Its no coincidence that Saints four match unbeaten run icluding two crucial away draws at our rivals has happened as Nigel Adkins has got back to basics.

In essence footballers are quite simple people, like anyone they are not great fans of constant change, they like things to be crystal clear and whilst they know that managers of football teams have to sometimes make tactical changes from game to game, they like to know that if they play well, then they will keep their place in the line up.

The problem was that we lost this continuity back in November, an injury to David Connolly meant that Guly had to be pushed up front and whilst initially Richard Chaplow did a sterling job, his injury plunged us into a little bit of tactical uncertainty, many would agree that his decisions to play all three of our fit central midfield players in hindsight just didnt work, we lost the width that we needed, it wasnt a real surprise that he tried it, but it was baffling that he persevered with this formation for so long, especially when he did have other options to hand.

In recent weeks though we have stopped the practice and with players now available to play there including Guly himself, Jason Puncheon and the returning Richard Chaplow, we now have tried and tested players for this troublesome right sided position.

Now we have some parity restored to the midfield, we can now start to get back to winning ways and build on these past four games, games where we have once again started to look back to our old selves.

Nigel Adkins can now keep the basis of his side together and more importantly keep it's shape knowing that coming off the bench he has players of the same quality that he has on the pitch, when you look at the bench at West Ham it had options in all areas and there was still no room for Richard Chaplow, I would say that a couple of players may well struggle to even get on the bench now, especially with some of our youngsters coming through, Lee Holmes has already been shipped out on loan and to be blunt I cant see where Steve De Ridder, Dan Harding and Falque will fit into our plans now, except in a real injury crisis.

We now have something to build on again, we have come through a tricky four game period in which we played three of our promotion rivals, two of them away from home and we remained unbeaten, that was a big plus, but it will mean nothing unless we push on and make an unbeaten run a winning streak.

Photo: Action Images

Whatsforpud added 16:55 - Feb 15 Interesting to note that for the second game running, and I think for the third time this season, we went into a game without a sub keeper. This certainly gives the manager more tactical options during the match, as a sub keeper is never used tactically. To be logical, what excuse could Adkins give for bringing Bialkowski back to the bench, as he couldn't possible know when Davis is likely to be injured, unless of course he was carrying an injury into a match.

0

birminghamsaint added 20:56 - Feb 15 I must say it worries me having no keeper on the bench. It only takes a mistimed tackle by Kelvin playing in his 'sweeper' role and he could be red carded. Do we have anyone decent who would go in goal in that case? 4 outfield subs should be more than enough. I don't think the potential damage to our goal difference is worth the risk.
0

Olley added 07:46 - Feb 16 I think we all agree playing our best 11 [those in form] & in the their right position is the only way to be real promotion hopefuls. I believe the last 4 games have been promising [excluding the FA Cup], therefore we need to make 3 points on Sat at home & make the Hammers feel the pressure to get points from their games in hand, also to keep the distance from those looking to get into the automatic promotion positions, COYRS

0

bstokesaint added 12:14 - Feb 16 It worries me too that we could pick up an injury/ red card to Kelvin during the game, especially if it happened early on in a game. It could end up in a mauling and ruin a season of good work in the goal difference department. I think we have good balance now. We are considerably overweight in terms of personnel available on the right side of midfield, but that's not a problem for the team. It just means those players have to work harder to get picked. I can't see Falque playing again, not through any fault of his own - you can't be accurately assessed in the minutes he has completed on the pitch. I still think Steve de Ridder has more to offer though. He always creates things when he comes on. His most difficult challenge is getting into a position where he can prove that. The games against Reading and Coventry are great examples of what he can do.

0

Blogs 32 bloggers

Derby County Polls