Saints biiggest worry at the moment is not the quality of the squad, but the team's morale after a gutless display at Arsenal.
Last season our winning start got us for to a flyer and instilled a winning mentality that a couple of blips apart, carried us through to the last weeks of the season, this season its the exact polar opposite and there are a few players in the team who appear shell shocked.
Perhaps thats why Nigel Adkins surprisingly didnt make any changes to the starting line up, perhaps he thought that with enough battered players in the side already, he didnt need to add another two or three to that number, metaphorically speaking keeping his powder dry for the coming weeks when the games should be less tougher.
The 6-1 defeat at Arsenal was our biggest loss since, well our last 6-1 defeat at Arsenal, a week of so before we were due to meet them in the FA Cup Final of 2003 and that perhaps highlights our problems and the debth of them, even in what many Saints fans would consider our worst season in living memory, 2008/09 when we were forced to play a team top heavy on youth, we never got drubbed to the levels that we did on Saturday, a couple of 4-1 defeats at Coventry and QPR were as bad as it got (Ironically Danny Fox was playing for Coventry in that game) Back then we knew we werent good enough as a team, but we did have a spirit about us that kept us in with a chance of escaping the drop until the weight of all our problems finally suffocated us.
But now the team seems to have lost that winning mentality, its lost its confidence and its lost its swagger, it seems a side that isnt comfortable in whe way its playing, it knows it hasnt the personel to play the way its being asked too, a couple of near misses against the two Manchester clubs put a little gloss on the situation, but in both those games we defended appalingly at times, we almost got away with it but we seemed to know we couldnt hold out, we have conceded 14 goals in 3 games, lets be blunt most of them have been caused by defensive frailties, even Saturday's great free kick came from a stupid foul being conceded needlessly.
The manager has to be big and bold now, the rumour is that the 4-5-1 formation is not of his doing, certainly he seems unsure of whom to play and prior to the window closing we diodnt have the personel to play it, now the manager either has to find out if our late signings can transform the team or he has to make a big statement and set up the team in a formation better suited to the players he has got.
Quite simply to play the 4-5-1 you have to have the pacy wide players to do so and they have to be of a certain quality, Ramirez will hopefully sort it out on one flank, but then the other side is a problem, bluntly we havent got anyone else with pace and quality, unless Manyuka can play as a winger and there is nothing to suggest on his profile on the offical web site that he can, then we have a problem.
Footballers are often portrayed as not being the brightest people, however on the field they know whats happening and where they are having to mend and make do.
So the next two games will point the way to whether we can repair our season or if its going to be a long cold winter, but morale and team spirit is that unmeasurable something that you cant quite place your finger on, but its definately there and the reason why the bottom clubs can beat the top ones on their day, we have to find it fast, that means Nigel Adkins leading from the front and showing the players they can have confidence in him, get some of that confidence in the players back and you are maybe not half way to getting back that morale, but certainly on the right path.