Nigel Adkins has stated that he is not going to change Saints attacking style and he is right to do that !
He is right to say that because to be blunt he has no choice to do anything but attack after a summer where players werent signed in the right positions.
The stark reality of the matter is that Saints are being torn apart in key areas and without players in those areas up to the standard required Adkins is forced to concentrate on attack and trying to ouyscore the opposition.
In simple terms back in the summer the message boards were full of opinions from supporters that Saints were weak on the flanks and also needed a central defender probably two, the Saints managers indications throughout the summer were that this was his thinking as well, after Arron Martin went on loan to Crystal Palace leaving only Dan Seaborne as cover for Hooiveld & Fonte, it didnt need a genius to work out that this woulsd not be good enough in the premier, likewise out wide in midfield, many supporters felt that this was a weak area even in the Championship, on the right De Ridder and Guly came in for much criticism and in both cases were not defensive minded, whilst on the left we relied on Adam Lallana with Richard Chaplow filling in when neccessary, indeed in many game Adkins often played a central midfielder out wide, as we was so strapped for quality even then.
So for Saints to come through the transfer window without signing Premier class wide men was a tremendous faux pas by whoever is responsible for signing players.
Some say that we can work on the weakness on the training ground, well I would ask what have we been doing in the six weeks or so since the season started, we got battered at Man City so the writing was on the wall then.
On the left Danny Fox came in for much stick about his defensive capabilities, some of it was justified, but in the main as Clyne showed on Saturday at Everton, it doesnt matter who plays there, if you have no cover in front of you, or more specifically cover that knows what it is doing once it crosses back into its own half then you are going to struggle defensively, if we can get some semblance of stability out wide then we can cut out the individual lapses that have been costing us in every game.
So Adkins is right to say he will not abandon his attacking principles, he has no choice, he has few truly defensive options but a plethora of attacking ones, bt concentrating on attack doesnt mean he cannot put out a well balanced team.
In the centre of midfield we are well served, but Adkins has to make some crucial and tough decisions down the flanks, i love Adam Lallana but he is not good enough as a wide man in this division, he can get away with it at home at times because we can put some sides on the back foot as we did against Aston Villa, but away from home its a virtual no no whoever we are playing, the other clubs in the division will have now spotted this weakness and it will be exploited.
I would suggest that the best way to start to address the problem but keep the attacking options would be to use Lallana in the centre in the role that Ramirez is playing, yes Ramirez has been good, but I dont think he has done much more than Lallana himself would have done in that role, we were told he is a winger, we should use him there, on the other flank we should consider Richard Chaplow, when he played wide left last year, he added bite and he has the box to box stamina needed to get up and down, another option once Fox is fit again would be to use Ben Reeves, from what I have seen of Reeves he is a tidy player and even though he was at left back when he came on at Everton, he showed a few characteristics in his play that we didnt have before he came on in that position.
So Nigel Adkins does not have to abandon his attacking principles, what he does have to do though is get it right in the limited selection choices he has in other areas, he does not need to compound the problems we have by playing Jay Rodriguez as a wide man, for know other reason that I can see other than someone wants to justify playing a big signing, it doesnt do Rodriguez any good and it doesnt do the team any good either.
We do have enough players in the squad to keep us up, the key is to win a few games, like the great escape season of 1998/99, we have to win those home games, we have seven home games before Xmas, five of them are winnable, with perhaps only Newcastle and Tottenham difficult, if we can win four of them with perhaps a draw in one of the other two and perhaps pick up an away win along the way, we can turn round into the New ear with our heads above water and in a position to strengthen those key areas in January and kick on.