switters

The real frustrating thing is that after the red card we'd actually stood up well to the pressure, defensively. Guzan had made saves on the (relatively few) occasions they got shots on target. Yes, they had a couple of one-on-ones where they were favourite to score, but generally I think Vlaar and Herd did well with what was thrown at them. And when Holt's chance was saved I thought maybe that was their one big chance, but goal came right after. The goal was essentially 4 mistakes, preventing any one of which could have stopped it: 1) Albrighton gave the ball away cheaply trying to break, when we really needed to hold on and slow it down, they won the corner from this 2) Nobody closed down the short corner. 3) Lichaj (?) failed to beat Turner to the cross 4) Nobody stationed on the back post Overall midfield & possession is the problem, for sure. Hard to see an answer because whatever combo we pick from the players we have seems to be lacking something.

It's a team that will graft, but will it create and will it take chances? Have to wait and see, I guess. Not amazingly confident, but I think we might grind out a win somehow.

I guess Lambert just wants to have more attacking options. Lichaj can cover either FB and he or Lowton would go CB if there was an injury. It'd be rare and unlucky to get 2 defensive injuries so we don't need Baker and Lichaj.

Ah remember this, just 18 months ago: Okay it was a later round, so City probably cared more & we had other concerns at the time, but even still it is nice we now have a manager who is not defeatist about such games. I'm certain even if we were in relegation battle, Lambert would never be so negative about our chances of winning a one-off cup match.

Awful 2nd half, no question. Feel to pieces and got cut open time and time again. I think it shows how brittle our confidence still is: one setback when they equalize and it was like house of cards. Constantly going long was frustrating - not necessarily always hoofing, but floated passes when we could be keeping it on the ground, we never took control of the ball. Every time we got it, it was back to Southampton within a few passes. Very surprised Lambert stuck with Bent-Benteke when nothing was sticking & we were losing midfield battle (esp after Ireland went off). The end was like a 4-2-4 with KEA and Westwood obliterated as the middle 2 and the 4 up front never keeping the ball. Think any defence would struggle if opposition has that much space in front of them (not really excusing how easily some of the defenders let them through, mind). Guzan will be breathing huge sigh of relief..ref gives him red there and he might be back on bench for months. Not so good today from him, although only 1st where you could say he could've done much better. Do think people need to look past names a bit - so many in this thread blithely calling Southampton worst side in the league, when that is something that can't be close to being known after a handful of games. 3 of their 4 losses were Man Utd, Man City & Arsenal so it's hardly a true picture of where they stand compared to the rest of the league. They had a bad loss to Wigan, but otherwise you wouldn't expect any team to be on many points from those fixtures. And they did give both City & Utd big scares. I don't think they're as good as we made them look in 2nd half, but also not as bad a 4 losses in a row suggests..

Dear lord this is a worrying collapse. Defence just crumbled this half.

Really great performance. Comfortably better than anything we managed (that is to say, McLeish mis-managed) last season. All the new signings looking positive. Biggest change is that there was both work-rate AND lots of efforts on goal. would've been robbery if Swansea had got equaliser, which made the Benteke goal so satisfying. MOTM - probably Vlaar for an essentially faultless performance, but you could make cases for Lowton (great goal, and so much energy getting up & down the pitch), Guzan (early save was crucial - had we gone 1-0 down after 10 mins it would've been completely different game - we saw that one vs Everton) or Bannan (put in a lot of very good balls - keep doing that and he'll start racking up assists)

Great interplay from our 3 forward players. Very positive to see, and it would've been a lovely goal.

Good awareness from Ireland. Shame about Weimann's shot/cross/whatever that was. Now great save from Brad

Starting lineup unchanged from Newcastle, if I'm not mistaken. I think it sends right message to both the new players and the likes of Lichaj/Bannan/Weimann to know that if they play well they will keep their place, even if there is new competition for their position.. Hope to see some of the newcomers getting some game time off the bench though..

You count as homegrown if you played long enough in England before a certain age. Those three all came through English club academies so count.

We don't have too much experience, but in numbers we've got a large squad now. Compare Everton who only named 19 and Chelsea & Liverpool just 20. Glad we're not in situation like QPR where they can't even fit all their players in. They got Luke Young, Rob Hulse, DJ Campbell & Radek Cerny all in limbo now. Assume they'll loan them to lower league, but they must have crazy wage bill.

It's good that he's still in the squad because he may yet be needed, but it would be great if by the time he's back from injury the Vlaar-Clark combo is looking well enough established that he can't get in the team.

I think we're fortunate Tiote injured. Newcastle don't have the same physical presence in midfield without him. Team is more understandable with news Delph/Herd injured. Not really a lot of choice in who we play CM without them (only other thing would be Clark as DM, Baker at CB but I think Lambert already said he don't see Clark as midfielder)

Gabby on the bench? Didn't realize he was gonna be back already. Bold team. We really can't afford to go behind early or I'd fear a thrashing.

The biggest disappointment of the window for me is that Hutton and Warnock are still here

Sounds promising. Hopefully he'll turn out to be a coup. By the description of style of play, I wonder if he's in as backup/alternative to El Ahmadi. Think we'll generally start with 3 of the 6 centre mids, as follows: Herd/Delph - primary role: energy/winning the ball back El Ahmadi/Westwood - keep possession ticking over Ireland/Bannan - creativity

Not good enough, only surprise is its not perm I dont rate him either, what was strange was that he started against Everton. Would that not have made him first choice backup to bent and benteke? Don't forget we have Gabby coming back, and also signed Bowery, so he might well have been about 5th choice not even on the bench most of the time. Also it might have been that Lambert just decided to give him a game as an audition as to whether or not to let him go on loan.

Didn't Bennett play in the Prem with Middlesbrough? wiki tells me he made his debut for Boro in the final match of the 2008-09 season. er, which they lost and got relegated in! Perfect experience. 1 PL match, 1 relegation

You mean we've signed a player who can't travel in time

Just posted on another thread, I think he fits a certain system. At Blackpool he had license to ping balls out to wingers all match long. And he's pretty good at them. But he's the opposite thing to a possession player, which is what Lambert seems to be trying to instil at Villa (and this is also likely the reason Rodgers doesn't want him in his new possession-based Liverpool team). So I would be surprised if we were in for him.

That midfield would get trounced... swap Ireland with Herd and put him in KEAs position and we would be a bit tougher... although i dont like Adam i could see he how he could come in handy As far as I can remember, Charlie Adam's two main skills at Blackpool, when he was good, were taking corners and pinging balls out for wingers to run onto. Can't see him being the kind of player who'd suit what we have in the team. Besides which we have Bannan who does similar already. Makes sense for Stoke, who have Etherington/Kightly/Pennant for him to ping to, and Crouch/Walters/Huth/etc to aim at from corners.

We should talk about high level experience rather than PL experience specifically. Anyway, pretty sure Shay Given alone accounts for getting on 50% of our tally!..

For the striker role I'm not sure we need to be so fussed about experience. We clearly need more experience in the team, but its more in defence and midfield we're lacking that. Up front we actually have Bent & Gabby who are two extremely experienced PL strikers, 500 PL games between them. I think Benteke would be here as another option who offers a different kind of threat to what we have, not someone who's likely to start every game.

Why would we leak it at all? To keep reporters on side. If they have nothing to report, they are more likely to fill the space with something negative.