JimJams

Need Buo, Bilal or Mav to stay upfield with Vardy to hit them on the break.

Or at RB?

Did well. Thought his kicking was largely pretty good too. Simply put when we line up against Man City there'll be other players starting for us that you'd feel less assured of than Jakub.

And yet there are those complaining about this very situation clamouring for the returns of Maguire, Chilwell etc. (not you btw)

There were definite specific things that Ruud had obviously made a point about. The most obvious one was the way we defended Salah, mainly in the first half tbf. Vk was showing him down the line and Mav was coming back to prevent him coming inside. Salah said in his post match interview how hard he found it and how well we were set up. It's obvious that RvN felt that shutting down Salah was key and we'd take our chances with the rest of the Liverpool attack. I don't think Gakpo was given the same respect on the other side, so we took that chance and he's scored with a great strike. After that, it's gotten a bit loose, and Salah is difficult to keep out of any game. Only gripe about the setup is the lack of an outlet. If you have Mav tracking back he's not up for the quick counter, and Ayew slows those down. Buo and Vardy will be in for the next game and Man City are a lot more open to counters than Liverpool. Or at least, they have been!

I wonder how he'd fare at right back!!

Cooper was given a team with a structure used to playing in a certain style which got the best out of the players we had. He spent the entire preseason dismantling that style of play for his preferred method, for which we didn't have the players to do or he didn't know how to coach it, take your pick. We brought players in the window which didn't fit into his preferred system , a system that he later abandoned. Now we have Ruud who has come in to a side where the structure has been lost, the positivity of promotion is no longer a thing and even if he decided he'd want to go back to the system that got the best out of the players we have, three key players to that system are injured, 2 long term. His preseason is now. There's little to no time during the Christmas pile up to train much into the players. It's way too early to get on his case. He's lost one game which we'd have expected to get something from. And that was largely down to the aforementioned injuries. After Villa we've got 11 days before Palace at home (I'm ignoring QPR in the cup). The window is open and the onus is to make those games count. Home to Fulham, Away to Spurs, Away to Everton Feb 1st. After those, with the Jan window done, we'll see where we're at. It's too early to tell if he's a Lampard or an Alonso.

I think the idea is to probably go 3 at the back and have the fullbacks push forward to help get something. But when the opposition peg you in it just becomes a back 5.

Let's be honest, whichever subs were made people would complain.

Go back to the Salah offside then...

Yeah, definitely killed the momentum in that move, however I do think he was on a different wavelength there. It's the 44th minute, I think he's wanting to slow it down and see out the half, where others got excited and bombed on.

Though Mav has been getting a few pelters for his what he's done at the attacking end, you can't dismiss the good defensive work he's done helping double up on Salah. Which'll probably see him stay on.

I don't think we ever really had a chance did we? We were linked but no more.

With Ayew on a yellow, can't see him staying on over Mav.

Vardy being saved for Pep.

Hopefully the lino has that right!

Savinho is pretty shit aint he?

Winning one game doesn't constitute form.

He looked out of his depth in the Championship, we're not buying him.

Both fullbacks would be nice! Didn't realise Rensch was coming to the end of his deal. Nice spot.

Yeah they're just down as ones signed whilst he was still officially head scout. Given Lavia was one of the two I considered successes, that makes it worse.

Unfortunately this is our preseason. He's got to try and implement things and figure out his best side in games that matter. We might be in the relegation spots come the new year, but we won't be adrift. Then he's got a lot of work to do on a number of fronts. Need to get the recruitment right just to stand a chance.

Martyn Glover signings before joining us. Saints: 19/20 Ings Che Adams Djenepo Danso Loan. 20/21 Walker-Peters Ibrahima Diallo Salisu Walcott Loan Minamino Loan 21/22 Livramento Adam Armstrong Perraud Lyanco Walcott Free Summer 22 Pre Leicester Lavia Bazunu Bella-Kotchap Mara Caleta-Car Edozie Aribo Larios Maitland Niles Loan So about 2 successes there.

So a step up on Coady and Vesty then?

He was a bout 1 in 4 at Champ level wasn't he?