 Friday, 4th Mar 2011 09:39 Time to do something different. A poster on the message board called Saints "Flat Track Bullies" this week, using a cricketing term his inference was that certain players are able to play at home whenwe can get on top of sides, but away from home when the opposition are prepared to get a little bit more in their face they are found wanting, I think this has hit the nail on the head. Nigel Adkins sides are just too predictable, its basically the same players being picked week in week out with the same one or two variations, Adkins likes to tinker, but at least eight of our side are guaranteed places and thats far too many for a side thats going backwards, Likewise substitutions, always the same players replaced by the same players and usually especially away from home, made too late. Good sides are built on a good solid defence and this is what has let us down on the road in the past two months, yes our defence and goalkeeper dont conced much but the problem is they concede soft goals and at vital times and this has to stop. Since we beat Oldham away 6-0 we have played five games on the road and got a grand total of five points, this is exactly half the number a team challenging for promotion should be getting, but the more frightening statistic is the goals conceded and their nature, eight to be exact. Tranmere - 2 - Davis goalkeeping errors on both Exeter - 1 - Davis goalkeeping error Peterborough 4 - Seaborne/Davis error - Harding/Davis error- 2 soft penalties. Walsall 1 - Jaidi error Now a pattern has emerged here, in fact the pattern emerged long ago, but so far the manager has failed to do anything about it has he, well not strictly true, after our defeat at Carlisle another Harding/Davis horror show, Adkins dropped harding and brought in both Dickson and Richardson at the bac, for a time we looked a different team, we looked error free (well apart from the brenford game another Davis howler) and on that base we built a four match winning run, so Adkins does know how to spot a problem and change it, problem is though even during that run he still had to tinker meaning by the end of it we were back to what had caused us to start the season so badly. The message is clear to everyone, apart from seemingly the manager, at Walsall our defence was flat track bullies again, for 99% of the game coping easily but then making a simple error that cost us a goal and the points. Of course the problems arent merely at the back, they are at the front as well where rarely do we have the same front two for any length of time and where Rickie Lambert will always be picked no matter how badly he has played previously, he will always stay on as well no matter how dire he has been as he was at Walsall. Now with injury problems Im not sure who Adkins has available, but the fact of the matter is he has to address the problems at the back and our tendency to let in silly goals and the tendency of the same players to be involved time and time again, as they say if you dont learn from history you are doomed to repeat it endlessly. In goal at Colchester we have no choice but to persevere with Davis as we have no one else, so if we are going to stick with him its imperative that we have a strong defence in front of him, we know his weaknesses ie commanding his area and crosses, so we have to ensure that we have players who are strong in the areas needed, firstly left back, harding cannot defend, he rarely stops his man getting in a cross and his positional sense and awareness of men around him when he is under pressure in his own area is not helping Davis, think Plymouth at home on the opeing day and thing Carlisle away, he has to go, at right back Richardson needs to come in, not that Butterfield has done much wrong, to be truthful he rarely makes errors, but in my opinion Richardson is the better full back. However I would push Butterfield into right midfield, (I am assuming here that Oxo isnt 100%) he will give us a solid protection on that side and has the ability to put in crosses and pass a ball, Up front I would stick wit Lambert & Barnard purely because we have no other choice assuming Guly is still struggling. My team would be Davis Richardson, Jaidi, Fonte, Dickson Butterfield Hammond Chaplow Lallana Lambert Barnard Subs Forecast, Guly, Oxo, Martin, Connolly, Gobern, N Guessan. The bench tommorrow is the key, Saints have to set up solidly and not let Colchester get the advantage as they did last year, with a solid defensive line up we can get a grip of the game and then start to impose ourselves on it, the key being the second half when we not only have the optins of Oxox and Guly but bringing David Connolly into the equation. Why Connolly has not been featuring when fit in an enigma, up front Saints are either very good or very poor, this suggests one dimensional play, that being the case Connolly is perhaps the one man who is a little cuter and can break down defences with guile. The message to Nigel Adkins is clear, its time to sort out those who have been costing us points, if we play the same players they will do the same things and we will get the same results and as statistics show those results have not been good enough over the last two months. Photo: Action Images Please report offensive, libellous or inappropriate posts by using the links provided.
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