Sour Mash

Agree there are loads of positives to take from the first few games, but the season started against Man City. Every game and every goal counts, I'm sure Adkins will tell you that.

Not really a case of playing better though is it? They were class last season and look like they will be again for this one.

There was an interview with him on Saints Player end of last week. His English is fine.

Look at how unbalanced our bench looked yesterday? Mayuka, Lee, Rodriguez, Guly but no regular midfielders like Hammond or Chaplow.

I've seen enough from us to suggest we'll be alright, but the problem is many of the other teams that I thought would be struggling have looked a lot sharper than I'd expected, Wigan, WBA, Norwich. Villa look poor, but hard to pick out too many teams that look like they'll struggle. Early days yet.

Agreed, all three were very good. Really hadn't expected Ward-Prowse to step up to quite the way he has. Can't judge the other young players against him as he is ridiculously developed and composed for someone of that age, especially in a position like centre mid.

I am well aware of that. Kind of my point.

Agreed. The problem wasn't necessarily the performance of the players that came on, more the way the actual substitutions were executed. Adkins should have made one sub and then waited to see how it panned out. He changed too much in too short a period of time. How much does Adkins know about Mayuka's game? Did he really know what he was getting when he brought him on? We could have done with Chaplow or Hammond on the bench. I am a big Adkins fan, but he ballsed up yesterday and I really hope Cortese shows him a bit of patience.

Fresh legs was an obvious option, but surely you could see how badly the subs were executed? Agree re the need for extra option in midfield - our bench gave us very little in terms of options, why have Lee, Mayuka and Rodriguez on the bench - I'm not his biggest fan, but Chaplow or dare I say Hammond would surely have been an option? Agree re. Schneiderlin, absolute class he is. Fox has been average at best since we signed him, no surprise he's struggling in the Prem. The £7m we spent on Rodrigues could have gone on a solid CB, Keeper or Left Back, we'd have won today.

Adkins is paid very well to get these things right. Today he got it wrong. No point pretending otherwise. He's still a very good manager.

Thought we were excellent all told, real effort for the majority of the game, which makes it even more genuinely gutting we lost it like that. I thought our middle three - Schneiderlin, Ward-Prowse and Davis were outstanding. Davis I'd been a bit undecided on, he stepped up today. Ward-Prowse again showed how accomplished he was for a lad so young, Schneiderlin was probably my man of the match, gutted for the lad to be on the losing team; forget about his passing ability, the sheer amount of work he put in, broke up play, he was everywhere, excellent performance. Has anyone seen Vidic and Ferdinand be as absolutely bossed as they were by Lambert today? Absolutely brilliant to watch was that. Puncheon was excellent, as was Lallana. I thought out centre backs actually did pretty well all told, apart from Hooiveld's stupid tackle for the penalty. I know everyone on here loves Clyne, but I still think he's a fair way off the finished article - there is a lot of potential there, but he's on a big learning curve at the moment. Fox, I've said from a month after we bought him I don't rate the lad and nothing has changed. Comes back to my point on other threads- surely we should have invested in solid, dependable defenders and keepers in this transfer window? I know everyone enjoys the plaudits of us being plucky little Southampton, but that means f**k all at the end of the season. We'd done enough to shut that game off and should have won it. Which brings me onto Adkins - mentioned elsewhere, but one of the worst execution of substitutions I've ever seen. Badly timed. Too many in a short period. What was he expecting out of Mayuka? To do the job of Lambert? Did Adkins even know what he'd be getting out of him apart from telling him to "run around a bit"? We stopped holding up the ball, stopped keeping possession. I understand the need for fresh legs to chase and close down their build up play, but you chuck on one player and see how that works. Probably the worst 10 mins in Adkins career. Support from both sides was disappointing. From one who was at all out victories against them at the Dell in the 90s, we used to properly get the ground rocking and made a difference for those victories, just no-where near the same these days. Their lot were poor as well until the end when they got giddy with their stupid song and dance about RVP.

Not a Premier League keeper, big mistake not improving on him.

Guly had very little to do with us losing today. You do realise that starting a thread like this is like walking round town with a hat on that says 'I know nothing about football'?

I'm not Chaplow's biggest fan by a long way, but I strangely felt he'd have done a top job as a sub for the last 10mins today.

Mayuka ahead of him already though? I'll throw this out there now - Adkins signings v recent Cortese signings?

Saw him play against us last year, in pre season a bit and then for the games so far this term and I still don't really get it. Odd signing.

Imagine that money going on a proven, experienced solid Left Back, Centre Back or Goal Keeper.

Anyone else think Chaplow is angling for a move to Burnley on twitter?

He's not a 'Great' player though is he? Useful member of the squad potentially though.

Pleased with our signings overall, some really exciting potential there, but would still like to have seen a proven, solid, experienced Centre Back and possibly a left-back option.

Pleased overall with our signings. Mayuka and Ramirez are genuinely exciting. Clyne has been excellent. Davis solid and experienced. Rodriguez -jury is still out a bit for me, haven't seen enough from him yet. Wish we'd bought a solid, experienced CB though, really think that would have made a difference (a left back and keeper would have been good, but then you're getting too close to changing a whole first XI in one summer), Yoshida sounds like he has potential but not the sort to necessarily come straight in and dominate in a tough, fast paced Prem game.

Why do they hate him so much?

Not going to happen. He won't play for us again now, nor will Hammond.

He wouldn't come back would he.