mrfahaji

No we didn't, they were all over us from their equaliser until half time. Helps prove your point though We were pretty dominant against Fulham. Lack of fitness meant they nearly came back into it, but you can't expect to go a whole game without the opposition having any chances at all.

Confidence. Strikers who have it play more on instinct, they hit things first time, use both feet, gamble on the loose ball more etc. Lack of confidence means everything is a thought process - "if I can just get it on to my right foot I'm more likely to score". When players go through that you can only ask that they keep working hard and hope that the confidence comes back - usually through finding the net, no matter how it comes. Pretty sure we won't be signing two good strikers unless we sell Long. And to be honest, since we tend to only field one out and out striker at a time (though that may change with a 4-2-2-2) signing two would be a waste when we also need investment in other areas.

Well that is even more absurd! Seriously?

Pretty sure that spelling is just inkeeping with the tone of the entire post

Confidence! There's no way an in-form Ings doesn't take the chance from Redmond's square ball first time, on either foot. At first I thought the ball was a little bit behind him and that's why he needed the extra touch, but when you saw it from the replays he could have hit it with his left or opened his body up to find the bottom right hand corner with his right foot. That wasn't the only time as well - he had another chance on his left and tried to work it onto his right. It's also the way that when you're not in the best of form, things don't quite seem to fall for you, and you could see that happening a lot. His header from Redmond's cross wasn't awful, he headed it down and on target, but of course it was blocked and had he looped it in the same way as he did earlier in the season or more similar to Targett's header then there was more chance of scoring - but also more chance of putting it over and I think that's an example of going with the safer option, or trying to be too sure, when your confidence isn't there.

edit double post (this is happening a lot atm...)

As a side note, I see we are heading to Macau for pre season. The facilities and conditions were supposedly pretty crap last year and it wouldn’t have helped our preparations. Hope that if we have to do it they have at least prioritised the football side

Pretty much every team needs a striker with killer instinct and ones who can do it in the PL are rare. I’m not sure it’s a realistic thing to hope for. Obviously it’s possible and would be brilliant if we could, but I think we’re better off focusing on a type of striker to suit our style of play. Is that a quick striker who doesn’t have the first touch or eye for goal of a Shlong, or one who can hold the ball up and be a threat from crosses? While I agree that there are some players in the squad who are decent enough, I also don’t look at the same players you’ve listed and think they are excellent. They’re just ‘ok’. Even our best players don’t ooze a different class - Hojbjerg is arguably one of our better players but if we put him up for sale who would be interested? I’d say at best Everton/Wolves, hardly a glowing representation of our squad if we have hopes of matching those clubs next season. The main thing is we stayed up and now have a manager who is capable of getting more rather than less out of a group of players. That in itself isn’t enough, but it is the single most important piece of the puzzle.

Is it FA money?

Desire and urgency went once we won a game that made us virtually safe, shock horror!

While that is definitely true, it's also (probably) the case where a player who is capable of delivering in the PL will have great numbers in other leagues. Differentiating Suarez from Afonso Alves, or Mane from Elyounoussi (ok Austrian League vs Swiss League but I'm not going to spend more time thinking of equivalents!) is where you have to hope the scouts earn their money. Teji Savanier has pretty impressive stats in Ligue 1 and is playing for Nimes. No idea whether he's got the ability but he's 27 so probably doesn't fit our model anyway.

I think that's fair, and most fans probably share your view/concern. Unfortunately it seems there are also quite a few ready to dismiss him as championship standard/a pointless signing/worse than Long/worse than Austin etc just because he had a shot blocked or gave a free kick away.

I must say I am a little bemused at quite what he is doing to make him such a terrible footballer, apart from being hesitant/indecisive in front of goal. Appreciate that that in itself is a legitimate reason to be frustrated with a striker, but given he has shown moments in the past of not being like that, I'm prepared to believe that's more about his confidence.

Seems all streams are down... great!

What was “so bad”? The header? The foul? Neither of those things were dreadful or inexcusable.

Edit double post

Well in some ways that’s the point - it’s not easy to find one!

Oh dear. Oh dear oh dear.

I think people are overreacting with Ings. Looks to be lacking confidence and sharpness in front of goal but how many teams have spent 10-20m unsuccessfully in pursuit of a star striker? He is still much better at linking play than our other options, and he has shown ability in front of goal in the last, just not happening at the moment. Taking an extra touch and not taking it on your weaker foot are classic signs of lacking confidence. I’m not saying he will prove to be a brilliant signing but it wouldn’t surprise me if he proves some people wrong here. My main concern is that his fitness struggles will also hold him back from reaching his potential.

I have to admit I didn’t think the shot was on and someone to the right had just opened up for the ball... but it was a blistering strike so fair play to Redmond!

Is that true though? If you are addicted to logging into your Ladbrokes account, would seeing their logo emblazoned everywhere not trigger some sort of urge? It’s easy to take a specific situation and make it seem meaningless but the issue is that betting will, if it hasn’t already, become the thing that everyone does, and if you don’t do it you’re the odd one out. Of course you can argue that there’s so much of it then it won’t make any difference whether Saints add to it or not (I’m sure we have an official betting partner) but I’d rather we didn’t if we can help it.

Is it likely to make a significant difference though? Not being difficult, genuinely don’t know what the feasible range of amounts a club of our size can fetch in sponsorship.

True! I remember when our game at Sunderland (think it was THAT FA cup but may have been league) was moved to a Noon kick off... of all the matches they could have chosen.

I don't think I said anywhere that I was fine with having betting adverts round the pitch and in the programme. I appreciate that you can probably find something 'wrong' with all kinds of sponsors, but the reason I'm not keen any betting companies is because it's becoming increasingly the norm to link football with betting, and it seems to be overlooked that people have serious problems with it in the same way as people do with other banned advertising like alcohol. I mean, just look at Heisenberg, he can't tear himself away from his account.

Couldn't happen to a nicer bunch, but in all seriousness it is quite ridiculous. When the other matches today are Villa-WBA and Derby-Leeds. Not exactly a long way to travel for either of them. Just goes to show that fans are always the last consideration.