One defensive place up for grabs

For me Garry used yesterday to decide whether it would be Neil Taylor or Franck Tabanou who starts against Chelsea. He gave both players 45 minutes and both would have given him something to think about. Taylor was good defensively and got in a couple of good tackles in the first half whilst Tabanou looked better going forward and certainly added something to the attack for the second half. The decision though surely has to be taken by the standard of the opposition and therefore for me next week the defensive side of the role becomes more important so my vote would go to Taylor for that reason alone.

That many people for a friendly?

There were over 12,200 people at the Liberty yesterday as we prepared for an eleventh season at the stadium. What was more pleasing was the number of youngsters who were able to get a ticket due to the kids for a quid policy. We all know that the expansion of the stadium is essential and many of these youngsters cannot get tickets for home league games which is why friendlies become more important and it is good to see so many taking advantage of the offers. Hopefully they can be repeated on a couple of the ‘lower profile’ league games or cup games this season.

Jonjo Shelvey or Gylfi Sigurdsson

Blimey this one is a tough call as for me I think it will only be one of these that will start next Saturday. There may be some league games where we can use them both as the season goes on but not to start at Chelsea. Again, like with Taylor and Tabanou, Monk used them both for 45 minutes yesterday and for me there was a clear winner yesterday. Shelvey’s performance in the first half was excellent and whilst that is not critical of Gylfi who played well it was Shelvey who shone for me and that could (should?) earn him the nod for next week

There’s goals in this side

That may be a very strange thing to say after a 0-0 draw where the manager moaned about our lack of cutting edge but let’s remember he also says it is important about minutes on the pitch. I understand what the manager says when he refers to the players stepping up a notch when the competitive action starts next week and that will mean that they throw themselves into challenges that they won’t in pre-season. We were creative yesterday and if we carry that creativity into the Premier League season then I can see us scoring more goals this time around.

Jack Cork For England

For months last season Lukasz Fabianski was our bargain bit of transfer business but that was eclipsed by the fact that we only paid a pittance to secure Jack Cork’s services. The fact that Southampton have a knack of selling people for inflated fees makes it more impressive and on the form he showed last term and he is showing in pre-season then he has to force his way at some point into the England side. He controlled the midfield for me yesterday and is at the heart of everything that we do. He does what Leon did for us for years but for me (and no criticism of Leon here) he does it better. One of our key men for me this season and a big season ahead of him

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