The first solution to the problems for Southampton manager Russell Martin is clear, quite literally the word "Clear" all but one of the 5 goals conceded in the Premier League have been because of a failure to "Clear" the ball under pressure, but that is not his only problem.

Russell Martin has stated he will not change his football philosophy, I haven't got a problem with that, to be honest any manager who panders to criticism is a dead man walking, you employ a manager to do things his way, not to change them when the going gets tough, he has to live or die by the courage of his convictions.

But that doesn't mean that he has to change his philosophy and stop the possession football game, he just needs to fine tune it, that seems to be clear to most people, be they Southampton supporters or football pundits.

Most agree that he hasn't got the quality of players needed to play the possession football game to the level he seems to demand his players implement it.

First as mentioned, as was emphasised in the defeat at Brentford, his players seem to be under orders to keep passing the ball, even when the occasion does not merit it, it seems that our defenders are almost scared to clear the ball, it is if they feel they will be dropped if they do so.

When a team is playing badly, it is usually about going back to basics, about doing the simple things and that means that sometimes you have to put your foot through the ball.

I do feel some sympathy here, certainly at Newcastle, it wasn't the system that was to blame for the goal, it was the inability of the Goalkeeper to play a simple pass, which really should not have been a problem and the same could be said of one of the opening two goals at Brentford.

So here is the first "Clear" basic tweak that Russell Martin needs to make and that is to tell his defenders to clear the ball, give them the freedom to do so when necessary.

The second "Clear" thing that the manager has to change is his obsession with Jack Stephens, no one has a problem with Jack Stephens, most people know where he stands in the pecking order and appreciate that for most of his time at the club he has not really been the first choice central defender.

But now it seems that he is first choice not only in the centre of defence but at full back and in central midfield, in fact the manager has created a special role for him that is a hybrid of them all.

Reality is that man for man Jack should not be in the team, a year ago we lacked experience and that is why he was made Captain, now we have players in the squad who can provide that leadership.

After 13 1/2 years at the club Jack still has only started 129 games in the League, plus another 19 coming off the bench, that is not the stats of a stalwart first choice defender, but one of a great servant to the club.

Stephens is the brunt of much criticism on social media, but it is not entirely his fault, he doesn't pick the team and if it is not cleat to Russell Martin the changes that he needs to make in selection, then we have a problem.

I will not deny I have never really been a great admirer of Jack Stephens, but that is only about his abilities, I have great admiration of him as a loyal servant to this club, I want him to succeed, I do not question his loyalty or his commitment, he does not deserve some of outright abuse that he gets.

The manager has had an influx of players in the week or so before the transfer window ended, but he chose to leave most of them out at Brentford and play the same starting outfield XI that had let him down in the opening two League games.

The fans could clearly see what was going wrong, but not the manager.

So the clear issue of the next few weeks is going to see whether the manager is flexible and can make crucial changes that are needed, or whether he is stubborn as some Saints supporters have already claimed that he is.

I don't agree with that, at the end of last season he changed the way his side played when we went to Elland Road in the last game of the season and kept it for the 3 play off games, put bluntly it won us promotion, so he is not as blinkered as some would have you believe.

But the writing is on the wall, we have already dropped at least 2 points we should have won this season and that could be vital come judgement day at the end of the season, although I do not see Sport Republic having the knee jerk reaction some of the supporter base are having, there is a time that they will have to make a judgement call themselves.

Losing 3 games in a row will always ring alarm bells for those that run football club's, the only thing that isn't clear at the moment, is just how long Russell Martin has got to get it right.

I would suggest that the Manchester United game is not going to see him sacked if we lose that game, however it may well make the board decide what path they are on, if we then lost to Ipswich, I would think Russell Martin would be on very stony ground, defeat the following week at Bournemouth would almost certainly make his position untenable.

This is a difficult set of fixtures, but they are now crucial.

So what will we see from the manager, will we see him refuse to compromise and put his faith in his full on philosophy or will we see him adapt it as he did last season.

The next 3 weeks will give us the answer on that !

Photo: Action Images

HythePeer added 10:33 - Sep 3 Criticism doesn't come from you or me; it comes via the results. Messi, Best, Ronaldo, and Pele in defence would fail playing the Martin way. Everyone was criticising the goalkeeper, so at great expense a new one was recruited; the result was worse. Micromanagement doesn't work at the speed of the game; he has to let the players manage their actions on the pitch. He can't stick to his guns because they just shoot the players in the foot. McCarthy has already lost his job; the other players will see themselves ridiculed in the press every week, and gradually they will leave him.

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dirk_doone added 11:12 - Sep 3 Our tactics are naive and predictable. We are top of the Premier League for backwards passes, but the aim of the game is to win football matches not to top meaningless passing stat tables. Man City would win whatever way they played - even if their manager told them to just go out and play - because their players are so much better than the rest, but anyway, their passes are forwards, not backwards and sideways. Most of the teams that win Premier League games nowadays have less possession, for example Newcastle just beat Spurs, who had 66% possession. They just pick off passes their opponents make in front of their own goals, which is all that every team that plays us knows they ned to do to beat us. Unless we stop the predictble sideways and backwards passes in our own half, playing against us is like taking candy from a baby.

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SanMarco added 11:38 - Sep 3 What other PL team plays extreme tippy-tappy at the back? The idea of possession-based football is that you move smoothly UP the field. Over 90 gruelling minutes at this level our defenders are always going to make vital mistakes at the back playing this way - also they are a lot more likely to be punished for it. It is unfair on (some) of our defenders to say they are 'not good enough' because it is the way that they are being asked to play that makes them look that way. Nick's point about the last 4 games of last season is a key one. Even with McCarthy in goal I remember only one heart in the mouth moment in the whole of those games (in front of the away end at the Hawthorns). RM can therefore adapt. Will he? I hope so because an early change of manager doesn't seem the way forward to me. He needs to drop the players who need dropping and accept that a clearance into row Z and a throw in at the halfway line is infinitely better than picking the ball out of the net after another fiasco...

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Colburn added 11:55 - Sep 3 I think it’s you who has the obsession with captain Jack.. it’s only taken you 3 games to place blame with him.. the lack of positive tactics is the issue far more than the personnel.
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Flamingbankers added 11:59 - Sep 3 The three weeks after the next two you mean Nick. Fair comments and I agree about Stephens - in all reality, though, many like him as a captain , member of the squad and man - including myself, he should not be first choice defender in the Premier League. However, if we played with two centre-halves I would see him as a capable back-up. That to me is short and long of it. However, I really think the system is to blame and Martin has to change the system. You purchase ball playing midfielders to play the ball around not defenders and goalkeepers - their job is to stop attacks and shots around the penalty area and to get rid of the ball as quickly as possible. It really shouldn't be rocket science. Sure the better backs can pass the ball out effectively and that does have to come into the equation in the Premier league but there's a difference between that and less than effective ball-playing defenders knocking the ball around their own penalty box. Barcelona, Madrid, Man City and Arsenal can do to because on the whole those defenders are excellent ball players. We simply can not afford players of that calibre and so, ergo, we're not going to be able to knock the ball around. We have to play to our strengths of our best players, rather than get the players to play to a devised/designed system, and make adjustments when necessary. You don't have to be a manager to see this, you just need commons sense and decades of watching football. Martin was pragmatic in making the right changes for the play-offs, it was a critical situation, but than why does he persist we his tippy-tappy defensive system against superior teams in the Premier League? Doesn't he understand we have to win matches ?That is very curious to me. He'll definitely have to change in the next three matches to get any points but that 's going to mean a fundamental rethink in team loyalties. I think Fernandes, Archer, Ugochukwa and Dibbling should all be brought in. There's two weeks to integrate them into a new system Russell! BE great if it happens but I won't hold my breath.

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Bowlercow added 12:32 - Sep 3 Last September we lost four on the trot and the same arguments were being put them about how RM must change the system, don't play tippy happy etc He didn't change it until Baz got crocked but we got promoted Replacements for all those that played in the championship have been brought in I expect all the players bought to be better than those we had So the answer is to play those better players and see how they handle the system RM has given a fair crack to the ones who got us here so move on If he feels guilty about Jack being the captain and getting dropped then make him CLUB captain and give the armband to FD As for changing for the Leeds game and the playoffs he changed it to what we have now As I said change the players and change to a 4 3 3

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Bowlercow added 12:32 - Sep 3 Last September we lost four on the trot and the same arguments were being put them about how RM must change the system, don't play tippy happy etc He didn't change it until Baz got crocked but we got promoted Replacements for all those that played in the championship have been brought in I expect all the players bought to be better than those we had So the answer is to play those better players and see how they handle the system RM has given a fair crack to the ones who got us here so move on If he feels guilty about Jack being the captain and getting dropped then make him CLUB captain and give the armband to FD As for changing for the Leeds game and the playoffs he changed it to what we have now As I said change the players and change to a 4 3 3

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northernsaint1 added 12:40 - Sep 3 You fans need a chill pill!!! Where do you expect Saints to be in the league??? We are mediocre at best and defo a bottom 5 team!!! We had brief spells of top half fun but it was very short lived.
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Farlow added 13:26 - Sep 3 I Disagree about the system not being the reason for the disastrous goal at Newcastle. Newcastle had done their homework and had a lot of players around our box making it hard to find a man free.I,m sure with any other Coach in charge Macarthy would boot it into row z.
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davenbennett added 13:40 - Sep 3 It's suicide soccer! Teams don't have to play well, they just wait until tippy tappy gives them a goal. I agree that it could work, if backs allowed to clear it into Row Z if under pressure. That's one reason I wanted a proper No.9. With BBD on the left, would have to big men to try and control the long ball. Then counter attack. Martin seems to think it's old fashioned to do that, or play the ball into the channels for the wingers to run on to. We just haven't the players to be the English Barca. As Fat Sam.said years ago, count how many goals score by playing out from the back, v how many concede. We're in deficit on that already. I think Martin is a nice bloke, and could manage at a higher level, with better players. But he's here, now. Change or die.

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saintmark1976 added 13:47 - Sep 3 You can’t play tippy tappy and expect to win football matches unless pressure is taken off defenders by the forwards scoring goals. Currently our forwards are simply not good enough to play tippy tappy. Armstrong, Diaz and Archer have only scored 14 Premiership goals between them during their entire careers. If we keep the same forwards and don’t change our style of play we will be relegated, probably by Christmas at the latest. My opinion is that if Martin wishes to keep his job he will indeed adopt a more flexible approach. What I’m not to sure of is does he actually wish to keep his current job ?

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DellBoyWally added 13:59 - Sep 3 Wellie it up the pitch to Tall Pall! We play wingers and wing-backs with no-one in the middle to cross it to. Get Tall Pall in there, stick it in to him and watch him score a sh*t load
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Bowlercow added 14:10 - Sep 3 Saintmark Remember Ricki Lambert ?His prem goals total was zero when we got promoted under Adkins
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saintmark1976 added 14:47 - Sep 3 Bowlercow, remember him ? Of course I do, he was the physical 6 feet 2 inch centre forward who before exposure to The Premiership had scored a hat full of goals for us with both feet and his head. In addition he could hold a ball up and put other players in. A proper footballer’s footballer who also took a mean penalty. To summarise , everything that our current crop of forwards unfortunately aren’t.

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Bowlercow added 15:46 - Sep 3 Saintmark Adams Armstrong and Diaz have all scored goals at alower level as did Sir Ricki What we don't know is can they score at this level playing this system Only time will tell us and I think it's to early to be overly critical
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YosemiteSaint added 19:54 - Sep 3 I get that the idea of tippy-tappy football starting at the back is to suck opposing players into pressing high, to beat the press, and then it's off to the races. But why can't we do this sort of thing in relatively defined vertical zones up the pitch? Tippy-tap all you like on the wings in the middle third (so long as you eventually go forward).
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Jesus_02 added 02:01 - Sep 4 We dont break, we arse around with it at the back , then whe the oposition have 5 players in or half... we still arse around with it in our half. Thats not tactics, its crap football
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mascott514 added 11:08 - Sep 5 I think RM will change things- he's shown that already.Its too early to judge if he will succeed.I hope he will- he's a decent guy who deserves a good shot at it. If he cant adapt, that big squad has a lot of options if another manager wants to change approach. The season is long-lets see how we go! COYR!
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