Professor

Having just watched the rteplay I agree with this, that the penalty was for the offence by the keeper who brought down the Saints' player - I think it was Puncheon. Despite the desparate attempts by some people to claim a foul can be awarded if a player avoids the contact, I have to say that is utter and complete tripe!

Adkins' comments on the dive are that he condones cheating on the grounds (1) that in other games there were fouls for which a free kick was not awarded, and (2) that although there was no contact there would have been if J-Rod had not moved his leg out of the way. New concept that, non-contact fouls! No wonder that cheating is so rife in the game with this attitude by managers, because you can guarantee that Adkins is not alone in failing to condemn cheating as long as its by his team's players. Football is seriously sick.

Write off the Chelsea game but have at least two new defenders in place before next Saturday. Oh!, and a winger.

No, cheationg has become endedmic and the game authrorities need to introduce retrospctive punishments strong enough to eradicate it from the game. Unless the game is played within the rules, why have any rules at all?

This thread risks going off course. The question asked is not whether Adkins or Di Matteo is a more effective manager, instead it assumes that the club has made that decision and has concluded that Di Matteo is not only a better choice than Adkins but is also the best candidate amongst all those who applied or were willing to take the appointment. It is not necessary to agree with that conclusion, which is in any case, hypothetical, but to consider how the fans might respond if such an unlikely event were to come about. There would be a certain irony if the fans reacted badly, as that would reverse the situation that applied to Di Matteo's replacement at Chelsea, but whilst there probably would be a mixed response with Adkin's loyalists regretting his leaving, many other fans would want to look to the future and would be influenecd by events. If the team started winning more games the new manager would soon be welcomed but if he did no better than his predeccessor then he would not.

J-R suffers from the Adkins Way which is to play one loan striker, usually Lambert and because he's up front on his own Lambert often seems to be wandering around to try to get the ball. How often have we played Lambert and J-Rod as a pair? As 'arry would say, if you don't play strikers you can hardly expect to win. Just over half-way through the programme and Saints have won 4 games out of 20. Nuff said.

One third of the way through the window, a crucial game tomorrow that could be the 3-points difference between relgation and Prem survival come the end of season and a great deal of serious concern amongst the fans who do see this window as vital. Still backing Adkins as the failure to sign anyone earlier is more likely to be down to the Chairman and the 'recruitment committee' than it is to the manager but this is the week when we could be one week nearer safety or one week nearer the Championship. At least its only football.....

And its a 'NO' from me. Draw every game, which we can't anyway with the season half gone, and you would finish unbeaten on 38 points, and be relegated. You must win games in this league and we haven't won enough. Its time to start winning regularly because other teams at the bottomn will do so from now on. Almost halfway through the transfer window, and if any signings are not until the last minute we will have to conclude that the management/owners are not that bothered about being relegated, but they do have time to rebut that suggestion in the next week.

This thread should be locked to avoid people wasting their time reading it. Fine with a different title, but this title is totally inaccurate.

Our GD over the teams in the bottom three places is currently 6 gaols so quite a respectable buffer, but with the game 'in hand' being away to Chelsea, that buffer could look a lot less secure in a week's time. Chelsea's defeat by QPR in the league and by Swansea in the League Cup should give some hope but there is the small matter of the 5-1 drubbing we suffered at SMS on Saturday. No doubt this will be discussed when the build-up thread starts but the way Chelsea attacked in numbers at St Mary's and our depleted back four looks very worrying unless at least one CB is signed this week in time to strengthen for this 'game in hand'!

The stats show an improvement and congrats to NickG for researching them, but they do tell another story. That is, that many fans were of the opinion that the squad at the time of pre-season was inadequate, and Adkins was probably of a similar view given his statemensts about team strengthening. Ramirez and Yoshida were not added in time to be aclimatised into the squad in pre-season and when Yoshida was brought in he was initially played out of position. The addtion of four promising teenagers to the squad was optimistic and it was unlikely that all would make the grade immediately. JWP was tried and dropped from a regular starting place so only Shaw has been a success so far. There is a strong case for saying that Nick's stats confirm that more should have been done to recruit better players before so many points were lost. The team has a struggle ahead unless the lesson has been learnt and real strengthening takes place this month, not just more squad players.

I don't think you will find brinkmanship with clubs such as Chelsea, Man City, Man U, Liverpool, Arsenal, Tottenham.... Could it be because they are posituve about signing quality players that they are competing at the top of the Prem, which is where we were told we intended to compete. If all SFC are going to do is to try to finish above the bottom 3, maybe we'd be better off in the Championship where fans might see us winning games regularly. Adkins made it clear he wanted two CBs for the Prem and eventually he was allowed one, but only after several games had been played and points lost. If we are going back to where we were in the 1990s and early 2000s, flirting with relegation most seasons until it happened all the effort of the last two years will have been wasted. .

I did agree with Adkjins that for 30 mins our possession play and close passing was as good as any I've seen, but it didn't lead to goal chances, the one goal we scored coming from an upfield kick and a break. WShen Chelsea began attacking they filled out area with players, so that our defenders were often outnumbered in our own goal area. At times we looked as far apart from Chelsea as Hastings looked from Middlesborough on TV later on. True, we didn't have all eleven of our first choice players but you can't survive in the prem if you rely on the same 11 every time. Adkins needs more international quality available, he desparately needs at least 2 more back four defenders and some players we regard as quite good, eg., need to be replaced with better. But there is an alternative. Play our football in the Championship with the occasional couple of yo-yo seasons, as now.

Adkins probably felt Boruc should be the answer for the time being, given his pedigree, but there had to a reason why he was without a club and it seems we may have discovered that he's not the keeper he was. We really can't afford the mistakes being made by whichever of our three is played, so someone more reliable is crucial to help save the season. Bottom 3 and a gap opening up between the bottom 4 and the rest is very unhealthy and with the game in hand being at Stamford Bridge, that's no comfort.

This is the central pairing that has just conceded 3 goals at Stoke. Not exactly top of the Prem stuff. This is still only speculation but it does seem possible that the Chairman has consulted the manager over potential signings in January.

Worried about Adkins saying it was a "fantastic point" at Stoke. Several on here have said that to be 3-1 up against 10 men should have meant a certain 3 points. If Adkins doesn't think so, he must be in a very small minority. Is he saying that just to bolster his own position, which just makes you wonder if he feels insecure.

This result shows what a huge gap there is between teams like Chelsea and the poor relations outside the top 6 or so. Saints are a poor relation and have no prospect of reaching the top because it means spending silly money. Maybe we'd be better off in the Championship where there is real competition on a level playing field.

Awful drive to Southampton from Sussex today in drizzle and rain and even worse coming home in the wet and dark with lights reflected back off the road. And in between an even worse 90 minutes, no thats unfair, the first 10 minutes were promising but from then on it was all downhill. I wish Nigel Adkins could explain why, having spent so much to bring J-Rod here he gets played out of position, or as today, not at all.

Lambert Rodriguez Lee Mayuka Sharp (on loan) Guly Goals For 22 (better than 9 other Prem teams) Goals against 32 (Worse than all bar the bottom team, Reading) Where do the press get these stories from?

Agree with this but would add the central pairing of Jose and Yoshida after the unsteady back four of early season. But we still need a new top quality CB. Jack Stephens might be ready to step up by next year but not yet so just having Hooiveld as standby is a big risk.

If AL is out over Christmas/New Year he will be replaced by a player from the current bench, so Davis or JWP. It might be interesting to see who gets a step up to the bench but I'm sure NA won't put anyone straight into the starting line-up who hasn't played as a sub at least.

Staying up is the minimum, since relgation is a totally unsuccessful season but for the season to be a 'success', in my opinion, needs more than just avoiding relgation. It needs to be an outcome that looks respectable with a promise of more to come, far enough up the table that friends supporting other clubs would see us as having arrived. Given our bad start, it can't really be better than about 10th, but I'd see anything above 14th as successful now as that would mean we would have avoided the end-of-season relegation scrap. I still see the key to that a strengthening of the back four, especially as we have virtually no cover at CB and all the uncertainty about who plays in Goal.

Sorry Appy but that does not make sense. A sentence must contain a verb, in this case the verb should be 'have'. The word "of" is a preposition indicating that something belongs to something else, it is not a verb. Where were you in English lessons?

Just watched the 'highlights' on MoTD an something I hadn't appreciated at the game was how much confidence it gave the defence to have Kelvin back in goal. Our goal looked a lot smaller with Davis between the posts. Please Nigel, lets end the Gazzaniga experiment.

Very poor performance by the Ref. With a good ref we would have won 3-0. Very good to see Kelvin back in goal. True he had little to do First Half but when he did a little more Second Half he exuded confidence. Back Four looking far more solid with the two CMFs to protect them and the possessionb/passing game went very well. Need to make more chances, which will be harder against better teams than Reading. Guly did well when he came on, especially given his lack of Prem experience but I did think it would have been nice to have Billy Sharp on the bench.