S-Clarke

Yeah, out for about 12 weeks +. Bad injury to his shoulder. Matt Taylor will come in and did a decent job though. They're a well drilled outfit, well suited to being a mid-table PL team. They're beatable, but we'll need our best players available and we'll need to learn how to defend high balls between now and the 20th.

We'd have little chance of doing anything without them in the side. Teams will still score against us even if we don't have those players in the midfield. So leaving those out puts us at a disadvantage straight away. I think we need to carry on playing on the front foot, if you start dropping the likes of Gaston or Lallana for away games then you're kind of accepting defeat.

Pretty much this. In comparison to other managers, NA has had a hell of a lot to spend over the last 3 years - and we've achieved success through it. Redknapp isn't a bad manager, but he's not the right sort of manager for us.

Dickson and Butterfield, seriously? They're not for this level, let's be honest. They would be torn a new one. Free agents is probably the only alternative change I would advocate at the moment, but if players are still free in October then they're generally not very good.

Jos got himself in a bad position. and look at Gazzaniga's reaction, he knew it was going wide as he signaled that before Jos put his foot out - only to look at Jos with disbelief. Own goals can be unlucky, but they can also come from bad positioning. Which was the case yesterday.

But who replaces him? We'd be weaker straight away.

If you're not advocating getting rid of NA, what sort of change do you want? We've got to get the best out of this squad as this is it until January, and to be honest I'm more confident with NA at the helm than someone else. In my opinion the last thing we need during this crucial 8-week period is change. A new manager would have to work with exactly the same players, but would be at a disadvantage of having to learn the entire team.

Not a great deal, but bear in mind that 70% of his time here he has been accommodated in a position which isn't his. So that goes against him, as he hasn't been able to make a great of an impact. Yesterday was his chance as a central striker, and I didn't think he did too badly. His movement and runs along the back 4 are terrific and always well timed. You can see the quality there, but I think he's still not quite sure about his surroundings. Whatever though, it's a little silly to write off a player who is only 7 games into his saints career.

Is it really embarrassing though? I can think of many more embarrassing things, and not filling up a stadium isn't high on the list. To be honest, as long as I'm there and the people around me, I couldn't give a **** if there are a few empty seats elsewhere.

He's not a captain, end of. But he has been one of our more effective attackers this season in terms of assists. But he was completely rubbish in open play yesterday, if truth be told.

Yeah it was cleared off the line, but you're right - a cleaner connection and that was a goal. (but it did come to him at a fairly odd angle to be fair)

Puncheon was rubbish in the 2nd half.

I think the real test is going to come over the next 8 or so weeks. This is now the period where we need to pick up points, wins and potentially clean sheets. Our fixture list has in many ways falsified our position in the league. If anyone else had the start we had I'd expect them to be in exactly the same position to be honest. The next 2 months will tell us all we need to know about this squad, and if it has what it really takes. I think it's too early to be stamping feet and demanding change, but one thing that we need on our side is injuries as we cannot be without our key players at this level.

What a load of garbage that post is. If you're going to make a point like this, at least make an effort to spell it correctly. Otherwise you're on a hiding to nothing, especially when you argument is as flimsy as it is anyway.

Yep, that's football for you! But for all the debate being made about the substitutions, if you actually watch the game back - they helped us change the tide of the game slightly, and Guly was excellent.

Reeves is an attacking midfielder, who was converted from a LB. To accommodate Reeves, we'd have to either put him at RB which would have been a bit of an issue - or we could have shifted Fox to RB, again - a bit of an issue. We could only play square pegs yesterday, that's the problem. I'd be a bit more comfortable with a Japanese international at RB, rather than a young player who has only ever played 10mins in the PL and is primarily an attacking midfielder.

We had no full backs on the bench though. I'm not sure what else NA could have done there.....we're being crippled by injuries and that's half the problem, well probably more than half the problem.

One of the main changes I noticed in the 2nd half was how Fulham pushed up as a unit. In the first half they stood off and allowed us the time and space to move it around. And this was the period where we should have killed the game off, most PL teams would have done so. But then with a Fully fit squad I think we would have, we just cannot afford injuries to the players that are currently injured. That's as simple as it is really. It looks like their clear instruction in the 2nd half was to get in our faces, press and deny the space. That's exactly what happened and we panicked and tried to get rid of the ball quickly, rather than taking the care that we did in the first half. Psychologically I believe this move from Fulham also pushed us deeper, and deeper and as the half went on they were more and more in our half - and the goals were coming, let's be honest. What we needed in that 2nd half was a bit of a calming influence and pace down the sides and in behind to take advantage of the gaps they were leaving behind (which there were). Unfortunately, we had neither and that's more down to the players we had available as opposed to tactics. Alot is being made of the substitutes, but we'd lost our way even with those players on the pitch. The substitutes, if anything, changed the tide slightly. I thought Guly was excellent actually.

I seriously hope that's not the case. What a ****ter if true. Going into our most ''winnable'' batch of fixtures of the season, without our best player to call upon. Brilliant.

I've mentioned elsewhere that I don't think he's a captain, and I think he should relinquish the role to someone more suited to it.

Boruc was signed as the third GK, Adkins said as much in his interview when he was signed.

I didn't even know that there were rumours going around. and couldn't this have gone in one of the many threads..?

I'm one of those who said what you stated Alpine. It's easy to see why though, some of our players are unfortunately not good enough. I'm sure this has surprised Adkins to a degree, as I thought certain players would adjust better than they have - and they deserved a crack, but alas they are very much struggling. I'm also not of the opinion that we neglected the defense in the summer, it was the area we focused most of our time on as this area brought about most of the links (GK/s, CB,s, RB's, LB's). Unfortunately we didn't seem to be able to secure who we really wanted, apart from Clyne and Yoshida. The issue you have though, is if the player you really want isn't available and the alternatives aren't quite as good - and potentially cost more what do you do? Overpay for Dann for e.g, or bide your time and wait for the other player to become available - and I'm sure this was done on the thought that some of our players would adjust better than they have. Really though, all we need is an additional LB - basically a clone of Clyne, and an absolute beast of a CB with a decent turn of pace. If I'm being ultra picky, I'd like us a right winger as well. Oh, and we need to hope that we're lucky with injuries otherwise we've got no chance.

As a change from the other debates, how impressed have people been with this kid? His distribution is as good as we were told, his shot stopping looks stunning (that save in the 2nd half today was bloody class) and he seems to have a real presence in and around the penalty area - always talking, always taking control when he can. He's had a few iffy moments, but I think his good moments outweigh those. I think he's a class keeper already.

Quite simply, No.