The injury to Gaston Ramirez is a big blow to Saints, he looked to be a good signing, however when one door shuts another opens.

No one is denying that Gaston Ramirez is a good player, however his signing came at a price and that price wasn't just the alledged £12-£15 million pounds paid to make him our record signing.

The price was to the overall balance of the team to accomodate him in a central role just in front of the midfield, when we were chasing him, Ramirez was quoted as being a winger and there werent many Saints supporters disputing the fact that on the flanks we were woefully short of class, the signing of the Uruaguayan would seem to go a long way to shoring up at least one side of things.

It was therefore a shock to see him play in a central role and as good as he was in this position, the fact remained that we were getting torn to shreds down the flanks, as was shown on Sunday, as great a player as Adam Lallana is, and i really do rate him, I said back in the summer that he didnt have the pace or attributes to play that wide role in the Premier and with the most goals conceded in the division I feel that my pre season worries are justified.

Nigel Adkins seemed to share my concerns judging by the comments he made throughout the summer and although we spent a lot of money, in the main its been in areas that we didnt need to strengthen whilst key areas have been neglected.

Of the seven summer signings we made at a total cost of alledgedly £30 million, I would say that Ramirez apart only Steven Davis has really been up to the standard required so far with the jury still being out on a couple more, plus Rodriguez & Mayuka looking expensive follys that cant be accomodated into our style of play at present.

But with Ramirez out for 4-6 weeks it gives Nigel Atkins a chance to put out a team where we can concentrate on shape and steel, shore up the flanks and make ourselves harder to beat, rather that having to accomodate marquee signings,

The first thing he should do assuming that he is sticking with 4-5-1, is restore Lallana to that central midfield role, he looked good there in the opening couple of games and we can then start to shore up those flanks, on the left we could do worse than play Ben Reeves in front of Danny Fox, in his short appearances this season, Reeves has shown that he is a tidy player who can win a tackle and doesnt panic and give the ball away, but aside from that he will provide the cover for Fox that he hasnt had all season.

Good teams are built from the back, 20 goals in seven games is an appalling record and cannot continue if we want to stay in this division, of course we dont want to curb our attacking instincts, but we just cannot outscore the number of goals we are conceding at present.

Nigel Adkins will show in the next month whether he is the man for the job as i think and hope that he is by making the changes needed, if those changes are not made and we continue to play the same old players in the same positions and continue to get the same results, then questions have to be asked.

When Ramirez returns, hopefully to a side that is a lot more stable defensively, then the manager has to make tough decsions, does he play Ramirez out wide where till January at least he is most needed, or does he make a choice in that centre role between Lallana and Ramirez, if he opts for the latter than I hate to say it then we cant accomodate Lallana in the side at present.

There are some harsh decisions to be made in the coming weeks, Nigel Adkins has to show that he is the man to make them.

Photo: Action Images

slynch added 10:07 - Oct 10 gazza chaplo font hoo yosh clyne punch davies guly lambo reeves lallana jrod davis spider etc A team of doers and not watchers. Instructions: play where I've put you and don't go wandering about leaving chasms for attackers to wander into unattended.
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SonicBoom added 10:08 - Oct 10 If that is true " areas we didn't need to strengthen, whilst key areas were neglected" then that is extremely poor management. Yes I know half the posters on this site will scream that is NC's fault - and and maybe it is - but I would also be disappointed in any manager that allows that to happen. As a manager surely it is better to come out and tell the story even if it mean the sack, rather than take someone else's team into the season and lose. What does that do to your reputation? His stock was high after 2 promotions, he could have done that. Or... perhaps NA disagreed and thought that we needed to strengthen where we did. Maybe he thought that whilst we seemed OK in those areas, we were still not good enough. Who knows. But you are absolutely spot on about one thing, if you concede around 3 goals a game in the premier league you will be relegated by Christmas.

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LostBoys added 10:12 - Oct 10 I do not think we have the players in the squad to deliver what you are proposing. Neither Lallana nor Puncheon are good at tracking and tackling back and I think Lallana's current form and drifting out of position is costing us dear.
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stmichael added 10:25 - Oct 10 It is ridiculous that we are the 7th biggest spending club in europe and yet NONE of our signings have made an impact on our team! I agree that RAMIREZ almost certainly will however as NICK says he is probably at the expense of Lallana. We didnt need to replace Lallana. The money should have been spent else where. I have'nt even started on team spirit and morale which seems to be going down the pan. Without that we are royally fooked.

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SingaporeSaint added 10:39 - Oct 10 I'm sure a lot of people will differ on how we play, we dont have pace on the wings and we dont have too much pace down the middle either. I'd like us to use this 'opportunity' to bring in Mayuka - maybe in time he will be a winger but for the next few weeks I'd like to see him play off Lambert - a big man, quick man combination. Call me old fashioned but I think it may work and I'm sure it will work better than J Rod upfront and Lambert of him. Given we dont have natural wingers I'd play a narrower 4 in midfield and I'd probably keep Lallana there but not with the license to roam where he can 'go missing', but to hold position and be tighter to both the fullback and the central mid 2. He is lightweight but he is also a potential matchwinner and I'd keep him in the side but with a clear role. I think there is very little chance we will do this btw - as someone seems to have influenced us that it is not 'contintental' enough - at some point I hope 'we' will realise we are not actually solid enough and getting overrun...

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vectis added 10:42 - Oct 10 You're wrong about Mayuka. He was signed to play down the left or right. Actually ALL the players signed were signed for their perceived ability to be able to play in more than one position. Adkins said as much. He didn't/doesn't want "wingers" per se, he wants strikers who can play as wingers or wingers who can play as strikers. He wants a right footer on the left and a left footer on the right so they can cut in and shoot. He doesn't bother too much about crosses into the box (which is ludicrous considering players like Lambert and probably Rodriguez would thrive on them). Players were signed because they were versatile enough to play different positions and weren't tied to one specific role. Jack of all trades perhaps? You know what that means...

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Ddobsy added 10:53 - Oct 10 I'm not sure that I recognise the players and situation described in your article. I'm encouraged so far. We are missing chances but still scoring goals. What we aren't doing is getting all the decisions correct, on the field and off. Against Man Utd we made the wrong substitutions, and we have yet to show that we can react to changes the oppostion make during the game, with out Adkins to tell the players. I've only seen the games at home so far, but with the significant step up we have coped well. Against Villa we were awesome, especialy after we switch to playing the ball on the floor. Against Fulham we proved again we couldn't defend, but also showed tremendous fight to pull a result back after being out thought by Jol. The Fulham tactical changes, to stop playing out from the back, made them so much more effective in the second half. We can't afford to be with out at least two of Lambert, Lallana and Guly on the field at any one time as this give the opposition license to push defenders forward, attack is our best form of defense. Remember though, we had one recognised full back on Sunday, and he's the worst on our team....

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SaintNick added 10:55 - Oct 10 I was under the impression that mayuka was a striker, certainly he hasnt been used as anything but in his appearances so far, given our problems down the flanks I dont know why he hasnt been used, its not fitness as the swiss league started a month before us so he was playing regularly. As for wingers cutting in I can see Nigels point here, get the wingers cutting in and use your full backs pushing foward to get in the crosses

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SaintMike added 11:37 - Oct 10 "I would say that Ramirez apart only Steven Davis has really been up to the standard required so far" I would have been inclined to say Davis and Clyne.
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A1079 added 12:31 - Oct 10 I have a feeling we'll see Ramirez more in the news for his "injuries" real or otherwise than we will playing. I just don't have good vibes about this purchase.
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SaintNick added 13:02 - Oct 10 I would have agreed about Clyne in the first few games, but he was awful at Arsenal and Everton, harsh I know as he was playing out of position up at Goodison, but after 6 games there havent yet been as many good games as bad or average ones
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SaintMike added 13:28 - Oct 10 I still can't get my head around why, at the time the Rangers players were jumping from a sinking ship (and we signed Davis) we failed to snap up Allan McGregor as we were clearly in need of a class keeper.
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zonehead added 13:41 - Oct 10 Go 4 4 2 its what we do and know and offers more protection for the backs
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richardmdcooper added 13:48 - Oct 10 "Nigel Adkins will show in the next month whether he is the man for the job" - are you kidding?! He is the man for the job and has proven that and deserves the Saints fans full support..I can't believe some Saints fans, including you Nick, are questioning that - disgraceful
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SaintJez added 14:55 - Oct 10 More than anything, as a team, we need to get our best players into positions where they can (and will) influence the game. Against Fulham, to play SRL in the hole behind J Rod as the target man was nonsense. SRL is a fantastic target man and can help the team ease danger by holding the ball up. On Sunday, the game passed him by to a large extent we persisted in trying to hit J Rod back to front and the ball rarely stuck. SRL is a good footballer but he's not a natural 10 and we don't need (or even really want) him to adapt into one. He should be the target man and primary goalscorer. When there's a chance to get the ball in the box, we want him in there and on Sunday, too often he wasn't as he was holding his position off the front man. That said, I do acknowledge that he missed some gilt edged chances and had he been more clinical, we may be having a very different conversation! As for the wide men.. I understand the logic of playing wingers on opposite sides but it requires 2 things. 1. the winger needs to have the quality to come inside and beat a man (we probably have this on both sides) and 2. the full back needs to be a credible overlapping threat. on Sunday, I understand the reasons why Yoshida went to right back but he was never likely to overlap and so Fulham could fairly simply shut down our right side as neither Punch nor Yoshida wanted to run into the spaces left open down that flank. You can pretty much say the same for left side as Fox seems scarred by his (often unfair) criticism and wasn't getting forward as much as we've seen in the past. My personal preference is to get Lambert into a physical battle with the centre halves, switch the wingers so they are more comfortable going outside and see if we can get some quality delivery into the box. Scheiderlein has been great in central midfield and alongside the raw energy of JWP, I think we look good in there. The final player would normally be Ramirez but, when injured, will depend on opposition and match circumstance but any of Davis, Chaplow or Guly could do a job.

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Whatsforpud added 23:33 - Oct 10 Wingers are at their most dangerous when they get to the byline and cross the ball back. Why don't we play Lallana on the right and Puncheon on the left. Too many times do we see Puncheon cut inside, but not get in a telling cross. There has been a lot of comment that Lallana is not quick enough. He has quick feet, and can turn a fullback inside out. It is noticable that there seems to be more talk at the moment of the winger (or is he the wide midfielder?) tracking back to support the full back, rather than than the full back overlapping the midfielder to assist in the attacking, as has been the case for the last few years. Perhaps it all depends on if you have a strong defence or not.

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saint22 added 07:56 - Oct 11 I posted in forum about all this. It does nothing but take us away from our real issue, which is DEFENCE. If that had been sorted with correct signings and so on, it would not matter who played where further forward
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Toussaint added 10:00 - Oct 11 Maybe this new system just isnt working and its time to go back to what got us to two promotions... WIN LOSE OR TIE SAINT TILL I DIE so im backing Adkins all the way no matter what happens,if your not a die-hard fan then fk o f, even if we go down ,{which we wont he should be kept on},any fan talking about Nigels job is an idiot
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ExiledSupporter added 12:38 - Oct 11 The proliferation of injuries will make the uneven balance of our squad even more apparent. If Clyne and Richardson are out for a while, and Cork (arguably our best utility player) and Ramires for longer, then we are necessarily going to have to 'experiment' because we don't have enough quality replacements. So Reeves, Ward-Prowse, possibly Shaw, Guly, Chaplow, Manyuka, Puncheon and Lee (where is he?) need to be considered. Completely agree with Nick that we have to stiffen our resistance at the back and in the middle of the field. Also that Lallana's limited utility (because he can't defend and often goes missing for periods in the match) is becoming more apparent. Okay, in the past we have built teams around outstanding talents (eg. MLT) to compensate for their failings; but this doesn't seem viable or justified in the case of AL when there is potentially a better playmaker than him for whom we have (foolishly?) squandered our resources - though at the moment I feel that our greatest madness is to pay so much for Rodriguez and play him on the wing. No, assuming we are playing some form of 4-2-3-1, we have to get Schneiderlein and Davis to form a barrier in front of the defence and select two to fulfil the wide midfield roles who can attack and defend and have sufficiently good engines to do this for a full match. My own preferences would be Cork (when he returns) and Chaplow, but perhaps we should use Davis in one of these roles and make Ward-Prowse the other central midfield partner with MS? I can't see a role for Manyuka or Lee unless one or both of them can demonstrate the ability to fill roles which they have never made any pretence at filling, but they are best suited to playing off RL and assumes a 4-4-2 configuration which now seems to have been abandoned. In the midst of our mid-summer transfer madness I said that it was already clear that we had a discontinuity between the developing squad and the formation we aspired to. Since then the situation has worsened and our limitations of resource and injuries will highlight our errant strategy that I think may lead to Adkins fall (however difficult it is to justify it given his immense success over the last two years) even though he may not be wholly to blame. Being in the Prem. magnifies failings of judgement which were only occasionally apparent last year.

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REEDYREEDOREEDZ added 21:28 - Oct 11 Some interesting points on here. Firstly, Gaston Ramirez is a quality player. Top class. And will prove to be a great signing by the club. Even though NA has mostly used him centrally so far he can play on either wing. He'll be brillaint for us when he's back and I have a sneeky suspicion that he'll be back in action sooner than reported. So with him out, what wingers do we have? Lallana, Puncheon, Guly, Chaplow, De Ridder. I personally think that Guly and Puncheon aren't good enough for the Premiership. Both players don't have a positive enough impact to make it worth playing them. They both seem to do more counter-productive things than anything beneficial to the team. So against West Ham, if Lallana plays on the left, maybe Chaplow is worth a start on the right. Give him a chance to show if he's up to it or not. Even though De Ridder isn't much of a player, its getting to the point where maybe he should be given a crack on the wing, even if just as an impact sub. I think we are all agreed that J-Rod is a striker and should not be used on the wing. From what I've seen of Mayuka, in a Saints shirt and from his agents video on youtube, he is a striker that plays off of the last defender. He looks to make runs to get in behind defences. So I agree with some of the views above that Lambert should be used as a target man and Mayuka should be given the chance to play off of him. Whichever way Adkins decides to set us up, we need to be more solid defensively. We're away to West Ham next and they have been much better at Upton Park this season. We can't afford to conceed more than one goal and that should be the focus for the team. I would expect Hooiveld to start, in order to compete with Andy Carroll in the air. He also scored that vital goal at Upton Park last season. Yoshida got shown up at right back v Fulham and I have doubts about his ability. I'm not convinced he is the answer to our CB problems, so I expect it'll be Fonte & Hooiveld at the back v WHU. If Clyne isn't fit then it'll have to be Butterfield at RB. Got no choice but Fox at LB. I get the feeling that we need a small miracle from Adkins to get any solidarity out of the defensive players in our squad. Why we didn't further strengthen our defence in the summer is mystifying! If we are in the bottom 3 at xmas then it could cost Adkins his job.

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