A disapointing performance with yet again another error costing us victory, however perhaps the most worrying thing was our inability to change the game.
Im not going to dwell too long on the individual error that cost Saints a vital win, except to say that someone in the summer seemed to think it better to chase targets in areas that were not a priority, one of the results being that we are having to play a 20 year old keeper with little experience at any level, let alone in the Premier in that he is the best that we have got.
Norwich taught us a lesson in the way they were well organised and disciplined at the back and rarely gave us a chance to get a grip on the game as we did against both Newcastle and QPR and then they showed us how to take chances when you get them.
But the biggest disapointment for me was not only how one dimensional we were on the night, but how Nigel Adkins failed to do anything to change the situation, in my pre match articles i mentioned that picking the starting line up would be easy for this game, but the key would be to make the right changes at the right time, I was spot on in that prediction, it was clear to all that Saints were not firing on all cylinders and that we had fallen into a rut and rarely seemed to be able to break down a resolute Norwich defence, but what did the manager do to try and win the game ? absolutely nothing until it was far too late.
His first change did not come until the 85th minute and even that was a defensive one caused by injury to Luke Shaw, bringing on Jay Rodriguez with only two minutes left was not the actions of a manager who is both proactive and wants to win a game.
With 20 minutes left something needed changing, players looked tired and a point in kind was there to see when Jason Puncheon got the ball and made a good run at the Norwich defence as he got down towards the byeline and within crossing distance there was absolutely nobody in the box to cross too, Gordon Strachan once said that he got his teams fit because tired players make tired decisions as they arent confident players due to conserving their energies late on, his point was proved here, at least three players came into this category, yet the manager did nothing.
Ironically when he did in the 88th minute bringing on Jay Rodriguez and moving Ramirez out wide with two up front, we looked a better team for it, yet by then it was too late to make any real impact, I like Nigel Adkins but against the Canaries he failed to make decisive decisions that turn matches and snatch victory from defeat or in this case a draw, it was clear from the stands that we werent damaging Norwich and it was clear that there were understandably tired legs out there, I honestly expected more from the manager than that.
Saints go to Liverpool now and tactical changes need to be made to this side to counter Liverpools threat down the wings, their right wing and our left especially, I am a little unsure that the manager has the confidence in his own players to be able to do this as he seemed unsure or unable to make these switches at St Mary's on Wednesday, last season Nigel Adkins surprised us all in the way he grew with the job and took us to promotion, in the Premier League though there is no hiding place and you have to learn fast, Going back to the start of this verdict I mentioned the transfer policy in the summer, who's fault that was perhaps we will never know, undoubtably its continuing to cost us dearly, but sometimes you have to forget the excuses and make the best use of what you have got, the failure to make substitutions at the right times last night was one of those occasions, there were options on the bench, they werent used !