Voted to keep NA for the time being, his days are surely numbered though if we fail to put some more points on the board in the next few games. My biggest gripe with NA is our formation, you can gloss it up and call it 4-3-3 but at the end of the day we are playing with only one striker. I was at the game yesterday and we were the better side 1st half but at no time did we put their back 4 under any pressure and failed to create one single goal scoring chance. WHU looked very ordinary whose team is not much different from last season (apart from Carroll who we coped with yesterday). My point is we took 4 points off them last year using a 4-4-2 or diamond formation which has proved successful over the last 2 seasons. IMO we should of stuck with a formula which has proved successful and the players were comfortable with. We'll never know but I believe WHU were there for the taking if we had deployed 2 strikers yesterday in they're proper positions, its worked for us before why not this season. Managers usually stick to their tried and trusted formations, seems strange NA would wafer from a system of play he has used throuhout his managerial career??????
Although I agree with the basic gist of your post, I must defend WGS on this comment...Rory Delap was a Stuart Gray signing (what was Lowe thinking giving him £4m to spend!). The deals for Delgado and Chala were brokered by Rupes (dodgy) before Strachan was even installed as the Saints manager. In fact WGS never fancied Delgado as a player and was, famously, more interested in the expiry date of his yoghurt than answering questions about him!
Amen to that. I would hope us to have shown signs of improvements by the start of December and I think Adkins should be given until then. In the meantime there's no need to get twitchy
If this is the case (Reed influencing the formation choice) it's a bl**dy shambles. Nigel is the one who has to take the rap for the bad results so he should have full control over the final decision re team and formation for each match. I really truly hope the rumor re Reed imposing 4-3-3 isn't true. Reed should take an interest and offer advice by all means but if he is the boss of Adkins he should be supporting Nigel's decisions not making them!
Keep Adkins whether we stay or go down. He will bring us back up. Remember loads of people questioning the Pardew sacking, These days many saying we should have kept him!!! Well he failed to get us within 10 points of the autos, failed to get that play off place. Forget the -10 he had the largest transfer budget in that division by a country mile so should at least have been IN the play offs. Adkins on the other hand took over a Pardew team that was in the bottom 4 and caught up that very similar points gap spectacularly nearly winning the division. Then he very nearly won the next division. All virtually with the same team which now people want dismantled in favour of mercenaries chasing the money. On top of that Adkins' team plays great football. He isn't using the club as a stepping stone. He buys into the bringing youngsters through and not being praised for finding bargains in Europe or Africa. So if the ideal is to live within our means and to have half our first team from the academy (somewhere along the line I know) then tell me how paying one manager a huge compensation pay off fits in? The only option is just to get a different manager who in no way is going to achieve any better than Adkins without abandoning the academy/within our means plan. 2 choices here: 1 - Stick with a young manager, give him some faith even if the short term may well result in relegation. 2 - Forget the whole plan, get in someone and buy short term players. We can also sell off Staplewood to the FA then and buy 1 world class player with the cash. I for one would rather Saints BUILD from where we are and that does not necessarily mean moving up the table in the Prem. It means build the club so that in 10 year's time we could possibly be where Cortese has stated his ambition lies. We will NEVER achieve that ambition by bringing in managers that get short term mercenaries in to keep them up. gomarchin will probably say he would prefer that. He would probably say he would prefer Big Sam than Adkins. The other 80% in the poll above seem to be backed up by the fans at the games though. That is unless those who chanted 'One Nigel Adkins' have changed already!!! Supprt your club not a league standing. Saints can become something but it will not be done by short term vision. There is more to life than clinging on to the bottom end of the top flight forever!!!
Benitez would dump the whole squad on the transfer list including academy players, sell them for peanuts, bring in Spanish journeymen on high wages and we would still go down!!! Poor manager in my opinion and always full of excuses. Would've been out within a year or 2 had it not been for Gerrard being at his world class peak for a few years!!!
You presume I want Adkins out I dont , and I agree there is more to life than clinging on at the bottom , we have to show intent to stay there first and its apparent this team shall not do it as it stands , so we do need an expensive fix (would of been a whole lot cheaper a few months ago , cheers Nicky boy) QPR and WHU have shown what needs to be done , just for the short term . Anyway off out to the garage for a ciggie , one beer one ciggie thats it , goodnight all .
I really believe Saints are on to something quite special,bit of a hiccup at the moment but still 'work in progress'.When you get to the peak you have to get your breath,after you have settled down you can then seriously look towards the summit,COYR'S.Nigel Adkins is the best manager we have had in years,let's back him to the full.
I hope thats right. I also think that if a teams going to have a rough patch then better it be at the start of the season than the end.
Quick question for those of you that have voted 'Yes', then can be have suggestions of alternatives/replacements?
Also I think we woke up a few Prem teams after they had seen the ManC and ManU games, probably a good thrashing at the hands on ManC would have taken minds off of our progress.
yeah qpr really have it figured out don't they, it's not like they are bottom of the league or anything is it, oh wait.
They played well yesterday and were unlucky , one thing is for sure they played better against a good Everton side than we did .
