First is was Redmond who shot wide. he should have scored. Next, while I think Lamela will be a good midfielder, he has had too many errand passes. He should be on the bench and PHB should start with Romeu. I think the defense did fall asleep a few times and is it just me but Bertrand seems to just be phoning in his workload. He has not looked sharp at all. Again, I think Davis should not be starting as we need someone with speed and guile to spring Gabs. In the second half, Davis was slow to get to a great one-two with Tadic (I think). Boufal or Pierre would have made it to the ball for a clean shot on goal from inside the box. FF had a decent game and maybe being kept of the England team has shown him he can't take it for granted. Finally, Betrand should have scored from 3 yards out with no real pressure. Why he went for the back post and no heading down into the ground to force a great save from the keeper is beyond me. Well like you said, 5 points from 9 is not bad, but I bet at the beginning of the season, everyone would have marked this as 3 points. Now to see how the VVD saga plays out. Keep the faith Saints.

The main concern for me is the widely commented on lack of interest of Ryan Bertrand. I didn't see or hear commentary of this match but it seems to have been a common observation. Interesting few days lie ahead. O course it could be he has personal problems nt Saints related and if so it is non eo four business but the manager has a duty of care over his players as well as the Club and needs to help him though whatever it is that is clearly having an impact on his attitude and performance.

A solid point that a win against Watford would make part of a great start .

Watching the team yesterday it got me thinking how many of the team are siding with the club in the VVD dispute and how many with him ?

Are the players upset that VVD and some of them are being held back from transfers or are they annoyed at VVD that he is costing them money in lost points bonuses ?

Agree with a few before that Bertrand looks In the VVD camp and is doing the bare minimum. Tadic ? , Redmond ? Cedrc ?

Then The 50 50s who are just sick of the toxic atmosphere Gabs ? Romeau?

If so let's hope the closing of the window gets them refocused as we cannot carry players of that importance who are not 100 percent committed.

Still think we are one great attacking last minute signing from a great season

dreadful playing system
les reeds finger prints all over this system
black 1st team coach= says it all like watching aston villa
no wonder MP cant change the style
still they are all working for a new owner now & they will be held to account
after 8 games will see if they are all mouth & trousers

Very valid points from SaintBrock, skiptonsaint and others. this was behind my post of - 24 Aug 2017
Thread Passion - Determination - And a winning Desire.

As I see very little - Passion or Determination - And a winning Desire in our team at Present .... look at the clubs that we have played so far! My fear is when we come up against " A REAL TEAM " we will be over run and annihilated.

Can anyone name any Saints first team player's ( apart from Romeu perhaps ) who possesses ..... The Passion - The Determination and most of all THE DESIRE to win every game ? Leicester had it in abundance ... When against all the odds - - - They WON the Premiership.

Fundamentally we haven't been beaten in the league. I don't care what people say about the quality of the opposition, you can only beat what's in front of you. Considering that we haven't even reached 2nd/3rd gear is very promising.

It looks like Forster had a good game. Hopefully these clean sheets (excluding Wolves) will give him some confidence. Also I think being left out of the England squad was good for him with regards to giving him a reality check about how good he thinks he is.

My only issue at the moment is the team selection. I've mentioned this before but I simply can't see why MP is so persistent with Davis and Tadic. Davis in particular doesn't score goals or make assists. I will admit the pass he made for Redmond was decent but unfortunately he doesn't do it frequently enough. Tadic I think is toxic to the dressing room and needs to be sold. I genuinely think we can't play him with Boufal I'd rather see Boufal picked ahead of him.

Secondly, the lack of goals from our attack in general is becoming very worrying. We need to bring someone who can do the business and give people like Gaby, Redmond, Tadic, Boufal and Austin a kick up the back-side.

That is, send a message, 'if you don't deliver you're out'. The lack of scrutiny on the attack compared to our defence is unbelievable. One goal from open play in three game is simply not good enough. Our defence so far have two clean sheets from 3 matches.

We should get someone like Benteke, Balde Diao or even Rondon in. Strong, powerful strikers that can bully defenders. Since Pelle and Lambert left we lost that element to our game. All these small intricate players are annoying me. Just bang it in the net!

I also think we need another winger. Long demonstrated he could do it yesterday but I'd rather see him in a more central position. Zaha or Townsend would be brilliant additions.

It is fascinating that we essentially have the same problem we have had since Pelle, Mane and Wanyama left. 'Transition' seems to be the word that today's talking heads use. At our best in the three seasons before Puel we attacked with flamboyance, quick passing, surging runs or whatever and a lot of the weaker teams couldn't live with us. Puel never solved the problem and it is MP's now. Personally I think we need to replace Mane before Thursday or this season may have a familiar feel (with far fewer games of course).

That said, I am astonished that some are on MP's back already. Give the guy a chance for goodness sake!

I'm pretty concerned tbh. We look worse than last year. I see no difference in the way we play, we are just creating fewer opportunities. I was really pleased with the transfer business and think we have a great squad, but the whole is is currently less than the sum of its parts. We have an easy start to the season no if we aren't in the top 4/5 at the end of September I think we'll struggle. We really need something to change.We should have more than 5 points from two home games and one away, against three of the weakest teams in the league.

@Wandering - Sorry but have to disagree with you on your last sentence. Except for Hudd, Swansea and WH barely finished behind us and WH went out and spent money this year. Many tip them to be ahead of us. Swansea game, we couldnt hit the back side of a barn. I agree with you that by the end of Sept we need to be up the table as November will be when our season really kicks in against top of league teams.

A@Cotese - I agree so many people focusing on our Defense (VVD saga I think) that they forget that scoring has been our main problem. I agree with you that we need a BIG Forward like Pelle to be able to play off them. I don't think we need a winger, but agree that Boufal should be given a chance. I agree Davis needs to be on the bench and should come in as a holding/defensive midfielder. I think the wings should be Redmond, Boufal and for your middle man to connect the defensive mid to attacking should either be Pierre or Tadic. JWP doesnt have the vision to move the ball fast enough in transition.

I said it before the game and yesterday proved it for me.

Serial under achievers. Tadic, Redmond, J W P in particular.Put simply they have had chance after chance and proved they can not deliver enough on a regular basis.

As for taking Gabby off to play for a point at Huddersfield, words fail me.

In defence of gabby being taken off
1- he had a good chance that he put straight down the keepers throat
2- during that chance he took a knock that may have led to his substitution
3- most poignant, after his removal we looked the only side likely to get the winner. If Bertrand scores which he should have then the decision is the right one❗️

looks like we play like england Zzzzzzzzzzzzz

Lots of focus on our lack of goals and requests for us to get a creative midfielder in as a priority. As usual we've bought relatively 'cheap with potential'. I believe we've taken it too far and there are too many 'nearly men' in the squad. Take out Gabbi, Romeu, Bert and Cedric, plus probably Lemina and Hoedt. That's just six players who I think would get unqualified support over their quality. Only one of them is an attacker. Is that a BIG clue.

Look at the stats. 8 Goals in last 11 games last season. 1 goal from open play in first 4 games of this season. We sell Jay Rod and loan out Sam. Redmond off target each week. Tadic a disruptive influence and Bertrand not interested and unprofessional. The only striker to make an impact yesterday was a speedy winger. What do you think we need Les before the window closes?

Why does Cedric get a game when he can't defend, Is so often caught out by a fast attacker, he can't shoot and rarely achieves anything but some hoof upfield to no-one in particular.

Why does Tadic get a game when he can't score, he can't create chances, he is disruptive in his play and attitude.

Like the majority of supporters my view of the game was limited to the Sky match choice offering and, on that very shakey basis, I'm not too concerned at present. Huddersfield appeared to run out of steam in the last fifteen minutes and that alone indicates that their squad is going to struggle as the season rolls on and injuries, suspensions and loss of form start to hit home. Bournemouth have spent a lot of money on average players, £20m on a centre half who ball watches for example, Palace will probably sack De Boer before Christmas and WHU haven't even got a league point. I don't actually care about any of their problems, what I am saying is that we are better by far than at least half of the EPL. I think, but obviously don't know, that there will be squad changes at St Mary's this week and some of the under achievers will be making way for at least one quality signing. That, added to Hoegt in defence, will put the smile back on our faces next month. Well, I can dream, I just hope I'm right.

A better second half than the first where we were slow and unable to keep the ball ,and therefore under pressure most of time. Nevertheless we defended well and weathered the storm. Redmond should have scored but missed . Gabbiadini makes good space but noone can find him . Mostly our attacks fizzled out because of poor passing or lack of vision final pass . Creativity is minimal and especially , desire levels seem to be at a low . Some players underperformed especially Cedric who is much better than he shown recently. I would like to see another winger with speed something anything to create the space for a goalscorer.

We must remember that Black and Watson are Reed men and sit just below Pellegrino and his own men. That's how politics works in many organisations. Even if Pellegrino wanted to rid himself of the pair of them he couldn't, HE is in the nut in the classic pincer trap.

Not much change.No fire. Yes, they try a couple of good runs, but when the opposition doesn't just fall over, Saints players just seem to shrug their shoulders, and say "Oh, well,"

Unfortunately, it seems that the selling culture has trickled down to the players who now view Southampton as the Premier League waiting room.

I would start Boufal for the next few weeks, not because I agree with others that he is better than Tadic, but because he needs to show he can pass the ball to others and score. if he doesn't, out the door at the next window. This would also anger Tadic, who would be champing at the bit the next time he gets on the field.

We are becoming very boring to support!

BoondockSaint I agree with your comment -unfortunately, it seems that the selling culture has trickled down to the players - (sic) in the dressing room.

You only have to see what is happening at Arsenal who are playing as badly as us at the moment, where half their players are seemingly hacked off and want out; the club are going through a very uncertain few weeks awaiting the end of the transfer window.

The big question is will anything improve there or here after Thursday even if both clubs retain all their best players but their hearts are elsewhere. I am not optimistic!

Is it one wonders the beginning of the end of the squad system wherein very good players used to be patient enough the wait their turn and fight for their place? Now they all have ambition (money?) and want first team football all the time or will move on to a club who will give them everything they want.

To be fair, I never met a kid yet whose sole ambition was to be a reserve footballer. maybe thee are too many mediocre kids turning pro these days because of the academy system, targets and football's trigger happy firing culture at all levels?

We must be getting another attacking option surely. If anyone of the
Front 3 got injured (which odds on will happen at some point) we would be down to bare bones and Les would get it. It would look very careless and worse than last year. Who from the reserves is the 4th striker at the moment btw ?

Discontent at Arsenal and Tottenham + Coetinho (sorry couldn't be Rsed to check spelling) at Liverpool and all the discontented wantaway faces at Saints show what agent/player driven modern football is becoming. I don't hold with any 'golden age' sometime in the past nonsense but I know I don't find it easy being a football supporter now. Jimmy Hill made an important breakthrough on players' rights in the 1960s but now they, their agents and the neoliberal monolith that is Sky are running the game into the ground. Suffice to say: all bubbles burst - ask George Osborne...

Spot on Skipton.
Our fully fit forward line have a poor goal scoring record as it is, unless we have an incoming then we are asking for trouble.
We've got non scoring midfielders by the score, even big ears on MOTD pointed out where are problem lies.