Saint Fan CaM

No, not club captain, but he has been announced as team captain. I'm not sure what the difference is TBH, but there appears to be a difference as KD has been club captain ever since the team captaincy was given to Hammond. Always thought that was a bit of a fop to keep Kelv happy.

What about Liverpool - what's to say they have what it takes long term? They're not doing so well in relation to their squad right now are they? Ah, but they will come good I hear you say...well what's to stop us going on a run now and moving up the table? It's quite an unpredictable league this year I feel.

I'm not sure Davies is the right man - and anyway, too early for him to come into the club and immediately take the armband, even with Hammond out of the way. When I think on this more, I'm not sure we have anyone with the right credentials to lead the team. JWP might be one for the future perhaps?

Well Adkins has said people have been working very hard - not exactly the same thing. Either the money is not there, or it's been spent ill-advisedly in getting the players needed. I don't think it's Adkins fault - he said early on that they were looking at defensive positions - however perhaps Clyne and Yoshi were always the only targets.

That's kind of the point I was trying to make though - does being a good player (which Adam clearly is) make a good Captain? I'm less interested in what the Captaincy has done to him as such - more about what HE has done or is doing to influence the role of Captain and ultimately his team mates. For those who went to the Arse game - how did Adam react? Head down or did he get into his team-mates for example?

I've seen plenty of guys get promoted into team leader, supervisory or management roles because they've stuck around for a long time - been good servants. In many cases, those appointments have been wrong ones because despite their competency in their role, either they're not cut-out to be leaders (when the going gets tough), or they've not been given the right level of training and development support. One thing is for sure, when backs are against walls, you need a strong Captain. Is Adam the right material to be team Captain? I note from some reports of the Arse game that he had a bad game - is it coincidence that things went from bad to worse? When I hear him talk, while I love his devotion to Saints, he doesn't strike me as particularly motivational. Don't get me wrong - I am not blaming Adam for anything...more so, I wonder whether his appointment is an example of a poor decision at managerial level. Did anyone actually honestly think Adam would be given the Captaincy? When we think back to our most successful periods in the past, who were the Captains in the team at the time and did they all have similar traits and personalities? Discuss.

I think the biggest problem we face now is raising the morale in the squad. They've been used to winning games - lots of games - and now they probably feel like they're nowhere near good enough for any Prem team. There's only one thing we can do to assist and that's make a lot of noise at SMS come Saturday. I do hope there will be no barracking of players or booing - they need the utmost support now more than ever.

I like that, although I'm not sure Mayuka will start ahead of Puncheon. Not only that, I might put JayRod on to start instead of Lambert as he has the pace to get up and down a bit quicker. If he's not doing it, then bring Lambert on. Only other issue is whether Richardson will be on the bench - otherwise we have no senior defenders to call on if someone gets injured or we need an experienced head (Cork is not the answer).

Well I do think that Davis is not up to the mark now, however in Gazza we do not yet have an answer, so we need to make sure our play is such that we do not bring undue pressure on the defence and KD. That means the midfield needs to press MUCH more than than they did against Arse.

Rubbish. We were set-up to dominate midfield, however our midfielders went missing, sat back for the entire 1st half and presented the defence with a real problem, because Arse are a very good fast and accurate passing side. Even when we did attack we were pedestrian in midfield. Adkins also has to take some blame setting the team up in a way that appeared to think we could out-play Arse at their own game. So no, sorry - on this occasion the defence were not really to blame.

Not worried yet and will not be until after the Villa game if we lose. Even then I will not be too worried as there will still be time, however if by the end of November we still don't have any points then alarms bells will start to sound and I also think that NC will be considering his options carefully. As someone else has said, you don't spend £30m to expect to drop out of this division. The one big issue for me is Adkins, rather than individual players. I am sensing that he's the one that has not adjusted yet and this is typified by (a) the defeat to Wigan at SMS, but mostly (b) yesterdays drubbing which was largely caused in my opinion by our midfield sitting back too much in the 1st half and not taking the game to them. We gave them FAR too much room and time to play the ball. We thought we could mix it with the Arse at their own game (because we beat them on pens in the Leibherr cup!?!?) and we got found out. In short what the hell is the point of a massively expensive mid-forward line of players if you're not going to set-out to be very attack minded but instead play deep? NUTS!

I struggle to see how Gazza would have kept any of those goals out TBH, so Davis does not deserve to be whipping boy. Simple fact is we came up too quick - not enough time to form a Prem team AND retain squad unity at the same time.

Absolutely this. The question is why is this happening? We've shown them far too much respect IMO - so is this the players or is it the Manager telling them to do this? One thing's for sure, it's pointless playing 4-5-1 (which is what went on out there in the 1st half) if you don't USE the midfield to nullify the play.

Calm down dears. It was clear the first 3-4 games were going to be extremely difficult - so stay with the program and try to enjoy the next chapter in our history.

Do we really have the players to effectively nullify the attackers that the top four clubs have for 90mins? I really don't think we have yet - I think all the Managers of the top 4 sides would have the same problems Adkins is facing. Sacking him would just make things worse - perhaps there's a few here that don't remember the last time we were in the Prem with a revolving door policy.

10-12 hours?

You might be right, but I wouldn't be so sure. If he's doing that well for us, I can see Cortese having the will power to keep him at the club I suspect. Same could apply to all our gifted players. I don't think Cortese will want us to be seen as the whipping boys for the 'big clubs'.

Is it just me - I just can't seem to get these sites to work. Many links need you to download betting site programs it seems. Do I just need Sopcast for the Arse game?

Got to say - for once - I am delighted with the TV moves so far. Otherwise I would have missed 3 games!

So they're running the risk of the streaming police eh? You sure about that? If so, might pop down.

Not one to normally moan about this kind of thing, but I have to agree it is a quite poor experience and not Premier League standard really.

Gotta say that is superb news - well done Adam.

Absolutely this - best post so far on this thread. Apart from this one of course.... [ahem]

I have no idea what this means, but I think I like it.

I look forward to the day when I can go to SMS and be confident that, barring an utter disaster, I will leave the ground talking about the fantastic, strong, leak-proof defence we've got! One can only dream! LOL