Never been a big fan of Gary Neville, as a player, coach or pundit. Lots of people raving about him, particularly on Talksport, never got itâ¦until tonight. Thought his analysis of us, our defending and Nigel Adkins was absolutely spot on. Iâve been saying in recent weeks and posted up on here in absolute defence of Adkins. Decisions on selection apart, our problem is quite clearly our inability to defend properly and subsequently keep a clean sheet. I think if we look at the goals weâve conceded at least 80% of them have been down to individual errors made either by a centre back of left back. Tonight was absolutely no different in that front, really sloppy goals to give away (second one a decent one from WBA point of view). Weâre not being played off the park, teams arenât scoring brilliant goals or screamers, weâre not struggling with the offside trap or even particularly being outmuscled from setpieces which has often been the case in last couple of years. Just simply not doing the fundamentals of football: * track your man * close him down * make a challenge * show him to his weaker side * donât give away silly fowls/handballs * Clear the ball when you have a chance to I think the classic goal to point this out was West Hamâs second the other week when Maya thought he was Ronaldo by trying a flick over his head, Jos decided that closing down or challenging was not required and Jose decided that letting the ball run right across the goal in front of you is a better option than poking it out or hoofing it back in the direction it came from. Nigel isnât telling them to make these mistakes. He really canât do more than train them on the training field and hope that when they cross the white line they donât do it. Perhaps he should have got more defenders in? I wouldnât disagree with that. Personally donât think that Fox, Fonte or Maya are Premier League standard. Jos possibly could be if we put someone quick along side him. However donât think anyoneâs sure whoâs in charge of transfers at the club and Iâm sure as hell not going to moan. This is the most investment weâve ever had!! Gutted weâre not getting the results on the pitch at the moment and really feel for Nigel as he really shouldnât be under pressure. What a great job he has done to bring us here like this. Weâre playing some good football at times, passing the ball better than ever (in terms of consistently even if not in last couple of games). We may well go down, but I for one would rather see Nigel given the clubs full backing to bring us back â this was a five year project to get us to the Premier League achieved in three â heâs got two years in credit. Well done to Gary Neville tonight for highlighting what a lot of people seem to be overlooking. Lets not make Nigel a scapegoat, infact lets not make any of the above named defenders scapegoats either. We all have to stick together and encourage and support them to try and do better. Then when the window opens in January, hopefully weâll be allowed to strengthen again. Keep the faith. COYR!
I watched the show from start to finish tonight, and I can't disagree with one single thing he has said. Best pundit that has ever been on TV in terms of his analysis of games. Footballing knowledge really is second to none. I know he is involved with the England setup as a coach at the moment, but if he ever decides to move into full-time management I think he will be fantastic.
Glad that I'm not the only one thinking this. Know that everyone's entitled to their opinion, just can't understand why so much negativity. Well done to those who travelled and backed the team tonight too. "Oh When the Saints" on 87 mins, "Nigel Adkins Red Army" alot and "There's only one Nigel Adkins".
Would be like a dream, but I think it is fairly damning when he has said tonight that the way the defence is set up is not actually wrong, the players just aren't good enough. There is probably nothing he can do for them.
Glad that I'm not the only one thinking this. Know that everyone's entitled to their opinion, just can't understand why so much negativity. Well done to those who travelled and backed the team tonight too. "Oh When the Saints" on 87 mins, "Nigel Adkins Red Army" alot and "There's only one Nigel Adkins".
couldn't agree more, the marking this season has been appalling. For the penalty against West Ham Hooiveld was meant to be marking Carroll for the incoming freekick and he was standing in front of him and so completely lost him when the freekick was played. Absolutely abysmal and unforgivably poor defending. And this isn't an isolated incident our marking and closing down across the field has been very poor.
Was never a big fan of Neville as a player, didn't dislike him but wasn't a fan, when he first started commentary/punditry I thought he was shocking but he really grew into it, and think he's been fantastic ever since. Very knowledgeable and unbiased, and comes out with some cracking lines some times. In the pre-game when they were talking about Chelsea and how their key players are struggling a touch with 3 games a week, the presenter was saying that they are professional athletes and that they should be able to play 3 games a week, Neville was saying that they can but it's always going to take it out of them in the third, then came out with "You can eat 3 sausage butties but the third int going to taste as good as the first." And when he described Ryan Babel as looking like "He was having an argument with the ball" had me chuckling too. Probably my favourite pundit out there at the moment and think he was largely spot on in his comments.
I'm not sure many people would disagree with that - it's why I think it'd be harsh to sack Adkins, the personnel he has to work with at the back, other than Clyne, are really sub-standard.
Hey gomarchingin, I've answered this before but I'll answer again: Adkins, Reed and Cortese can be blamed for not bringing in solid defenders in the summer (I'm not sure who is to blame the most), and I'm sure it wasn't through ignorance but bad luck/frugality that we didn't, but firing Adkins now wouldn't change the players we brought in through summer. If defenders (at least 1 CB 1 LB, ideally 2 CB) aren't signed in January then heaven forbid...
Exactly this. Now surely the person that deserves to be sacked is the person that decided Nigel would be fine working with our current crop of defenders. Les Reed likes to harp on about how he is the head of recruitment, has 16000 scouts reporting to him and the footballing world feeding from his golden nipple. Let's make him the scapegoat!
I have never said sack Adkins now , I want the full month to fully judge him and see the situation more clearly , no I totally disagree , liken this to a war and we have failed to plan properly and there is no excuse , even he has said as much , he has to take the fall or he passes it onto Reed and Cortese because one thing is for certain and without doubt , we have entered this League not prepared and not good enough . We were completely outplayed tonight .
I agree with this and have made that clear before. I didn't know our defence would be this bad, but hey, it is.
Well I am not going to be a smartarse , they should know though , they should know the limits of our players , catching the penny but missing the pound .
I think Cortese probably deserves most of any "blame" but we can't know for sure. I just think that the way Martin went on loan early in the summer and Yoshida was only signed at the last minute after Adkins had denied any interest is suggestive. I strongly suspect we had identified potential defensive signings and Cortese was unable to finalise deals for whatever reasons.
Adkins - 'I wanna be the manager. I've got a hunger, I've got a desire. I want to be so succesful for Southampton and again you look at the way the supporters are...........they have been behind me all the way through and I thank them for that." Those who want rid of Adkins are not being heard thank god. It is those chanting 'One Nigel Adkins' at the games, outsinging 20000+ baggies fans whilst their team is losing that I am proud of and not the glory glory merchants calling for Adkins to be sacked. Blame whoever you want but whilst I am a Saints supporter through 4 decades there has been something special about the last 2 and a bit years. Something I've never felt before. Akin to 2x what I felt when Strachan took our homers to the FA cup final and defaulted into Europe. (I should add I was delighted at that time but that feeling was nothing like this is) I'm not sure how my support would be affected if that something special feeling was broken. I've never been this much in support of my side when rock bottom before. For those decades of struggle some seasons would see me just checking the result half way through the season when we were in the bottom 3 yet here we are ROCK BOTTOM, looking terrible, looking embarrassingly bad at times and I feel proud to hear 'ONE NIGEL ADKINS' as loud as it could be screamed drowing out the 20,000 baggies because it tells me that I am not the only one that has that strange 'something special' feeling. There are others as wierd as me that have the same 'butterflies feeling, undying support for team and manager and cannot explain it but like it a lot. And hearing the OWTS this season has been immense. It has never been sung with such passion in my lifetime. Something special is happening with the club. Maybe it isn't Adkins but something special is definitely happening and a lot of people are experiencing it. That's All
