Saints need to improve their defensive qualities if they want to get promotion.
There are some who will make some perfectly valid points about why Saints have basically started the last two games with Jose Fonte partnering two completely different trio's of defenders and those arguments will have some credence, but as Steve McClaren bleated about bad luck and bad refereeing decisions Im sure that the irony wasnt lost on many Saints fans, the fact is you have to make your own luck and at leicester and at times against Forest we didnt make ours.
But it has to e a worry the number of goals that we have conceded in the last two games, five to be exact and all of them poor in their own way, of course to a degree all conceded goals need some sort of error in defending, but if you consider the five goals we have scored in those two games, none of them have been handed to us in the way we have let in the five conceded.
Eight goals conceded in six games is not good reading, Brighton above us for example have only let in four, whilst Boro below only five, but perhaps more worryingly is that these goals have come against teams struggling, Leicester in tenth represent the best team we have played so far, whilst the rest are all between 12th and 21st, the problem has to be solved sooner than later otherwise we could really come unstuck against a team in the upper reaches of the league.
Yes five of these goals have come in the past two games and some would say its a minor blip, well lets hope so and that Nigel Adkins can find a settled back four sooner than later, his problem though is that he perhaps doesnt know what his best back four is, Im not so sure that he is absolutely confident in Fraser Richardson on the right and on the left, by signing Danny Fox he clearly doesnt see Harding as long term, put bluntly a club of our size doesnt pay £2 million for a reserve.
But the main problem is still the centre of defence, all the switching and changing around doesnt have seemed to have helped Jose Fonte and he needs to find his defensive partner in the centre fast.
Adkins obvioulsy doesnt see Arron martin as the man, although in fairness in the one League game he has played martin has been no worse than Seaborne of Hooiveld, speaking of Hooiveld, his game on Saturday left as many questions unanswered as it answered, in the first half he looked Ok, however the back four was careved through on at least two occasions, in the second half he looked less assured, the big questions are did we see the real Hooiveld in the first or second halves, was it just a case of a lack of match practice as the game wore on or was his first half underpinned by the adrenalin rush of playing his first game.
This is the question Nigel Adkins has to ask himself and make the right decision, my gut feeling os that the Dutchman will get a second chance, although with the division very tight if he does fail it leaves Adkins in a big dilemma as to whether to go for someone else.
But in the meantime we just have to keep winning. keep outscoring the opposition and taking comfort in the fact that at least we are keeping winning whilst not really playing well consistently throughout the game.