eddie

I'm in Lausanne across the lake. Will go over the week of the 24th when the team is in Evian to try and find them after work, like any nutcase fan would do. Apparently germany during the euros had a training camp at Hotel Ermitage in Evian, 1km away from the Evian ground (where they'll likely be training). I'll start my search there with a mate and let you know if I find any of the lads!

holy ****balls that is the best home and away kit combo I've ever seen since being a saints fan. willing to put my **** out there and make that bold claim

Sorry mate feel that's a little rash. Fair enough I don't know if the bloke has got any legitimate insight behind-the-scenes or not, but ****ing tearing him apart when he pokes his head out once in a while isn't exactly going to do much good. You're essentially bating him to prove himself, by posting some kind of hot off the press news that could not be possibly found anywhere else, not on media or from the journos. But the amount of leaks and rumours these days it's almost impossible to hear something that hasn't already been said elsewhere. I'm not defending the bloke, don't care much for anyone on an internet forum for that. I rather just say it can't harm him or the forum for you to just leave him be and let him post snippets from time to time if he wishes. If they are ********, then fine, it'll add to the utter ******** that makes up 90% of the site anyway. If not, then we get some behind the scenes info that helps us know what the clubs up to which is nice, as paying fans.

Redmond is a nice option to have in the team. Can be exciting, creative, fast and troublesome for defenders on his best day. In the right place, beating fullbacks 1v1, the lot. On his worst he's wasteful and flimsy, but I suppose he's not the only one. The great thing about Redmond is that somehow everyone else, including top journalists and pundits, seem to rate him a lot higher than we do ... That can only bode well in the unlikely eventuality we decide to sell him. I suppose scouts in other English clubs will be more savvy to his price, though.

enjoyed reading that, thanks

Never said they were the same thing... You stated that we sit back and don't look like we're having a go. I.e. that we are playing 'negative' football as has been said elsewhere. I'm saying that I really do think we have had a go in several games, and show attacking intent. Having possession against Arsenal wasn't just about holding the ball, but that we really had a go at them, got into the penalty box etc. Absolutely not saying that is what defines Puel's first season. But at least to give credit that I don't think the problem has been lack of any attacking intent. I think the problem has more been around the team not responding well to going down, loosing energy in the second half, not having a plan B, many other reasons besides that need fixing. but sure, the posession football isn't to be lauded.

Not sure I really get this. We absolutely did have a go at several teams, including right at the end of the season. We had more possession than Arsenal for ****s sake. That's pretty telling. Not saying we play incredible football every game but you can't just act like this season has been Tony Pulis football from August to May. Quite a few games I saw we had excellent first halfs. The main problem with the team is that when we go a goal down, we don't look like we have the mental resolve to push on for an equaliser. Or perhaps just that the tempo and attacking intent we have genuinely shown for several patches this season, doesn't last consistently from game to game, or drops in the second half of any given game.

Just a thought I had the other day. Since our scouting seems to be top notch, and we are making profits on 'world class players' that two or three seasons ago cost us a quarter of the price, it seems reasonable to me that we accept inflated offers for top players with such huge profits. I hasten to add, not as a general rule, but for those players that would give us a significant profit. Why? Simply because for Southampton, a top player who newspapers rave about doesn't mean 50 million GBP+, breaking all the records etc. In the case of VVD or Mane it meant around the 15 million mark. In other words, some other clubs see journeymen as 20-30 million, young explosive talent as 40-50 and world class proven as 70+. Saints' numbers are just so much lower than that given our scouting is well done. Journeymen is under 10, young explosive talent 15-20 and world class as 20+, for example. If we can recruit top talent, while being frugral with the cash, surely if Van Dijk goes for 50 million just think of what 'world class' talent we could get for 20 or 25. I suppose there's a danger that it doesn't work, with Boufal or with Clasie, and that money is wasted. But then again we've never before had such a huge transfer fee touted as 60 million+. Would nearly pay off all our debts for goodness sake.

True, goal scorers are always more expensive in general, though. I was surprised when Mourinho broke the world record for Pogba and then played him as a defensive midfielder where he never got near the goal, until he switched with Herrera.

I'm sure you're right, I haven't got a clue what's behind the numbers. But then doesn't the same apply to every other transfer fee reported? Everton most likely didn't get 50 million for Stones, for example, after all these taxes/fees.

Both Barkley and Lukaku are still at Everton... I don't agree Shaw, Schneiderlin, Fonte, Lovren, Chambers or Clyne were soft touches. Happy with the fees we received for all of those. Only issues with transfer fees I have were: - Wanyama, I feel we could have got 20m+ for him - Mane could have gone for nearer 50m given the impact he's had at Liverpool and the fact everyone was touting him as world class when he left. - I thought Lallana was a reasonable sum at the time, I didn't realise he would turn out quite so good at Liverpool/under Klopp, perhaps we could have held out for 10m more in hindsight, though that's a bit greedy I guess you can't always know what impact a player will have and whether they will fly or flop.

I read a lot that peoples frustration with Puel is negative football. Others claim that 'I would have taken 8th and cup final at the start of the season'. To see how much value people place on this, I wonder: Would you rather we lost more games 4-3, with lots of goals and excitement, instead of getting a 0-0 point, but end up finishing 13 th ? I pick 13th because if we had not ground out maybe 4 points with boring draws, we'd be at 13th in the table. I am assuming that our other wins/losses were the same result, with a few goals more either side. Thoughts? P.S. I would like to put a poll but don't know how!

Never quite understood the problem with our recent Europa League meltdowns. It's a strange coincidence and one I hope won't come to haunt us in the coming years. Pelle's first goal against Vitesse in the play-offs a couple seasons back in a 3-0 home win made for a fantastic afternoon, had such high hopes for our campaign. But then in the same time I am still haunted by memories of Caulker playing awful long ball against can't remember who. Mitjiland I think it was. Playing three at the back, he was on the right hoofing the ball sky high to nobody upfront. That was the definition of dross. Not sure what the word is I'm looking for that was missing. Motivation? But then I think we wanted it more than Inter. Fear - were we nervous playing against these teams? Cohesiveness...individual player quality worse, lack of spirit, substitutions....no clue.

Fair enough, I don't even play Saturday league haha. I agree Targett was poor, he was cautious and I think had we had Bertrand playing, perhaps we'd have created a bit more opportunities. Pied though I felt played most of the time along the ground, that's the thing I really noticed/liked about his play. He didn't just hoof it like Cedric does often, he actually tried to play 1-2's with Tadic/Romeu and it worked most of the time. His ability to beat a man far exceeds the ability of Cedric or Martina in that area. I would have said that we didn't get down to the touchline enough. There were some opportunities where a shot fizzed across the box but oftentimes it met a Man Utd player rather than a Saints player. But I don't blame the target man or the guy who delivered the ball for that. I blame it on the fact that Man Utd had so many players in the box that it was almost impossible to get through. I swear that at the end of the game, there were often 6 utd players in the box, that I had the feeling they were genuinely playing for a draw, it was that defensive. What I did notice was that on the counter attack we didn't break that quickly. When Bailly or Smalling came forward, and we gained posession, we ran all the way down the pitch and then just....stopped. And Utd regrouped, and then the attack has lost all it's pace. that was a real shame, and I think had we had Long or Rodriguez on instead of Davis, maybe we might have got something out of those runs. But I wouldn't say it was there for the taking. Romero had a ****ing blinder in goal (a lot of our shots were straight at the keeper, but still), but other than that no Utd player stands out as being particularly good, I agree. However the way they set up , which was essentially counter attacking, is difficult to break down. And we had the majority possession, something like 60% for the first half if I recall.

I feel JWP has to start these days. He's been very good of late, would put him for Tadic in this teamsheet. Also Pied in for Cedric.

Sorry mate that's just horse ****. I'm calling you out on this one, don't like to do it so publicly but nonsense sentences like that have to stop on this forum. Two hypotheses: 1. You didn't watch the game. 2. You watched the full 90 mins but don't understand football well enough to make any fair assessment. Your comment on Pied, nonsense. He was excellent down the right hand side, beat 1 v 1 against Darmian several times, played lovely triangle football with Tadic. Targett hardly made any deliveries at all, instead he played quite defensively all game (much less than Bertrand) and didn't overlap with Redmond except maybe once.

I tried to get tickets for the game but ended up going to the City game a few weeks back instead. Plus Wednesday night. But was the ground full? Interested to know whether the goal drought has taken a toll on non-ST/one off attendance.

No negative tactics to be seen here. Felt we played some excellent football, total horse **** about not knowing what to do in final third. Man Utd had so many players in the box at the end that it would have required something extraordinary to nick a late goal. End of first half and beginning of second our strongest period. Could and should absolutely have won that game. No idea where weakened team comes from, given that anyway Zlatan and Pogba are injured. They gave us trouble on the break but we were in control. More possession and more chances. - JWP excellent, would now start him every game (what a change from a year ago!). Strange to substitute him, - Stephens and Yoshida make VVD style runs into midfield, love it! And nice to have some speed/energy at the back, unlike Fonte, to deal with the runs of Martial. - Forster some nice saves - Redmond lively, though hung back a bit too much, but fair enough, he was missing his usual partner of Bertrand on the left hand side. Him and a cautious Targett weren't as good a partnership - Tadic I felt was a 7/10, which is one of the higher scores this season. Solid free kick, nice crosses all day, bad on corners. If we have more confidence, if we have our current full strength team except for maybe a like-for-like younger Steven Davis 2.0 replacement and not relying so heavily on the inconsistent Boufal/Tadic, I think we will be a good top half side again. Something like: Forster Pied Stephens VVD Bertrand Romeu Steven Davis replacement Redmond JWP Gabbiadini Austin

Reminds me of Man City a few seasons ago when they played a second string team and we smashed them. Could go either way but it really depends on what second string means. Fellani, Mata, Rooney, Martial might all play to rest Herrera, Lindegard, Mykitarian and Rashford. I fail to see how a supposedly 'reserve' team sheet is any better for us. It'll be tough, depends on who wants it more, blah blah blah. I trust that Pied (based on one game, yes I'm aware), Romeu, Bertrand, Gabbiadini and Davis will put in their (at least now) consistently quality, controlled, hard working performances. Want to put Yoshida, Stephens and JWP in that list but hesitated. It just depends on the likes of Tadic, Redmond, Boufal, Long, Forster etc. to have 'on' days rather than 'off' days...if that happens and they are calm, creative, hard working and not giving away stupid balls/mistakes, we will win this match something like 2-1.

I didn't watch the game. How was he?

Sure. But not exciting how we define it now. Maybe I mean slick, creative, attacking football. The pitches 30 years ago couldn't handle the kind of fast play we have come to expect in the league now. Arsenal stood out when Arsene Wenger came in. Now, teams like Stoke and West Brom have players like Shaqiri and Chadli for pete's sake.

I do not get this. there was no exciting football 30 years ago. Even 20. People have got obsessed with slick pitches and Arsenal adoration, thinking that attacking, pass-and-move, clever creative football is what defines the premier league and should be the standard for mid-table teams. You think Sunderland fans are annoyed because they play drab football, or because they lose most weeks? I think it's the latter. Creative attacking football makes the victory sweeter. That's all.

I'm not surprised at the reactions here: Puel out, drab football, no cutting edge, etc. However, would just like to say I thought we played fantastic in the first half. I was proud of the performance for most of the game, thought the players ran, pressed and harassed the opposition, always looking for an attacking outlet or over-the-defense pass. I was surprised at the energy and tempo we played with. - Bertrand/Redmond combo was proving impossible for Arsenal to handle, only when Bellerin came on for the Ox did it calm down a bit. - JWP, Gabbiadini and Romeu pressed Arsenal's midfield from front and behind - Thought we were an attacking threat all first half. The fact that Arsenal were limited to counter attacking was pretty significant. We never let them play their football. - Had several shots on target, shame one of them didn't go in - Second half we pressed until the goal, after that had spells but Arsenal got back into it and we were more stretched. All in all, for me I'm a bit indifferent to Puel, I think he won't be one of our all time greats, but that's OK. Very few are. His team selection was good, but we are limited by injuries and individual motivation (e.g. Tadic). I don't think he plays negative football necessarily, we absolutely played anything but negative football for most of the Arsenal Match. At liverpool, OK, we ground it out (1 point away from home). Boring but necessary. Proud.

What he does do is provide an option for wide players or defense to play to. He makes himself available. That's a positive, and he worked hard to provide that cover. However, his ability to get round a man, or make a cutting pass which takes out an opponent or two, leaves a lot to be desired. Many times he just passes the way he is facing when he receives the ball, which is fine to get it moving, but relies on other players to provide the creativity/attack. He gives the ball away far too often, and his body language suggests he has no idea what to do with himself when he is with the ball and nearing the opposition 18 yard box. He looks like a rabbit in headlights when he has possession in attack. Davis was better on Saturday defensively, in terms of passing, and making himself available for passing it through the middle of the park. Many times that the team was too stretched, so the only other option was a long ball. Having said all that, he is playing as one of a defensive two. When he was in Germany I believe he played on the right of a midfield three (from videos I watched of his gametime when we signed him, no expert). The only obstacle on his right side was the touchline. Maybe a change of formation, with a 4-3-3, would suit him better, e.g. Davis--Romeu--Hojbjerg

flying over from the continent to treat my old man to this one. hopefully we get something out the game! Think we are in section 4 or 5 near the pitch.