Beckenham Saint

Rodriguez has scored apparently!

Is it just the Saintsplayer radio link for this one then? Good line up. Rather see us take it seriously with our best players than use it as an excuse to blood youngsters and more likely lose...

Van Dijk 77 with 83 potential. 67 pace, 60 shooting, 64 passing, 67 dribbling, 77 defensive, 83 positioning (for those interested)

It's a good point... United's away fans are good, loud and a lot of them are mancs. Singing "Do you come from Manchester?" is probably more appropriate at Old Traffod!

To be fair, the way you've phrased it, combined with posting history, it does read as if you thought it a shame we signed Morgan and not Ericksen.

Of all the UA kits posted here, there isn't one nice design. Let's hope it's not going to be made by them next season as they don't seem to be able to design nice kits...

Despite the fact that he's been playing well for WBA since signing...

Had good games against Chelsea, West Ham, Cardiff (although we lost them all!) and at Sunderland under Poch. Scored some nice goals in the cups, too

Can't wait for this one, my first trip to the Hawthorns will be nice as if memory serves me well, WBA were the first team I ever saw saints play. Squad should be much stronger barring anyone picking up injuries on international. Am sure van Dijk will start, hopefully Bertrand and Vic. Also, will be great to see Lambert again

Who's next?

Even after it worked against Everton last year so well and to an extent watford this year?

You got any numbers to back that up? He is by far our best player at winning the ball in the air, whether with his head or his chest, and is amazing at holding it up. Not all of his passes and through balls come off but he actually has very good vision and knows where the players running off him will be, a lot of the time without looking. He's a very important player for us, pivotal to how we play and plays consistently well every week. He's also our top scorer over the last two seasons and it's mad that anyone would want us to get rid of him. Great all round striker who has a bit of everything and does most of it well. If Rodriguez's finishing is better then why did Pelle take his one of his chances today while J-Rod couldn't? I think Rodriguez is a great player, but, his finishing is not "far better". Seems to get forgotten but in the season he got injured his goal tally could have been a lot higher if he didn't have a tendency to roll the ball at opposition keeps once every couple of games in an action that resembled more of a pass than a shot.

Agree Romeu has looked absolutely rock solid, nothing getting past him today

When you think about it, it's not. We've got our first choice LB injured and our first choice CB hasn't signed yet(!). There were times when we had Frazer Richardson and Danny Fox either side of Jos Hooiveld in that first season. With Bertrand back soon, Fonte still there and Cedric, we're one CB short of a decent starting back 4 and even Maya / Caulker are better than Jos ever was in the Prem.

Brilliant.

To be fair, he seems to have addressed his "he never shoots" criticism by having 3 shots in the Newcastle game and I'm pretty sure he had a pop in the Vitesse game? Definitely remember a couple in the pre season game vs Groningen, too. In fact, I can remember more Tadic shots this year than I can all of last season...

I think of our first XI now, Jose (and Davis - although I think we'll try Wanyama, Romeu holding and Clasie in the Davis role) are the first that need replacing, seriously, if we want to push on then we need a better CB than Fonte. He is perfectly good for a top half team but is 32 this year and there are much better CB's around. He has a habit of getting away with dangerous tackles in the box (I can think of about 3 or 4 occasions last year where I was sure he'd given away a pen, but the ref waved it away and I would have been livid if some of them had gone against us) and he has on more than one occasion in the last couple of seasons played blind passes back to the keeper that got easily cut out. He's a great leader, but say we'd kept Toby, I'd like to have seen us sign another CB as well and slowly phase Fonte out. Obviously, Koeman knows more about CB's than me, and so I trust his judgement, but I won't be losing any sleep if we sign both Koulibaly and Van Dijk as first choices and Fonte had to do with being on the bench.

Amazing back to back posts. Definitely agree with the latter.

Europa League, without a doubt...

Don't shoot the messenger, but I've just seen this on Twitter. FWIW, I doubt this is a very reliable source, but it's a link, none the less

If only they had Jose Fonte in their back 4, would look a lot stronger...

1. What is your opinion on your manager Ronald Koeman? What are his good points and what are his bad points? Absolutely love him. Great character who exudes calmness and authority and knows how to get us playing good football but can also change things up where things may not be working. I get the impression he is a good motivator, as at times last season in games we had been a bit off the pace in the first half, he had us playing better the second half. He also seems like a thoroughly decent man, which makes it easier to get behind him and support him as he's not an arrogant character like Rogers, Van Gaal, Mourinho etc. 2. You have made 8 signings so far this summer, who are the ones to look out for? Van Dijk I like the look of Cedric, Stekelenburg and Romeu. Clasie will be great when he has adapted to the league, too. 3. Who will be the key threats to Everton at the weekend? Own goals. 3 in 2 games at St Mary's so hoping for a similar showing from him this time out!! Joking aside, Pelle is bang on form with 3 goals in 3 competitive games, Mané has the ability to hurt any team in the league when he wants. Wanyama will be vital in keeping Barkley quiet and moving the ball on to those in front who can cause damage. 4. Where will be your weak points? Left Back. With Bertrand out injured, Targett (despite being very good) is not quite there yet and Rodriguez didn't help defensively enough against Newcastle so he was left a little exposed. 5. What are your season ambitions? Maintain a top half finish and push on in Europe. I think we'll get to the group stages and then progression depends on who we're drawn with. I don't see us giving either cup a serious go this year, although the squad is arguably better prepared to challenge on multiple fronts than last year. On to Everton 6. After a great first season under Martinez and disappointing second, how do you think Everton will do this season? Top 10, maybe. If Martinez can get you playing as consistently well this time out as he did in his first season then I think you'll be around mid table but other teams, on the face of it, have strengthened more that you have this year so I think you'll be playing catch up a bit in the league. 7. What do you make of our manager Roberto Martinez? I like him, although I don't think he'll ever go on to become a top, top manager. Has always done OK wherever he's been, and showed he could get a team to the right end of the league in his first season with you, but before that he's never set the world alight and only has a 40% win rate as a manager in 8 years of managing . 8. Who do you see as the biggest threat to the Saints in the Everton side? Barkley, Coleman or Mirallas if he plays. 9. Where do you see our weaknesses? Not having Baines (although you must be used to that by now!) might be a bit of a blow, maybe Stones? Speculation over a players future has been known to have an effect on their performance. Finally – Score predictions? 3-1 Saints

I think he's a step up on Forster, but then he has more experience so that could be expected. I also think that Forster will be seriously good in a few years, but Stekelenburg edges it for me at the minute because he just seems more commanding and gets to low shots (well, i've seen him get to one..) Always thought he'd be good for us, though, when we signed him - you don't play in a world cup final without being pretty good...