Pards v Adkins

How do you think we would have done this season if Pardew had stayed in charge.

Alan came in at a very difficult time and had a good 1st season. His tactics were questioned and had a very poor pre-season.

Nige has the magic touch and has adapted formations accordingly and has made substitutions that has won us games. He has excellent experiance of promotion from this league and a good record in the championship.

The team is largely made up of players Pards had brought in and he has done well in the premiership since he left.


Quite simply, had he stayed do you think we would have more points, less points or about the same as we have now?

Its not important, we have adkins now and he is the future, we have Rovers at the weekend and of course that was Pardews last game - seems such a long time ago now.

Finally if offered a point now for the away trip at Rochdale, would you take it or can we go there and take all 3 points - we are on a good run.

 

Probably would've been about the same. Both very capable managers. I do miss Pards.

 

Pardew's teams never seemed to have much of a plan B. Adkins has repeatedly brought on the right subs to change games.

 

Have to say i prefer adkins,as said above he seems to know how to change things.Also and i know this isn't important but i actually genuinely like adkins,he seems a very nice man where as i think pardew was more arrogant and craved attention.Still think we would be up near the top with pardew though.

As a sort of second question to this thread where would we be now if adkins had been in charge all season? i personally think we'd be promoted by now.

 

I think Adkins is the better manager, I don't think you would be in it for Automatic as strongly under Pards, I think you would have done reasonably under him, But Adkins is better.
I think you will be on for 3 points at Rochdale so I would not accept one point now.

 

I did like Pardew when he was here and he did lead us to a very good finish considering the circumstances, and Wembley was of course brilliant so will always be indebted to him - all that sleeping with players wives BS tainted what was a fantastic reign for Pards (even if we did have a few calamities) and he signed some great players. On the other hand he did seem to lack a plan B and if we didn't get a goal early on we started fading quickly...

Adkins on the other hand - as a manager, very very good... as a talker? bloody hell, talk about a born again christian on speed! as much as I'm loving the fact that we have a plan B and the fact that we aren't so route one to Lambert as we were under AP, Adkins is so frustrating in his interviews... theres positive and theres just being OTT.

Still, Adkins > Pardew.

''everyones on the bus'' - no, just... no... all these damn metaphors...

 

I liked Pards, but did wonder about his tactics sometimes, and also seemed reluctant to take any blame himself. I much prefer Adkins. he seems more tactically astute, and has brought in some good players, and more importantly seems to know how to motivate the lads, whilst keeping the whole club grounded. I think young Nigel will be our manager for many seasons to come, and will in time become a saints legend.

 

To be honest the two managers are miles apart. For that reason it is hard to judge as they are so different in management stiles. AP had decided that the best way to get out of this league is basically to use Lambert as a Target man. Which to be honest suites him very well. The vast majority in this league tend to use this method when on home soil. They tend to find very quick men so that they can just leave one up and rely on breakaways especially on away games. Gus poyet and Brighton use a mixture of this but are taught to be a bit more technically minded, with a man that tends to stay in midfield just behind the front two so that the direct play is usually to this midfielder/play maker and he does the rest. This is what AP was starting to use himself he had spider doing this roll all though perhaps deeper than he would have liked. NA on the other hand doesn't do that as such. He believes in the possession of the football in passing it to the players In my opinion he is using the diamond system an awful lot more than any other in this league the players themselves found this difficult at first and have played some very bad games using this system. However the team are just beginning to gel to this system. Especially as it can catch the opposition out as it is so easy to revert to a 442 or even a full 433 before they have realised it and by then they are a couple of goals down. So in conclusion I would say that NA has the edge as he is better prepared for the Championship than AP would have been. As for getting out of this league that is difficult to answer as in his early games AP had such a disaster. Although I think he would have got us on the straight and narrow fairly quickly and would have been in a similar position as NA but not as well prepared for that promotion should it come.

 

I know where you're coming from on that but i'd rather have him being positive and happy than being a bloody miserable sod i.e avram grant.

 

Good point - we had that poor run also when Wilkins stepped in. you could be right, had adkins been here all season there could be a big gap between us and the rest of the chasing pack.

As to Avram Grant being so miserable - come on he did manage pompey for quite a while, enough even to make pollyanna miserable

 

AP is a manager who looks good with good players (like some other Prem managers), but doesn't have a plan B or know how to get more out of players he has. NA understands people and tactics and gets the most out of the players he has. The team want to play for him and trust him. Hell, we trust him. I've never felt so certain that a managers knows what he's doing than I am with Nigel. He won't always succeed, because no manager does, but over a season he does. His enthusiasm shows that he loves football like we do. When he arrived he looked like a boy in a sweetshop and we loved him for it. The Scunnie fans were sorry to say goodbye and one said at the time, ''You'll love him.'' I will always be grateful to AP for last year and Wembley, but I don't think he was the manager for us even if he got us promoted. We certainly weren't the team for him; he had bigger fish to fry. He was more of an old-fashioned manager and wanted to be in charge, NA understands the modern game and the sort of club set-up that NC wants.

 

I find it impossible to compare the two, simply because the situations which they inherited are so different. I will always be grateful to Pards for the JPT and for getting the "winning mentality" going in a demoralised team, starting on minus 10 points.
Adkins has been excellent, starting from a better situation, but I must say I feel that leaving aside unprovable tittle-tattle, Adkins style of football seems to suit the target of the "Southampton style" which was part of MLs mission statement. Just once in while we have had moments of one touch football which has reminded me of the best of Gordon Strachen's time. Different times, both were good for us.

 

I think we would probably have a few less points under Pardew than we currently have under Adkins. We seem to be a lot better at grinding out results now than we were last season. We are much stronger away from home. Whereas last season we were generally quite poor away from home towards the end of last season with a lot of draws. This season we seem to be able to win away from home much easier even when we're not playing well. We also have a plan b when something is not working. Recently, when we have played at home we have started with the diamond formation and it hasn't worked. Adkins has changed it around and we have won the game. Last season this was not the case and we seemed to stick to the same tactics throughout every game. I'm not saying Pardew was a bad manager as I liked him and thought he was a good manager but I just feel Adkins is slightly better.

On the point of the Rochdale game, I am confident of us getting all 3 points. We have won 7 of the last 8 games so the team must be incredibly confident at the moment. However, I would not be too disappointed with a point as it is probably our 2nd hardest game left after Brighton.

 

I liked Pardew. When he was appointed i was suprised, but in a good way, similar to how i felt when Burley was appointed. Anyway i thought he did a good job last season. Awful start but when he started to bring his own players in things changed dramatically. In the end he would of had finished 5 if it wasn't for the 10 point deduction and if we started the season with the players we finished it with we would of been in the Championship right now. And when you look at the team that played in his first game in charge you kind of understand just why we struggled.
Here's that team incase you needed reminding,
Davis, Murty, Harding, Schneiderlin, Perry, Thomas, Wotton, Lallana, Paterson, Saganowski, James. Subs: Bialkowski, Holmes, Pulis, Lancashire, Thomson, Gillet, Gobern. Can you imagine where we would of finished with this lot? Doesn't bear thinking about
And of course the JPT. I was sorry to see him go after that 4-0 at Bristol Rovers and then things went downhill fast for 3 or 4 games or so and all of a sudden the optimism i had for this season had gone already and we were only in September

Then Adkins. I don;t think anything needs to be said about the man. A quick look at where we are now compared to where we were when he took over says it all. And if there was any doubt of his capabilities then you only need to look at his win ratio.
P38 W24 D7 L7 Over 63% win ratio isn't half bad

So Adkins pips it for me and i wouldn't swop them around if i had a chance. I think Nigel is the man to take us back to the Prem. And he can say 'it's as simple as that' as many times as he wants on the way there !

 

First off, I think if either manager had been in charge for the entire season we'd be 1st at the moment purely because of our squad. I Think i prefer Adkins because of the way he gets his teams playing football, yes Pardew won games but i was sick and tired of seeing the ball hoofed down pitch every time I went to a saints game with Adkins there is a marked improvement he plays attractive football which is not only good to watch but gets us the 3 points also.

 

When Pardew was appointed I believe it was on the advice of others to NC, in time he realised Pardew and himself weren't meant to be, because really it doesn't seem his appointment, especially after appointing someone like Adkins. Adkins is a fairly grounded individual, he can be irritating in interviews yes, but he is putting points in the bank so he can say what he pleases. I think motivation for the job is different too, Pardew felt he was bigger than SFC, and wanted to be much higher than L1 (as any manager should).

Pardew was good for us and gave me a memorable day at Wembley, but I would of preferred promotion - put it this way, going out to Swindon this year in the 1st Round will be totally discarded if Nigel takes us up. I think Adkins genuinely feels this is his 'big chance' he says over and over again, this club is great to him, a big club with good backing from fans and backroom people - with the quality to progress, aswell as the facilities on offer to him. He is more motivated for the job. And on motivation I feel Adkins is more a man of the people, Pardew repeatedly stood there arms folded in training, Nigel rolls his sleeves up and takes a more hands-on approach, and maybe this works better for our squad. Pards seemed to stand and watch time trickle away as we slipped to a draw/defeat whereas Nigel shakes things up, sparks something and we go on to grab the points. He is a motivator, come on admit some of the stuff he has said this season has made you smile or proud of Saints surely? He has certainly had me believing since he came in and just hearing him speak on the Football League Preview on Sky when he was Scunny boss made me like him from the off. Pardew seemed a bit under-enthusiastic to me, whereas Nigel really is like a "born again christian on speed" - love it whoever said that. Nigel offers a more attractive brand of football, perhaps suiting Cortese's vision for the 'Southampton Style' and clear fondness of all things Barcelona. Adkins seems more willing to get the youngsters in and around the first team squad, with a number featuring on the bench for us, compared to Pardew only putting Chamberlain on the bench late last season. We play better football and I believe that is perhaps why Lambert had a slow start, a change in his expected playing style and a combination or injuries. But overall, it's Nigel for me.

For me so far I would say I wouldn't swap Nigel for Alan, and that if we still had Alan we would be in the position of MK Dons.

The win ratio of Adkins is better... 63% to Pardew's 53%.

And if I had to rate the two...

Pardew 7 / 10
Adkins 9 / 10

Thank you for the ride so far Nigel, now please guide the Saints raft/bus/building into the Championship.

 

Thanks for your responses guys and evening Pompeymeowth, thanks for the welcome.

SaintStinger -good point about the squad Pardew inherited and what we ended the season with. Pardew was excellent in the transfer market -Lambert, Barnard, hammond, Fonte etc etc -even in the loan market papa waigo and antonio were inspirational.

The transfer window is the only place where adkins has not been tested. Not really had chance to see with saints the type of quality additions to the side, Forte has made an impression and the two stephens seem good prospects

 

I am in the Adkins camp.

I too was shocked in a nice way when Pardew joined, but I always felt he didn't take responsibility for bad results and blamed everyone else. With Adkins, we have a plan B - against MK Dons, even at 2-0 down for some reason I always thought we may get something out of the game.

I'm not going to count any chickens though as I have been a Saints fan for far too long to know how we snatch defeat from the jaws of victory!

 

I think there are a few of us on here that can say we know how easily we snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.

Difference now is that somehow Nigel seems to be winning us all round with his easy smile and pleasant brand of football. He seems to be growing into the job as well and no longer seems to be awkward when talking about the job at hand. I really believe we have found us a real gem.