Saint Fan CaM

Bright start for Saints.

Come on you saints!!!!

Anyone care to post up the team sheet?

Agree - I reckon you're right. I just hope we get a win tonight just to set a course for the rest of the season. Will do a lot for morale among the team and indeed the supporters.

Oooh, Seaborne in for Martin instead of Jaidi...bait for the negative peeps?

COYS!!! That is all.

There's nothing there though - just blind links. How do you get it working?

Adkins hinted that he had been looking at players for Scunny and that there might be some continuity to those enquiries now he's at Saints...who knows?

"Pulis...Pulis...who the fook is Pulis?!"

Would be too good to be true IMO (if he's fit that is).

Really good press conference and I thought he came across very well. Will be interesting to hear him explaining a win and indeed a loss (if that happens!).

If you KNOW where to look!

Agreed - where did you hear this though? I couldn't find any info.

Sincere condolences to you and family. I've just lost my Godfather. RIP.

Perhaps that's part of the coaches strategy to knock some sense into our defenders and show them what getting fit means - play well, or you'll be replaced by our veteran Asst. Manager to show you how!

Where did you see that?

I know the players are unfit, but that's a bit harsh on Kelv saying he's got a porky double chin?!

Not a word spoken by the club regarding his position now. Despite the woeful performances under his charge, he clearly was under the impression that he was being kept on, so will he serve as a coach under Nige and Andy now? To be fair on him, that's going to be a step-down surely? Be nice to hear from the club though.

I liked what he said about being able to change tactics as necessary. However, we'll see - now is the time for action on the pitch and it's going to be extremely interesting to see how quickly and what degree he can influence the team. Good luck Nige.

We've got a squad of good players that have largely been pilfered from other clubs and come here for the money. That does not make a good team. This is the one big challenge for Adkins - get the 1st team acting like a team.

Couldn't agree more with this...good post.

Should have expected that I guess! (: However, Hughes thoughts on this were biased towards a long-ball game - i.e. a literal five passes - whereas I was using it to illustrate the difference between slow steady play with lots of passing and the alternative fast breaks forward with a minimal number of passes. In reality a mixture of the two is necessary, however one of the big differences between the Prem and the lower leagues is the time it takes for a defenders brain to assess how to defend an attack. The quicker the attack, the more likely it is to succeed, especially when you've got accurate strikers of the ball (i.e. unlike Puncheons effort on Saturday!).

He needs to... (a) get the team passing at pace, moving forward as a unit so that instead of taking 10 passes to lose the ball, it takes a maximum of 5 passes to place a shot on goal. (b) sort out the lack of creativity and responsibiltiy in central midfield - nearly every attack involves moving the ball out to the wings, only for a player to eventually cut-inside, rather than get to the byline or drive through the centre of defence and putting the opposition CB's under pressure. Easy on paper (screen!), however I have doubts over the ability of some of our players in being able to deliver this style of play. It may just be a lack of fitness, however I am increasingly concerned that this team does not have enough about it, which also means Adkins may need to bolster the squad with decent loanees in the 1st instance (i.e. January will be too late).

This is probably closest to the truth IMO.

Very happy that we've got a Manager now and one that appears to be very well educated and a good communicator. His record is reasonable and my only slight concern is that he will not fit in with the squad here now, meaning a lost season. However, the proof will be in the performances on the pitch and I am going to be extremely interested in seeing how he and his Assistant go about changing the mindset and tactics with the players WE are used to seeing every week. Good luck Nigel - actually let's hope luck plays no part and you're a success from the outset based purely on your abilities.