Put bluntly Nigel Adkins needs to make some difficult decisions and fast.
The most worrying things about this defeat were the manner of it, the same old faults that plagued us last year were in evidence and if we are to seriously challenge for promotion then they need to be sorted out and fast.
All good teams are based on being solid at the back, if you have a goalkeeper and back four that is coping with everything thrown at it with ease it takes pressure off your midfield and you can then build a winning performance, that did not happen on Saturday.
I know somepeople will take to task what I am about to say next, some will say that Im harping on about the same players I did last season and they are right and there is a good reason for that, they are doing the same things badly, what I will say though is that its easy for a side like Saints to showboat at home and gain concisive victories a la the Tranmere win, but when you go to places like Huddersfield certain players get found out.
Starting with Kelvin Davis, he was quite frankly poor, but he was poor for the same reason he was poor in his first two seasons, a side like Huddersfield put balls into the box and you need a keeper that will deal with it, you get 10 crosses into your six yard box per game and probably 3 difficult shots on target, that ratio is telling you what you need to prioritise in this division for a keeper, Kelvin did make a couple of good saves, but if you look at the play building up to them in at least one, if he had come and caught a simple cross into the six yard box then the ball wouldnt have been knocked down for a shot to happen.Kelvin will always make spectacular stops but that isnt the problem, even Saturday only saw 5 on target with 2 going in, Kelvin's distribution is also in question, he is clearly under orders now to throw the ball out quickly rather than kick and too many times he did this and put his defenders under pressure with poor throws in tight areas, of course this will get better with practice it has to.
In the defence Danny Butterfield was probably the better of the defenders, however with Fraser Richardson now fit again, NA has to be brutal and put the man who was in the League 1 team at right back into the side, Butterfield will play a big role this season given his verastility, but the best players have to paly.
Simiarly over at left back, Dan Harding is a good attacking left back and offers a lot going forward, but he isnt in the team to attack, he is there to defend and as a left back he isnt good enough, at home when you are on top and sides like Tranmere have only 1 man up front he looks good piling down the wing, at the Galpharm he couldnt defend and it enabled them to put pressure on us too many times, Dan Harding is a luxury away from home and is too often found wanting defensively, we need a good defensive left back and that will give our left midfield player more chance to get forward instead of too often having to help out as other teams notice this weak link and play on it.
In the centre of defence Jose Fonte is obviously good enough but he is suffering from the problems around him, Dan Seabourne is not the answer, again we are not winning enough balls cleanly, Arron martin needs to be restored to the team and in cases like Saturday even perhaps Rhadii Jaidi.
In midfield Jason Puncheon flatters, his problem is kicking the ball, getting it and running with it arent a problem, however once he tries to deliver the end product be it a shot, cross or pass, it too often does not go anywhere near where he is intending it, add to that his penchant to being caught in possession when trying to hold up a ball from defence and you have a player who at the moment is not worth his place.
Another borderline player in the midfield is Dean Hammond, he should be dominating the centre but isnt, just what has gone wrong this season is unclear, but he isnt in form and too often away from home it lets the opposition get on top and pick out their players.
Up front Rickie Lambert is not the man he was, I like SRL but when you look at his goal tally last season perhaps 75% of them were from penalties and direct from freee kicks, thats the case this season where yes he has five goals, but free are penalties, one was from a free kick that was poor but got a lucky deflection and one from open play, this has to change, last term we got a lot of free kicks in the second half of the season as we started to dominate games, but f we dont get themthen Rickie isnt worth his place at the moment and to be blunt should have a spell on the bench.
A damning verdict on several members of the team and in at least two of the cases I will have an outcry telling me how great they are, I have tried to be objective and look at the overall play not isolated moments of good play and drastic surgery is now needed to repair the damage, Nigel Adkins has now had a month to make his assesments, now he has to earn his corn, yes he could soldier on through and if we now win the next six games with these players in the side then I will be wrong in my assesment, but seeing as i was giving the same assesments a year ago and the same things were happening, I dont think I am far off the mark.
I stand by my previous comments that our first 11 should win the division and that we could put out a second 11 that would be capable of getting in the play offs, that being the case if we cant get a team into the promotion spots from that squad then there is something seriously wrong.