up and away

It all depends upon the contract and the stoppage can be instigated by either party until forward agreement has been reached. If you have little in terms of time penalties this can happen far more readily because you can invoke a stoppage at less cost. This type of contract will already cover everything down to the method of adjudication should both parties hit a wall. I have seen instances where contractors have had to draw a line in the sand because of bankruptcy fears, others where the client believes they are being shafted because of changes to the original specification or errors never picked up by either party relating to planning. This will get solved relatively quickly unless one of the parties is about to go bust and is no where near as dramatic as what it first sounds. It is an impasse between both parties on the way forward of an obstacle and will get settled by adjudication of some means.

I really doubt if we have backing from the Liebherr estate, I would imagine that we still have backing from what ever Markus set up for us before his death. What the amount and conditions for this is unknown. But it would not surprise me if you wanted to add that one special player like Ramirez to the squad, that you would borrow to bridge a gap in time when that money will be available. You could easily see this as a type of bridging loan with the overall effect of costing more but not resulting in debt. The yield will be determined upon how the loan is secured and other loans incumbent upon the loanee. If this is based upon money sat in an account or trust with a short term future release date, you will hardly better that. Eventually we will have to balance the books to the exact penny but I believe we are still a few years from that point.

There's not many that open up the Kevin Keegan guide to tactics and formations to follow the script as we seem to be doing. Keegans style of play changed the Premier for ever, showing that relying on home form and not losing away was just not good enough any more, but is it really winning football when you expose the defence to such a degree as Keegan did? Keegans players had the skill to go with the threat but even they never maximised their returns. History has shown us that time and time again that soaking up the pressure from these adventurous teams and hitting them on the break is always going to produce the best results. Unless you are Barca and have such an out standing advantage it just does not work over time. Adkins theory that playing a continuous attacking style will give us that magic 4 away wins, then just combine that with some good home form does have some logic and merit before you start scratching the surface away. What we are accepting is a team that will always leak goals and if you put up enough fight in the first half to keep us out, you stand a very good chance in the second half of inflicting damage, if not already. Generally in the past if we go hell for leather from the start and start hitting the wall we tend to get easily picked off when the opponents have their turn. I would much prefer the cautious start where we feel out the opposition as to what is achievable and go for the result in the second half, whether that be draw or win. Forget about Keegans Newcastle, we will be more in line with Blackpool with less of a defence. Adkins realises that he can't get enough out of our midfield to bolster a weak defence and provide the necessary attacking threat. The attacking style looks far easier on the eye and fans will be more forgiving, but at the end of the day it is not percentage football. Adkins must have chatted with Cortese and both being in agreement, otherwise I doubt Adkins would come out so bullish. The crunch is going to come against teams like Fulham, if we can't make it work against them, then it all comes down around our ears.

We had known weaknesses in our defence which we knew would cost us goal if not addressed. In addition we also knew that the main threat from Everton would come through Fellaini and Baines, we did nothing about that either, The only way the defence looks solid is to put the midfield directly in front to give the defensive requirement but then we tend to lack creatively up front. Most teams across the world set up with a counter attack formation because it shows the best chance of getting something from the game. Our trouble is we normally need a 5 man midfield to get some control leaving a lone striker to fight for the scraps. If that striker does not have pace he is easy pickings. 451 is the way for us to go away from home. If 451 does not work out perfectly, I at least hope we can keep it down to 1 goal such when we change things around in the second half we have some sort of chance. What we did yesterday was totally stupid in playing so open against Everton. That's just saying we can out score you in a straight fight, ignoring Evertons pedigree, their league position and their players, totally dumb. I believe Adkins deliberately went for this one, spurred by our attacking play against Villa and Evertons difficulties against Leeds. Referencing the Leeds game as a method of getting a result but omitting they had 6 first team players out. There are no guarantees any method will give us the points but common sense throughout the rest of the world readily tells you are ****ing in the wind if you think you can square up against the opposition on their own patch and come away with a result. Even the big boys will have more caution than that, let alone a team ranked for relegation. Our defence will still struggle against Fulham unless the midfield backs up, going to be interesting to see what we do there.

That was Naive to the Nth degree. We knew beforehand all about their strength and our weaknesses yet totally disregarded this to follow Leeds example from a few days earlier. Someone forgot to inform Adkins that only 5 of those players were used against Leeds, with the rest being the same squad that got them to near the top of the Premier. We played some good, attractive football but their was only going to be one winner with our defence. For 10 minutes or so we caught Everton by surprise but they soon figured that out and just took us apart at leisure. The game was so open at periods it looked a straight forward bet on who had the better players and who could defend. We are not going to win that bet against Reading, let alone Everton. We already know our defence needs to be backed up by the midfield so we can compete in games. Get control of the midfield and we can at least be competitive defensively but lacking threat. The trouble then is we don't have enough threat to compliment Ricky and we become marginalised as an attacking threat. Adkins had highlighted at the beginning of the season we would have to play on the counter to be effective. The trouble is you need pace to make that counter effective. We could still have been beaten what ever we did but not trying to keep things tight for the first half denied us any opportunity of developing things further. We shall have to see against Fulham how we now stand.

The comparisons between Lambert and Holt are incredibly close in certain areas and something that is always going to be commented upon. When was the last time in the Premier that you had an old striker who came through from League 1 to the Premier in consecutive season, scoring record goals for fun along the way. To then end up with two in the Premier with nigh on identical records separated by a season is truly exceptional. Everyone is going to note this similarity and comment upon such. Not to would be the unusual! Holt has a bit more pace than Ricky and most importantly can generate his own chances. Ricky has really improved mentally this season and the manner in which he has scored this season has a lot to do with the thought he is putting into his game. Ricky normally scores about a goal a season where he creates the opening himself, something he has already done. Ricky just seems more polished this season and the comparison to Sheringham is even more warranted. There are differences in their play but ask any Premier fan to pick two strikers out that came from the same pod and you would have your overwhelming favourites.

That second half against Villa seems to have this magical property of wiping all the previous football from existence. With our indecision even against Villa, that sort of performance will give Fellini free range to rip us a new one. Would you bet against Fellini not scoring against us? The question alone should slam your arse cheeks shut to nullify the thought. You can just hope what we have done previously will be good enough but I have seen nothing like that. As for dropping Lambert, that has already happened on the first day of the season against ManC for exactly those reasons given by Adkins.

I don't think we are good enough to take our game to Everton and not come out with a cuffing. With that in mind I would look at nullifying their two biggest threats, Baines and Fellini. ---------------GAZZA-------------- FRAZER-----MAYA----JOS-----CLYNE ---------------FONTE------------ RAMIREZ--MORGAN--DAVIS--LALLANA --------------MAYUKA------------ Subs: Boruc, Shaw, Ricky, JWP, Ouncheon, Cork, Rodriguez I don't want to play Fox and would even consider Shaw, Not sure that is fair for one so young so will revert to what worked well against Villa with Clyne on the left. Allowing Fonte to drift over and help out as required. I can see Fellini having a field day with our spacial marking and would stick one of the centre backs on him for the box. Adding Fonte in there allows us to keep the zonal and a solution to Fellini. Fonte will additionally strengthen up the midfield. I have left Ricky out because of the fear he will be isolated and the ability of Mayuka to do something with Gazzas distribution. Ricky could still work, but then I would drop Lallana and play Mayuka on the left.

He could have done that at Everton. He signed to be our no. 1....quite clearly I don't even know if Everton made a firm offer? It seemed to me as if they just let the opportunity drift as they are still cash strapped. Also worth noting that Boruc has a Gazza type reputation for women and drink that has an influence on any signing. From what I have seen of Gazzaniga so far I cannot tell you he is our #1 goalie, only that Kelvin is out of consideration. Go back to the Cup game where he had a little more work to do and do you give #1 status for that and the Villa game? Gazzaniga solved enough problems in that Villa game to see little chance for Kelvin in the future but little else. I do accept that Gazzaniga offers an attacking threat rarely seen in a goalie. Having seen at what level Boruc was previously I believe he will play against Everton, but it may be a far closer run thing than a shoe in.

When we had all the comments coming back and forth during the transfer, Ramirez explicitly underlined the after tax, as if pre tax just did not tell the whole story.This led me to believe that Cortese was looking at setting up a "Jimmy Carr tax plan" to avoid paying the vast majority of the tax. The 45k may well be about right though I thought it may have been in the high 30's. Paying one player far higher than other members of the team can cause problems but when you have the talent to go with it that should disappear.

I saw Boruc lose to Germany in the World cup a while back and can say I have never seen a performance by such a man mountain. Borucs been at Everton training up to last weekend and previously home in Poland training at his old club, so how fit is anyones guess. By Thursday they will have watched him in training enough to know if he's up for it or not and I doubt there will be any question if he's anywhere near as good as he was before. He has had some mental health issues but that seems common for goalies. If the staff are unsure about Boruc I would expect him to start against SWeds to find out where they stand. My view is biased from what I have seen previously without knowing if he's the same player. Hard on Gazzaninga when he has done nothing wrong but I expect there to be no issues

Clyne could well turn out to be as big a signing as Ramirez, I rate him that highly. That does not have to snow blind you to some of his weaknesses. We never really got exposed against Villa because of Clyne but there were plenty of opportunities and if you look at previous games you can fill your boots Absolutely nothing wrong with Morgan short passing. It's when you pass the ball on under pressure to a team mate who has even less chance of keeping possession that it's wrong. Either find the right pass or create the space to make a safe pass. This happened a couple of times in the first half and the only blemish on a great performance. Later in the second half, Ramirez was in front of our back four with the ball, 3 opposition around him. Thought of playing to another Saints player near but could see he was just putting more pressure on with the pass than he already had. So a little shimmy and all of a sudden he was bringing the ball clear without a hint of losing the ball. We did not lose possession because he off loaded responsibility to someone in an even worse position, we came away with the ball. Unlike previously with Morgan. That combined with his "defensive" cameo at Arsenal was brought to mind when Adkins underlined this point. The rest of your points I have not answered because these are all just opinions and I can easily see your point of view to not need much to be in agreement. After the terrible start we have had I have been cautious in not nailing everyone to the mast because it's very hard to see the wood for the trees when so much is wrong. But as great a win as it was yesterday, it has to be balanced up in total. One reoccurring problem since Burley is that we have had problems with the midfield and getting the right balance. As with Villa yesterday, you suddenly go from hero to zero when you lose that balance, as we did against Wigan. Any mention of dropping Ricky away from home goes down as well as that Islamic film but it does have some validation. Adkins himself saw this on the first day of the season when we lined up against ManC and echoed the reasons, it's pointless having Ricky isolated and on his own. If we cannot support him I would rather not start with him in the first half away from home and would prefer to shore up the midfield. If Mayuka could get on the end of some of Gazzinigas torpedos, I see possibilities. I doubt Ricky will be dropped now and I won't get bent out of shape if it does not happen. Everton will be a really good test and if Clyne can add again to our midfield, it will be the first time in years where I feel we may have found a chance of a permanent solution to the problem. But don't be surprised if we see a lot of players less than average if Everton dominate midfield. One good thing irrespective is that I can see 3 other teams we can slip above.

For me it's very simple, if we have midfield control I would play Ricky. If we don't have midfield control we need that extra man in midfield to gain control. That leaves Ricky isolated and of little value on his own, whereas I saw the possibility from Mayuka that he can run the channels effectively and get onto what Ramirez can provide. Ricky could not pick up on some of Ramirez talents because he never saw them coming or was too slow. That does not mean I would not start Ricky at home. Rickys a good player but does not have that position scribed in stone, same with Lallana.

Just what was needed, I could not be happier. Villa allowed us to play our football in the second half and will be regretting that for several days to come. The catalyst for all of this was taking off Fox and putting Clyne at LB. I don't know how many can say Clyne was great at LB because I rarely saw him in the position. What i did see was a left footed player cut into the middle going forward to such effect the Villa midfield just disappeared. That combined with the rest of the midfield was the tipping point and it was one way traffic there after. Against better teams where we don't get control of the midfield you can just expect a repeat of that first half. That game gives me hope because I can see us competing in the bottom 6 and given the Swansea effect when you add pass and move football like today, will always carry you higher. Gazzinga: I actually felt composed when the goalie had something to do, though was there enough to really make a judgement? At least it was devoid of passing the ball direct to their wingers as we saw against Wigan. Similar method to Kelvin for lining up the wall so assume that's a coaching thing. But why not get the wall to jump if you leave that much space? Fox: We all knew he was wrong yet many never believed such a simple solution existed. Still don't until a bigger team. I assume Fox was at fault for their goal as a pretty drastic subbing otherwise, missed that one completely. Yoshida: Some quality defending in that performance. Fonte: Still some problems but miles better, passed and intercepted well. Clyne: My MOM and the tipping point for me when we over ran Villa. But he has to remember his day job. Morgan: Put in a very good performance, a lot of hard, intelligent work. Has to stop those short balls where he just offloads his problems onto others. Either move, feint to move with the ball or find a safer outlet. This will cost us goals if not fixed. Davis: did a decent job, nothing exceptional, nothing bad but importantly kept good energy levels. Ramirez: The king of cool. Not as attacking orientated as I imagined but can he see a pass. Never expected him to be so good defensively and he could easily play in front of the back four. Money spent that could easily mean the difference between the Premier and NPC. Lallana: Put in a great shift with some intelligent play and incisive runs. Has to find an end product otherwise he is left toothless. Puncheon: Helped to dominate when we got on top but I would only rate as mediocre. Just does not do enough good or carry enough threat. Can see a place for him but feel we are missing out by not having someone else. Ricky: Again mediocre until he got his goal then he becomes all important. Mayuka: saw enough from him that he can do a job for us, especially one pinged ball he pulled out of the air with his foot. Has the pace to keep defences honest and will score if the skill is there. Definitely knows what's happening on a football field Richardson: nothing to beat but never screwed up. JWP: Just did what he was supposed to do. Everton will be a different game and they will not roll over. Mayuda Lallana Cork Davis Morgan Ramirez Clyne Yoshida Fonte Richardson Gazzinga would be my call but will not happen in a million years after that result.

You would have hoped so but reflecting upon the games so far, I don't find much evidence. Kelvins positioning is just giving away goals, whether it's positioning from free kicks or the second Wigan goal. The free kick was not a one off, already been aired and I can't get my head round any goalie thinking this is the way to go. Compounding this is the near post free zone and the penchant for knocking shots back to forwards, rather than safety. If you were to ask any fan who is the worst goalie in the Premier based upon the first 4 league games, Kelvin would be taking a bow with no one else close. If we change goalie and come unstuck, so be it but I really do not believe we have a lot to lose.

I would say there is far more to that interview then a media trained response. I have never heard managers comment upon a chairmans support as such without there being substance to it. That went far further than any response I expected. This does not mean I don't believe that Cortese will shirk from any difficult decisions but the logic of the situation is just not there yet. Adkins is in a hole at the present and has got to show forward progress. As long as we see that I expect Adkins to still be in a job. After 10 games and things are still looking bleak then I expect we will start looking for a replacement that is better than we already have. But just marginal improvements could make sense to extend that position. If we change managers it will only be the once and logic would dictate that time to be well before the window for any new manager to assess his current players and lay down what's needed for the window.

The9 is on some desperate charge to denigrate RL7; I'm not sure why yet, but it seems to be his "thing". I'll be honest, I'm not entirely sure myself what point he's trying to prove; other than that Rickie won't cut it in the PL. I can easily see The9 point of view because Ricky demands far more from those around him to operate that it will detract else where (similar to Rasiak under Burley). That does not mean I can't see the positives in Ricky and until the rest of the team get their act together will not say he should or should not start. One thing I strongly believe is that it is difficult to make a 451 work with Ricky. Just no pace to bother the defenders and forcing us up to the half way line. Away from home Ricky would be on the bench for the first half at least, at home that's a different matter. I am waiting to see what Adkins can do with the group of players we have until I can get a clearer picture of the way forward, at present I have little idea. With the exception we have to have that extra man in midfield to give our defence a chance as things are. Lallana until now has been now been our best player but I would not see it as impossible if he was dropped to give the team better balance. If Ramirez is the player he is hyped up to be and Mayuka has the skill to go along with his undoubted speed, then is another attacking player better than a defensive player with the problems we have. When Lallana and Oxo played together there were times that just did not work because we had no one to win the ball in midfield and the supply dried up.

Fair enough, maybe too general a statement that should be changed to the defence against the top 3 was clueless. Add into that the support given to the defence by the midfield at times. Whether they are individual errors or combined, the volume and basic nature of the defence makes it clueless. Fox is deliberately giving space and freedom to the winger in the area between the 18 yard box and the touch line. Not a one off but evident in every game so far. This is not what I would call a recognised method of treatment for wing backs and I would best describe that as clueless, you can use your own descriptive. Jos has got his own problems at this level but it comes down to major flaws in his decision making. As soon as Tevez felt his thigh touch the back of his leg, Tevez knew he could convert that innocent position into a stone wall penalty. Tevez then rolled around Jos's thigh and hit the deck, confident no referee in the land would deny him. Jos is still scratching his head wondering what happened. Fonte continually goes to sleep and finds himself on / in the wrong position with defenders. Something he has done for so long that it is more of a trait than error. Kelvin, by no means the worst offender has shown examples beyond all others. When Fonte "lost" the ball to the Wigan forward he came out towards the edge of his 18 yard box, then just waited with a Michael Flatley impression in such an open position, it was impossible to see anyone missing. By staying still you take the major obstacle out of the frame for the attacker. By positioning yourself more towards the centre, you are leaving little for the attacker to get wrong. Then the free kick where you position yourself so off centred from the middle you are just betting that the attacker cannot get the ball over the wall and down again. This was not a one off and already been demonstrated. It's not as if the wall is in on the ploy as no one is jumping to make it any more difficult. You can call all of this what ever you like, individual errors, extremely naive but my impression was that the defence did not have a clue on several occasions and as such they repeated the same error again.

As long as Adkins is doing the right things in training, getting the tactics and the play right on the day, I would expect Cortese to give him 10 games. Adkins has got to show he is addressing the problems even without the points. We have been clueless against the big 3 but that's not far from the expected. If you look at all the faffing about Benetiz did at Liverpool I doubt that would work, but if you look at what he did at Valencia there is no one better. Personally I would not mind someone like Joe Jordan coming in to help Adkins.

I believe everyone to share this blame. Cortese slightly less than the others because he does not have the knowledge. Though it certainly appears he went that extra mile to get Ramirez (which is worthy of praise), less so Buttner What is so evident know is that we needed far too many decent players to compete. The defensive back 5 all needed changing out and we still lacked the creation and pace against Wigan. I know we were looking in the right areas from the feedback from the other side, I just don't feel we believed them to be that much of a step up. Rodriques was one for the future that looks a distance away in the Premier. Mayuka is the pace we have been desperate for, so something not totally bizarre for the position when purchased. The Premier has all come as a big shock to all at St Mary's but Adkins has to take the biggest blame. He has been struggling to get his best team on the pitch with the correct tactics. Something of a mission impossible given what's available previously. Adkins may have not been the prime mover for all the players but he was for Rodriques, the biggest disappointment so far. When he got all melancholy after winning promotion and hoped we would do things in the right way by giving players their chance rather than wholesale changes. Adkins is a good manager who has made errors but not alone. As long as he keeps his head and works positively on the problems, that is all I ask. If Adkins is replaced in the future I hope it's done on the same basis for players, being better than what we already have. It's going to be difficult for his usual positive patter and it would not surprise me if he would not be better in letting the fluck hen out of the coop.

I deliberately have stayed away from blaming individuals (apart from Kelvins positioning for the free kick) because the whole team were not doing their jobs. It was a domino effect from the start of the attack where someone gets space they should have been denied, the next person not knowing where to cover, with the holes getting bigger the more the move advances. If the first person presses intelligently the second line has a far easier job, simples. The team got caught out by Arsenal because of partly what they had experienced with ManU and ManC. Arsenal drove down rhe flanks far more and pressed our team from the start with a more defensive set upto nullify us. Not a recognised front pair of strikers to mark but players coming through the midfield into space. When Ricky gets isolated as he did, there is little point in playing him. He does not have the pace to keep their defence honest and most of the time can be disregarded as an attacking threat, allowing them to push us back at will. Adkins said he was going to address the issue of players lasting for 95 minutes. He did that but in the process we started offf too far off the pace. Just too many over corrections from our previous games.

Adkins is out of his depth at the moment along with 90% of our squad. So trying to pick and organise a team to compete with the top 6 should readily tell you something major, you have little chance. Even if Adkins had found his best 11 previously I doubt it would have been evident with those performances. Our biggest problem so far has been running ourselves into the ground after 75minutes, unable to last 95 minutes. Just because Scholes came on and Ricky, Lallana and Puncheon went off you come to the conclusion it was that at fault. Ricky and Lallana were already dead on their feet when Scholes was starting to bypass our midfield and pinging the ball to his forwards. I felt then and I expect many others believed that it was just a question of time before ManU scored again and that was before our subs. Before and at the time from the state of the players on the pitch I thought the subs made sense. Adkins has been quick enough to hold his hands up but not for that one, something I agree with. For the first three games Adkins rightly identified that we were burning out with 10-15 minutes of the game to go and it was costing us. You can see from the stats this was not down to fitness levels but having to throw too much energy into competing. Against Arsenal that pacing ourselves for 95 minutes made us look uncompetitive and just shows the very difficult position we are in. Wanting to start international players after 90 minutes playing in mid week and a long haul flight is truly exasperation with little logic. The rest of your ramblings just slide in along side your observations but Les Reed has not been picking the team, he has enough on his plate. Adkins may well be toast, that's going to come down to how he now reacts. I don't feel he has many options. The defence is so poor that it has to be bolstered by the midfield to keep us in the game. It's just than trying to get enough quality and pace along side of that to be effective. No easy task for the position we find ourselves in but we need at least a draw against Villa to give us hope of finding a way out.

Forgetting about ManU, ManC and Arsenal, the Wigan game is the one that really concerns and it goes back to the KPI's. Having possession does mean it's very difficult for the opposition to score but says absolutely nothing about our ability to score, especially when you just give the ball back after running out of ideas.Just like a Ralph Coates shot on goal, of zero value because little threat is carried in combination. We have so much wrong at the present it is difficult to say where we need to build from to get ourselves out of this hole. The defence is a major problem but I cannot see any easy fixes there unless Yoshida turns out to be a miracle. On that basis I would start off with 451 with a midfield capable of aiding that defence sufficiently. Then add as much pace and skill in to give us some attacking threat. That would mean Mayuka and Ramirez starting and one other recognised attacker, at least for the first half to see what foundation we can give ourselves. I am not going to get into who we should drop because it's impossible to say at the present, but I would start off cautiously and gradually see what works. We just don't have a base to work from as yet.

This was on the cards and further combinations of our first 4 games will be played out over the season. All the signs were there, just the flattery from the Manchester clubs managed to fool many. When you don't have the best players you can compensate by bringing a physical edge to the game. We don't have that in our locker but we do have the poor players, making it easy for the opposition in playing football "the right way". The players and staff just did not realise the magnitude that the Premier is. Lulled by Norwichs achievements we brought a NPC team from League 1 to the Premier and imagined we could do the same. There seems just far too much work to do with these players and a management who have been left flat footed. So many poor performances it is of little value to go through them all but when Kelvin sets his wall and positions himself for the free kick in such a manner it is obviously wrong. When you position everything in such a manner you are just relying on the free kick taker not to be able to get the ball up and down over the wall. Looked immediately wrong before the kick and a fait accompli before the kick. Getting established in the Premier is a very difficult task and to be expected. If we have a trip back to the NPC I don't see that as a problem in the grand scheme of things. Not going to grizzle any more over this horrible result but I can easily see this season as very difficult to take on a personal level and just hope we have enough flashes of light to make the journey enjoyable.

A couple of very good points there which highlights the problems we are in. NC does have influence over the player purchases as part of a committee but he won't be forcing direction here. The trouble we have is the lack of Premier experience and the fact Adkins is playing catch up in getting to grips with the Premier. Only now do I believe he realises the full extent of what is required. When Adkins got all emotional after gaining promotion and hoping things will be done in the right way with people being given their chance. Very nice sentiments towards his players but when you see how far off the mark most are, shows a misunderstanding of what is required in the Premier. We have the worst defence in the Premier and just so lucky that Clyne has turned out to be such a gem. If Yosfhida does not work out, we really are up against the barrel of the gun. I would never agree that Adkins screwed up the subs against ManU, far from it. Ricky was wandering around at half pace, of little value and Lallana was measurably slower in getting up and down. Those subs coincided with Scholes coming on and bypassing our midfield and a Saints team that were suddenly drained of energy. Looking at the stats from our midfielders showed they put in more of a shift than the ManU midfield. The trouble was that we never paced ourselves for 95 minutes. This error was repeated against ManC and Wigan and I believe to be Adkins biggest error and the reason we did so poorly at the end of the games. I am not blaming our fitness levels because the stats clearly show this is not where the problem lies, it's about pacing the effort over 95 minutes. I cannot understand why some say JRod should not start on the left, when his goals montage of everything significant he has done shows it all to be from cutting in from the left and onto his right foot. Something echoed by the Burnley fans before he got here. There may well be justified clamours to move him now because he just has not delivered but I really do not expect that to sort the problem. The Wigan game painted the bleakest of pictures for me, realising we would find it very hard to compete in the Premier. Against ManU and ManC we were given a lot of space at times, with the top teams happy to go player to player against us and coming out on top. Against Wigan we came up against a counter attacking set up that just drained the energy and ideas from us then took us at their will. We never had any penetration or pressure against Wigan because they denied us the space to do so. When they upped their pressing in the second half we just faded away without even a whimper. An attack not good enough to bring Wigan to a sweat, a defence always available for donations and burnt out after 75 minutes. The Wigan game is the definitive as to where we are, with the ManC and ManU performances just glossing over our real position. Thankfully it now looks like we may have sufficient in the new signings to break down the Wigans but we are placing a lot on Yoshidas shoulders to sort out the rest. I like Adkins and still rate him as a manager. He's got things wrong through lack of experience with the Premier, it's just going to be about how quickly he now learns. He has already identified us not being able to play in an effective style to last 95 minutes and I expect him to address that matter. If Adkins continues as he has done then it would be no surprise for him to go after 10 games but if we see the improvement I am all for giving him plenty of time. It is no easy matter to find a manager to get you out of such a position, another getting them to sign. I would prefer writing the season off and letting Adkins start again in the Championship than go down the fat Sam route.