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.          

Photo: Action Images

BITTERNEBOY added 10:19 - Oct 2 You seem to suggest that the squad is a shambles then say "We do have enough players in the squad to keep us up" when clearly the squad is not as good or experienced to the one relegated in 2005
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vectis added 10:31 - Oct 2 Rodriguez played because the stats showed that he scored "most of his goals cutting in from the left and hitting it with his right foot". Adkins and Reed put an awful lot of faith in statistics. I am willing to bet hay Mayuka was bought for much the same reason. Agree re: Chaplow. How about this then: Boruc Clyne Fonte Yoshida Reeves Ramirez Davis Schniderlin(if fit) Chaplow Lallana Lambert Bench: Gazzaniga, Hooiveld, Puncheon, Richarson, JWP, Mayuka, Rodriguez.

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SaintNick added 10:40 - Oct 2 I agree with Vectis side apart from I would go with Gazzaniga for another game Bitterneboy, Im afraid I do think it has been a bit of a shambles, we can say what we like but five defeats in six games and 18 goals conceded is not defensible in any way shape or form, we really should have done better We do have the players to keep us up though, but they need strengthening in the transfer window, I said back in the summer that our squad wasnt as good as the one that went down in 2005 and I still dont think it is, however that squad was probably better than some of the squads in the 90's so there is hope for this one

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slynch added 12:24 - Oct 2 New Configuration: 4-2-3-1 More protection for the R/L Backs Gazza Cyne Font Hoo Yosh Spider Davis Punch Ram Lala Lambo Assuming all fit
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darkangelv2 added 13:24 - Oct 2 Nick, Foxy isn't injured or unfit. He's just been dropped. He has been picked for the Scotland game lol!
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tolfree added 13:34 - Oct 2 Interesting article and I think few would disagree generally with the principles about our defence. I do think you overstate your argument however and seem to underestimate the teams we have played against. Yes we shold have beaten Wigan, no doubt about that. But Everton away in their current form, Man U, Man C, and Arsenal should all expect to be loses. Your statement that 'we got battered at Man City so the writing was on the wall then' seems OTT. We should have beaten A Villa and did convincingly which was a relief. In my opinion you can't talk about a team's performance without putting it in the context of the opponents otherwise it makes your argument seem overly biased.

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SaintNick added 13:51 - Oct 2 I have seen all six league games live, on another day man City could have beaten us 6-1, yes Man U was close, but again they could easily have won 4-2 or more, perhaps your own sentence than Man U Man C Arsenal should expect to be losses tells us about the mindset of the supporters, why should they expect to be losses, Man C yes, but the other two no one told Sunderland & Everton they were expected to get beaten by both Perhaps darkangels comments are telling though about the its either black or white attitude of many fans, is Fox dropped or injured, actually nobody knows because the club havent told us, the fact that Scotland have picked him means nothing, how many players get picked for squads then drop out injured ? loads ! I will tell you one thing though Fox hasnt had the worst game in the left back spot this season, that honour falls to Clyne, so perhaps we should have a internet spate of abuse for him

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SingaporeSaint added 14:11 - Oct 2 I've read the articles on attacking style and I dont really see it in relation to our performances. We didnt play any attackers in the first half v City, dropping even Lambert, we hardly attacked at all v Wigan, we passed it around well in midfield against Utd and got the shape right (for 75 mins) we won midfield rather than 'attacked', we didnt attack versus Arsenal. We dominated the midfield in the 2nd half against Villa which resulted in chances. For some reason we played a whole load of forwards against Everton and all but surrendered the midfield from the start and we didnt attack much because we didnt have enough of the ball! The lesson to be learned here is you need to win midfield if you want to compete in football games consistently. You of course need enough forwards to capitalise on this, but if you dont win midfield it is likely you are going to be beaten... I dont think the defence are great but if we organise properly like against Villa then we will likely compete most weeks - should also be said that Schneiderlin is absolutely a key man for us and if he is out then we need to play a tighter formation and an extra 'battler' like a Chaplow.

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WirralSaint added 14:29 - Oct 2 Danny Fox was at the Everton game, he was in the crowd a few rows in front of me, in full SFC training gear. Apparently he has been unwell, aswell as having had injections in his groin. So I guess he was either sick/injured and thus not risked or Dropped?? Clear as MUD!!
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VeloSaint added 15:41 - Oct 2 Re Rodriguez scoring goals coming in off the left. Whilst true, he was still playing as a centre forward in those games for burnley, pulling wide to create space and then cutting in. To play him wide in a 3 man attack is not the same thing, not least because away from home that position will be expected to defend and hold shape for long periods, hardly his strongpoint. Nick's point is bang on, he seems to be in the team simply because of the costly outlay paid for him. Play him up front either alongside or in place of Lambert or not at all.

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OldRed added 18:45 - Oct 2 We should have won the Man Utd game never mind if they could have had 4, but at least we've not conceded from a corner since. It seems NA is trying to be too clever with his formations and constant changing of selection instead forgetting that the players need to adapt to the Prem first and build on solid displays. It's as if we're still in the lower leagues! We defended well against City forgiving Fox of his error, we kept 2 solid lines of defence for best part of the game. We should have made progress right from that first game.

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ExiledSupporter added 20:50 - Oct 2 Nick, because you are starting from what I think, with respect, is a false assumption ie. that Ramires is really a left winger (as discussed in my post in your previous article) and because of your understandable esteem/loyalty to Lallana (which I share) you are coming to the wrong conclusion. I think there is no real evidence that Ramires would be any better at tracking back and putting in a hard shift up and down the left touchline. I think Lallana (and Rodrigues for that matter) are the victims of what I fully agree has very largely been an unfocused and retrograde transfer policy. While I think Davis and Clyne are very useful acquisitions the rest are expensive luxuries (too early for me to judge Yoshida). At the (regretted) expense of AL and JR (and Mayuka, Lee, Puncheon and so on) we would be better off deploying Chaplow and , when fit, Cork (until then ?) providing cover to the full backs, with Schneiderlin and Davis protecting the centre of the defence and Ramires being the playmaker. This is very hard on AL who doesn't deserve this outcome, but we have to stabilise our defence. Rather than seek to score more goals than we concede I recommend that we concentrate more on conceding fewer than we score

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