VectisSaint

I think this is the clue.. He isn't. He has played 16 games in 2 years. Cortese is not being stubborn just sensibly does not want to pay someone to sit in the treatment room. Move on, there is a reason why he is a free agent, and it is because he is crocked.

Sounds like lazy "journalism" to me, but would be more sensible than the moronic suggestions of Dino Redknapp (just).

You forgot Fox. Yoshida was pulled out of position because Fox was not defending properly. This is happening time and again, where Fox leaves the Left CB exposed, who then goes to try to cover and it pulls the remaining back 3 apart and leaves huge gaps. Yoshida could probably have done better (especially if he had been on the pitch more than a few minutes) but the root cause is Fox's defending.

And how will you respond if it doesn't go tits-up? I expect in the same way you always respond, negatively. Why don't you just for once wait and see. If we lose to Villa feel free to come out with the usual "told you so" stuff and nonsense, regardless of the result or performance.

I think anyone who seriously thinks NC would sack Adkins to bring in Redknapp is seriously deluded. He may sack Adkins (hope he doesn't) but no way on earth would he appoint that or any other dinosaur. If he does sack Adkins it will be to bring in someone that fits his philosophy. If he is as ruthless as some suggest (and there is no evidence to say that he is, Pardew was a different kettle of fish) then he will already have someone lined up and it will almost certainly be a foreign (Italian) coach.

Fair point, but would you want to risk Gazza next week in a winnable game against Villa, or would it be better to trust what we know. What if Gazza had a Bart? Could destroy his confidence and leave us with no backup? Difficult call, but I guess Adkins sees them on the training ground and he is the one that has to make a judgement. If it was down to me I'd tell Davis he is in the last chance saloon, stick with him for Villa, play Gazza against Wednesday, and take it from there

Thanks, I watched the game on Sky anticipating seeing some good stuff from him in the 2nd half, good old Sky cut out the good stuff and then subject us to Bertie Dino Bassett, perhaps I should have watched the Beeb's dinosaurs instead (Hanson and the Boy LineAker that is, not Shearer - I believe the Slug Balancer was not let out of the Care Home for MOTD last nght).

Funny how the memory plays tricks, I had it in my mind that it was actually 7-1, I'm getting old (I checked it and it was 6, yesterday I made some comment about 7)

I watched the highlights on Sky, did they not show some of his play, because apart from the pass (or was it a shot) to Lambert, every time he got the ball he gave it away (I counted 4 times). Now I was watching closely because I wanted to see him play because he was getting good reviews on here during the game, but the highlights didn't seem to match up with the comments. The highlights on Sky are pretty extensive, so they really must have cut out a lot of our better stuff.

To be frank, he was never that good, he always had the weaknesses he is showing now, no command of his box, poor distribution, poor at corners, his one saving grace was that he was a great shot stopper. He did OK for us in L1 and admittedly did seem to have improved a bit last season, but to say he has been so good in the past is a case of rose-tinted spectacles in my opinion. It seems that Adkins knows how to play on the pitch, but has a blind spot when it comes to keepers, which is surprising given his own playing career was between the sticks.

He is not exempt from criticism. But he played quite well yesterday, and prevented Arsenal scoring a lot more, their main threat came down their left side and Clyne and Fonte did well against that. True, more goals came from our right, but that's what happens when that is the side where the opposition has the threat. I assume you did not see the Clyne own goal, not a lot he could have done about that. The truth is that Fox is a liability, hopelessly out of position time and time again, making it very difficult for Hooiveld/Yoshida to cover, and they end up being dragged out wide to the left to cover the huge hole that Fox leaves. In the end it comes down to the simple fact, Clyne is raw, young talented full back who clearly has the ability and can improve. Fox is just out of his depth and does not seem to understand the basics of defending, and will be used less and less in set pieces and in attack now that we have other options (Davis and Ramirez for corners). Clearly Adkins knew that Fox was not good enough and tried to do something about it by signing Buttner, but that little **** ****ed us around when Manure came sniffing and left us without other better options apparently (although I think Yoshida would be good at LB if Hooiveld is fit).

Your maths is shocking as well

Actually Swansea had 2 of the top teams in the first 4 (started against Citeh like us) and had Chelsea in 6th game, so their start was none too shabby either. Note that Norwich are yet to win this season. Interesting to look at the PL table, there are still 8 teams including us yet to win this season (OK, I know Stoke have yet to lose either) but that is a very high proportion of teams without a win after 4 rounds of matches.

Yesterday it was Fonte, but previous games Clyne has shown he is good enough. Hooiveld is not good enough and Fox is crap. Davis is a liability. Yoshida looks good. Ireally think its too soon for Gazza. Yesterday the real problem was the MF 3 were overrun by very good Arse MF, they were far better than Manure or Citeh.

Better than Harry Bassett on Sky, basically said we did not have PL players and we are in big trouble. Seemed quite please about it as well. He really is an ignorant dinosaur, the sooner people like him and that other Arry **** disappear from football the better.

Thank God, I was beginning to despair of reading anything sensible on here any more. This is a top post but will sadly be wasted on some of our dimmer posters.

I know but the post said a keeper and a few defenders, so thats at least 4. We can sign arguably 2 or 3.

Clearly some people still don't get the rules about the squad and adding to it.

3 points down on where I expected us to be. Its not great but things can only get better and I'm confident they will. As long as we don't play as badly as we did against Wigan against some of the lesser teams we will be alright, but lets not kid ourselves, we will ship a few goals until the end of the year, just hope we score more, could be fun, and at the end of the day if we go down fighting then all is not lost.

You're absolutely right Alps, you were saying about it before the Euros finished, and you have been banging on about it time and time again ad nauseum. Its the wallowing in the "I told you so" attitiude that ****s everyone off and makes this Forum and ****ing depressing place to be. We lost today, anyone who has supported Saints for more than 4 years is used to it, it happens. We strengthened at the back (2 defenders and 2 keepers), should have got a LB but the guy ****ed us over when Manure came sniffing and should have replaced Davis. But we didn't. So we have to make the most of what we have. We do still have the opportunity to bring in 1 or 2 out of contract players and I wouldn't be surprised if we do, but lets keep a little bit of perspective shall we, and see how we are doing after a few more games. I heard some complete knobhead who called himself a Saints fan on Radio5 just now spouting some crap that Adkins was not good enough and we got promoted a season too soon. People need to get a grip.

Difficult to work on much with half the team away on international waste of time duty.

Shocking decision by Adkins to leave Guly out, we could have won if he had played. It feels like a lot of people on here must be relatively new at supporting Saints, judging by their reactions. We had a crap game and lost 6-1, well I never did, seem to recall we lost 7-1 to Arse just before the FA Cup Final. **** happens, life goes on.

So that would suggest LB is the weak link then, if their goals are coming from the right.

This may be a good thing, we've all seen how good they can be this season, but look poor at the Emirates, so maybe Winger will stop sniffing around :-)

Having quite a game, yellow card, assist and goal.