Morning all I'm not trying to be negative at all and i am in full support for Adkins and his decisions but did anyone else feel that tuesdays game was a real chance to progress further into the CC which he haven't done in a while this was one of the easier ties and if we had won that then we could have drawn a big team with a possible record gate again. Don't get me wrong i'm all for giving the youngsters and fringe players i go but i just felt we could have been a bit stronger. Please don't think of me as i negative fan i just thought that tuesday presented us really good opportunity to progress further. Thanks prideofthesouth One positive was that Lee Barnard got a run out
I felt it was just a cup game, so blood the kids into the side with it not being the end of the world if we don't win. One selection I disagreed with is Forte who adds nothing to our side and doesn't need experience, but hey ho.
I agree with you if Lambert, Barnard were on the pitch longer we would have won because Palace were there for the taking. Oh well, Championship is far more important and there is still the FA Cup (3rd round entry this year!)
The way I see it, Adkins desperately wants to give the likes of Ward-Prowse, Reeves etc. some valuable first-team experience, but this ****e new 5-sub rule in the league means that the chances of doing this in the league are almost nil. Also Palace are only a few points behind us in the league, there's no guarantee a stronger team would have got a result
I know what you mean, but I reckon that Nigel got it right. It was more important to give some very promising youngsters a run out in a very competitive game just to see how they're shaping up. It was also important to give most of the regular first-teamers a bit of a rest after a very busy period, and before another one starts. As you say, Barny had a run to sharpen him up as well. And at the end of the day, it was only the Carling Cup, and the Championship and possible promotion has to be the priority. More positives than negatives for me.
Let's just say, if we win on Saturday, nobody is going to give a crap that we lost to Palace. Resting the players then will seem worth it.
This. Also, do you think that if he played a full strength team on Tuesday, then lost on Saturday, everyone would be moaning that he didn't rest players then.
I don't really care about both cups this year, rather concentrate on the league. If we get promoted we will be having a cup game every game
Adkins made the right decision. We hard a tough game last Saturday; we are 3 pts above Middlesborough and have to face them Saturday. It was a win-win situation to put out a second/youth team. Progress would have mede what... ....possibly an away fixture against a Premiership club with little chance of winning without playing the first team? My only regret on Tuesday was that Lambert had to come on. Would much sooner Forte had put in a decent performance to let Rickie have the night off.
Don't care about cups,never been too bothered about them to be honest,the likelyhood of us winning one is very slim so i don't really get upset if we lose in a early round.Also i've always hated the notion about playing a big team and we'd fill st marys if we did,i don't care about seeing big teams,i go to games to see saints win not the other team that's full of big names.I also seem to remember that we went off the boil slightly in the league when we knew we had united in the cup last year,think we lost to tranmere and had a couple of other dodgy results which i think was down to being preoccupied about the united game,glad that we won't have that this year,at least until the fa cup.
We've realised that we need 2 or 3 additions in January and we know that JWP and Ben Reeves are capable. It certainly wasn't a wasted experience. There will be points in the season where we really need the squad depth.
Given that he had to field some sort of side, I think he made the right call. My reaction after the game was, "oh well". At least I feel that our team should be fresh for Saturday, and if we don't win then, at least I won't have that nagging doubt (whether we had won or lost vs Palace) that fielding a better team had cost us.
Don't get me wrong i'm sure we'll look back and say that Adkins made the right decision but i feel this was a good opportunity. Forte can't play up front on his own he needs a lambert of a guly with him. I also agree that we don't need to buy a left sided player or a CM as we now have JWP and Ben Reeves.
Players aren't super-human. Sat 15th Derby Tues 18th West Ham Sat 22nd Reading Tues 25th Palace Sat 29th Boro Tues 1st Posh Sat 5th Coventry That is way too much to ask of the majority of our first XI. Somewhere in there, they needed a break. And the Carling Cup game was the obvious one. Firstly, not a league game. Secondly, it's bang in the middle of the those fixtures.
We have used fewer players in league matches than the other teams, which sounds like in Adkins eyes the team nearly picks itself. I don't think we are as good in depth as we thought, hence Adkins mentioning the January window after Tuesdays game. He did the right thing not risking any players with niggles and trying to give fringe players an opportunity. Putting on Lambert and Guly shows that he's only human and his nerve broke because he wanted to win the game. I'm a bit nervous about Saturdays game (probably because I'll be there) so lets hope everyone's fit and firing on all cylinders.
