Article: West Ham v Saints match thread Football Southampton

I dont think you read my comment properly, i am saying that our defence is not as bad as 3 goals a game. So i am more concerned that Adkins is not dealing with the defence tactically

 

Never heard an interview like that before from Adkins. Almost sounded like he was choking up when giving those one word answers, before going straight in and taking the blame himself.

And I can't work out what to read into that very last answer of his.

 

St brendy, sadly I agree. It isn't working, so it needs fixing but it's so difficult to see what the allernatives are. I just hope Adkins has a moment of divine inspiration and conjures up something. Strangely, following on from your reference to Newcastle, I was reading an article at the start of the season about Pardew and his success with an otherwise leaky defence that he inherited when he took over at Newcastle (won't bore you with the details but, in essence, he drilled the back-four daily in separate training seasons with his defenders away from the rest of the squad) - I wonder if Nigel can curb is attacking mind-set and adopt a formation and style of play to get us through to January by grinding out results?

 

Of course he's down but TBF very honest. It's his responsibility and he accepts that! He lives and dies by HIS decisions!

 

As soon as I saw the starting 11 I new the game was lost. I'm sorry but you cant leave your best player on the bench.

Also why was Gazza dropped?

Sorry Nigel you are a top bloke, but you have shown you have no idea what you are doing at this level.

 

I agree!

Also, Adkins said experience would count with Boruc - why, I don't know but a baffling reason

 

Poor adkins.

 

About experience with Boruc - West Ham are a very physical side - especially at set pieces, especially with Kevin Nolan. For years, at both Bolton and Newcastle, Kevin Nolan excels in his little tactic of getting in the keeper's way on set pieces - I wonder if Adkins thought Boruc would deal with being physically challenged better than young Gazza would.

 

Bit of a weird comment at the end. Seems very set on 4 3 3.

 

I'm not sure why Davis replaced him on the bench, but Nigel explained his decision to give Boruc the start and that was that he is commanding in the area, good at catching crosses etc. which to be fair is West Hams approach to games so that decision makes sense...it just didn't work out in practice. We need some consistency in the back 5 and whether it be injuries or tactical decisions we are not getting that consistency. We know our defence is not good enough, but we need to get the best out of what we have. Nigel needs to decide (injuries aside) who his no.1 GK is and stick with him. At the moment, there is nothing he could have done differently with the selection of the defence.

 

We have had 3 different GK's this season. Different front 2, different back 4, I could go on... At this level you can't mix and match when you feel like it. Not one of those players know if they will be starting the next game week in week out. This must crush their confidence and we all sit here wondering by we don't perform. We have no consistency. Sorry Nigel ,you have to go.

 

I have just had a text message about that , have not heard it yet , I wonder if he is masking the fact Cortese put out that because if he did then I revoke my vote to keep him , that selection was the worst I have ever seen .

 

While yes I agree we need consistency at the back, the constant chopping and changing have been forced through defensive injuries. As I said I agree that Nigel needs to decide who his No.1 is and stick with him from now on. Whether the rest of the changes have been made due to injuries or tactical decisions they have not been made just because Nigel fancied a change or because he felt like it. I don't see how sacking Nigel right now will make a jot of difference to the constant mistakes that the defence is making.

Oh and gomarchingin, you can listen to the interview with Nigel here: http://audioboo.fm/boos/1016927

 

Didn't find that interview odd at all. He was gutted, he explained his decisions and took all the blame himself. He avoided criticising the team as he prefers to do that in private. Puts to bed everyone who says that Cortese picks the team. The last bit probably reflects either he got fed up with answering questions or the interview was cut short by broadcaster.
Think he did pretty well to answer as well as he did.

 

Well, another loss away from home and I wasn't expecting us to win today, so I can't say that it was a surprise. Having read some of the very bad tempered exchanges on here, I don't think that there is anyone who now could be described as a "clapper" on these boards, we are all concerned.
There are those who say that our defence is utter rubbish. Well, everyone knows that we need to strengthen in the window so we can all agree about that. It's strange though how "we signed the wrong players". We were obviously trying to sign defenders but they players we wanted couldn't be secured. This doesn't mean that Ramirez was a poor buy, far from it.
Then there are the expert fans, who believe that they would be better at selecting the team than Nigel. Here opinions are divided, but my view is that it's far too soon to assume that Nigel is not going to make the grade. Also some claim that NC is really picking the team. This just sounds like mischief-making as there is no evidence for it whatsoever.
We are not cut-adrift. I will suspend my judgement until after Christmas.

 

Gazzaniga's listed as being taller and heavier

 

Trouble is we are leaking goals home and away quicker than my tea strainer lets the water through....Somehow NA and the other coaches have got to over come that......we are not going to win games all the time we are letting in too many goals.
Also the fear factor of coming to St Mary's is edging away. It is true perhaps that the way we are playing at the moment the advantage of teams doing that would be lost with our current form.

 

Something is wrong if they thought they were going to be sufficient ?

 

Boruc is undoubtedly stronger though. Built like a bull, I'd keep him for the spurs game but if he doesn't excel i'd keep gazza for the rest of the season.

 

It's good in a way that we can't decide who to play in goal.