Make no mistake the result did not reflect a game where Saints spent most of it on the back foot and showed little ambition.

Over a week ago I suggested that Nigel Adkins had some thinking to do before the Liverpool game, that he couldnt get away with picking the same XI every week and that Liverpool would offer a pacy attacking threat down our left side that could rip us to shreds, in the first half at Anfield I was thinking of changing my name to Mystic Meg, Adkins did play the same side and time and time again Sterling and Johnson stormed down that wing with Shaw often finding himself completely without cover and not knowing which way to go.

The fact that Liverpool only managed one solitary goal, that itself from a free header with our defenders in a tangle doesnt reflect a half where they hit the woodwork on several occasions with a few more shots narrowly off target or saved by the keeper.

The second half was marginally better in that we seemed to have ordered both Lallana and Ramirez to play much deeper and not attack so much, but the sad facts are that Liverpool had 69% possession, they had 24 shots on goal to our measly 8 and  cant remember Reiner being troubled by any of them and on another day we could have been 4 or 5 goals down at half time and another drubbing on our hands.

But perhaps the most disapointing aspect of this game was nigel Adkins failure to lead from the front and be pro active about taking on Liverpool, if I could predict where Liverpool were going to come at us from, then surely the manager should have been able to do the same, they had done their homework on us and knew exactly what they needed to do, where as we just put out the same side and hoped for the best.

But even as the game dragged on, the manager did little to change it, as the second half went on and the home side failed to score a second and kill off the game, you hoped that the game plan would be to keep it at 1-0 and then if we could step up a gear in the final 15 minutes and go for it, the first substitution was nothing more than a like for like change, Davis for Cork on 70 minutes was just putting a bit of fresh legs on, but in truth it wasnt going to change the game.

The second change with 12 minutes left was a little more inspiring, but to be bluunt Puncheon wasnt interested, if Adkins had called me on out of the crowd and thrown be on I would have probably contributed more, it offered a little hope though, Rodriguez clearly wanted to prove a point and perhaps did more in those 12 minutes than Rickie Lambert did in the whole game, however we hardly battered down the door.

But perhaps the strangest thing for me was that as the clock ticked down, Nigel Adkins showed no signs of urgency to win the game, in the final minutes he could have gone for it, what is the point of putting Mayuka on the bench if you arent going to use him in a situation like this, a few minutes left and a goal down, throw him on and see if his pace scares the opposition and might just snatch a late equaliser, Im not Mayuka's greatest fan to be fair, yes he has pace but for me he has yet to show he has much about him, Nigel Adkins must feel the same, if Mayuka cant get on to the field in a situation like this on Saturday, just whenis he going to get on.

I am a fan of Nigel Adkins, I have publicly supported him on here, but on Saturday I was left extremely worried that he is out of his depth and unable to make the right decisions to win us points, in this modern day its a squad game, to not use all the squad you have to hand in a situation like the final few minutes on Saturday is unnacceptable, it was crying out for a Billy Sharp or Tadanari Lee to come on in those final minutes, but even in their absence I would have settled for Mayuka, what I wont settle for though is a manager who just sits and watches the clock run down as we tamely seemed to see holding on to a 1-0 defeat as some sort of moral victory.

A couple of weeks ago we seemed to have turned a corner, in the past two games we seem to have gone backwards because of our inability to do anything other than rely on the same starting XI whatever the opposition's strengths and weaknesses.         

Photo: Action Images

stmichael added 10:22 - Dec 3 I think the key is to not get too upbeat when we win and not too upset when we lose. Thats what message boards have brought to the game. Very emotive comments after every game including pre season friendlies. Somethimes you dont play so well and you lose. Liverpool away when they get into their stride is a very difficult place to change the momentum. I am not losing any sleep over this. Reading always was a far more important game. Like you I am mystified by the lack of game time for MAYUKA. He has done well as an impact player so no excuses for not using him.

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mgprobert added 10:28 - Dec 3 Like most I was waiting for Mayuka to be thrown on. To be fair to NA though - he can't win. When he's made changes and we've conceded everyone has been on his back for taking people off at the crucial time. There is an element of "can't win" if you're a footy manager.
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slynch added 10:33 - Dec 3 Before the game I heard Adkins reminiscing about the old days at Liverpool with obvious sentiment and awe, Lambert the same hailing his love of all things Liver, even Sneiderlin waxed on his love of Gerrad. And after the game there was an embarrassing debacle over who should get Gerrad's shirt. They were like kids on a school outing! Consequently, they played like frightened rabbits in the headlights. They are meant to be the equal of these guys. They should have been told to go up there and tear a new ars***e in that team and told Gerrad to put his shirt on Ebay himself! It's a step up, yes. But no more hero worship. Once is enough. It was embarrassing boys; so when they come to St Marys, earn your fans respect and put them to the sword. On a positive note. At least they have learnt how to defend a 2 0 lead with 15 mins to go.

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SaintNick added 10:36 - Dec 3 In respect to Adkins changes, when he made them against United we were in a winning position and we lost, on Saturday we had nothing to lose, throw on Mayuka in the 87th minute and have a go, the worst that can happen is they break and score a second in which case we shut up shop for for the last couple of minutes, but then again we might just have nicked an equaliser. If you are going to say hey losing at liverpool is fine, then that ok if we despatch the sides at home that we should, dropping two points against Norwich means that we needed to perhaps get something at Liverpool

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Santos added 11:59 - Dec 3 Nick totaly agree with your take on things here not much point in us having a bench. Love Ricky but if it not happening then surley Jrod should be given a good 20mins plus in that position. Certainly made a point about pace when he left the left back for dead for his first contribution, would be interesting to see that in the middle of the park. Ramirez also tries to be too clever in deep positions and keeps getting the ball nicked off him. As for bringing on Mayuka have only really seen him against villa and seem to cause them enough problems so why not bring him on when it is not working. The most worrying thing is that management seem satisfied with a 1-0 loss at Anfield and the previous 1-1 draw, 4 point minimum gone begging in my opinion. Do not get me wrong Liverpool deserved to win but mainly due to our own desire or lack of.

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simmo400 added 12:29 - Dec 3 Watched the whole game and we were dreadful. How NA said we made a game of it was a joke. 5 nil would not have flattered Liverpool. We were all over the place for 90 mins, we made them look like Barcelona in there attacking play. Adam said we where in awe of them. Pathetic excuse. Stop looking at the names on the shirts and get stuck into them Adam. A poor Liverpool team brushed us aside so easily it was embarrassing. Agree with Nick we needed to chase the game not settle for a 1 nil defeat, better off going for the draw than just petering out with no effort to equalise. Very poor Saints wake up.

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schatfield added 13:28 - Dec 3 awful game and agree with everything Nick said in the report. Was crying out for a Billy Sharp or Mayuka to come on.
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REEDYREEDOREEDZ added 13:34 - Dec 3 From what I've seen of Mayuka he's a very useful player to bring on with 20 mins to go because he's lightning quick and causes problems for defenders. But Adkins he hasn't subbed him on since 5th November v West Brom. There's been plenty of opportunities since then where we've been chasing an equaliser or a winner and he hasn't been used. Why not throw him on in place of a tiring Lallana or Ramirez? Is it simply a case of Mayuka not being very good? And in that case, why did we buy him??? It seems as though Adkins just hopes for the best with his first XI and doesn't have a plan B or make any proactive decisions about how to change the game. Why didn't we have a go at Liverpool in the last 10 mins and make it more uncomfortable for them? OK J-Rod came on and had an impact but Saints didn't cause Liverpool any problems. Why did we have to wait until the 88th minute v Norwich for the first attacking change when J-Rod came on? When we played Swansea he didn't make any attacking substitutions?? It just feels like he's got a little bit too much faith in his first XI, even when they haven't produced in that game and even when they've got nothing left in the tank. Its frustrating when the crowd can see that we need fresh legs on to change the game but the manager doesn't do anything until its too late. The Reading game is a must win. A draw won't be enough. We've got to catch the teams on 14 points and get above them if we can. January looks like a tough month fixture wise with Arsenal (H), Villa (A), Everton (H), Man Utd (A). So we've got to be level or above that mix of teams (Newcastle, Wigan, Villa) by the end of December or we could be cut adrift in the bottom 3 by the end of Jan.

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schatfield added 13:41 - Dec 3 ..........and as a side note, Sharp is scoring a fair few again for Nottingham at the moment. I know its not the prem, but why oh why did we not keep a fox in the box striker, which i think would play so well just off rickie/rod. He would have been perfect.
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sidsaint added 13:45 - Dec 3 Agree with the above. What concerns me is the lack of imagination by the manager and often the commitment by the players especially when you see the endeavour and attacking play by the likes of Norwich and Sunderland yesterday. Performances like that are rarely seen away by Saints. Unless we win next week NA who I have also backed all season will be under very real pressure.

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SingaporeSaint added 14:24 - Dec 3 Fully agree with all of this. I'd been busily telling the many Liverpool fans here how lively we were and would really give them a run for their money and was anything but. I would agree with the 'hero worship' sentiment being referred to as Saints did not appear to play with any fight or belief. We appeared to play like it was a one off playing at Anflied, not a place we will be visiting every year. Very disappointed with Lallana, Ramires and Puncheon. None looked interested and got into the game at all - and the goal came from a needless Ramires foul.. Our Gaston needs to stop telling the press about wanting to go to Fiorentina and watch Suarez - that is how to play.. If there are any plus points the defence and Gazza did pretty well bearing in mind they were under constant pressure, but we can not be using up our luck and still getting beaten! Fully agree on the lack of subsitutions and not using Mayuka. I am OK with picking the same players but a manager needs to make subsitutions which positively inlfuence games and I am not seeing enough of it. Must do better. Much better.

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LJCmx added 15:13 - Dec 3 I like your take on the game Nick, especially the last three paragraphs. Rodriguez should have been given a lot more time at the end, and bringing on Mayuka may have nicked us something. We had nothing to lose. However, Liverpool away is a hard game certainly was not must-win. Reading next Saturday is looking like a must-win game. In fact, from the next two home games we should expect 6 points. I saw the game live over here in Mexico and lost count of the number of times Ramírez lost the ball and was surprised when I saw him actually complete a pass. I think our starting eleven is good but Nigel Adkins is still not making the right substitutions when we are in losing positions with 10-20 minutes left on the clock. As Adkins says though, blue line, and on to the Reading game now.

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BlackRod added 15:26 - Dec 3 Just as a matter of interest Nick, how are we doing against the system you devised earlier in the season for the number of points we should be gettting? I remember this took into account a team's status in the League rather than applying the same rule to all our opponents (as you did when tracking our performance in the Championship). Might be worth another look as we approach half way in the season. Or would it depress us too much?

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REEDYREEDOREEDZ added 15:42 - Dec 3 By my calcs we need 8 points in our next four games to end the year on 20 points. Reading (H), Sunderland (H), Fulham (A), Stoke (A). Then we need 20 points in our last 19 games to hit the magic 40 points mark, assuming that that will be enough to stay up! Its all getting a bit tight now. If we fail to beat Reading then I can't see us staying up. The season keeps moving on, we've played 15 games now, and we keep dropping points. At the end of the season 2 or 3 points can be the difference between staying up and going down, and where we've dropped 4 points from winning positions in our last 3 home games its massively frustrating! We should've been going to Liverpool and trying to get a point like our rivals Newcastle and Stoke got there. Teams like Norwich, Stoke and West Ham are smart enough to set up defensively away from home and make yourself really hard to break down. We never set up like that and it just makes us a bit pathetic. Thinking you can go to places like Liverpool, Everton and Arsenal and try to play them off the park is a bit deluded!!

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eusebio added 16:44 - Dec 3 "Sharp is scoring a fair few again for Nottingham at the moment" 5 goals, the same as Dexter !!! The leading champ goalscorer has 18. It's disappointing to lose but get a grip
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landsdownsaint added 17:00 - Dec 3 I couldn't believe all the dewy eyes from Lallans ,Lambert,Schniederline and most of all NA about the prospect of playing a team that's done bugger all for ages! I'm really starting to think NA is way out of his depth regarding the harsh realities of the PL...regards your article it's absolutely spot on except your view on Mayuka who I think hasn't been given a chance IMO

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WestEndBoy added 19:20 - Dec 3 Im not sure why Lallana and co suffered stage fright for.Saturday was possibly one of the worst atmospheres i have experienced at a Premier League ground.One burst of your never walk alone at the beginning and that was it except for the flash of day trippers cameras.Roll on Saturday !
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Fordy added 20:11 - Dec 3 We are always going to struggle away to a team like Liverpool with 5 in midfield when we are essentially playing four forward thinking players. The midfield got swamped and we just couldn't keep the ball. When it is a game like this he has to bring JWP or Davis in to midfield to support Morgan and Cork. It worked quite well with three there for much of the game at Man City. He either needs to get Ramirez to drop back more or drop him or put him out on the right and drop Puncheon.

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A1079 added 22:07 - Dec 3 Nick. I think you are spot on. It was not the fact we lost against Liverpool, it is the fact that we did not appear to try. It was almost like Leeds all over again and you just know, that the other clubs that came up with us, West Ham and Reading and to be fair clubs like Norwich would have given it their all and believed they had a chance. We seemed to accept we wouldn't get anything from this game which of course puts added pressure on our next game, and if we think Reading are there for the taking we are very much mistaken - our record against them is none too great in recent years (though I have no stats to prove it, so it may be an inaccurate statement).

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SaintNick added 00:14 - Dec 4 with regards to my system of aiming at mid table and an average of 1 point per game from my perceived top six we should be on about 20 1/2 points, if we take my system against only the non top six clubs and the need to get 1 1/2 points per game average against them then its 16 1/2 so on that basis we about 75% of target to avoid relegation
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