derry

Having said that, if that is the case, Adkins should either walk or just go ahead and do it his way and confront the problem if there is one. Although I know why Pardew went suddenly and it wasn't this, there were the same stories going round then that Pardew was doing it his way in spite of others and there was confliction rumoured with the development side.

I just hope the tail isn't wagging the dog. Reed at League level has an abysmal and limited experience of management, it is inconceivable that his influence should trump Adkins. Adkins is the successful manager here and from the outside it looks like the predictable has happened somebody has been promoted way beyond their abilities. Youth development, yes, first team squad, no way.

Lambert needs support. 433/451 doesn't mean we can't play two strikers together, ideally play three, Lambert and Mayuka with Rodriguez.

I did say we have to vary our game. The best sides can keep the ball but also play balls through the channels at pace we don't. Chelsea's goals yesterday for example. There is no better example than MU breaking quickly from the back. Letting the opposition get goalside and then passing it sideways and backwards isn't the way to do it. Our league position equates to how good we are and that isn't very good.

The formation had nothing to do with two of the goals, 2 free kicks. The other two were giving the ball away and bad defending by Fonte and Yoshida on our left. The back four need to defend as a unit.

It's all very well playing God knows how many passes sideways and backwards while the opposition get ten men formed up in a defensive shield then try to pick them apart with more sideways and the odd short forward pass that is mostly followed by a backwards pass/es to start again as any attackers have nowhere to go except offside. We have possession but we aren't hurting the opposition. We have to vary our game, we have to have goalscoring runners plus Lambert at the front, they have to be released early from midfield/defence without taking the obligatory ten passes to allow the opposition to form up. We were undone by a lack of defensive organisation. When defending we are forever backing onto the goalkeeper. Yesterday we formed up all right but as soon as the WHU attackers went forward we dropped right on top of the keeper causing the chaos. We need to hold the line and force the attackers to hold or be offside. We don't have the discipline to do that, it then gives the keeper the room to sweep up if the ball is hit in. However if the defence holds it's line the ball has to be put in further out. We need a top class defensive coach to sort it out.

Isn't it Queen's English?

Just a question, I agree about Boruc. Is the 433 that Adkins said tonight was the way we play, the Cortese Southampton way. Is this the selected way all the club's teams have to adopt. How much has Reed to do with this or is it the Adkins way? Either way we will go down unless we adapt and play a system that gets the best out of the players. It isn't a numbers game, 1000 passes won't win a game unless we score more and let in less than the opposition which is stating the bloody obvious.

Bizarre, Lambert on the bench, Gazzaniga dropped for Boruc after the Fulham game where he wasn't at fault for either goal, was he on the bench? Boruc in the Sky commentator's words, nervous, indecisive, having a mare, a game he will want to forget. Adkin's is making errors. WHU playing the same way as last year. We are just counting passes. Get back to basics, play the way the team is comfortable and stop trying to accommodate players like Guly out of position who contributed nothing front, middle or at the back.

Isn't that a fact!

He was caught out last night, he was ball watching, never once checked behind him and was done on the back post. He never saw the player coming in for an easy header. It's a big fault he has, he rarely checks his blind side.

We replaced three effective players, Utd kept the ball with Scholes directing the traffic, the ball wasn't held up front, we dropped deep and were picked off. If Scholes had been disrupted we may have been able to get the ball off him and it might have allowed the forward/midfield players to defend higher up the field. If good teams keep the ball, lesser teams tend to back off and surrender the midfield. Far better IMO to defend higher up the field by high tempo pressing rather than low pace backing off. We had plenty of players in our penalty area but nobody got stuck into Van Persie the real danger and allowed Scholes to dictate the play.

What I and one of the Saints FA Cup winning team agreed on was take off a forward, leave the midfield and shape but bring on a defender to close mark Scholes. A close marker takes no part in the team game, stays tight on the mark and disrupts that player. The defender would not play as a midfielder because the only role is to stop the mark from playing. The game is then 9 v 9 and 1 v 1. In the MU game SAF pinpointed Scholes as the difference, we made it easy for him to play the ball around and pressurise our back four with his accuracy. A tight marker would have disrupted him and knowing Scholes's temper possibly got him into trouble. As for CBs in midfield, there is a role for mobile defensive players that can pass, in front of the central defenders, as a front sweeper. Baird played that role against us and effectively last night v Portugal where NI snatched a draw. It has it's place especially if the back four isn't that good.

I think you are an idiot.

Antarctic sea ice at record level, explain that!

Might as well give it to the Taliban or the Seals for topping OBL.

Les Reed might have a good record of employment at the FA but he was a disaster at Charlton as manager before they very quickly dispensed with his services.

The stats were from the televised games, eg first half v Fulham only 35% although watching the match it looked better than that. Your last three paragraphs pretty much sums it up. If the team is defensively compact it will provide it's own defence wide by moving across as a unit, with the rotation the wide midfielder on the blind side has to pick up any attempt to switch again eg Chaplow covering Riise which he didn't do.

Wasn't it Guly who cause Lee's foot injury last season. Never injures anyone in matches.

The problem at the moment is that our possession stands at about 40% which means we aren't starving the opposition, furthermore we don't pressure well enough to either get it back quickly or force the opposition to play back into it's own half. We also give the ball away regularly. IMO too many of the midfielders/forwards dive in and sell themselves, consequently are easily beaten opening up gaps in our defence. They don't seem to have much idea about closing up and holding, delaying the play and enabling others to get goalside and cover the attackers. As most teams pass sideways and backwards rather than risk losing possession it allows the team to tighten up. Against Fulham both goals were from initial passes from the halfway line into the corner exploiting our lack of compactness and loose covering, despite plenty of our players defending.

Basically a front sweeper, we have probably only one that could play that role, Yoshida would be the only one with the defensive nous and mobility.

He wants to be chancellor.

What I remember was our company took a contribution holiday and we negotiated improvements to the scheme. Better inflation proofing and the calculator was increased from 1/80 per year to 1/50 per year which was a cracking increase. The company then contributed when the fund went out of surplus. What did destroy the pension funds was Gordon Brown removing the tax relief on pension funds which damaged them beyond repair, causing companies to ditch the final salary pensions that most had and replacing them with money purchase schemes initially for new entrants but eventually many final salary schemes were closed to everybody. It was a criminal act to knowingly destroy the pension system just so he could waste the money on the public sector which retained it's pension system. The Labour government from 1997 to 2010 was a disaster that this country will probably never recover from. This coalition isn't doing much to make things better.

I may be putting my foot in my mouth but I think we will get 40+ points maybe 44ish, just a ball park guess.

Do you mean a midfielder playing deep or a midfielder that is also a competent defender to protect the main back line by either getting to the point of attack first covered by a defender or alternatively dropping into the back four to restore it's balance if the main defenders are committed?