saint lard Posted 23 January, 2012 Share Posted 23 January, 2012 Both he and the squad rode the wave of optimism and belief that last season brought us,Pardew played his past enormously i don't care what anyone says,now that wave has turned into a mere ripple the real work needs to be done.You can blame suspensions and injuries but all clubs have the scenarios put before them,it is how you address them that matters. Both on the pitch and off it.... Can he do it on his own merits? can he do it in the transfer market? He took scunny up,rode the wave then fell short when it counted.......we have money,not sure i trust hin to spend it wisely however. The usual abuse and bile will be thrown my way as per the norm....but the above needs to be addressed,in fact it should have been scrutinised before. We have been playing poorly for a considerable time....the teams that were expected to give us a run for our money have faltered and found another gear...have we got another gear on this bus to move up to? No more happy chappy,crappy soundbites...sort it out Nigel,please. I'm sure you have the capabilities to take us far,now is the time to show it, in all areas of SFC. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Avenue Saint Posted 23 January, 2012 Share Posted 23 January, 2012 Both he and the squad rode the wave of optimism and belief that last season brought us,Pardew played his past enormously i don't care what anyone says,now that wave has turned into a mere ripple the real work needs to be done.You can blame suspensions and injuries but all clubs have the scenarios put before them,it is how you address them that matters. Both on the pitch and off it.... Can he do it on his own merits? can he do it in the transfer market? He took scunny up,rode the wave then fell short when it counted.......we have money,not sure i trust hin to spend it wisely however. The usual abuse and bile will be thrown my way as per the norm....but the above needs to be addressed,in fact it should have been scrutinised before. We have been playing poorly for a considerable time....the teams that were expected to give us a run for our money have faltered and found another gear...have we got another gear on this bus to move up to? No more happy chappy,crappy soundbites...sort it out Nigel,please. I'm sure you have the capabilities to take us far,now is the time to show it, in all areas of SFC. Yeah you wish. We sit second in champ. When we get our key players back, we'll go up autos. Come on peeps, let's make this the "IM BEHIND ADKINS ALL THE WAY" thread!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alpine_saint Posted 23 January, 2012 Share Posted 23 January, 2012 There is always the chance that he has reached his level and can go no further, but its too early to say. I'd rather criticise whoever is steering the latent lazy transfer activity, and question if the backroom staff are doing something wrong to increase the chances of picking up injury and/or increasing the recovery time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
benjii Posted 23 January, 2012 Share Posted 23 January, 2012 No one says he is above criticism. Nice "look at me thread" though. You have been shown to be a yellow-bellied nancy with your hysterical musings previously and a couple of bad home results don't prove you right. I think he has got the team selection wrong a few times this season. That is a fair criticism. But overall, anyone who thinks he has done less than a brilliant job and deserves full support is clearly a massive fool. Tonight he was let down by the players. They (nearly) all had a bad game at once. Morgan and Hooiveld were decent. Guly started well. Davis was adequate. Pretty much everyone else was sloppy from the off. That's not Adkins' fault. Not unless you think he has "lost the dressing room". So in summary.... **** poor attempt at a valedictory "told you so". By the way, we have a few injuries at the moment. I'll take second place considering we have been without Lambert, Chaplow, Fonte, de Ridder and Richardson recently. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scarface Posted 23 January, 2012 Share Posted 23 January, 2012 His post match interview didn't strike me as his normal self...... I'm sorry This is now more than a blip!!!!! He says "we need to learn from this"......???? We were at that stage at the start of December Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Saint_clark Posted 23 January, 2012 Share Posted 23 January, 2012 Apart from not putting richardson back in, there wasn't anything he did today that I disagreed with. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Kraken Posted 23 January, 2012 Share Posted 23 January, 2012 Apart from not putting richardson back in, there wasn't anything he did today that I disagreed with. Yep, aside from that (which I agree with), you'd be hard pushed to disagree with the choice of first XI. The changes he made couldn't really be disputed either. No doubting we were out-fought, out-passed and out-played all night tonight. No doubt. But we still have the players available and yet to return to turn it around again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wildgoose Posted 23 January, 2012 Share Posted 23 January, 2012 Team wise he hasn't been left with a considerable choice recently. I think he's been great but now he has some hard work to do which should be helped by the return of some key players soon.....hopefully. I must admit this is the first time I have just started to feel genuinely concerned though... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
corky morris Posted 23 January, 2012 Share Posted 23 January, 2012 Apart from not putting richardson back in, there wasn't anything he did today that I disagreed with. Yago on the bench - SDR should of started.......... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deanovski Posted 23 January, 2012 Share Posted 23 January, 2012 I'm not usually a worrier but the way he repeatedly brought up needing to keep the boys together just struck me as if he had something on his mind other than losing tonight. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dalek2003 Posted 23 January, 2012 Share Posted 23 January, 2012 Criticism of NA this early into his managerial career for Saints is ridiculous. He has had a great start but the squad has run out of team and picked up injuries. To some extent this was predictable, but not NA's fault. By August it was obvious we were not going to spend big to build a squad for promotion and I still maintain that this season was all about consolidation. No, NA has done a great job and unless we are relegated he has my support ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yamms_schmitz Posted 23 January, 2012 Share Posted 23 January, 2012 Adkins is a brilliant manager. The team lost the game. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deanovski Posted 23 January, 2012 Share Posted 23 January, 2012 Criticism of NA this early into his managerial career for Saints is ridiculous. He has had a great start but the squad has run out of team and picked up injuries. To some extent this was predictable, but not NA's fault. By August it was obvious we were not going to spend big to build a squad for promotion and I still maintain that this season was all about consolidation. No, NA has done a great job and unless we are relegated he has my support ! You are certainly more bipolar than my girlfriend. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Corellian Posted 23 January, 2012 Share Posted 23 January, 2012 Would you have taken 2nd place now at the start of the season? I know for sure I would. We have very quickly adjusted to being a side expected to win which is no bad thing. Yes there are things that need sorting out but I don't think it's time to question the manager yet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
harwellsaint Posted 23 January, 2012 Share Posted 23 January, 2012 Both he and the squad rode the wave of optimism and belief that last season brought us,Pardew played his past enormously i don't care what anyone says,now that wave has turned into a mere ripple the real work needs to be done.You can blame suspensions and injuries but all clubs have the scenarios put before them,it is how you address them that matters. Both on the pitch and off it.... Can he do it on his own merits? can he do it in the transfer market? He took scunny up,rode the wave then fell short when it counted.......we have money,not sure i trust hin to spend it wisely however. The usual abuse and bile will be thrown my way as per the norm....but the above needs to be addressed,in fact it should have been scrutinised before. We have been playing poorly for a considerable time....the teams that were expected to give us a run for our money have faltered and found another gear...have we got another gear on this bus to move up to? No more happy chappy,crappy soundbites...sort it out Nigel,please. I'm sure you have the capabilities to take us far,now is the time to show it, in all areas of SFC. that is a terrible thing to write , when he arrived at our club it was in total dissaray, we have come so far from the first ten games in league one to where we are now, we all want saints to be he top dogs but please show some reality, thank you so far nigel an nc have no doubt at all that we are going to see i through. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
S-Clarke Posted 23 January, 2012 Share Posted 23 January, 2012 Surprised at the OP of this thread, in fact totally gobsmacked. I guess you've been waiting for this moment. He's not beyond criticism and he seems a bit stubborn in this frustrating narrow midfield formation, but you cannot really ignore what he's done for us since he came here. He's got a lot of leeway before we even get slightly on his back. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
david in sweden Posted 23 January, 2012 Share Posted 23 January, 2012 Criticise... NO ! , but he may have missed a few things... He signed Jos to cover for Jadhi.. then Seaborne had his " accident " now with Fonte not recovering so quickly as anticipated - I'd look for 2 CB's I wish he'd bought in a loan striker in November, Lambert was still fit, but we lost points because there was no-one for him to bond with (or, do I mean "gell".) we may have got Lee coming, but we still need a " Hooper " or a "Rhodes "....to be secure. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
James Posted 23 January, 2012 Share Posted 23 January, 2012 He made some mistakes tonight sure. Harding at RB and Falque over De Ridder were the two which stood out for me. It's the team that have run out of gas, not Adkins. He hasn't really got the chance to change it because the squad is so thin. I also wish he'd be a tad more decisive in the transfer market and his record of picking players isn't exactly great. However, he is the best manager I've seen in charge of Saints since Strachan and to say that he benefited from Pardew's work is madness - we had a dreadful start to last season under him and the style of play implemented this season is all Nige's own doing. Short term criticism - perhaps, he made a few bad calls tonight. Long term? No chance. In Adkins we trust. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Cat Posted 23 January, 2012 Share Posted 23 January, 2012 Sometimes he makes mistakes and it's fair to criticise him for them. He's still a good manager though and we are lucky to have him. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
david in sweden Posted 23 January, 2012 Share Posted 23 January, 2012 ...and to those of you out there who criticised me, and a dozen or so others when we wanted more players bought in during August, and you all said NO .. (it would upset the current players) .....tonight you saw the reason why. No Barnard, No Fonte, No Lambert, No Chaplow, No Lallana, = No team and No promotion ..unless we flash the cheque book before the 31st. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
St Marco Posted 23 January, 2012 Share Posted 23 January, 2012 Adkins has done a fine job. BUT people do need to stop thinking about the whole "would you of taken 1st/2nd" type of thinking. Adkins as a manager will be judged on how he does in the period we are in now. Our league position or what we did 5 months ago is irelivent. A good manager will be able to change things around when they don't work and try something new. If we adopt the whole "it doesn't matter, we were top" attitude then why even bother playing the rest of the season? We have good players at this club. We have spent a fortune putting it together. If Adkins is a good manager then he will turn the slump around. If he doesn't and we don't go up then I am sorry but we would have blown it badly. Tonight the players looked very tired, they looked out of sorts at times. The confidence has deffinatly gone. To get it back the club needs to work really hard. We need to have the same energy that teams like Leicester showed. We need to be in their face, we need to pass it around rather then lump it up field and hope Guly can flick it on. We need to want to win. We also need to spend in this window. De Ridder is just a racehorse, runs really fast but can't actually do much else. I think we need a proper striker to replace Guly/Connolly/Barnard as a main starter to go alongside Lambert when he is back. We have become way to predictable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eesti matty Posted 23 January, 2012 Share Posted 23 January, 2012 ...and to those of you out there who criticised me, and a dozen or so others when we wanted more players bought in during August, and you all said NO .. (it would upset the current players) .....tonight you saw the reason why. No Barnard, No Fonte, No Lambert, No Chaplow, No Lallana, = No team and No promotion ..unless we flash the cheque book before the 31st. Hej hej David! Jag är ledsen! Oh well! Did the link work for you? If so, you can use it again for the Cardiff game. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Saint Fen Posted 23 January, 2012 Share Posted 23 January, 2012 Atkins has done a fantastic job. We were poor tonight and need cover for Lambert and another Centre Half. We have had a great season so far and the expectation level has been raised because of our start. Hopefully we can have a good a second half of the season as our first. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Saintsfanuk Posted 23 January, 2012 Share Posted 23 January, 2012 Always find it funny with other clubs (and i'm not saying this will happen to saints) when they have a good first half of the season and bad second. The manager often gets sacked, criticised etc., but if it had been the other way around, bad start great finish, with the exact same points total, he'd be doing a great job! Shows the present and future are everything (you hear that pompey?) Not really, quite simple why it happens. If a team has a great first half of season, and then a bad one. It's the downward trend, everyone starts to wonder if the manager can turn it around, it all appears to be going wrong, chairman think better get in someone else who can do it. If a team has a bad first half, the chairman will be thinking can he turn it around, already thinking about replacing him. Then suddenly he does turn it round, storming finish to season, it's an upward trend, this is great it will continue, great job! Despite finishing on the same amount of points, they will look at how they think the future will go based on the most recent results. Not that I'm saying Adkins should be sacked if we have a **** 2nd half, just I can easily see why it happens that way! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Solent2191 Posted 23 January, 2012 Share Posted 23 January, 2012 Don't get me wrong I love what Adkins has done since he's been with us but he inherited an awesome set of players put together by Pardew. NA must be a great motivater but his signings have been s**t take Forte or Fox for example. Playing Harding as a right back tonight was comical, Frazer was on the bench FFS. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trousers Posted 23 January, 2012 Share Posted 23 January, 2012 Why wasn't this thread started in November? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Saint_clark Posted 24 January, 2012 Share Posted 24 January, 2012 Don't get me wrong I love what Adkins has done since he's been with us but he inherited an awesome set of players put together by Pardew. NA must be a great motivater but his signings have been s**t take Forte or Fox for example. Playing Harding as a right back tonight was comical, Frazer was on the bench FFS. Fox has not been sh*t. Anyway, what about Cork, Hooiveld, Chaplow? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
S-Clarke Posted 24 January, 2012 Share Posted 24 January, 2012 Fox has not been sh*t. Anyway, what about Cork, Hooiveld, Chaplow? People always conveniently miss out those... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
St. Jason Posted 24 January, 2012 Share Posted 24 January, 2012 I'm not usually a worrier but the way he repeatedly brought up needing to keep the boys together just struck me as if he had something on his mind other than losing tonight. This something me and my mates commented on, I can't remember the question posed by the reporter but Aidkins squirmed and a side step David Cammeron would of been proud of! It didn't just seem to Na though, to me, watching on the tv the whole team seemed lost, devoid of any focus, confidence, direction and leadership! This is not to say with the return of Lambert and Llanna next Tuesday we don't go on to stomp all over Cardiff, but this performance has been coming for ages, this hasnt just happened its been coming since the beginning of December! If the man in the stand can see it, if the man in the stand can see you loose Lambert, Llanna & Fonte we're fooked with no cover, why has no cover been brought in? Don't forget it's just January, we had the entire summer, the loan window and now the best part of January to bring in cover! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alpine_saint Posted 24 January, 2012 Share Posted 24 January, 2012 I'm not usually a worrier but the way he repeatedly brought up needing to keep the boys together just struck me as if he had something on his mind other than losing tonight. What do you think this might be ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dellgirl Posted 24 January, 2012 Share Posted 24 January, 2012 Last night Pearson had a luxury box of chocolates to pick from,we had a bag of pick and mix,we can discuss endlessly why that is , I am sure we all have our ideas what has come unstuck but it needs addressing now before it is too late and the players we will depend on decide they would be better somewhere else. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sadoldgit Posted 24 January, 2012 Share Posted 24 January, 2012 He made some mistakes tonight sure. Harding at RB and Falque over De Ridder were the two which stood out for me. It's the team that have run out of gas, not Adkins. He hasn't really got the chance to change it because the squad is so thin. I also wish he'd be a tad more decisive in the transfer market and his record of picking players isn't exactly great. However, he is the best manager I've seen in charge of Saints since Strachan and to say that he benefited from Pardew's work is madness - we had a dreadful start to last season under him and the style of play implemented this season is all Nige's own doing. Short term criticism - perhaps, he made a few bad calls tonight. Long term? No chance. In Adkins we trust. The start wasn't great but he turned that round. He also brought in quality players without whom....Pardew did an excelent job here. Adkins suffers from the same problem many of our managers had, consistency and beating teams "weakened" by injuries. We'd be better off playing West Ham each week. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dig Dig Posted 24 January, 2012 Share Posted 24 January, 2012 What a little snake Lard is. Waiting for opportune moments to pop up with his anti NA bile in the wake of a defeat. I'd have more respect for him if he was on here post victory (and there have been numerous under NA) posting this crap. Once we're in the prem, will NA still be riding the crest of Pardews wave?! What a ridiculous thing to suggest 16 months after Pardew left. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Toomer Posted 24 January, 2012 Share Posted 24 January, 2012 My opinion is that Adkins has set the team up to play a certain way and we did very well with the system up till December, we have been worked out and other sides have worked out how to combat it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
S-Clarke Posted 24 January, 2012 Share Posted 24 January, 2012 My opinion is that Adkins has set the team up to play a certain way and we did very well with the system up till December, we have been worked out and other sides have worked out how to combat it. Yep, which has also been compounded with the loss of a key player in that system - Chaplow. We don't have anyone else who is similar to him, so the system we have setup in doesn't quite work - especially with 3 midfielders that are the same. The sooner he is back the better. We started the season without him yes, but he turned into a major cog in our team and we'll get away with it against lesser teams....but we are shown up against the better sides. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paulsfc Posted 24 January, 2012 Share Posted 24 January, 2012 Has Adkins made mistakes? Of course. No one is perfect. Have his successes outwheighed his mistakes? By a mile. We were awesome for the first 17 games when we had virtually a fully fit squad to pick from plus the element of surprise of being the new team in the league (Brighton had the same for a brief while). He deserves massive credit for that. Getting Cork in was a master stroke as is getting the best out of Lambert and Guly in their first season in the championship. He got Chaplow for £50k, found a quality CB in Hooiveld, has us playing some incredible football and scoring lots of goals. He can't help that the squad is decimated by injuries, it's just one of those things. So he maybe got a couple of things wrong last night (Falque from the start was a gamble that didn't pay off, Harding should've been replaced sooner) but I'm not sure that would've made much difference. Leicester were a mile better on the night. It happens. We don't need to lose faith in him or his tactics. It may not happen for us this year but if we stick with Adkins it will very soon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrMojoRisin Posted 24 January, 2012 Share Posted 24 January, 2012 Ther problem I have with adkins is that if plan A dont work he aint got a clue what plan B is, I also think he is tactically inept, What was he thinking going 4-3-3. Also Dan Harding would never pull on a Saints shirt for me ever again. The worst player this club has ever seen Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikee Posted 24 January, 2012 Share Posted 24 January, 2012 What do you think this might be ? he was clearly worried about the knee jerk reactionary bed wetters on this forum and how they would over react to this performance - apparently with good cause (Adkins - not the hysterical tarts) I shall go back to avoiding this site for a few days after a bad result. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Saint_clark Posted 24 January, 2012 Share Posted 24 January, 2012 Both he and the squad rode the wave of optimism and belief that last season brought us,Pardew played his past enormously i don't care what anyone says,now that wave has turned into a mere ripple the real work needs to be done. Just re-read this, and it sounds to me like you're suggesting Adkins simply had to pick the team and let them get on with it. Pardew signed most of the team, yes, but it wasn't his "wave of optimism and belief". That was down 100% to Nigel Adkins. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dimond Geezer Posted 24 January, 2012 Share Posted 24 January, 2012 Ther problem I have with adkins is that if plan A dont work he aint got a clue what plan B is, I also think he is tactically inept, What was he thinking going 4-3-3. Also Dan Harding would never pull on a Saints shirt for me ever again. The worst player this club has ever seen A bit of an over reaction I think, granted he didn't have a great game, being played out of position, but there have been many players at this club since we were relegated from the prem, who were far worse & less comitted than Harding. I'm not sure what else Adkins could have done last night, no Lambert, no Fonte, no Chaplow, no Jaidi, no Lallana, no Butterfield, he was down to the bare bones of the squad, and the replacements didn't put in a shift last night. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Saint_clark Posted 24 January, 2012 Share Posted 24 January, 2012 A bit of an over reaction I think, granted he didn't have a great game, being played out of position, but there have been many players at this club since we were relegated from the prem, who were far worse & less comitted than Harding. I'm not sure what else Adkins could have done last night, no Lambert, no Fonte, no Chaplow, no Jaidi, no Lallana, no Butterfield, he was down to the bare bones of the squad, and the replacements didn't put in a shift last night. As I said before, the only thing Adkins did last night that I disagree with was leaving Harding in and putting Richardson on the bench. Just because Harding "did a job" against two poor teams out of position doesn't mean you should leave out one of our most underrated players. I firmly believe we would not have conceded that first goal had Richardson played, and we'd obviously have had much more threat going forward. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
a1ex2001 Posted 24 January, 2012 Share Posted 24 January, 2012 How long before the first poster calls for his head, I reckon a defeat on the weekend and we will hear the first rumblings from the usual suspects and if we follow that with another loss they will be screaming to get him out the door. Nigel has lead the team to promotion and then the top of the league above, we are having a blip live with it. Nobody expected us to be in anything like this position this season and compared to where we were three short years ago I can't believe how far we've come. Win loose or draw, this is the best saints side we've seen since relegation. Automatic, Play offs or no promotion we will still have had an amazing season. Quit the moaning and get behind the Saints, a few bad results doesn't define our season just like the amazing run before them didn't lets see where we are come may. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ashby Saint Posted 24 January, 2012 Share Posted 24 January, 2012 Adkins has done a great job. As I see it, there are a few problems that can be fixed: (a) The full backs don't snuff out wide men quick enough. They are very slow at closing down. This must be tactical / coached and Adkins needs to address this. Once the ball comes in - all hell usually breaks loose - and defensive organisation at corners is sometimes a bit ragged. (b) Without Lambert we are not physical enough up front. Connolly is talented but too light weight for this division and he is easily bullied off the ball. Guly is physical but his reactions seem frustratingly slow and he sometimes charges about like a headless chicken. This is a lack of players problem (not Adkins issue directly as he can only coach what he has got). © We sometimes play a bit too much like Arsenal (and not in a good way). Lots of playing the ball square and back. We sometimes lack the quick and decisive penetration required to turn / unsettle defences at this level. Part coaching / tactics and possibly a lack of players too (although Adkins could pick players to give us that penetration more regularly such as De Ridder). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom28 Posted 24 January, 2012 Share Posted 24 January, 2012 I think Adkins and the team have earned the right to a pass on any criticism for the rest of the season. What we have achieved this season is nothing short of miraculous. We've led the league for 4 months!!!! 4 months. Never in my wildest dreams could I have seen that happening last summer. We've played superb football for most of the season. We've shown the ability to adapt and be flexible with our line up and formations. We've overcome suspensions and injuries all season, but no team in any division could overcome the amount or injuries and suspensions we have had to key players in the last few weeks. Even Manchester City with their ridiculously deep squad have had a little wobble in recent weeks without Kolo and Yaya Toure away on int. duty, and losing Kompany to suspension. Give them a break. The booing last night was ridiculous. Yes it was very frustrating, but come on, give them a break. Once we get Chaplow, Fonte, Lallana and Lambert back I see no reason why we wouldn't be as dominant as were were earlier in the season. If the right players aren't out there in the market to add to the quality of the squad then don't buy players that fall short of the mark. That's how we've landed Forte, Holmes, Forecast in the past. The players we have now were the best in the division for 4 months; once we get them back, I am failing to see why they wouldn't be the best in the division for the remainder of the season. The squad has shown frailties in recent weeks so undoubtedly we need to strengthen the squad for next season during the summer, but the players we have now are good enough to fight for the Championship this season and we should trust them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Isabel Healey Posted 24 January, 2012 Share Posted 24 January, 2012 Spot on assessment !! Don't get me wrong I love what Adkins has done since he's been with us but he inherited an awesome set of players put together by Pardew. NA must be a great motivater but his signings have been s**t take Forte or Fox for example. Playing Harding as a right back tonight was comical, Frazer was on the bench FFS. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crouchie's Lawyer Posted 24 January, 2012 Share Posted 24 January, 2012 He has done a good job this far. By far exceeding my expectations and to all those who say "would you have taken 2nd place at the beginning of the season?" the obvious answer is yes. BUT it's not the end of the season is it and at the moment since the end of Nov, beginning of Dec we have been in decline. I am completely aware we have key players missing and will have them back shortly but for how long? We cannot be naive enough to think that when RL, AL, JF and RC come back that they will be available for the rest of the season, injury and suspension free. If the last month or so has shown us anything it is that you need a capable squad not just starting 11 and I think this is where we are struggling. My only bug bear at the moment is that I think someone isn't letting on something about why we are not buying quality for the final push? Seems in NA's post match interview last night he resigned that we may not bring anyone else in but that it was fine because we have players coming back from injury. My short response to that would be - what if they get injurries again? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frank's cousin Posted 24 January, 2012 Share Posted 24 January, 2012 ... oh weel will try and be as 'balanced as possible' appologies if not successful. What have we learned from teh last 7 games or so? I mean what has it really told us? Last nigtht for me said one thing for certain - we do not have what it takes when 4 key players (Fonte, Lambert, Lallana, chaplow) are not available - we are not the same team. However, what worried me most about last night was not the above (no team is the same without 4 key players), but the fact that especially in the first half we seemed to be second to every ball - Leicester pressed high up the pitch which threw us off our stride, but worryingly they seemed to want it more. TBF though its can be quite a normal thing that when your talismanic players are all sidelined, it effects confidence and possible even desire - so this tehn becomes a test for Nigel, and yes right now he 'looks' like he is struggling for how to impact on this. However, I am nOT going to slate him for that, because If we want a young manager, who is new to this experience but who will be with us for teh long term, we need to accept the fact that its a learning process - as it was for Lawrie when we were relegated back in teh day - we stuck by him as he grew in stature. That is what we need to do now... maybe its symptomatic of the younger 'Iwant it now' generation, that patience is easily lost, but IMHO, its waht we need - We are ahead of the curve, have shown that with a fully fit squad we are a force in this division, but not without it. I can't understand those that seem to rejoice in being able to slag NIgel or Cortese becase of a bad patch - cruscial injuries and a dodgy suspension - yes it could be argued that we might cope better if we 'buy-in' some more expensive talent - but we wer TOLD right at the start that plan is about young talent that we can mould into the Southampton way... so we are not doing a West Ham or Leicester. Seems obvious to anyone that those who seem to cream their pants that they can slag off Cortese or NIge, either dont get it, or have 'issues/agendas' they are not prepared to elaborate on. So far NIge has done everything he can within his curernt experience and with teh squad he has available - ad to that he is learning all the time and it should eb clear to ALL that he deserves our support and patience Cortese is working on bringing in quality - but we wont be held to ransome and we wont panic buy or spend stupid moeny on players for are demanding more than we are willing to pay - if you don't like that approach then thats you choice, but you may as well accept it as it wont change. Happy Clappy? NO, we were **** last night, but I happen to believe that we were **** last night because of a number of things that I can understand, rather than that we dont have the right people in place - Sometimes I wonder about the fans though, booing the lads off at half time... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
St. Jason Posted 24 January, 2012 Share Posted 24 January, 2012 ... oh weel will try and be as 'balanced as possible' appologies if not successful. What have we learned from teh last 7 games or so? I mean what has it really told us? Last nigtht for me said one thing for certain - we do not have what it takes when 4 key players (Fonte, Lambert, Lallana, chaplow) are not available - we are not the same team. However, what worried me most about last night was not the above (no team is the same without 4 key players), but the fact that especially in the first half we seemed to be second to every ball - Leicester pressed high up the pitch which threw us off our stride, but worryingly they seemed to want it more. TBF though its can be quite a normal thing that when your talismanic players are all sidelined, it effects confidence and possible even desire - so this tehn becomes a test for Nigel, and yes right now he 'looks' like he is struggling for how to impact on this. However, I am nOT going to slate him for that, because If we want a young manager, who is new to this experience but who will be with us for teh long term, we need to accept the fact that its a learning process - as it was for Lawrie when we were relegated back in teh day - we stuck by him as he grew in stature. That is what we need to do now... maybe its symptomatic of the younger 'Iwant it now' generation, that patience is easily lost, but IMHO, its waht we need - We are ahead of the curve, have shown that with a fully fit squad we are a force in this division, but not without it. I can't understand those that seem to rejoice in being able to slag NIgel or Cortese becase of a bad patch - cruscial injuries and a dodgy suspension - yes it could be argued that we might cope better if we 'buy-in' some more expensive talent - but we wer TOLD right at the start that plan is about young talent that we can mould into the Southampton way... so we are not doing a West Ham or Leicester. Seems obvious to anyone that those who seem to cream their pants that they can slag off Cortese or NIge, either dont get it, or have 'issues/agendas' they are not prepared to elaborate on. So far NIge has done everything he can within his curernt experience and with teh squad he has available - ad to that he is learning all the time and it should eb clear to ALL that he deserves our support and patience Cortese is working on bringing in quality - but we wont be held to ransome and we wont panic buy or spend stupid moeny on players for are demanding more than we are willing to pay - if you don't like that approach then thats you choice, but you may as well accept it as it wont change. Happy Clappy? NO, we were **** last night, but I happen to believe that we were **** last night because of a number of things that I can understand, rather than that we dont have the right people in place - Sometimes I wonder about the fans though, booing the lads off at half time... Frank you make some good points and I agree with most/part of your post except the transfer bit, both you and Nige contradict yourselves! On one hand you say we are moulding young players to play the Southampton way and we were told this would be the policy at the outset. Then we bid for Sharpe, Rodriguez and hooper! NA says its vital that there is a path for the youth to get to the first team (which I agree with) then he brings in Falque (sp) on loan, so not only stopping our youth but also going against the (moulding) point as he's only on loan! Some of the football this year has been magic, some has been good but some has also been garbage. The problem (for me) is its gone in that order and at the moment he seems to have no answer! RL, AL, & Jose' have only been missing for the last 3 weeks, this slide has been going on for the last 8! I also agree with you about our initial targets this year, I hoped for mid to higher end of the table with a push for the play offs coming at the end. But when you've had the start we've had, and lead the race for 4 months and Nigel openly saying "we want to win this race" you have to (IMO) push on, make that "marquee" signing that NA told us he's after and give it your all! This isnt doom & gloom but I honestly can't see us making more of a push next year, I've seen no evidence of Cortesse bank rolling a promotion charge, he hasnt this season, when only a small (£6-8m) would of seen us romp it! All obviously in my own opinion! Up the saints! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
david in sweden Posted 24 January, 2012 Share Posted 24 January, 2012 (edited) Frank you make some good points and I agree with most/part of your post except the transfer bit, both you and Nige contradict yourselves! On one hand you say we are moulding young players to play the Southampton way and we were told this would be the policy at the outset. Then we bid for Sharpe, Rodriguez and Hooper! ! I don't want to spoil what is a very interesting thread BUT...of course the idea is to bring on youngsters, but those lads coming onto the bench are nowhere near the standard we need for CC level strikers - which is what you have listed as our (bid) alternatives. It takes time to cultivate new young players, (I know that Bale and Walcott were exceptions,) but looking back at Channon, Shearer, MLT and Beattie ...all were carefully nursed along after thier initial games and it took more than a year before any of them even got a regular spot - let alone developed into a good striker. (Aside from his legendary hat-trick - Alan Shearer was very poor for a season and a half after that.. before he finally got some form, and MLTs exploits weren't so special in the early days before he had played 40/50 games.) We have to buy in a couple of strikers NOW ...(I'm hoping Lee is good enough to be one of them), because no-one in the Youth side seems anywhere near good enough on present showing. Jason Dodd is doing a fantastic job with the youngsters, but the level is little more than Schools football, and not Championship level. for the record; Sharp and Hooper have scored over 100 League goals each, and Rodrigues (not so productive) has over 30 to his name...not to mention they are older and have played a couple hundred games already !. That's the sort of form we need to buy in before Jan.31st) Edited 24 January, 2012 by david in sweden Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thorpe-le-Saint Posted 24 January, 2012 Share Posted 24 January, 2012 I can't even believe this is up for discussion. Some of you need to get a grip. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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