Who would we be higher under, Adkins or Pochettino?

[Ivan Katalinic's 'tache]

Simple hypothetical question: do you think we would have more points now had we retained Adkins or has Poch secured more than Adders would've got? Not saying decision was right or wrong, what's done is done, just interested to see who others feel we'd have done better under. For me, I think Adkins.

[70's Mike]

who really knows

[110_Persaint]

Adkins without a shadow of a doubt, how is this even a question?

[Barry Sanchez]

Adkins I would presume, continuity as we are always told its important in football, besides no one can understand the lego man.

[UpweySaint]

who really knows

 

I think the author acknowledges that. It seems to be about opinions. Mine is we'd be better off under NA. If Cortese didnt fancy him long term ok but he was the man to keep us up certainly.

[Tokyo-Saint]

Yep, have to say it would be Nigel and the football would be a lot more exciting.

[S-Clarke]

Probably absolutely no change what so ever. Still scrapping away, picking up points here and there. Which still kind of begs the question as to why we even bothered to change.

[110_Persaint]

Probably absolutely no change what so ever. Still scrapping away, picking up points here and there. Which still kind of begs the question as to why we even bothered to change.

So you weren't sensing the considerable improvement in Nigel's last few games? Come on mate, those Arsenal and Chelsea performances were outstanding.

[sotonjoe]

Our form under Atkins was better

than under Pokerhuntas.

 

The sacking has backfired and we are in the mire.

[Minsk]

I am as certain as I can be that we would now have more points on the board had we retained Nigel. Our performances in his last few games were great.

[rshephard3]

To sack Adkins after the Arsenal, Chelsea, Villa games was outstandingly brave* chairmanship

 

*for brave maybe read silly

[Horley CTFC Saint]

Simple hypothetical question: do you think we would have more points now had we retained Adkins or has Poch secured more than Adders would've got? Not saying decision was right or wrong' date=' what's done is done, just interested to see who others feel we'd have done better under. For me, I think Adkins.[/quote']

My guess would be Adkins because he seemed to do well against the teams around Saints so I would have expected to beat Wigan (A), QPR (H) and Norwich (A) but probably have lost to Man City (H) but thats all hypothetical really

[Glasgow_Saint]

Adkins. 110_Persaint

[shurlock]

My guess would be Adkins because he seemed to do well against the teams around Saints so I would have expected to beat Wigan (A), QPR (H) and Norwich (A) but probably have lost to Man City (H) but thats all hypothetical really

 

You mean teams he failed to beat at home.

[Horley CTFC Saint]

you mean teams he failed to beat at home.

qpr?

[trousers]

No idea. Hunch? About the same.

[Olallana]

Chelsea away was our luckiest point this season (together with win at Aston Villa)

They should´ve been up at least 4-0 at HT.....

[Kingsland Red]

MP's 3 points against Man City would have been cancelled out by NA getting a point at Newcastle, and 2 extra at Wigan.

Hope this helps.

[saint lard]

The status quo would have remained.

Adkins had found his level,he could take us no more.

Pochettino,well,who knows....

 

But Nigel was a busted flush,both on the pitch....and off it.

[Whitey Grandad]

We shall never know so it's pointless speculating. Three points better under Adkins.

[UpweySaint]

The status quo would have remained.

Adkins had found his level,he could take us no more.

Pochettino,well,who knows....

 

But Nigel was a busted flush,both on the pitch....and off it.

 

Nonsense. Utter nonsense. Did we struggle early in the season? yes. Had Nigel made mistakes? Yes. Had our form turned upwards? Yes. Had he showed the ability to learn from mistakes? Yes.

 

Nothing of that suggested that he could not develop along with the team. He was not perfect and maybe did not appeal to everyone but to write off his potential seems foolish at best. Every obstacle we had faced he overcame.

 

Whatever your opinion of your future prospects do you GENUINELY believe we have a better chance of staying up this season under Pochettino then we did under Adkins?

[Mowgli]

who really knows

 

Who really cares. We are where we are.

[Andre]

i think adkins, but not by much, maybe only a couple of points.

[Stepgar]

Pointless debate really. Can't do anyone about it and you could never even predict the results. Woos to say that NA would have done any better with he same fixtures?

[Minsk]

The status quo would have remained.

Adkins had found his level,he could take us no more.

Pochettino,well,who knows....

 

But Nigel was a busted flush,both on the pitch....and off it.

 

The level we were at when he left was 15th in the premier league, and our performances were improving game on game.

 

So, even by your own words in this post, his level is 15th in the prem. Pochettino currently has us 16!!

 

As has been mentioned elsewhere, you were anti Adkins from day one and were consistently proven wrong in your assessment of him. So I don't think anyone can take your views seriously here!!!!

 

In fact, you have hardly posted since he left and have only done so TWICE today to slate Adkins.

 

Did he once **** you/your mother/sister and then dump you/her?

[Leicestersaint]

I think we would have been doing a lot better under Adkins - we had good upward momentum under Adkins. What a very silly time to indulgently sack him!

[sammysaint]

Adkins if he did the right subs at the right time, unlike most of his games in the prem, NA is a quality young manager who will manage in the prem again, i do feel under MP we will if we stay up this season push on, NC will spend money and its clear if we sign a back up RB LB and a another attacking midfielder we have a squad able to finish 10th upwards.

[Bucks Saint]

Chelsea away was our luckiest point this season (together with win at Aston Villa)

They should´ve been up at least 4-0 at HT.....

 

We're they gifted a penalty in injury time and missed it?

[saint lard]

The level we were at when he left was 15th in the premier league, and our performances were improving game on game.

 

So, even by your own words in this post, his level is 15th in the prem. Pochettino currently has us 16!!

 

As has been mentioned elsewhere, you were anti Adkins from day one and were consistently proven wrong in your assessment of him. So I don't think anyone can take your views seriously here!!!!

 

In fact, you have hardly posted since he left and have only done so TWICE today to slate Adkins.

 

Did he once **** you/your mother/sister and then dump you/her?

No that's the reason I don't post on here much...cretinous responses.

[Born In The 80s]

Adkins would have kept us up comfortably had he stayed. After beating Villa and drawing at Chelsea, we really did look like a side who had turned a corner and was ready to kick on. I know everyone didn't rate Adkins, but surely he would have done better than the new guy in terms of points.

 

Having said that, i don't truly believe Adkins was capable of taking us to the 'next level', which seems to be Cortese's target. However, i'm very surprised he didn't wait till the summer until the manager change as he has massively gambled for not much reward in the short term. If we go down, i think it will be the single worst manager change in the history of the premier league.

[Ivan Katalinic's 'tache]

Adkins would have kept us up comfortably had he stayed. After beating Villa and drawing at Chelsea, we really did look like a side who had turned a corner and was ready to kick on. I know everyone didn't rate Adkins, but surely he would have done better than the new guy in terms of points.

 

Having said that, i don't truly believe Adkins was capable of taking us to the 'next level', which seems to be Cortese's target. However, i'm very surprised he didn't wait till the summer until the manager change as he has massively gambled for not much reward in the short term. If we go down, i think it will be the single worst manager change in the history of the premier league.

 

You do remember we once appointed Steve Wigley?

[teacher]

Irrelevant thread! Mods please lock.

[UpweySaint]

Irrelevant thread! Mods please lock.

 

Irrelevant how?

 

Should we not question decisions made at our club?

 

Bizarre logic.

[Tokyo-Saint]

No that's the reason I don't post on here much...cretinous responses.

[/b]

 

Oh come on, don't put yourself down, 7.5k ain't bad.

[Minsk]

No that's the reason I don't post on here much...cretinous responses.

[/b]

 

You see, that's what happens - post cretinous tripe, get cretinous responses.

 

I tried to debate with you many times in the past, but you always ended up throwing insults at me (as you could not back up your opinions with any meaningful facts, and had no other response when facts were provided to shoot your diatribe down in flames). So I am not really inclined to debate with you further. Yet, it is of considerable note that you have nothing to say about the match. performance, players, etc - just more bowlocks about how bad you think Adkins is/was as a manager. There must be some reason for this? (Rhetorical question.)

[Minsk]

Irrelevant thread! Mods please lock.

 

If you don't like a thread just ignore it.

[Badger]

Impossible to say, but gut reaction is that we were on the right lines with NA and had started getting some important points.

 

Although impossible to judge over the last seven games, I am convinced that we would be in a better position in two or more years time with NA, had we (Cortese) afforded him the time he deserved. Instead we will probably have at least one more managerial upheaval in that time,with all the disruption it brings. MP,unfortunately for him, is a short term solution.

[max_saints]

I think both would have done about the same with the squad we have meaning finishing just above bottom 3, 15-17 position thereabouts. which begs the question, why even sack NA and replace him with MP halfway through the season and waste money doing so. especially when the team were playing at a peak prior to the sack,

 

somehow, just somehow, if our position remains status quo at the end of the season I have a feeling cortese would again be looking for a new manager

[pingwing]

For comedy speculation I think we would have lost at home to Everton, drawn against United, drawn against Wigan, lost hopelessly to City, lost a lot worse to Newcastle, beaten QPR and probably conceded today (but still draw).

 

Basically about the same number of points but beaten a team we really should of beaten but not taken down a hopeless city and long a few draws/losses changed for complacency.

 

Either way its a bit pointless because we have Pochettino now and he's doing alright so far.

[david in sweden]

Simple hypothetical question: do you think we would have more points now had we retained Adkins or has Poch secured more than Adders would've got?

Not saying decision was right or wrong, what's done is done, just interested to see who others feel we'd have done better under. For me, I think Adkins.

 

 

what a question !.......none of us can really say with any certainty - can we?.

 

as for me, I'm still waiting for my crystal ball to come back from the polishers ........

[teacher]

Irrelevant how?

 

Should we not question decisions made at our club?

 

Bizarre logic.

 

Adkins is not our Manager anymore! Although I think the way he has been treated is nothing less than disrespectful and unjust, we must move on.

 

At this moment in time we are in a position that we deserve to be in. We haven't won enough games over the course of the season whether that be under Adkins or Poch!

[aintforever]

Probably wouldn't have been massively different to what we have now. I would feel more confident with Adkins taking us into the run in than Pochenitto though, purely because he looked like he had got to grips with what the Prem is about. IMO under Pochettino there is a bigger chance of a nose dive.

[KK the 2nd]

No one knows. My guess about the same. Man City was inspired, QPR poor etc. ... same, same old.

[UpweySaint]

Adkins is not our Manager anymore! Although I think the way he has been treated is nothing less than disrespectful and unjust, we must move on.

 

At this moment in time we are in a position that we deserve to be in. We haven't won enough games over the course of the season whether that be under Adkins or Poch!

 

"we" dont really have to ignore cortese's decision to move on. when im at sms im supporting the team and mp as much as i did with adkins. moving on is one thing pretending things never happened is another.

 

no question the table doesnt lie but thats not really the point of this thread.

 

dont really want to have the same old argument but i think there will always be those of us who want to hold nc to account for what looks like a v poor decision.

[Toussaint]

Much of a muchness, I believe this is a pretty poor saints outfit who may or may not survive, regardless of the manager. Honestly, take your red and white spectacles off, not many of this team would get a run in a Europe place chasing side. If Corteses ambitions are to be believed then apart from a select few players most will not have much of a future at the club. By and large this is Adkins team, not Pochettino's, Poch is looking at the squad he has, and probably thinking oh dear. If we survive the he can be judged when he has had time to get his team together . If we had survived under NA I could only foresee perennial struggle.

[brmbrm]

I would say better by 3-4 points because continuity would be there. We had out "new manager honeymoon period", played well enough but the bad news is didn't get the points. Now reality is kicking in.

 

Bizarre decision to sack Adkins when he did - get safe FFS then fart about.

[killer fan]

Are new man has got us playing much better and lambert is playing more games we just need him to get the best out of gaston

[hypochondriac]

Imo we would have stayed up easily. Apologists will say this was never certain but to my mind after a dodgy start we never looked like going down. Recent performances have me worried and if we do go down then to my mind cortese must take the lions share of the blame. He has to live and die on the decisions he makes. Sacking adkins at that stage of the season was a crazy decision and it may yet prove so very costly.

[Supersubpuckett]

in mp's first seven games we have scored the same number of goals as na's last seven (premier league) but have 4 less points. however two of our goals were incredibly fortunate (man city) and we don't seem to be able to convert our chances as well as we used to. my mate was at the game yesterday (he's a norwich fan) and said we were by far the better team but our finishing was terrible.

[Wes Tender]

I believe that we would have been a couple of places higher now had Adkins stayed as manager. Apart from anything else, the two of them play a different style of football and there has to be some uncertainty caused by trying to get the players to understand what is required, then to implement it, nervous of what to do if things didn't work out how they expected. Pochettino's strategy of playing a high line, denying the opposition space and time on the ball isn't anything new and has been employed by certain teams to nullify the most expensive and able players in the top teams. But to use that tactic in every match regardless of who the opposition is seems naive to me and some managers have already worked out the best way to counter it even before a ball is kicked in a match. In short, Pochettino appears to be a one trick pony.

 

Unless a team has players which suit a particular strategy, then it won't work effectively. Teams with fast strikers can play the ball out long for them to run on to. Teams with tall players like Stoke will benefit from set pieces against teams with shorter defenders. We were a team under Adkins adapted to play a passing game with width, patiently probing for an opening and then striking, often tiring the opposition because we denied them the ball. Results in matches before Adkins was sacked were suggestive that after a difficult run of fixtures, Adkins had kept the players positive and we had turned a corner. Sometimes his substitutions raised an eyebrow, or he was criticised for not starting Lambert. Yet does Pochettino's style suit Lambert? Is he up to the double training sessions?

 

I agree with some other posters that if the long term strategy was to replace Adkins in order to press on to the next level, the time to have done it was either before the season started, or when this season ended. What will the position be if we are relegated under Pochettino? Do we stick with him, or get rid of him and replace him with somebody eminently capable of achieving the task because they have a track record of gaining a side promotion from a lower division? And who would that be?

 

Apart from any other considerations, of the two of them, I suspect that Adkins was the better communicator (not just linguistically), more capable of getting the best out of his players and more tactically aware.