Saint Charlie

Clyne is clearly a better player now than Richardson. He also (as with Fox) hasnt been getting a lot of cover from the player in front of him. I was at the Emirates, and really he could only have done better for the goal where Ramsay turned him too easily. Otherwise he slipped to allow RVP to score vs Utd but that could have happened to anyone. He is a good 1 v 1 defender. Obviously people get disappointed after we lose but we have bigger issues than Clyne who generally has looked the best of our back 5 IMO.

Hammers have also played Villa, Swansea, Fulham & Norwich so far - probably none of whom will be top 10. Can only judge after 10 games - Fat Sam said on Goals on Sunday that he identified they would need points at the start because the fixtures were relatively kind to them. We know we have to defend better, if we had zero points from the games WH have played then I would be extremely worried. The reality is we have faced the two best English teams and then another how qualify for the CL evey year. Wigan we should have taken points from but it was out first Prem game for 7 years against a team with momentum from last season.

Sadly this. He is a clear weakness right now.

IMO the answer to an underperforming left back isn't to switch your RB to LB. Clyne is still learning himself and IMO should stay where he is. If NA thinks Fox needs to come out the team then he should be replaced by a LB or we should just put up with him. Likewise Puncheon is a wide midfielder, Mayuka is a striker...

Would make sense, KD has had 5 years with no real competition for a first team spot. Gordon must be getting fairly desparate so surely his wages wouldnt be out of control. He is a quality keeper, only concerns are his fitness as he had a lot of injuries at Sunderland.

Funny how this kind of think is debated after a heavy defeat - think ksot people were pleased with the choice when it was announced.

Lallana the right man for me. Saints through and through, is tenacious and leads by example with work rate and performance. If not him then for me it would be Morgan.

If we don't finish above Reading then we will be bottom. They are awful. We actually have looked a threat vs the top teams we have played (obviously less so vs Arsenal). They didn't really muster any sort of shot vs Spurs who are good going forward but not the best defensive team.

Adkins also said on Saints Player he had been to Switzerland to watch Mayuka last season.

West Ham are pretty woeful, they will drop down once they have a tougher run of fixtures. Wigan another. Also be interesting to see what Swansea do this season having lost a couple of key players and Taylor out injured.

Can fault KD for free kick. As Allardyce said on Goals on Sunday his starting position was wrong. If the free kick goes in the corner fair enough, but it wasn't.

Fat Sam basically said you just have to forget those defeats. As he said losing 6-1 or 1-0 is still only 3 points lost.

Routine I think, debrief of the game.

Might as well have one positive thread and Gaston was pretty much the only positive. He looked every bit a 12m man, classy and strong on the ball, played some superb passes and always looked to play forward. With only one training session with the team it will good to see him when he settles. Type of player you just need to give the ball to as much as possible. You could tell the other players looked to him all the time and clear why.

4-4-1-1 like second half yesterday -----------------------A Keeper--------------- Clyne-----------Jose---------Yoshida-----Shaw Puncheon---------JWP------Morgan-------Lallana ------------------------Ramirez-------------------- ------------------------Lambert-------------------

Biggest problem yesterday was that Gibbs was pushing so far up the pitch (quality full back play) and was always a free man for them. Clyne had two players to mark because Puncheon was trying to win the ball more centrally because of the failure of our central midfielders to put a tackle in. Only positive for us was that Ramirez looked very classy, strong on the ball and always looking to move forwards.

Having been at the game last night, simple question;is he good enough? Seemed to be at a fault for two of the Arsenal goals and seems a bit slow and mbersome to me. Great servant, but didn't shine last time he was in the Prem either? Must have been questionable in every game so far....

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/2012/sep/14/southampton-youth-policy-nigel-adkins? Instead of reading rubbish about sacking Adkins, read this instead.

Richardson as a CM? I agreed with you until then!

Yes - yet both their Managers got moves based on the whole seasons overachievement!

If you think about it then Redknapp is about as far from the Saints vision as any manager I can think of. Cortese wants someone who buys into the whole ethos of the club - that is what NA does - enjoys bringing through the young players, improving players we have, very positive promoter of Southampton FC - neverr in trouble with the FA etc.. Every prem manager is under pressure and has peaks and troughs of team form and points. If Moyes (widely lauded as one of the best Managers in the PL) had been sacked everytime they lost a few games back to back then he would have probably only had one season there.

Nobody could blame Chamberlain for leaving a newly promoted L1 club for the Champions League. If we haad been prem and he left then a bit more understandable, but how you can boo him I will never know, he is always very complimentary about Saints and played 100% for us every time he put the shirt on. Same goes for Bale and Walcott. Hopefully we can keep these players for longer now.

This - the NC axe that has only once been wielded yet he is talked about like he sacks managers every week! I would imagine that NC himself didn't expect to get lots of points from the first four games, has enjoyed watching us, but is disappointed we didn't get a few points from the good positions we got ourselves in. He will look at the fixtures and expect decent points from our next 10 games - as we all do. Its is only fair to judge NA once he has been given a chance, and if the games so far are anything to go by I am excited about this season...as long as the team and NA learn fast.

Its a bit of a pointless discussion. All we can be certain of is that Adkins will go down as one of our most successful ever Managers whatever happens this season, and that to be questioning if he is the right man after 3 games of the season is pathetic.

Wasn't that Pantsil? Great skill though.