Cracking the top 4

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A huge blow for the young lad. Luckily we have some decent strength in depth now and can cover for his absence.

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Some more transfer news is that Steven Davis has left the club on a free after his contract expires. Davis is a player I love in real life but unfortunately he needs to leave to make way for the youngsters coming through.
 
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Starting XI - Horn, Digne, Van Dijk, Bartra, Tete, Maia, Strootman, Insigne, Hesketh, Lucas, Martial.

Opening day of the season and we got the win we so richly deserved! We bossed the game for almost its entirety until that crazy 10 minutes at the end of the match. Debut goals for Anthony Martial and substitute Jack Grealish were extremely positive signs and Lucas Moura seems to have picked up this year where he left off last season. A good win to get us up and running.
 
Great start to the season, good to see that the new players are of to a great start. I must say that I am quite impressed with your signings, especially interested in seeing how Tah will develop as he could become a real beast!
 
TheOtherSpecialOne said:
Great start to the season, good to see that the new players are of to a great start. I must say that I am quite impressed with your signings, especially interested in seeing how Tah will develop as he could become a real beast!
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Thanks buddy! :) I have never had Tah before so I thought I would give him a shot! if we can at least consistently beat the smaller teams in the league we can have a really good crack at the top 4 :)
 
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MARIO GOTZE SIGNS!!!!! (on loan) BUT STILL! MARIO GOTZE SIGNS FOR SOUTHAMPTON! Danilo Cataldi decided that he was going to start complaining about a lack of first team football, on transfer deadline day. Nobody wanted to buy him, so we sent him out on loan for the season to get some of his wages off the books. With no time left to thoroughly scout a replacement I decided to look on the loan market and there he was. Even better, we are paying just 10% of his wages, so Gotze is playing for us for the season for £16k a week.


#WelcomeSaintMario!​
 
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A horrific blow to our chances this season as one of our star players Kevin Strootman is ruled out for pretty much the whole season with a torn ACL. Luckily this also happened on transfer deadline day so I marched straight back to the loan market and found this guy at Liverpool. He has signed for the season on loan.

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#WelcomeSaintFede​
 
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Starting XI - Horn, Digne, Van Dijk, Tah, Chambers, Maia, Slattery, Insigne, Gotze, Lucas, Pelle.

We so almost made it. Mario Gotze scored a superb debut goal to give us the lead which we held for the ENTIRE match.. well.. the entire match minus the last 5 seconds of injury time, which is when Stoke smashed home their equaliser. The commentary says it was Jonathan Tah's fault but I am more annoyed with Calum Chambers who let his man get the wrong side of him from right back. Still, an away point at Stoke is always welcome.
 
Wow, Mario Götze and for only such a small wage fee is definately a coup! Strootman picking up such a serious injury is quite a blow but Fede does look rather impressive stat-wise so I believe that he should be able to replace him. All in all you did some nice business over the course of transfer market, now its just a matter of getting the players used to each other and to your tactics.
 
TheOtherSpecialOne said:
Wow, Mario Götze and for only such a small wage fee is definately a coup! Strootman picking up such a serious injury is quite a blow but Fede does look rather impressive stat-wise so I believe that he should be able to replace him. All in all you did some nice business over the course of transfer market, now its just a matter of getting the players used to each other and to your tactics.
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Gotze was never going to be part of the plan, but I was taking a look at what needed to change for us to break the top 4, and every team in the Champions League spots has a world class player.. a talisman, Hazard/Sanchez/Aguero/Rooney. I felt it was time we had one to :) There have already been some promising signs of the lads bonding, so heres hoping it will be a success!
 
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August Review

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Very satisfied with the start we have made this year. A really good opening day win over Huddersfield, a decent effort against a monstrously strong Chelsea side and then an unlucky last minute equaliser against Stoke.
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As usual it is far too early to tell anything from the Premiership table as of yet.

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Straight into the group stages of the Europa League this year and I am fairly happy with the draw. We should be able to show some dominance over the smaller teams.

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An unbelievable draw in the Capital One Cup 3rd round as we are going to have to go to Old Trafford and get a result to progress!
Player of the Month

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Lucas Moura claims the award this month as a goal and an assist in his three appearances makes him almost the first name on the team sheet.

Also a massive congratulations to Johnathan Tah who made his international debut for Germany during the International break. This just goes to show that players can realise their international ambitions here at Southampton which is a major draw.

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September Preview

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A tough month for us, especially having to go up and stay in Manchester for the week with two consecutive games at Old Trafford.
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Starting XI - Horn, Digne, Van Dijk, Bartra, Chambers, Maia, Slattery, Grealish, Gotze, Lucas, Martial.

A fantastic display of attacking talent from the boys as we blow Villa out of the water. I genuinely feared the worst when we went 2-0 down inside the first half an hour but I had absolutely no reason to worry. Martial and Gotze were both on target, as was Jack Grealish against his old club. Lucas Moura grabbed two goals for himself to continue his amazing form.

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These injuries are really starting to hurt now. Villa were very aggressive and picked up a lot of cards. Unfortunately they left their mark on Mario as well.
 
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Starting XI - Horn, Digne, Tah, Van Dijk, Tete, Maia, Slattery, Grealish, Hesketh, Lucas, Martial.

An outstanding result as APOEL never stood a chance. We dominated the whole match with goals for Kenny Tete, Jack Grealish and Lucas Moura as well as a double for Anthony Martial which takes his personal tally to four goals in his first four appearances. This is now the 2nd match in a row that we have scored 5 goals. Promising signs but can we carry this form forward into the double against Manchester United.
 
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Starting XI - Horn, Digne, Tah, Van Dijk, Tete, Maia, Fede, Grealish, Hesketh, Lucas, Martial.

An unbelievable result at Old Trafford as we proved that we really can hang with the big boys. We set up slightly deeper than usual and it worked a treat, restricting United to long shots which meant they got just two of their 19 shots on target. Hesketh gave us the dream start we wanted and then substitute Adam Lallana got in on the act, doubling our lead. The icing on the cake was Anthony Martial getting his 5th goal in 5 games against his old club.

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At the risk of starting to sound like Mourinho, I am really starting to wish we would get a little more protection from referees. These injuries are just not funny any more.
 
Those are some great results! The attack has always been the strongest aspect of your squad but it seems that the defence is also more organised this year. Could be a very promising sign for what's to come. You are really unlucky with these injuries, how good are your fitness coaches/physios?
 
TheOtherSpecialOne said:
Those are some great results! The attack has always been the strongest aspect of your squad but it seems that the defence is also more organised this year. Could be a very promising sign for what's to come. You are really unlucky with these injuries, how good are your fitness coaches/physios?
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Best in the league, I am really not sure whats going on with our injuries. Most of our physios have 20 for that stat, our fitness coaching is 5 stars, and the players have rest days before and after matches. Just gotta live with it I suppose :)
 
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Starting XI - Horn, Digne, Barta, Van Dijk, Chambers, Maia, Slattery, Insigne, Hesketh, Lallana, Martial.

We did it again! That is now twice in a week we have beaten Manchester United at Old Trafford. It took extra time this time, despite being 2-0 at half time. United came roaring back into the match but just didnt have the legs to match us for the extra 30 minutes. Martial was again crucial to everything we did, scoring two goals to take his tally to 7 goals in 6 games. There were also goals for Insigne (In for the injured Grealish) and Lallana (In for the injured Lucas) to show just how good the depth in this squad is.
 
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Starting XI - Horn, Digne, Tah, Van Dijk, Tete, Maia, Slattery, Insigne, Hesketh, Lallana, Martial.

We were lucky to get away with that one tonight. Despite completely bossing the game for the entire 90 minutes, it took until the 89th minute for Martial to continue on his incredible run and toe poke home to give us the win. I am so happy with this win for two reasons. A. Eddie Howe was talking some serious smack about us before the match so it was good to put him in his place. B. This was a performance of a polar opposite to the games we have been playing recently and required determination and focus to grind out a result, in previous seasons we maybe would have even lost this one.

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Lucas Digne will miss the next match or two through injury which will provide the chance for young Ron Whiteman to make his debut.
 
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September Review
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The perfect month. 5 games, 5 wins, 18 goals scored, 4 conceded. Two wins against Manchester United at Old Trafford, I couldnt have asked for any more!
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Still very early days but a hugely encouraging start to the season. It would be nice this year if we could keep up with the early pace rather than being put under pressure having to catch up like the last few seasons.

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An important win to get us up and running in the Europa League as we top the group early on.

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The Capital One Cup has drawn us away from home against Championship side Swindon Town. I have no idea why but I have a bad feeling about this game.
Player of the Month​
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I'm surprised anybody even needs to ask, this lad has been on fire and has scored in every single game we played this month. If he carries on at this rate then the £25 mil we spent on him will be a bargain! especially considering we got £20 mil of that back through the sale of Benteke.
October Preview​
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