Clifford Nelson

The obsession about formation continues to haunt us. I didn't see us play 4-5-1 last night, but 4-3-3. Problem being that Papa is a right sided player who probably has never played on the left, and Antonio has probably never played anywhere else but wide right in a rigid 4-4-2. With the additional lack of creative midfield spark it became a shambles. In the second half Saga mostly ended up playing in the middle. Poor Gillett has lost his confidence, but maybe AP has spotted something as well, which is why he hasn't played him. It was much easier to shine last year by just being industrious. I would be surprised if we have seen the last of him, but some team will pick him up and I wish him luck. Antonio might have choked at the experience, but he didn't look good. What the whole team missed was a spark, something to drive them on. Hammond tried to provide it, Papa scored goals, Lambert fought wholeheartedly, Harding did his bit again and James had one of his better games, but none of them provide that bit of something which brings the team up another level. How we missed Lallana! I never thought I'd say that. He becomes a problem when we try to think a rigid 4-4-2, because his skills don't fit any of the roles. On the left of a more flexible 4-3-3 he can provide everything he has got in his locker, including providing cover for Harding, who clearly enjoy working with him. A genius move by AP. It has solved a perennial problem for the team who couldn't score from open play. Now we've scored 7 in 3 games, including yesterday when we played badly. Finally we found a way for round pegs to fit round holes. We get so many attacking options so that the opposition doesn't know how to defend against it. As soon as we "get another striker to join Lambert" we are back to square one. We haven't got any wingers to play 4-4-2, and we have excluded our primary creative player. Lambert didn't look isolated against Bristol or Gillingham, on the contrary, he was surrounded at all times and seemed to love it. 4-3-3 suits the players we have got at the moment, which is rather an incentive for AP to acquire more players who are adept at playing it. It is also flexible enough to turn into 4-5-1 in tough away games and when we're defending a lead. I think we'd better get used to it. If we develop a couple of pacy wingers with good crossing ability, because I don't know where you can buy them from anymore, then it's time to look again. But more important than the system is the pegs and holes scenario.

I'm delighted that there are more people than me who realises that a large number of surplus players can't be "shipped out", "sold" or "lent" because nobody wants them. Who would want a player who can't even get on to the fringes of a L1 team? It is a large expense to look at, but I can't see any other option but to pay off their contracts. Having them on the training ground daily doesn't contribute towards the kind of attitudes needed for a properly competitive team. And, indeed, now we can see that last year's squad was shocking. Some of our best players were sold, but do we really think that we would improve if we could bring back McGoldrick?

Yes, it's as if they can accept that we were playing 4-3-3. And then I read that Papa Waigo spent most of the time on the left. This is worrying. Is it the beer at SMS?

4-3-3 is an offensive plan which doesn't rely on wingers. If you play them they need to be flexible and take responsibility for getting into the box as well as staying wide and delivering crosses. It needs skilful players either way. Last year, just like you point out, we didn't have the skill and experience to do more than to make it look pretty at times. Efficient it wasn't. I am impressed by AP to have entered that way of thinking when it had turned into an anathema for the club. Memories of Portvliet and the nameless chairman comes to mind. This time it worked. It gave Lallana the freedom to express himself, Lambert a feeling of not being alone and for Papa Waigo it must have been like Italy all over again. He didn't have a problem with it which I had expected him to have playing RM in a 4-4-2. Mellis as well seemed to feel that he had something to contribute and Hammond thrived. Wotton did the best job he has ever done for us. I loved it and hope to see us become confident in playing it. The flexibility it affords us is to play 4-5-1 away from home or when we want to shut up shop.

I don't agree and I hope AP doesn't blow the chance of using it to help honing the ideas he started putting into practice against Bristol by stuffing the team full of youngsters. Give Holmes a start, maybe, and Lallana a rest, which will tell him how dependent we really are on him. Rest Mellis and give Gillet a start and possibly also a starting birth for Perry who has not done anything wrong. But use the game wisely.

I agree that this is not the finished article, but the last two performances showed a lot about what the potential of the squad is. It is the irony that balance was provided by returning to the formation which was reviled because it was introduced by a foreign manager and a hated chairman. My assertion was that 4-3-3 needs more skilful and experienced players than we had last year. I appear to have been right. Hooray! I like being right. Regarding Wotton, I hope that he shut one or two detractors up. I don't think he deserved the flak he got earlier on in the season. He didn't come here to be a world beater, but to do a competitive job. I'm delighted to declare that he just did.

You're right that Wotton isn't a ball player. MS is much better at that, although I'm not yet sure how good he is really. What Wotton provided yesterday was quiet authority, total commitment and dead simple balls out of defence. I think it was just what was required, and maybe it showed his vocal detractors from earlier in the season that he is a valuable player for us.

Against Bristol he was left totally unprotected against both a winger and a fullback and sometimes a midfielder as well. Mellis failed him entirely. Every fullback needs protection and yesterday Lallana provided it.

Something has just dawned on me. I used to play on the wing (OK it was a long time ago) and I would have hated to be up against a full back like Harding. He reminds me of a hungry yard dog who clamps on to your backside or ankle and refuse to let go. He's great.

I agree on both counts, but this is one better than "building a team around Lallana". Left hand side of a three man attack, which can become a five man midfield away from home, fitted him like a glove. He can run, pass, get into the box and come back to defend and help building the attacks, all from that position. What is the genius, though, is that the system doesn't need replacing if he can't play. Holmes can play there, so could probably Mills, without it changing our shape substantially, as long as it is an attack minded player who can take his defensive duties seriously. Schneiderlin is one player who hasn't convinced me yet. Wotton did great yesterday, MS is another type of player entirely.

I was delighted with the win, but also with the quality of the football. With others I have been whingeing a it about not playing really wide and pacy players in a 4-4-2 formation. In one discussion I thought about the difficulties in accommodate somebody like Lallana into that shape and hesitated whether I would dare to mention the disgraced 4-3-3 promoted by a chap from Holland, who knew nothing about football, and a former chairman who must remain nameless. I could see the virtues in allowing Lallana to develop his skills, but I couldn't get my head around it properly. One or two has realised what happened in the last week, but it hasn't become a proper discussion, which is surprising. WE PLAYED 4-3-3!!! Alright, effectively 4-1-2-3, but that is a variant of the same, and it worked. Papa Waigo is obviously used to, like most in the italian league, playing that formation and Lallana now could come fully into his own going forward and still provide protection for Harding. Hammond and Mellis could provide real attacking options from the centre of midfield, and Wotton didn't put much of a foot wrong in protecting the back four. I am still to be convinced about Mellis, who doesn't seem to thing that he will have to defend anything and happily leaves that to others, but I don't feel much like being critical. I enjoyed the game. AP has obviously drawn his own conclusions: We haven't got two naturally pacy wingers to play with, so what do we do instead? We play 4-3-3, which can be converted to 4-5-1 when we're away from home. Let's worry about playing wingers when, and if, we have any to play, and instead use the players we've got to their best advantage. This way we didn't even look especially slow. At last, it feels, we have a proper foundation to build from. AP was looking for a team identity. Maybe some of the answer lies here. Hard working, passing and attacking team who will develop an uncompromising defense. It will do me.

I think he is trying to prove something, such as that a football club can break even and still be competitive if it is run well and the investments are commensurate with the level of football played and the support for the club from supporters, advertising and business. I hope he is right. It certainly feels more solid than the fly-by-night owners of other clubs.

I can see your point from the experience of british and arab businessmen not foing anything without the hope of a return. ML has got a fortune of two and thre quarters BILLION!!! He bought this club for £12M, so why would he have to look for a profit. This is a hobby. A way of making many people happy for trying to do things in the right way rather than to throw money at it like drunken sailors. He doesn't need to be adored by the tabloid press or drooled over by the footballing pundits. He can try to prove a point and do things right. God bless him and we are the lucky buggers to have him as an owner and not a dodgy chap who has to invent academic titles to make himself feel important.

Not that I object to more strikers in the club, but is that the problem? Lambert has scored six and Lallana 4, both of which is very respectable. It is nil from Saga, nil from Hammond (a proven goal scorer) and nil everywhere else. We can by striker after striker, but the problem is width, pace and runs from midfield.

The offense worked, the defense didn't. Have they got anything to do with each other? Of course they do! And how to make the two interact with each other in such a way so that we score at the same time as we are not letting goals in. AP needs to get that balance right with wide players able to attack but still providing support to the fullbacks. That didn't work at all on Tuesday and two of Bristol's goals came from the left side. Am I envious of AP for having to make these judgements. No, I don't think so.

I was watching the best football I have seen in years at SMS and was very proud of what our team could do against wone of the top sides. Still we scored two and didn't win, and let in three at home. In here lies one of the difficulties with team selection. You always have to come up with a compromise, and for the ones of us who have been managing teams in the past, boys, amateurs or pros doesn't matter. IT IS ALWAYS A COMPROMISE. We seem to have gone out against Bristol attacking them mercilessly, but the very same players who could do that could not contribute to defending. Harding had a terribly unprotected time and James only better because Bristol decided to attack our left flank. AP needs to come up with the compromise which will allow us to score goals without letting them in. Easy, isn't it.

Excellent analysis. Poor Harding had no assistance all through the game and was eventually done. Where was Mills? A very poor performance from him. On the other hand, for the first 30 minutes we were running rings around them, which was a joy to see. If we score two goals at home, that should be a certain win, and we should never concede three. A rotten defensive performance where their forward players pulled our defence to pieces and Harding was roasted alive. Trotman and Jaidi just about coped, but the left side was responsible for at least two of their goals. I understand that it was similar against Carlisle, although there the opposition concentrated on James. Just as much as going forward and crossing the ball, wide midfielders must help in protecting the fullbacks.

Where our team is right now I wouldn't suggest tinkering with any systems. We are only just turning our age old fragilities into a more robust team, but we are far from there yet. There is a little bit too much tinkering going on as it is by keeping moving Lallana and James from position to position to accommodate subs. Those two should equally have firm positions and be subbed like for like. Maybe towards the end of the season if we are reasonably safe but with no chance of promotion AP could look at different ways of doing things, but in my experience the "system", whatever it is, means nothing unless you have the players who can be comfortable in it. We are not within miles of trying new things. I'm all for a bit of boredom at the moment and to eke out a few wins. That would be a welcome novelty.

There are still a few important cogs missing for AP to put out a really competitive team. We still need wide players with pace and somebody in midfield together with Hammond who will give him the confidence to get himself into the box. He is a proven goalscorer, so is Lambert and so is Saga. About Waigo we know virtually nothing.

Isn't it strange though that for a player who has been here for years, and is now 22 years old and ought to established and enter the prime of his career, this club hasn't got a clue what is his best position. What on earth have they been doing over the years? Mellis has got some decent technique, but has poor pace and hasn't got the character to go out there and make things happen. Believe me, that is in his personality and will never substantially change. He is one of our problems, not a solution. I am decidedly underwhelmed by Schneiderlin as well, which I have stated elsewhere. Many thinks his passing ability is remarkable, which I've never seen, but one thing is certain: He is no late runner into the box.

Overall I have got confidence in the manager, yes. As I was very clear about what my concerns are, and that there are very few alternatives in team selection. I am certainly not going to join the rather moronic criticism of the manager. AP joined at a very difficult time, inheriting a team he knew little or nothing about. He has already sorted our defensive frailties and has improved our character. He can't turn middling players into pacy wingers with talent for putting in crosses, so I think he will have to buy them. Of course I'm not happy with our win ratio, but these are early days, and if anything it shows that we were even worse when AP took over than probably both you and I thought at the time, although I can remember only wanting to retain three players from last year, KD and Gillett were two of them. But from there to start moaning and groaning about the manager? I don't think so.

I am now fully persuaded, Derry, but I would like to add James to the sentiment as soon as we've got a RB back fit. That leaves Schneiderlin who, however many times I watch him, cannot convince me that he has a future in this team.

James has played more at RM and CM then he has played RB this season. If Murty or Thomas is fit then James will just play elsewhere. Sadly more often than not RM with Lallana LM. That has killed any hope of pace and width and crosses into the box unless you count the ones from thirty yards out.

Well, bugger that, I'll say it anyway! Out of last years team there is only Kelvin that I'm really grateful for. And, by the way, your not entirely right about the non-laying staff. Stewart Henderson is still here and he has managed to follow whatever leads a succession of managers have been giving. He has a lot of responsibility for the lack of character which AP found here by fostering a non-competitive spirit amongst the younger players in the reserve side.

After having been a defender of Lallana and somewhat less so of James I am now coming around to that the two of them are a problem rather than a help. If they are to be kept on to play the full 90 regardless, then there is no room in midfield for wingers, at least not when Thomas or Murty are fit. And keeping them on at every substitution by moving them around the pitch is not helping the balance of the team. I'm not a fan of Schneiderlin either and must be the only one who has never once spotted his brilliance. All three are threatening to become holy cows, when maybe it should be acknowledged that this club needs to buy both pace, which isn't here at all, and crossing ablility, which is in terribly short supply. Then Hammond needs a new partner in midfield to at least start threatening again in the box. We actually have several goalscorers here of proven ability, and as soon as they arrive to the club they stop scoring. It isn't something in the Southampton water. Derry is right in banging on about width and pace because these are the missing ingredience in what could become a tasty cake.