Said this all along and many on here disagreed ( fair enough). But we have a week to sort things out, which isnt enough time now. this window has been a car crash IMO.
Just back from the game. We were really poor. Our centre mid parted like the Red Sea on so many occasions. Romeu was caught out of position regularly when he had pushed to far forward. Really showed that we need another CDM to play / compliment Romeu. As for the young Polish lad, well he is no where near ready for the Premier league. Caught out of position time & time again and very slow to close down the attacking player. We needed a starter CB, not another young kid. If we get an injury to Yosh or JS, we are in big trouble. LR didn't replace Fonte last season, and 7 months later we are still in the same boat. And Long is no right midfielder nor is JWP a CAM. Didn't hear booing just a few grumbles at the end. Big topic as walking out was the lack of investment in a couple of starter players. But this is what pre season is for. Will have a better take after Saturday as would imagine we will start with a near on best 11. But Les, for gods sake the squad needs a couple of quality starters to be signed, and the VVD saga needs sorting NOW.
That's been a huge concern for months now. We haven't replaced Fonte so if we do end up selling VVD then we need 2 first team CBs. Yoshida is a great back up player and has been good when called upon while Stephens has a lot of potential but I feel neither should be starters on a regular basis.
Just to echo this as there seems to be a lot of people on here slagging off those of us that were there. If there was any booing it was about 3 people and even that could have been construed as 'bloody hell, came out in this weather to watch that' type grumbles. The vast majority of fans even clapped their first goal. I got soaked on the way there, sat and watched a mostly insipid display by my team (told my Dad off for moaning about everything), clapped and then left and got soaked again. As did 99% of the crowd. On the plus side my parents don't want me to treat them again any time soon
I spent the evening putting together an Ikea sofa including over an hour of ironing the covers and I still think my evening was more enjoyable. Glad to hear that the booing was minimal though, it's a preseason friendly for crying out loud.
Should probably wait for the crash to conclude before assessing the casualties. No one really knows what will happen in the next month, so no value in being downcast just yet. Yes this Virgil business is a frustration, but both he and Toby were signed late in the window and took to the team like ducks to water. Basically, the situation is far from lost. Tonights team probably had about four players who will start against Swansea in the starting line up. It was a bad performance and not helped by a bad conclusion to last season, but plenty can and I'm hopeful will be done
No, it clearly doesn't. In sotonsaint's defence though, it's easy to see that if you look at the fixtures up until the end of September (a month after the window closes, allowing time for any new players to settle in) we'll have played 7 out of our first 8 fixtures which should be at the easier end of the spectrum. If we can't get ready in time for those, and lose points against teams we should be competing with/finishing above, the points aren't exactly going to flow in after that when the fixtures get harder.
Last night, if anything, showed that we lacked quality in depth which is the reason we need couple of quality signings, because if we start to get injuries and suspensions to our better players, we'll be mediocre at best.
Same conversation as every summer though. A bad performance/result sets everything off. We have a new manager who is assessing the team and giving players game time to look at what he has and who can do what. It's not ideal, but hey that's what happens when you change managers. In my eyes, this manager needs a season to come in, get used to our league, find his feet and then impose himself. I will give him that season and hope the club and fans do too, otherwise (like with last season), we'll be doing it all over again. Patience levels must be high. Expectation levels should be tempered.
Our opening two months are pretty soft; would have been nice to get players in early and integrated during preseason (given that every year we shrug that players haven't hit the ground running owing to their lack of a full preseason with the club) so that we improve our chances of a good start, because it'd both relieve the tension and set us up nicely for our usual brutal November - January. But such is life.
Yeah I do have concerns if we're scraping around the bottom half come the end of November. As for last night, Puel out.
The issue for me is that Saints have banged on about their black box and the research they do to secure a player. If this is the case why have our last couple of pre-seasons seemed so cobbled together ? I think its great that we are investing in youth again but are Saints in a position to buy the quality we require.
The black box is a load of ****e, the club employ a couple of spotty teenagers playing football manager who think they know every stat about every player, i think they also post on here occasionally
I'm no bed wetter but we should be looking to compete in and around the West Hams , Leicester and Evertons. Preparation is key.......apparently
We can't really compete with any of those wage wise though. Maybe Leicester but they're still riding a wave from winning the league.
Ahh, Sorry touched a nerve did I, I wasn't aiming my post at any one in particular so sorry if you took offence.
