 Monday, 16th May 2011 10:09 A look at those who played in the back four. The first thing to say about our defence is that there is no argueing that it was the best in the division, but in football managers always continue to strive for improvement and in that matter Nigel Adkins will be concerned about the number of goals conceded through individual error throughout the season, from the opening day right up to the game at Brighton. There is a clear pattern and Adkins will know being an ex keeper more than most that we could have and should have made this season a lot easier than it was but let ourselves down at key moments during games, in truth these mistakes usually happened on the road rather than at home as the goals against column shows, at home we let in only 13which is by far and away the best home defence in the division whilst away from home we conceded almost double that in 25, which in truth is good but 7 more than Brighton. With such a good defence though this will give the illusion to most of the support that our defence is watertight, as they will not see it away from home, but at a rough guess around half of those goals conceded on the road came from individual error, some like Jaidi's howler at the withdean ultimately didnt cost us points, but his mistake at Walsall cost us at least a draw, likewise the two televised gaffs at Peterborough again cost us two points that at the time made our task oh so much harder. So whilst some of our supporters will keep saying that "we are the best in the league" Players in the PFA tea" etc etc, you can bet your bottom dollar that Nigel Adkins wont be having that view and will be looking how he can cut out these errors. Perhaps the biggest root cause of the problem was that we never had a settled back four, Fonte played 43 of the 46 league games, but apart from him the back four was never at any time settled, before every game you could never predict with any accuracy who would be the other three alongside Fonte, that perhaps reflects the number of individual errors made and that Adkins was never entirely confident with the seven other players he used with Fonte. Most significantly Fonte did not seem to have a regular consistent partner in the centre, Jaidi played the lions share of games in 31, but as mentioned earlier he was prone to error at times and a little slow in pace and this contributed to games like Carlisle, Tranmere, Rochdale or Walsall etc where we dominated games at the back for 98% of the game, restricted our opponents to very few shots on target, yet still came out of all four of those games with zero points due to individual error, that you can say was the difference between us and Brighton. Adkins seemed to view Jaidi as the best of a bad bunch and rarely seemed to trust either Seaborne or Martin alongside Fonte. But it wasnt just in the centre that Adkins seemed unsure of whom to play, at both full back positions he didnt seem comfortable with any of the two options per side open to him, on the right although Fraser Richardson had been highly rated when he arrived in the summer and didnt appear to let anyone down once he returned to the fray after his pre season shoulder injury, Adkins never seemed quite confident of giving him an extended run over Butterfield likewise on the left with Ryan Dickson. Both seemd to play a lot more in the last quarter of the season, although strangely on both flanks Adkins seemed to keep changing the full backs with no real sense of reason, it was almost as if he was unsure of whom was the best, he looked like he wasnt quite confident in either Butterfield or Harding as first choices but with so much at stake he was loathe to risk either Dickson or Richardson. Even when Dickson seemed to be making the spot his own he often found himself ousted and Harding returned to the line up, especially at St Mary's, on the right it perhaps wasnt so much of a problem in that as good as Richardson was, Danny Butterfield let no one down yes he wasnt as attack minded as the players on the left, but that did offer us some balance and didnt leave us prone to being caught on the counter too often. Perhaps the biggest puzzle though was why Aaron Martin didnt play more games under Adkins, after a solid game at Bristol Rovers he looked to be making the spot alongside Fonte his own with a further two good performances, but after Adkins arrived he found himself sidelined for no apparent reason, although he was often on the bench he was rarely used and stangely didnt even get a game in the two early FA Cup Ties, he did play and play well against Blackpool in the 3rd round, but it would be the away game at Colchester before he would get another league chance, almost six months after his last game, he got a few more cameo's in the final weeks and again never let anyone down, making supporters wonder just why he had been cast into the wilderness, especially as at times Saints had been fragile at the back. Dan Seaborne struggled to make an impression, at the start he found himself behind Martin in the pecking order indeed he hadnt made a league appearance before the new manager arrived, but after that he was put straight into the team where he remained until the start of January when he found himself replaced by Jaidi, he would rarely start a game again all season although would make a few sub appearances. It will be interesting to see what the manager does now, clearly he needs to find a partner for Fonte and clearly he doesnt think that he has that man at the club now, at least not in the short term, although with the pressure of having to achieve promotion now off it might allow him to experiment a bit more and perhaps give Martin a chance instead of having to go with experience. At left back with the returning Joseph Mills we have four optionsin that position, five if you includeSeaborne who can deputise there, as was proved last year, Cortese will not allow his manager to have a top heavy squad, Adkins will have to prune in this position, last year lloyd James was a regular in the side till he got injured, but still found himself released, given that the transfer decisions are not taken by just one man, ie the manager, but by several including the Chairman, it could well bethat Dan Harding could find himself let go, not because of what he has done on the pitch, but because wehave too many in that position, whilst Mills might be fairly easy to shift, Dickson will be on a good wage that he wont get elsewhere and Ben Reeves has just been handed a two year deal, finance could dictate. Simiarly in the centre, Jaidi would normally be odds on to be offered a new contract, but age might preclude that alongside the fact we have younger men in the wings assuming we do offfer Martin a new deal. Given that we will have to sign a new centre haf, I would be surprised if Adkins is allowed to use part of his wage budget on Jaidi when he wont be first choice. But priority for next season for Adkins has to be a new centre half to play alongside Fonte, in my opinion, Jaidi is now a little old and slow for the Championship, Seaborne struggled in League one and the manager clearly does not rate Martin, that being the case I would expect money to be spent in this department next year, in the full back positions we have proven men at this level and i dont see the need to spend, but we do need to lose two left backs to free up wages as i have stated. Saints defence was as i started the article with, was the best in the division, but it really should have been a lot better away from home, of course our away rcord in wins was good but it should have been better, I am sure some will whinge that im being harsh etc, but do you think that Nicola Cortese and Nigel Adkins will be happy, no they will wat better and no they can get it, Adkins especially will now be able to analyse things and deal with them instead of having to think game to game, there are harsh decisions to be made and they will be made ! Thee stakes are now being upped, those who remember our 1978 promotion campaign will recall that Lawrie McMenemy also made tough decisions in replacing people at the back, he didnt rest on his laurels he knew where the weaknesses lay and dealt with them, Nigel Adkins Im sure will do likewise. Photo: Action Images Please report offensive, libellous or inappropriate posts by using the links provided.
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