Match Day Thread Everton v Southampton 02/01/17 3pm

I won't be heading to St Mary's again anytime soon. The atmosphere is poison, and the football on the pitch is boring to put it nicely.
I'd rather spend my hard earned money elsewhere.

I did however expect a bigger meltdown on here.

 

Would you all play a first team against Norwich in an attempt to get some form, a win and some confidence? Or risk losing Norwich and save them all for Liverpool?

 

I genuinely wonder if the off field issues (prospective takeover etc) is affecting the players/management? I mean, it shouldn't, but looking back, performances have been going downhill since the interest leaked out in early November.

 

Really? Look at what l wrote and your response. When have l ever created conflict on this web site?

 

Said it before and il say it now.we dropped a bollock when we sold mane And pellé. Big mistake.

 

I was just wondering if anything is happening behind the scenes that is effecting the club. Are they still talking to the Chinese who wanted to buy us? Are they trying to make the books look as positive and therefore more attractive to any who wants to buy us, or have they been told not to buy anyone as new buyers won't to buy there own players. Anybody else believe in the conspiracy theory

 

We are powerpuff as soon as we concede. Players neither have the belief in the manager or each other. We look so bloody feeble.

 

I don't think even my match threads can help us at the moment.

 

If we don't sign a striker this window we will plummet down the league. They had a line leading striker. We had various guys who like to play off... erm... the striker we don't own.

 

Right, I didn't see the game and have only read what's on here...

Seems like we played fairly well up until they scored but just didn't create/weren't clinical enough. That's been the story of our season so far though, so don't see why this game is more worthy of a meltdown than others?

The biggest concern for me is that we seem to have collapsed again after their goal. That is a huge worry imo.

Still think asking for a change is too soon, and am fully of the opinion that a lot of our problems are down to our poor Summer. People are right to say it's not really Claudes fault for that reason. Though you can't say he's completely blameless either. As most of the time with these things, the truth lies somewhere in between.

I will still judge him properly at the end of the year after (hopefully) some backing in January and I will say for the umpteenth time that now we're in January, it's over to the board....

 

But it can, though. It can...

 

Puel for me is not the man to Saints further on (my opinion)
Secondly the transfer policy is absolutely ridiculous!
Again an opinion.
Saints will not buy in January (again be surprised if they do)
Historically they do business in summer.
There seems to be little old Saints attitudes towards defeats which is acceptable.(Complete bollocks)
Stop selling our best players (under contract) and buying ****.
Does the manager have any say?
Cheap options will not work forever,Korean went,they should have had the ambition to take the club further by appointing someone whom had the credentials i.e. Pelegríne.
Sorry this is negative but I'm pretty ****ed off with the little old Saints so it don't matter.
Come on board pull ya fingers out and get this dealt with.
As some have said the level of performance and dropping of heads is unacceptable.
Yoshida.......really!

 

Firstly, you agreed with my point about not actually looking forward to this game, then you made a point about happy clappers which I chose to use to make a point about this forum in general, that everyone's views are welcome but that personal insults are not. You seem to have a problem understanding what I was saying. Let's leave it there, shall we?

 

Haha, i've read the same comments ever since we returned to the PL...in each of the previous 4 seasons we have suffered a bad spell in mid-season (go on check the results) and we have always pulled out of it before. Things need to be changed, maybe a few new faces or a tactical switch, but we still have a decent nucleus of a squad and talks of us possibly facing a relegation fight are frankly ridiculous. A lot of focus must be on getting a good result at Norwich on Saturday to regain confidence and a feelgood factor.

 

There's more money sloshing around the club than ever. If it's not going into player transfers... then where the flipping eck' is it going? It isn't on wages either, otherwise we'd be paying Fonte what he wants.

 

Try and win both games, definitely. But I assume we always do that anyway.

 

Well Schad has just pointed out we have 12 points from our last 12 games, so we're on staying up form ...

 

Admittedly I probably made it a little too 'black and white'

 

Our next five PL games are very winnable. But they are also very loseable.

I know that the vast majority of people on here see Ron as the devil, but at this exact point last season (after we had just lost away to Norwich on NYD, to extend our horror November and December into 2016) he went and changed formation and got us back on track with back-to-back home wins vs WBA and Watford. Those games are not much different to the five which we have coming up now. It might not have been pretty, but it was six points, four goals, and two clean sheets. Our season turned within a week. I have absolutely no idea if Puel can do the same. I'm very open to waiting and seeing, but due to not knowing, I can't sit here and say that I am confident. Whereas I would have been confident with Ron in charge. Either way, it's not like we've got City and Chelsea coming up next.

 

Now that is a concern. A semi final of a cup, our biggest game for years and only £20 a ticket yet we're not close to selling out? Not good.