Nick, did you not rate Boufal's game? You have been a fan of Redmond, but surely you can see Boufal is a better player with a better attitude. Targett and PEH also played well. Despite your liking of Hoedt, I'm yet to see that he is much of an upgrade on Yoshida and Stephens.

There are several reasons why our Club is in free fall, but the most pressing is the abject Manager Reed has employed; and he has to be replaced, otherwise we are a 50/50 chance of returning to the Championship. It may not happen this window, but a big clear out of players is needed at St Marys - Redmond, Long, Tadic, Bednarek, Gardos, Ward-Prowse (yes I know it won't happen, but it should!) Davis, McCarthy and Forster - one of the worst goalkeepers in the Prem.

Nic, as a matter of interest is this the first time in recent memory you’ve called for a manager to go? Several managers and players have regularly commented on Saints lack of ambition other than to survive relegation and , perhaps now, to finish in the top 10.
Pouch, Koeman and a string of top players wont stay (let alone come in the first place) once they sense that.

I bet Kane was rubbing his hands when he saw this defensive line up and I bet so was Ali & Son, I thought before the game we would get a pasting but scoring two goals has kept MP in a job and proves spuds are no world beaters, I'm afraid a lot of these players want out its obvious, the manger needs to grow a back bone or leave, we are sinking fast with not a lot of quality on show, so another poor day out for those who travelled I hope better times ahead coyr

It's obvious that MP has lost the the players confidence, if he ever had it. Several players, notably Lemina, Redmond and, after his caution, Romeu were often ambling around the pitch. There was little pressing and, defensively, we were shown to be totally leaderless. The marking for the first two Spurs goals was non-existent. Our players also seem sluggish. I've wondered several times whether Saints training sessions are too relaxed. Other sides seem to my eyes to be fitter. Finally, I wonder if Pellegrino observed that once he put more emphasis on attack, as the game was lost, we actually looked more effective and, had we had displayed such momentum against Huddersfield, we might well have won by scoring more than they did. I could have cried out for Gabbiadini. He made a number of clever runs but, one, when Tadic was on the ball and could have put him in, was totally ignored. If the board think everything will come good then they're wrong. At this moment, with these players, no identifiable playing system and a struggling manager we'll quite likely finish bottom - and that includes Swansea being above us. I can hardly believe this has been allowed to happen.

They won't get rid of the Manager in Jan and equally they won't bring in any new players either. Thats not how Les works. Maybe they think a relegation fight is exciting for the fans! As an aside what is Dave Watson actually doing with Forster. Cannot even advise goalkeeping 101 i.e. come out for a cross and catch or at least punch the ball out. Shambles.

I agree the manager needs to go,But so does les read he has appointed this clown.Our Chinese owners were supposed to take us to the next level if this farce carries on they will do.I know some people never liked cortese but he showed leadership I don't see that with the ice hockey puppet.we need big investment not selling our best players to buy players this is the problem and now we are seeing the fruits of this policy.We need a statement of what the strategy of the club is,and its objectives.We are all saints fans and only want the best for the club,but its hard watching the club I love on this path.we had a great side and sold it when we get millions from tv ffs ridiculous and now the chickens come home to roost .

Stephens at right back set the tone. What's the point of Pied if he isnt playing in this one? Ditto Gabbiadini. I think Nick's point about Puel is really astute. He was smart enough to use what he was given by Reed to get us the points - it was often dull so he was sacked. MP hasnt got that astuteness. Sadly I think he does need to go. By any reasonable standard of judgement Reed needs to go too - this team and this manager are HIS. Yesterday was the last straw. GO NOW Les Reed.

Oh one more thing. Eric Black left because he knows when teams are doomed from his experience, and he didn't want the blame this time on his CV.

I reckon a big loss to MU and that'll be it for Mo. Panic button will be hit.

Think it's a tricky one though. The squad clearly isn't suited to the natural way he wants to set it up. Puel was sacked for not enough goals but that seems to be inherent in the personnel rather than the manager.

He's been unlucky with injuries and possibly with form. I agree though that he hasn't either set the team up to get the best out of what he's got or made the right changes during games.

Regardless of where the blame lies he's running out of time to get the season back on track.

Can the board/owners please state what our revised objectives are this season and what assistance Mo will be provided with during January to meet these objectives.

At least Eric Black can't be caretaker now which might save a few Saints fans from total meltdowns!

Only way is up!

Perazi, Boufal played ok, but too many times he tried to be too clever and gave the ball away, not slating his attitude just that he did not have a good game because he played it like we were winning 5-1 and not them, sometimes you have to play for the team's need and not your own.

Hoedt is a good player you can see it in his aura, he kept playing yesterday, I dont need to comment on Yoshida and Stephens perfomance, it was there for all to see

Davepid, This is the first time I have had to call for a manager to go since Burley, poortvliet and Wotte etc werent great but they were all we could afford, so I recognised the situation back then.

Since them each manager up to now has done a decent job, even Puel did the job to spec which is 8th in the Premier League.

Could someone tell me what Forester was doing for the first goal? This man is too inconsistent to be the goalkeeper in a Prem team. His positioning for some of the other goals was questionable as well. Boufal had best game by a long shot.

God he makes some odd decisions. Without 3 of our 4 first choice back four and with success playing a back 5 against big 6 teams away he plays 4 at the back.

Then goes 2 up front for 35 mins (yes we had nothing to lose) away at Spurs rather than home to Huddersfield ?

Some of our poor decisions are going to come back and haunt us as well, like buying Bardenek . When VVD goes are we going to buy another centre half or risk it with Stephens , Hoedt and Yoshi ?

Credit to local lad Matt Targett yesterday . At least he had the pain we feel on his face on the pitch watching the club he supports suffer so badly.We need players with something to prove playing for the shirt in this second half of the season like him, Hesketh and Sims. We might then stand a chance.

PS LEmina is rapidly becoming one of my least favourite players now. Only just got here and seems to have a real attitude. That ambling around as pointed out by Murphy on MOTD . Embarrassing and If he is injured as he claims then don't play because currently he isn't helping anyone.

I am sick to the back teeth with the constant blame being put on the manager. Are we going to constantly demand new managers every half season if they don't get Saints into the champions league spots?! Other clubs may hit the panic button - it may even keep them up - but it is only short term.

The problem is not the manager but the constant instability. He's inherited a team meshed together by a series of managers over the past 2 seasons - some of which appear to think that they are bigger than the club and can pick the manager themselves if he doesnt play them. Ironically keeping VVD has backfired as that muppet of a player has clearly decided he will not give 100% until the club cant stand it any more. I don't know if other fans saw that VVD had posted a pic of himself before the Spurs game with the captain "enjoying the good life" - VVD has clearly been told his infantile game has worked and he can go in the Jan window. I hope he goes to City as he will become a squad player and see limited gametime (3rd choice at City) so he can sit there and count his money whilst reflecting on how mature he is. Best thing for saints now is to get £60m plus for him and re-invest in people who want to play for saints.

There are other players who are sulking. Admittedly that is because of the constant tinkering - and i hope MP now settles down.

I strongly suspect he is struggling to impose authority and perhaps he needs Les Reed and others to remind the squad that MP calls the shots: if they dont like it, then MP should be given the freedom to put them in their place. I also hope/believe that Saints will invest in new players (in any event) in Jan and that will allow MP to add some much needed competition into the squad.

Basically, what i would do (if I was Les) is start communicating something/anything about getting behind the manager and unity etc. MP is a good manager, but he needs time. He needs the board to have his back. We cannot have another situation where a manager is thrown out simply because petulant players want their own way.

Ultimately - and i mean this 100% - the players need to take a long hard look at themselves and start performing. They are a good squad, so they should earn their keep. I admit MP hasn't helped himself (although he may be trying to please everybody) but now is the time to impose authority and tell those who don't like it they can expect a long time on the bench.

The Match of the Day coverage was really quite harrowing. I'm no Danny Murphy fan, but boy was he right to pick up on Saints' deficiencies in this game. The players have lost the plot - whether that's because they want the manager out, or they're just too lazy and unprofessional to give a toss about the very real threat of relegation, I'm not sure.

Agree that Nick makes a very astute point about Puel - I think this team is a lot worse than I had feared. Players who look shot of confidence and a shadow of their former selves include Romeu, Lemina (what's happened to the Lemina of his first couple of games?), Forster (a brief return to form looks like a major false dawn), Davies (starting to look his age sadly...), Tadic (lazy and a criminal diver - can't be long before he gets a retrospective ban, and certainly doesn't look like he has the mettle for a relegation battle).

I'm not sure whether changing manager is going to help us, but from where I'm standing, this is what we need:
- VVD OUT - his attitude is appalling. Not in the squad for the last 3 games - if we can get £60m for him, that would be excellent business
- New RB - I firmly believe Stephens and Hoedt is a good CB pairing. Where is the depth at RB though. Clearly the manager has no confidence in Pied, otherwise he'd have played instead of Stephens who isn't a RB. Is Valery ready?
- New Manager - bring in someone with a proven track record of PRESSING, ATTACKING football. We had that with Koeman, we had that with Poch. Passing football has NOT WORKED since, and it frustrates the hell out of the fans. I want to see the boys bust a lung for the shirt again - I think that can only be done by changing manager.

for a few years we have been selling our top players and replacing with not as good. The last two managers appointed have been awful who does the buck stop with? Reed head of recruitment. I could go on my x box put fifa disc in and do his job and I’m not even joking

I've only seen the MOD highlights so can only comment on those but what stands out to me is: 1. The players are not fit enough which means that they struggle to get goal side of their man 2. The players are lacking in desire and focus 3. The back four has no shape - I'm sorry, Nick, but Hoedt's lack of positional sense and anticipation is a major contributory factor here. When you've spent £15m on a centre back you should get this as a given. As the problems from the Leicester game are persisting I'm now also starting to move into the 'Get a new manager' camp. But who? Ideally we need a disciplinarian to get the players back in line which to my mind means we're looking at one of two - Koeman or van Gaal.

We have 3 major problems: 1. No goalkeepers at all. 2. No strikers except injury prone Austin. 3. The incredible sulk VVD.

I'm not in favour of sacking managers unless there is a clearly superior candidate lined up as a replacement. However, that said, why on earth would any manager play Long instead of Gabbi? That's almost a sacking offence in itself. It appears as though Pellegrino has now opted for picking the team out of a hat and, if I'm anywhere near right in that throw away comment, it's time to leave Forster, Yoshi, Long and Davis out of the hat. Others will have different choices for the waste paper bin and I couldn't argue with Tadic, Redmond or Lemina joining the pile of names not worth picking cos they aren't up for the fight. It seems as though the managerial plot has indeed been lost and thankfully I'm not in the frame as a replacement because I wouldn't have a clue how to motivate the utterly complacent core group of overpaid prima donnas. My best effort would be to tell them that I'd had an acceptable offer for them from a team at the lower end of the Championship and call a taxi.

Disagree with a fair portion of this article. I have watched all the games VVD played in and to be honest I think he has put in a fair shift generally. Agree the marking was atrocious and the weaknesses of Yoshida and to a lesser extent Hoedt and Stephens were badly exposed and were responsible for a large part of the defensive debacle. True to our luck at the moment they escaped even Rose's dreadful blunder when a goal for us would have cost us dear.

I thought the attacking side of the team came out well in the second half and an atrocious piece of refereeing ignoring Erikson obscuring Foster's view gifted them their third just as we obtained a foothold in the game. In fact even for most of the second half I thought the team tried to be positive and attack but there is the rub should we have been pushing forward so hard and leaving ourselves so exposed at the rear.

I agree that I think the manager just doesn't cut it in the PL but stick or twist not too much time to sort things out if you make a change.

The longer time goes on the more I begin to believe that there is something going on in the background that we have no idea about and can just keep guessing every week. Puel has not made next to no rotations at Leicester, actually attempting to play football which they didn't even do when they won the league (averaging 35% possession or something ridiculous) against City, United and teams away from home over 45/50% of the ball.
I believe a wider agenda is happening at Southampton, perhaps stubbornesss thinking the youths are still on the same calibre as lallana etc but the reality is they are not, I like MP, I can't think what anyone can do in or out of football to lose so much respect in such a short space of time. I can understand it to a degree, just by watching 30 mins of a competitive match anyone with half a football eye can see hoedt lemina gabbi are that cut above which is obviously more evident in training. The players themselves know that, which could be causing this unbalance. For me that's not MP, it wasn't Puel before he joined saints and it's not puel after. MP wasn't like that before us, if he is sacked I can bet anything he won't be like that at his new club. Just a guess of course

Yes his lineups are questionable, but what would any top manager do with this lot??
This is why we are not linked with any top managers-because they know Les is not going to buy any decent players.

The problems have been there since Mane and Pelle were sold in the summer of 2016 (who Nick claimed were "easily replaced"). Yet everyone blames the manager(s). Who hired them? Who sells the best players every year, year in, and year out and spends a fraction of that money on Championship level players? So stop calling for new managers, because they won't make any difference. The fault is Les and/or the owner(s).

OK, good comments here I read. About Spurs game: it was rubbish in every aspect. No defense, no good midfield work, no attack. We scored two absolutely random goals-Llorris did big mistakes for both of goals and that's the reality. We need 3 major things to do ASAP:
1. Sack Pelegrino he is totally useless. This will improve the character and believe of the most of the players. The bad thing is that we lost the chance to have Pulis, Moyes or Alardayce who are all descent managers and all they could lead us to the secure shore up to the end of the season and then we will have time to find the right manager for the next season. Now, we'll be happy if someone like Slaven Billic will come - that's the reality. So, we need right choice with respect to find a good replacement of Pelegrino.
2. Immediately, we need to sell VVD - 50-60 mil. is a fair and good price. We don't need this selfish b*stard at the dressing room at all. It was the biggest mistake that we kept VVD in the summer-he ruined the squad and atmosphere.
3. We need at least three good new players in the winter transfer window. We need: Central Defender - Bednarek and Gardos are jokes, and if te new manager will want to play 3-5-2, then we need a third good central defender. We need a fast and sharp winger. For me Redmond is a total disaster - he is ridiculous with his game play. Boufal is a good winger from the other side but we need the other side to be reinforced. And of course we need a striker. Lond should be sold also immediately - he is useless in all the aspects. I am not sure if he could play even in Champiohship now. So, we need striker. Matej Vydra from Derby could be a good option, but of course there are also other options.

If we wait to pass the Palace game it will be waste of time - Pelegrino should be sacked even now. The logic is that the Board is already in the process of searching of a good replacement. If we wait too much to perform these 3 steps, this could cost us relegation and that's for sure.

Sholingred. Read is what you're doing now. Reed is the c**t who has systematically dismantled the football club leaving us in the wilderness for 5-10 years.

The reason that this manager should be dismissed (and someone like Koeman should be appointed asap) is that there seems to be little rationality in his selections, tactics or improvement in his ability to learn from the repeated errors of his ways and crucially that he seems unable to motivate or lead his squad.

While I agree with many of the points made by various correspondents above (and so will try to avoid repeating them) there are some other issues which need to be looked at a little more closely
1. under MP1 and RK we played an effective pressing game and defended from the front, we now seem to only have Long doing this on his own and he has always been our most reluctant scorer. Both Puel and particularly MP2 appear to have abandoned this and we concede most of the opposition's half to them to set up our attacks
2. Gabbiadini is obviously a class player but a completely different style from the supporting midfield players; MG (not unlike JR before him) is most effective exploiting the channels yet we have no players able to exploit this tactic because of the woefully mediocre passing. We should perhaps haveended last season and started this season with MG and JR as the two up front strikers and spent wisely on a Fabregas style No 10. Ramires had this talent and we never exploited it properly, (Soufal has the potential which needs careful nurturing) but Davis, Redmond, Tadic and Ward-Prowse fall far short. Their final pass is more often than not woeful and, of course, their scoring record is collectively and individually abysmal.
3. since we have no reliable striker (in terms of regular scoring and consistent fitness) why haven't we given Gallagher a run out or two, he could hardly do less well than the other forward failures and after all we gave him a contract extension during the summer?
4. Dave Watson seems completely incapable of getting Forster to convincingly come off his line and this undoubtedly sows great uncertainty and confusion in the minds of the central defenders in front of him. His physique is immense and helps prevent shots directly at him from very short range to be parried, but he is woefully slow about the area and completely unable to deal effectively with low shots that he simply can't get down to. Why on earth do we not give the many reserve keepers some opportunity?
5. On the face of it we have some very capable players in a very unbalanced squad; but some of them are in very poor form and most of them have low confidence in the instructions they are given (I sat behind the dugout at Chelsea recently and it was obvious that the players were paying little attention to the instructions from MP2)
6. Both Puel and MP2 were minimally responsible for the squads that they inherited (tho I sense that Puel probably had some influence in the decision to acquire Boufal which if we have the patience will prove to have been a good signing and is arguably the most potentially talented player since MLT retired), nor were they in anyway to blame for the players sold and not sufficiently well replaced ref. Pelle, Mane and Rodrigues. There certainly seems to have been a collective misplaced complacency amongst the upper echelons of the club and perhaps this had consciously something to do with the long drawn out take over. While Reed has some of this blame rightly laid at his door I think it is too simplistic to blame him wholly for this mess; we should not underate his achievements in bringing in some players of good quality at reasonable prices, yes including Hoedt, Lemina, Bertrand, Soares, Van Dijk, Romeu and even Redmond, however contentious that may currently seem.
7. its all too easy to cast VVD as the villain of the piece (and here Nick should be ashamed of his comments about him being the lowest of the low as a pro footballer and human being - disgraceful comments below his normal standards of commentary) When fully fit and motivated he has shown himself to be an outstanding centre back for us, but who would be surprised if after enduring a poor season last year for the team as a whole, not forgetting his own injury, he should be unimpressed with the procession of sub standard managers and have his head turned by the 'excitement' of far more glamourous and ambitious clubs than SFC; which takes me to the final most damning issue
8. our total lack of ambition has had a very negative impact on the quality of manager that we can hope to attract; we couldn't keep MP1 and RK for those reasons and we are unlikely to attract a decent one now in the middle of the season and also because we are far too foolish to pay the going rate for proven managers. I wouild do our utmost to get RK back asap and that does mean swallowing our pride and RK doing the same. Beggars can't be choosers when in an existential crisis!

Not having seen the game I don't feel qualified to comment on the performance but I do feel qualified to comment on the comments above, and there is much good sense here including some thoughtful contributions from Pint Sized. Changing the manager is not the answer I feel, because if there is one word that sums up the current squad, that word is "disjointed". I can't see how a new man - especially a Pulis or Allardyce figure - is going to help. This season is going to be all about survival, but I've been following Saints for long enough to know all about that! If we manage to stay up (and it is getting a bigger "if" by the week) then a period of stability into the next season is in my view more valuable than another shake-up. Some will say that no change means no hope and I would accept that there are arguments either way but that's the side I see the coin as coming down.