Over the international break West Ham United manager Sam Allardyce has had a long time to chew over the defeat by Southampton.
As the Hammers prepare to face Hull City on Monday night, the manager spoke to the media about bedding in new signings such as Morgan Amalfitano, Mo Diame's departure and Alex Song's fashion sense...
Can you explain your pleasure about signing Morgan Amalfitano and how much more goals do you think you can get out of him? When were you first interested in him?
SA: "I think it's his overall play really, not just from his time at West Brom, but also his time at Marseille where he's played Champions League football. Morgan has been in and around the top of the French league for a few years now. I spoke to Steve Clarke about him. I think he's a creator that can contribute a few goals.
"If we can get a few more goals out of him that would be fine. We didn't get many goals from our wide players last season so that's something we need to work on. It's one of the reasons why we didn't win as many games as we should've last season. If we get more than four goals out of him this year we'll be very pleased.
"Alongside the signing of Alex Song we got two exceptionally good signings late on in the transfer window. This is of course matched with the signings we made earlier in the summer."
Explain why you left Mo Diame leave?
SA: "To get Morgan Amalfitano in. Mo was running out of contract, and there was a fantastic offer from Hull City. As Mo came in on a free transfer we made a very handsome profit.
"He had two seasons with us. We expected him to improve on his first year, and he didn't quite go as far as we expected. So it was a good bit of business all round. It allowed us to get Morgan in, and good for Mo because he got a bigger contract."
Mo has been quoted as saying 'I should have left a long time ago as I wasn't permitted to play in central midfield. You lose your baring when you get shunted around. When the scouts came round from big clubs they weren't interested in me'. What do you make of that?
SA: "It's Mo's opinion isn't it. If Mo had continued his performances in his first year he would have continued to play in central midfield. In the end, those performances didn't live up to his first year here.
"My responsibility is the whole team, not just one player. We moved Mo around because we thought he was good enough to see if he could play in various positions. If he wasn't happy with that and he's moved on then that's fine. I have to look after 25 players throughout the season and I select the best players I think we have to face the opposition.
"A player picks himself, that's what a player does. And a player drops himself, they do it themselves, not me. By keeping track of their performances. When their performance drops below the expectation their position is in jeopardy, they stay in the team if their performances match or exceed my expectation."
What's the latest on team news?
SA: "We're waiting on Cheikhou Kouyate to come back from international duty. We've had no signs that he's got any problems, he might have a bit of fatigue from the two games he's played. All the other internationals have come back OK.
"We've got James Collins back from injury. The other players who have been out are unavailable for selection.
There's been talk about Alex Song's clothes, is he the most fashionable player you've ever managed?
SA: "Do you call that fashion? There's a whole array of fashion across the squad. Based on their age, culture, their lifestyle. From my point of view, if players want to express themselves, I've got no problem with that. If they want to be recognised for the gear they wear, that's fine with me.
There's a few new players at Hull, Ben Arfa and Dawson amongst others. You've got new players to bed in too, how do you get them settled?
SA: "It's difficult. Fans expect to see the best from the new players from day one. But it's hard to integrate players, especially foreign players. To get them settled into a new culture and new routines you have to do an awful lot of work.
"You have to take a player's family into consideration and sort out their personal lives. You need to make sure a player and his family is happy and settled when the leave the training ground. The integration of a new player is something you want to do that as quickly as possible.
"You have to take the fitness of the new player into consideration as well. It depends when in the summer you sign a player and how much of a pre-season the player has had. For instance, Alex has had a pre-season at Barcelona but no games. So he's hugely short of match practise. Morgan has had some games but had ten or 12 days when he didn't train because he was sorting out his move back to England.
"The season is 38 games so we have to think about the long term and do what's right for both the player and the team. You don't want to hurry a player in too quickly."
How has training been during the international break for the players that didn't go on international duty?
SA: "It was good, some of the new players had an opportunity to get up to speed. They had a chance to get used to the sessions and the environment. It also gave everybody an opportunity to get to know the different styles and techniques as well as the personalities and the characters.
"It's always disappointing to go into a break having lost but it does give you an opportunity to integrate the new players and injured players without missing too many games. James Collins is the only player back fit but Matt Jarvis, Carl Jenkinson, Andy Carroll and Kevin Nolan have all improved in their efforts to get back in the squad and get fit.
You were quite critical after the Southampton game, are you expecting a much better performance?
SA: "The performance was a shock to me, having played so well against Tottenham and Crystal Palace. But there were surprise results across the board. Manchester City losing at home to Stoke, Chelsea winning 6-3 against Everton, I don't think anyone was expecting that. So sometimes you do get surprise results at the start of the season.
"I think the whole euphoria surrounding the transfer window acts as a distraction. But we can't use that as too much of an excuse. I expect a lot better from the team and hopefully we'll see that on Monday."
I've heard you might be losing Neil Mcdonald to Carlisle, is that going to happen?
SA: "No, I'm happy to say."
Could you elaborate on Neil, he's a vital part of your staff, you've worked together for a long time. Was maintaining continuity a big part of keeping him?
SA: "Yeah I think it was. With the amount of changes we've made to the squad, it's good to keep as many things as consistent as possible. When you've got someone like Neil, who's very good at what he does, and someone I can trust, he's my right hand man really. We've had a good working relationship over many years now."
There are reports Andy Carroll might be back by October
SA: "I'm not going to put a timeline on it. He has started some jogging. But to predict a time is wrong for everybody, particularly Andy. When you've had an operation of that type we have to be guided by the specialist that did it, Andy himself and the medical staff, so we do not rush him back too quickly."
