Professor

Could HAVE been worse. "Of" is not a verb! But couldn't have been much worse. Defeat and hardly any possession of the ball. The bright spot moight be that Gazzaniga sems to have plyaed well

I'm sure HCDAJFU selling programmes.

You might as well play a non-league goalie and then say its harsh when he lets goals in because after all he's only a non-league goalie. Fact is we need a Prem quality GK, not a L2 GK like Gazzaniga. He's not ready to play at this level and his mistakes have cost us some crucial points. With a real GK we would probably be 12th or 13th in the table. If Boruc and Davis are not better than Gazzaniga they must be pretty poor.

To be a Prem side a club needs players who have transfer values in multi-million numbers. Buys such as JRod and Ramirez have already shown that. If Academy players are the solu8tion to avoid paying out so much in fees it would not make sense to sell them when their value rises because the outcome would probably be relegation.

At the game, I thought the lino had made the right decision by flagging for offside for the JRod goal but probably because at the game you watch the ball and could see that JRod was well past the defender when he collected the ball. But seeing it on MOTD2 it was an incorrect decision by the Lino. Rule 11 on offside is that a player is offside if he is closer to the goal line than the second last opponent. Being level with the second last opponent is not offside, a point that FIFA have made clear. JRod was running through but at the moment the ball was kicked he was no more than level, if that. Hard to see in real time but that is exactly what professional referees are supposed to be trained to do. Its well understood that in a fast flowing game the decsion by the referee's assistant on an offside can be quite difficult. Modern rulings stipulate that assistant referees should give the ‘benefit of the doubt’ to the attacking team, which in theory should lead to a more free flowing game. Sunday's assistant made an elementary mistake but one thing you can be sure of - there will be no apology and the League and the FA will pretend that nothing was wrong.

The comments by Nick G,, Wes Tender, Tajjuk and others wouldn't be out of place on a Chelsea message board! However much people speculate about NC's input, he's not a serial sacker, despite what happened to Pardew. I've always felt there were better managers around than Adkins and I'm not impressed by his interviews but I don't think he has final say on transfer policy and he has to work with what he's given. His track record shows he's done that very well in L1 and the Champ by utilising the squad. Unfortunately, that approach and playing people out of position that hasn't worked this season but he has persevered until finding his best side and formation and it looks like he's sticking with it. I'd say that its good management to play to your strengths.

Really believing we belong in the Prem now. First clean sheet a great step on the ladder. Felt sorry for Pardew though, because not only did his team lose a 3rd consecutive match but by the end he was absolutely saturated due to standing in the technical area wearing a suit, shirt and tie. Very smart but I thought Adkins could have leant him an aap waterproof coat!

Quite happy to join you in having a pop at Lallana. I didn't notice the defensive failure you mention but I have thought for some time that Adam is not fulfilling his true potential. He is a good asset to the bteam but can't help feeling he could do more, especially with his shots on goal.

Only saw the QPR game on TV but once again Yoshida did a great impression of a statue as the QPR strikers went around him. It was just good that our midfield and forward players played so well that our CBs weren't tested too often. Seems to me that Yoshida was something of a desparate buy, and a cheap one, right at the end of the transfer window whereas earlier in the summer Adkins had highlighted the need for TWO new CBs. Did this happen because better quality CBs were not available, or was it a decision oif the transfer committee to buy forward players instead? If quality CBs could not be attracted here in the summer they may not in January either but it seems to me that without a better back four we will struggle to get out/stay out of the bottom three.

Wouldn't want a European Championship winning manager, or a cup winning manager here, after all it could mean having a team that might get into the top six in the Prem. At the moment supporters of other clubs like us because we are ****e and take pity on us, whereas if we started to be a threat to the established top sides it wouldn't be long before we were hated.

Can you be sure JRod will be in the team? Scoring 4 is a possible, but a clean sheet with these CBs, I don't think so. I'd compromise at 4-2.

Playing Shaw at LB ahead of Fox showed how desparate Adkins is to try to improve the defence but he can only use what he has. It does show that he thinks the LB spot needs a new face. He also said as long ago as May that he wanted two CBs, which was why he let Martin go on loan and set up a loan for Seaborne. Instead of new CBs he was belatedly given Yoshida after the season started, but its hardly surprising that at £2m Japanese player with no Prem League experience has not made much impact. WE have a championbship level back four, with only Clyne havaing the quality for the Prem alsthough even he still lacks the experience. Can't blame Adkins when he can only pick players Cortese has given him and he desparately needs a LB and CBs x 2. The transfer activity in the last window looks to have been very badly judged with unnecessary signing of strikers who end up on the bench or out of position and the loaning out of the excellent Billy Sharp. What we did need to improve up front was not a nother striker but someone to build the attack - espacially a RW, so thats what we should be after in Jan. Almost certainly too late now to prise Zaha away from QPR as too many other top clubs will be after him but Cortese should have made more effoirt in the summer. Apeedy RW is goinbg to cost a lot now but that is still our other main requirement. So 4 signings outfield, plus a GK.

It shows how the press will publicise the internal events at Premier League clubs and speculate about developments, whereas at Championship level and below clubs are rarely the subject of press articles. Over the last few years some fans have commented that SFC got little coverage. As for the content, it seems a reasonable statement of whaat might happen if we lose on Saturday.

Agreed. And I suspect Adkins does as well.

I agree. This does suggest that a CB has signed an advance contract. Currently we have 4 CBs, Fonte, Yoshiba, Hooiveld, Seaborne, with Stevens and Cork as possible back-up. Its questionable whether any of the first 4 are PL standard withg even our Japanese international yet to show he's worth the £2m we paid, or maybe he is and that's a Championship level fee. I'd like to see 2 new CBs in January and at least Seaborne going out on loan is a step in the right direction. Despite some of the insults about Dan Seaborne on this thread I think he'd do OK at Charlton and make a first choice CB at that level. He's left sided, has good positional sense,m wins a high percentage of high ball and moves well across the back four. He can be slow against a speedy striker if he doesn't lay off enough and I think it was being skinned by Mackail-Smith for, I think, the 4th goal against us in the 4-4 draw at Peterborough in 2011 that turned a lot of fans, and the manager, against him.

Maybe sacking Adkins would cover Cortese's back and probably we would do better with a manager with more top flight experience but it seems to me the real problem is the number of players in the squad who are not PL standard. I'm not sure how much of that is down to Adkins and in the end a manager can only work with what he's got if the chairman will not release the funds. £30m is not a huge spend and it wasn't enough to transform a good Championship side into a Prem team. We all know the weakness is in defence where Adkins said early on that that he wanted two Centre Backs. On the strength of that he loaned out his 3rd choice - Martin - and was going to loan out Seaborne. In the end we got one CB - Yoshida - for £2m. Hardly a big spend and not until after the season had started. The league table tells its oiwn story that Fonte/Yoshida are a weak pairing and that it is no better when Hooiveld plays. The Japanese experiment has not worked, I'd rather have Billy Sharp in the side than Tadanari Lee, and I'd say we need to do what Redknapp did when he almost kept us in the Prem in 2005 by signing 5 new players in January. For me that would be CBx2, LB, RW, DMF all to be first choice players and a transfer budget of £50m (payablee by instalments and if we go down players can be sold to recoup some of the spend).

My Brighton supporting friends have been praising Bridge for his quality but it hasn't done much for their results.

I've never been convinced about Adkins and always felt the promotions were acheived with Pardew's influence still evident but I'm not sure how much he is to blame for the present weakness in defence, or whether it is due to Cortese having the final say on transfers. Adkins said early in close season that he anted 2 CBs and a speedy RW. On that basis bith Martin and Seaborene were offered on loan, although Seaborne's loan ultiomately did not go through but it wasn't until the very end of the Transfer window that one CB was brought in and as a Japanese player from a European club, he needed a pre-season with us but did not get it. We also have too many forwards so thyat a proven goal scorere, Billy Sharp, is out on loan and others are played out of position. Do we know where responsibility for the transfer policy really lies? I suspect it isn't with Adkins. I'll shed no tears if he is replaced with an experienced Prem manager but will feel sorry that he was really out of his depth.

As I recall, Adkins said publicly in early close season that he wanted 2 CBs and on that basis he loaned out Martin, and had a loan lined up for Seaborne. We then went all summer without signing a CB until the last minute of the window, which I just can't believe was Adkin's fault. Even then the signing was questionable because although Yoshida is a full international a Japanese player who has been playing on the continent is bound to need time to settle in, regardless of how good he is. We should have been able to sign suitably experienced CBs before pre-season. Other clubs managed it. What happened to the bid for Rhys Williams from Middlesboro? It all feels more like a tight hold on the money by Cortese, not lack of targets by NA.

OK. It was a strange team selection. NA does need to explain his thinking if he wants the fans to understand what he had in mind. Saying it was brave to leave out Rickie is not enough as the line between bravery and stupidity can be very thin.

Hi All after 2 months away. Substantial defeat by a club we beat to a top two place last season and relegation zone is not what the Chairman promised. By all means look at the manager but he is the same man who won the two consecutive promotions. Cortese talked about being a top half prem side but has he backed Adkins with enough cash for quality signings and did he do it soon enough? Adkins wanted two CBs in the early summer. Instead we have one, signed late and as a Japanese player does he understand the players around him? WE wanted a fast winger and find ourselves up against one in Jarvis who we could have signed if we had made as good an offer as West Ham. I'm more inclined to question the Chairman, or the owners, commitment than blame the manager.

My dear Wes, maybe I should be flattered that you would be interested in my opinion on next week's team selection, except it's not true. What others think of my opinions is of no importance, although some may agree and some not. The purpose of a discussion board is just that, to discuss, comment and generate thought. It is my opinion that a manager should play his strongest team against his stongest opponents. The Man City defeat was marginal, due in part to luck and in part to the huge effort made by the Saints' players on the pitch, but that does not mean that a better result might not have been possible if we had included our best two players from the start. You are quite right that there are some players, especially amongst the strikers, who are interchangeable. The manager must decide on which combinations of his best players to pick, but that is not what he did at Man City. He played an untried teenager - who I agree did well - but probably not as well as the NI international captain might have done, fresh from an international run-out in midweek, and who underlined that by scoring soon after he was on the pitch. He also didn't play any of his strikers in the lead position and left out our most prolific goalscorer, instead playing an extra midfield player in Guly to lead up front. Instead of deciding which striker to play he didn't play one up front all, and although he picked Jay-Rod he played him in wide midfield doing defensive duties much of the time. I believe he was too cautious, more intent on trying to limit the size of the defeat. I am optimistic that it is a mistake he won't make again but the Man U match and certainly the Arsenal match, may show if that is so. By the way, Wes, you are perfectly entitled not to like these opinions, but do have another look at the title of this thread because it's is an invitation to take off the rose-tinted glasses, so it should not be a surprise that posts on this thread may include some that are not are unstinted praise, despite the battling performance. There are other threads where the manager can be congratulated.

To those who think that Nigel's tactices of holding back his best two players until part way through the second half was a good idea, why stop at only two. Lallana or Morgan could have been held back as well. Surely anyone who watched the game could see that the weakened 11 we put out were out-played despite the massive effort they made. But they weren't our strongest side and were lucky not to be 2 or 3 goals down by half-time. With Rickie, and our international midielder, Steve Davis on the field we had arguable as good a side as we can put out amd they played a 2-2 draw in the second half, with a lot more possession on our side. If Lambert or Davis were judged not to be fit enough for 90 minutes it would have made more sense to play them from the outset and to sub them if and when they needed replacing, not the other way around. The team selection was incomprehensible at kick off, not just to a few ignorant fans like me but to the likes of Adam Blackmore and Dave Merrington as well, and its no clearer now than it was at the time.

Maybe we could employ Paul Whitehouse's football manager as an assistant to NA. He could even talk to Rickie in his own language.

I hope its true. That we really are exploring other options. If one of those options is Phillips so much the better although Blackpool must know that time is not on our side to prise him away. I have no reservations about Ramirez being a great player but I do wonder about him as a team player and how he fits into the stated aim of the kind of players we should try to sign. The size of the fee and the wages could create selection problems and be a strain on the wages structure that might cause unrest in the dressing room. One player for such a high fee is a lot of eggs in one basket if he was to be injured. I'd be happy to see him in a Saints shirt, but happier to see Matt Phillips or someone similar.