eddie

Haha. It's that weird golden stripe in his hair as well...at first I thought it looked stupid as anything...now (what with the amount he's now bringing to the team) I think it looks badass

Aha come on. That's harsh. Shlong has actually exceeded my expectations - I thought he'd be an utter flop and do nothing. But, 4 gls and 3 assists and whenever he comes on, always makes a mess of slow/not paying attention defences. I'm not saying he's the best thing since JRod but like you say, a good player to have around. Don't think any more needs said than that - great to have on bench, nothing special, but a versatile option and brings a bit of energy to the front line when (e.g. against Leicester) the game is dead

As we're likely to finish 6/7th, I would happily take 5th. If Koeman stays for the next few years, I wouldn't actually be that upset with lower than that this season, knowing that he could actually build something longer term at SMS and really cement saints in top 6 for a while.

I felt with the WH game that with 10 men letting hammers have a bit more of the ball might be a good idea - pushing fonte/gardos further back, opening it up a bit, giving a bit more space and stretching the game out. Against 10 men it would then be far far easier to pass the ball round the players in the run up to the goal. When you put fonte/gardos on the halfway line, you are almost creating the problem you're trying to solve; namely that the other team are just very very tightly packed and have their backs against the wall..

Great, great player. with clyne, genuinely think they are one of the best full back pairs in the county

Not sure if anyone's mentioned...but thought yesterday was a good indication that the southampton midfield can still be up to a very very high standard without schneiderlin. Doesn't need repeating but FF had a great game. Up front, thought Pelle had good ball distribution and shielded the ball well, but again seems to have lost that goal machine spark he had at he beginning of the season. However I think Whats really positive is that unlike say Leicester, where if Ulloa stops scoring their points just dry up, Saints have shown the last few games that we aren't reliant on Pelle as much as I thought we would be back in October. Bertrand, Toby, mane etc have all scored the last few games and I think taking that's good to take pressure of pelle being the only one capable of scoring

Yeah, at around 60,000 pw if it's 3.1 mill per year. Mind you I heard Morgan was just offered 50,000 to stay, and though I'm not saying that means the sky is the limit, we might see a general rise in wages over the next 18 months in order to keep talent. I wouldn't be surprised if we have a few players on 40/50,000 by this time next year.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/transfer-news/fernando-torres-set-offered-up-4793025 so chelsea hate him...ac milan are terminating his contract early...but could it be at St Marys that he finds his liverpool form again? ...the answers no, because it's Torres, but it would be hilarious if he came

Koeman's great...level headed, knows what went/wrong right in matches, strikes me as a good balance of strict but friendly...but I'm amazed noone has mentioned "Pohsseshion"

Really interesting point Bob. Had always assumed this was just all to do with him - never thought that he may have been 'instructed' to play more conservatively and not come off his lines in certain games by Koeman & co....does anyone know if he was similar at Celtic as a comparison?

Thought we played actually quite well - stayed up to the early hours out here in central africa to watch. at the end of the day, we played really well up to the final ball - 4/5 times tadic, pelle and mane all tried a little through pass from just in front of mcnair/carrick toward goal, which had it worked would have allowed whoever was on the end of it a clear run of goal. Was a shame they didn't work but the fact we managed to play well up to that final ball was good. No idea what people are saying about just hoofing it up field - was clearly a tactic of Koeman for Bertrand and co to pass to Clyne/Long on left wing because he thought Young was exposed. Clyne didn't press behind Young that much to put crosses in the box....not really sure why not but I felt Clyne didn't do his usual tap on to the corner flag, pace past the left back and then cross in like he's being doing week after week. All in all, a good performance I thought - Forster could have maybe got hands on RVP's second but realistically it was a difficult curling ball. His errors are just shown up a little bit more when we aren't putting them away at the other end. One really good thing I've noticed about this seasons saints is the way we really don't let teams have the ball for a long period of time. I've seen match after match that the lads really hassle people from behind so they are forced to play the ball back to their goal. Thought that the whole team close people down quite fast - OK against city maybe we gave them more space but I feel like the strategy is akin to Chelsea's style of play against arsenal - not letting them have the ball, marking very tight, putting in challenges. Not overly bothered about three losses....I mean we should have 1-4 points from these last three but hey. Beating solid mid-tables and thats where top 8 is won or lost.

completely misunderstood this thread...thought it was about 'new' Ibra speculation, as in the current Ibra had already been linked with us, and this was renewed speculation about him joining us...! got massively excited for about 30 seconds until I saw it was about a 15 yo kid....ha

yeah you're right. but I don't think those facts necessarily mean we've hit a brick wall. My take on it is this: everyone is asking if saints can finish top 6 (literally every podcast/pundit I listen to) because they've never played any of the 'big boys'....but what does a big boy really mean this season? Man Utd have lost to Leicester but will almost definitely improve...but Liverpool keep losing to fairly dreadful teams and arsenal's record against the 'big boys' is abysmal - maybe someone can correct me but I think against Chelsea, Utd and perhaps City they've only won a handful in the last few years. So is Spurs to be fair. I'm not a pie in the sky saints fan and I actually think finishing 8th would be awesome. the fact we've been able to attract talent like toby, tadic and pelle is a great sign and so I'm already pretty satisfied with the season. But I do think finishing higher than 8th isn't inconceivable when we've already got 3 points against some of the harder mid-tables like stoke, hull, newcastle (admittedly when they were poor) and sunderland

merson's tone this week really aggravates me: "I think Southampton have hit a brick wall. The teams they have beaten weren’t any of the big boys...they never looked like scoring...Man City ripped them apart....I can’t see them getting anything even at home"

hahaha given a run for his money by possibly the flimsiest player in the PL

he was called La Gran Muralla (the great wall) by spanish newspapers after that home win against barcelona when he was at celtic park

I agree he looks dishevelled but credit where credits due for the andrea pirlo like facial hair

...apparently: http://www.turkish-football.com/southampton-everton-leicester-city-prepare-kavlak-bid-says-agent/? never heard of him, but he played against feyenoord in champ league qualification so I wonder if pelle thought he looked decent in those games. his apps to goals ratio is fairly terrible though judging by the large number of yellow cards he clearly gets stuck in in midfield... only video I can find of him:

so forgetting witsel....Johannes Geis: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2079055-scouting-report-will-manchester-united-target-mainz-maestro-johannes-geis very versatile midfielder....good ball distribution...young...wins lots of tackles and gets interceptions a la Schneiderlin, under 10 mill and would be a good prospect if morgan goes.

fair enough....just thought he was a close like for like with morgan but agreed it's probably the longest shot in the dark yet

but wouldn't you have said that about toby also last season? belgium international, won the title with athletico madrid (ok only played a third of the games but still)...?

Reckon I'm going to get shot down for this but....Axel Witsel. He went to zenit for just over 30 mill, and he's added more goals since he went. Very creative midfielder, good ball distributer and got a defensive head also. had a quality world cup as well. apparently zenit fans have mixed feelings about him, but thats just because they hate foreign palyers... (http://edition.cnn.com/2012/12/17/sport/football/football-racism-zenit-russia) heres a good article about how good he is: http://www.benefoot.net/why-big-european-clubs-should-target-zenits-belgian-midfielder-axel-witsel/ Apparently he was "jealous" of his belgium teammates who got to play in the PL, and if we signed Alderweireld permanently I really think that could be a big pull factor for him. I know that 30-40 mill sounds like a bum load of money to shed out and it would be the most we've ever spent by a long shot, but if Schneiderlin goes (I'm seeing him as a direct replacement) for 25-30, and maybe we get a few for osvaldo/mayuka, I dont see why we couldn't spend that amount. I don't think this is a jan signing - summer if anything...but...thoughts?

this. like I posted on the arsenal reaction thread: http://www.premierleague.com/en-gb/players/profile.statistics.html/emmanuel-mayuka#clubsTabsAttacking 0 goals, 0 assists, 7 shots, 3 offsides in 15 appearances. I find him just utterly underwhelming...I know we had injuries last night so fair enough but more generally I do feel he's very fortunate to be able to sit on the bench against arsenal and city

yeah I agree about January. If I'm honest I think this season has already been a success and if we did manage to match last seasons 8th than that would be great. I just find it encouraging that we've actually been able to attract talent (and international talent, at that) like alderweireld, tadic and pelle to our squad this season - shows that things can only be on the up as far as club recognition and future signings goes.