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.

Photo: Action Images

legod7 added 14:27 - Sep 12 Enough people on here have told you time and time again,including me that both Fonte & Martin are right sided centre backs. You do not play them together, except in an emergency. Concerning Saturday's game both Frazer Richardson & Dan Harding were injured, so that in some way limited his choice of full backs.
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AdkinsBabies added 15:31 - Sep 12 Although I agree that the defence is an issue, some of this article smacks of someone who doesn't really know the league we are playing in. I analyse the Championship for my job (I write previews/reviews for a betting site). Leicester are rightly tipped as one of the favourites for this division purely because of the quality in their squad, and Forest have plenty of attacking talent to worry most sides in this division (The were able to drop McGugan one of the best attacking midfielders in this league). Forest caused Leicester's back four problems, and also troubled West Ham, where they should have scored more than the one they got. Playing them after the two week break was always going to be tough, as their new players and manager will have bedded in a little more. Millwall and Leeds (Both were near the play-offs last season) are not going to be struggling at the wrong end of the table, yet we picked up wins against them, and while I think Ipswich are overrated, they too shouldn't have any troubles staying up. The point I'm making is that although we don't look secure at the back, we are bound to be troubled a little more by sides in this division. Just because we have not played any of the top 6, doesn't mean we have had an 'easy' start. Infact, if you look at it logically the teams we have played are bound to be lower.....because we have picked up a win against them. With Burnley (Wallace, Treacy, Austin, Jay Rod), Cardiff (Earnshaw, Miller, Whittingham) and Brum (Burke, King, Beausejour, Wood) coming up, the defence is probably going to be opened up again in the next few weeks against decent opposition. Personally I don't think it's massive problem. In my opinion Cork needs to return to CM (He offers better protection than Morgan who goes missing far too often), and Richardson (When fit)/Butterfield should play at RB. For his set pieces alone I would keep Fox in the side, although his positional sense needs working on. I would persist with Hooiveld and Fonte. I don't think the new lad had that bad a game to be honest.

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tell101 added 16:00 - Sep 12 I think Hooiveld will come good, lets not forget that he is lacking match play and has to bed into the side. His physicality gives him a lot of plus points and he isnt that slow for a tall defender. If it was me i would try to lead with him as much as possible and then fall back to Martin or preferably Seabourne when he is fit and recovered. I agree with above regarding Cork. He is definetly best in CM and whilst it might seem a good cover for RB, it actually invites more pressure on the defense by not having him in midfeild. We did seem to panic at times at the back but when we got over that it wasnt that bad

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saintwonston added 16:54 - Sep 12 At the end of the day (or game) as long as we score more goals than the opposition who cares or needs to worry about letting some in. This team is currently playing like the team of the late 70's and early 80's and it is a joy to watch. I agree cork is better in midfield as he has got some pace unlike Hammond. Give Hooiveld a chance he has got to be given time to get match fit and also fit into the style of play. Not many players fit straight in, look at torres at chelsea. it would be good if players are dropped due to injury the team announcer informs us of this as many of us in the ground could not understand why certain changes were made other than seaborne.

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patred added 18:12 - Sep 12 it doesn't mean a thing to have two right footed centre backs.. this nonesense has only come about since we sign Seabourne... Jahidi is right footed by the way
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hortonsaint added 12:07 - Sep 13 A couple of points, legod states that Martin is a right sided centre half but he played on the left of Tom Jordan for Eastleigh so that's not correct. Also as Pat says there are plenty of right footed centre halfs on the left of the two, it's pretty poor if a right footed player player can't adapt to that. Granted left footed players seldom if ever play on the right of the two but right footed players need to be more versatile given there as so many more of them. One point about our defence that doesn't seem to get picked up is that it's not just about the back 4 and I feel that the way we flood players forward and interchange positions is great but leaves us very vulnerable on the break when we lose the ball high up the pitch. This is particulaly so in wide areas as AL and Guly are encouraged to come inside and even overlap, leaving their side of the pitch very exposed. I'm in 2 minds about this as it is great to watch but does mean whoever is holding in midfield has got to be alert and do his job well and on Saturday the full, backs were exposed badly.

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TimSaint added 12:40 - Sep 13 Why such harsh criticism ? We have moved up a league so it is obvious that the opposition's attacking options will be greater than we experienced last season. Of course defensive selections have not been helped by injuries, but you really need to give them a chance before criticising. Sure we have conceded some goals, but in all bar one game, we have outscored the opposition, which shows the great character and spirit this team has. Hooiveld (traslated means Hayfield) did ok, but as others have pointed out, it was his first game in a new team, so will need time to bed in and get match fit. Look at that other Dutch defender, Jaap Stam. He made a lot of early mistakes and needed 10 games with Man Utd before he came good. Cork is not a right back, but had to fill in due to injuries. Both goals came from his side, but hey, against better attacks this season we are going to concede. (Both Derbyshire and Miller are players with Premier experience). Yes we can be critical about the way we concede, but it is pointless to blame individuals. We are a team and the both midfielders and attackers are also part of our defence. Strange that there is no mention of Davies for once. He could do nothing about the goals, but did pull off a couple of great saves. OK, so his distribution could do with a bit of work. It was definitely not a penalty either, where Derbyshire got booked for diving. A Forest fan friend of mine was in the Forest end and he said it was never a penalty, so that is good enough for me. We deserved the win for the scintilating football we played for 30 mins in the first half - but it was obvious that we would not be able to keep that up - but who knows, maybe in time ? Hopefully it will be this Sunday, but Birmingham visit us on the back of a 3-0 home win against Millwall (compared to our 1-0), so it should be an interesting game - hopefully with plenty of goals. SCORED - NOT CONCEDED !! :o)

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saintBob added 14:51 - Sep 13 Nick, assess the situation after 10 games. That is the norm. Unfortunately all our injuries seem to be in defence so why the criticism? We have had to put up a makeshift side for want of a better description. What do you call long term? Dan Harding has signed a 3 year contract and I think he does see him as long term. If he & Fraser Richardson were fit they would be first the choice selection. Adkins knows what his best back four is the problem is getting them to put in a consistent performance every week. Do you think Dan Fox impressed on Saturday? I don't. Why don't you make an appointment with NA and tell him exactly what he has to do?

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saintBob added 15:21 - Sep 13 oh, and why can't you spell any of our players names correctly?
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