of home-grown players who have a lot of potential, and (imho) you get a much more enjoyable experience than last year's dross.

That's the spirit! And we'll play well again, maybe not today but when we do...we'll more than likely beat whoever's in our way. Granted if we play like we did against Blackpool....not so much

And deathly silence from other 'elements' should we win. (What did you think of the Derby game btw?)

I bet Hull are glad they didn't have someone like you in charge last season. With a third of the season gone, you'd have given up all hope and tried to convince all around you that relegation was a near certainty (especially given that the team was languishing below no-good-drunken-Burley's team in the table). The time to lose hope in the championship is when your objective is mathematically impossible... not 4 games in.

Good question, I'd forgotten about them!! Can't see Pulis starting in midfield (unless he's actually a decent right winger) but he would probably be useful cover on the bench. Pekhart might be involved, but that would mean 2 strikers on the bench covering 1 position, which isn't ideal... I guess with the 21 games in 7 days we'll see them involved pretty soon, if not today.

Haha! Excellent. Here's a similar stat for fellow lovers of perspective. Hull are currently 4th in the Premiership. After 15 games last season they were BELOW Saints in the table... Yet somehow, we can legitimately write-off this season after 4 league games???? Riiiiiight:rolleyes:

One Arjen Robben!!!

I don't see what you're getting at. That line-up has 10 of the 11 that started the first 2 games and the last pre-season games. The only position he's changing about is the RM, which is fair enough as no-one has really done enough to make the position theirs

IMO without the abuse Phillips would have scored from 2 yards at his first attempt! Because of the beautifully orchestrated and humourous chanting, he missed his first attempt and got lucky with the rebound...FACT!!

Much as I hope he stays - if £2.5 million meant we could sign a specialist left-back, I'd bite their hands off!

It's a small crumb of comfort I'll agree, but at least there's a sign of hope there. After Palace last season, I left feeling completely hopeless, the team was booed off and didn't seem to have any plan or purpose. On Saturday, it couldn't have been more different. (Except for 3 points obviously, but then when has football ever been that simple!)

Haha. Excellent stuff. So many people seem to be glossing over the fact that the team we lost to has mainly kept its Premiership-standard squad together. Birmingham drew twice with Arsenal last year and over half the players that were involved in those games were in action on Saturday. Face it a lot of teams will get beaten by Birmingham this year, and not many will go to Cardiff and get a result. Fair enough, if we get comfortably beaten by Blackpool, Barnsley and Doncaster in the next month - then we can start getting the razorblades out. Until then, the team is playing well and competed admirably against two top sides.

Nicely put. Last season there were plenty of games where we never once looked like we'd get the better of the other team. At least now we look able to dominate teams for a part of the game. It's progress, it'll be slow probably, but there are plenty of teams we will beat this season if we play to our full potential.

Tell that to the Wolves fans who had to put up with his excellent championship management skills for over a year

The first half performance was outstanding. The trio of Gillett, Schneiderlin and Llallana were combining superbly and the two fullbacks were getting forward and supporting the attack to great effect. We definitely deserved to go in 1-0 up, and there were spells in the first half where Birmingham couldn't get the ball. The turning point for me was John's miss at the beginning of the 2nd half. 2-0 and we could well have gone on to win. Then we conceded a very soft goal - letting Birmingham back into the game in the process. We weren't as threatening in the 2nd half overall, but there were some very promising moves with a lot of passing and intelligent movement. I'm was impressed with Llallana in particular, he really looks at home in the AM role just behind the striker, and he will be a key creative player for us this season if we can get the ball to him in the right areas. Schneiderlin looks a class act too, and well complemented by Gillett. On the downside, surprise surprise, our fullbacks aren't strong enough. Although excellent going forward, they lack defensive strength. James was skinned by Owusu-whatshisface on a fair few occasions, and then later by Jerome. That said, both James and Surman were excellent going forward, so if their defensive game does improve they should be ok. My ratings: Davis - 6 Had very little command of his area, which I'm sure was a factor for their first goal. However he made some awesome saves...same as always for KD I suppose James - 5 Composed on the ball, and a threat going forward but was beaten all-ends-up by the left winger on too many occasions and it was no surprise that most of their chances came from crosses. Surman - 6 Threatening going forward and better defensively than James. However his tackling was often wayward, and on more than one occasion he completely missed his challenge leaving the left flank completely exposed Killer - 7 Very strong in the challenge and in the air, but got turned too easily on a couple of occasions. Perry - 7 Great goal and solid defensively, an excellent partner for Killer Gillett - 7 Full of running and won a lot of the ball, played some good simple passes and linked well with Schneiderlin Schneiderlin - 8 Very classy player, great range and accuracy of passing. Has superb awareness and was strong on the ball throughout. Llallana - 8 MOM for me. Quick, skillful, hard-working and had it not been for a very robust midfield led by Lee Carsley, he could probably have won us the game. Holmes - 6 Some nice touches and good running off the ball. his delivery is also superb, with a great corner for our goal. However he has no pace, and will probably only be a threat if he receives the ball quickly when he gets in a good position. DMG - 6 Looked threatening when he managed to burst down the wing and get the cross in. Dropped too deep when he switched to the lone striker role though and as such wasn't much of a goal threat. John - 6 Should have scored with his header to make it 2-0 at the start of the second half. However he held the ball up well and was involved in some good link-up play with Llallana. He should start every game in the lone striker role IMO Thomson - 6 Some good positive running, lots of pace, but end product was lacking - hopefully won't prove to be another Dyer in that respect Overall, there is a lot of promise in this team, and I'm a hell of a lot more positive than I was after the opening home fixture last season. We played a team full of internationals and players with hundreds of Premiership appearances between them and for good periods of the game made them look ordinary. I only hope that the youngsters don't lose their confidence, and bounce back for the next game.

Apparantly the average age of Arsenal's team today is 23 The average age of Saints anticipated starting line-up is also 23. Coincidence? Good omen? Or maybe it's just nice to have something in common with Arsenal!! COYR

Losing Davies would be a massive loss. Unlike Rasiak, Davies would fit in very well to our current system. Not only is he excellent at winning the ball, both in the air and on the deck, but his passing is good and he is effective at bringing the ball out of defence - all qualities that fit in with the 'pass, not hoof' method of moving the ball up the pitch. If he goes, we're fairly screwed IMO

Someone mentioned that Schneiderlin has a minimum transfer fee clause in his contract of £5 million. This suggests he was bought as an investment rather than a long-term part of our squad. Sad, but needs must.

But where? Where does it end????:confused::confused:

Here here!!

If the loan's until December and, say, Rasiak is on 12k per week, that's a wage saving of over £200,000 If it's until the end of the season, the wage saving is almost £450,000, plus whatever loan fee we'll get

What I mean is, strikers will always have periods where they don't score. When that happens, you need a stiriker who still contributes to the team. I.e. they can last 90 minutes (even once), they create chances, they're fit enough to keep up with the pace of the game...etc. For the sort of wages Saga is reported to be on, you'd expect some of the above when he's not scoring. Last season he wasn't scoring and his performances were simply not good enough

I think the reason you keep having to point this out is that it's a fairly lame argument. He was 'mis-managed'? What does that even mean? Even when he was scoring goals in 06/07, he consistently ran out of steam in the 65-75 minute period and had to be substituted. Same thing happened in 07/08. Every time I watched him play, he looked off the pace and could not carry on from about 15 minutes into the second half. Take away his goals, and you've got a pretty ineffective player. It can't help the manager's gameplan if you know that one of your strikers can't last 90 minutes (granted D&G didn't ever seem to have much of a gameplan, but I'm talking about Pearson's reign) If you then take his wages into account, you have to come to the conclusion that DMG provides massively more value for money than the Pole

Totally agree, I think this forum works best when steeped in debate (providing it doesn't deteriorate into name-calling!) Say what you want about Alpine, but he does at least inspire such debating. And besides, a forum full of optimists would be just as bad as one full of pessimists.