With rumours persisting that Adam Lallana will be out for a long period, speculation is that Nigel Adkins will reshuffle his formation to cover his absence.

At yesterdays pre match conference ahead of the visit of Sunderland Nigel Adkins was very shy of talking about Lallana's injury almost to the point of annoyance to the journalists present, whilst of course club's have to maintain some sort of confidentiality regarding injuries, the transcript of the conference see's Adkins being very flippant about the injury and refusing to comment further other than to confirm that the player would miss Saturday's match saying

 "We're just going to say he is out for the Sunderland game and you can ask me the next question ahead of the next game."

That didnt ask the question that Saints supporters want to know and indeed this cloak of secrecy only fuels rumours that Lallana could be out for the long term.

But the absence of the Saints skipper could work to Adkins advantage as it could see him change his formation moving from a 4-5-1 line up that he doesnt seem to quite have the players to play, to a more traditional 4-4-2 and this would offer him more flexibility in whom he can select.

This would be the case especially up front where to be blunt he really only has two options under 4-5-1, that is Rickie Lambert or Jay Rodriguez, but the flexibility of playing two strikers gives him the option of playing a contrasting forward alongside Lambert.

This could bring Mayuka into contention as well as Tadanari Lee who has been frozen out since his return to injury, in truth neither has what it takes to be a lone striker and they need to play off a big man up front, it should also be noted that neither are truly wide men either not having the tracking back abilities needed.

But I dont expect either to be starting the game on Saturday, against Reading, Adkins had reverted to a 4-4-2 and i expect the only change in this line up to be similar to the one after Lallana had gone off injured with Ramirez being used out wide left.

If Adkins does go with 4-5-1, then although he could push J Rod into midfield I feel this wouldnt be the best option in terms of his ability to play the role and I think that Guly would probably come into the side to play wide left.

From a more controversial view I think that a long term injury to Lallana might actually be of benefit to Saints in the New Year in that it will force the manager to make a change that he has been loathe to do for some reason and that is play a defensively minded player to cover the left back on the left, time after time in the early part of the season teams murdered us on our left flank due to Lallana's inability to truly defend, dont get me wrong I love Adam Lallana, he is one of our best players of recent years, but the fact of the matter is that in our 4-5-1 formation it requires the wide players to track their man back and this is just not Adam's game.

For whatever reason the manager seemed unable to address this problem, yes results have improved of late but a lot of that is down to playing lesser teams, the trip to Liverpool showed that the problem is still there with Raheem Sterling and Glen Johnson rampant down our left often two on one on Shaw.

In the next six weeks or so we are playing plenty of teams with a better ability than Liverpool to exploit this weakness and whilst Lallana seemed to be an automatic choice despite not always being the best option tactically, now Nigel Adkins might have no option but to address the situation.

However this isnt the pressing need, against Sunderland we need attacking option on the left, but after that the next three games require us to be able to defend, if we are to keep out of the top three we truly need to be able to pick up some points in games we are not expected too.

Hopefully Adam Lallana wont be out for too lon, I like most Saints fans just wish the club would be a little more open when asked fairly straightforward questions about his injury.      

Photo: Action Images

stmichael added 10:38 - Dec 21 Adam Llalana Nicks scapegoat for Dan Fox!
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Horndeansaint added 10:39 - Dec 21 Reasonable enough points Nick but was it the office party last night? A few glaring errors, the most obvious being "if we are to keep out of the TOP 3". If only.............
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SaintNick added 10:43 - Dec 21 go to a few away games Mick and you will see what I mean lol, I have no scape goats apart from those that cant defend, Ill give you that though Sterling ripped Fox apart at Anfield
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StSaint added 11:20 - Dec 21 I'm surprised you are so miffed that the club keep the status of injuries under wraps. Surely it makes perfect sense that the opposition are kept guessing as to who they will be playing. Why should we help their planning? To be honest I'm surprised that more teams don't do it.
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SaintNick added 11:28 - Dec 21 Im not against that, but to be fair with long term injuries its a bit different, if you want to play the confusing the opposition game then tell the press he is out for atwo months and then suddenly play im on boxing day, whats been said merely reinforces the feeling that its long term
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StSaint added 11:41 - Dec 21 The key here is that we don't know how long he's out for and are speculating. Mission accomplished!!
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SaintNick added 11:48 - Dec 21 When Rupert Lowe originally devised this tactic with Delgado he was rubbished, he was clearly a visionary
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StSaint added 11:51 - Dec 21 I actually didn't mind Rupert and think he did a lot of good things for us (cue widespread derision). Anyway - cheers for all of your posts this year. Despite constantly trying to pick holes in your posts, it's a good platform for debate and you make some interesting points. Merry Christmas!
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slynch added 11:51 - Dec 21 DAVIS CLYNE FONTE HOOI SHAW PUNCH SPIDER CORK RAM LAMB GULY
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SaintNick added 12:15 - Dec 21 stsaint, thanks for the kind words, I like it when people pick holes in them thats waht its all about, if i knew what i was talking about then I would be managing Brazil
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REEDYREEDOREEDZ added 12:42 - Dec 21 Maybe Adkins was being coy on Lallana because the injury isn't as bad a feared and he can spring a surprise away to Fulham or Stoke by naming Lallana in the starting line-up! Here's hoping! Anyway, from what Adkins said yesterday, he is going to utilise the squad over xmas as we're playing 4 games in 11 days. So you can expect Guly, Mayuka, Ward-Prowse and maybe even Lee to get some game time. Against Sunderland I would expect Adkins to go 4-4-2 with Ramirez on the left, Puncheon on the right and Lambert and Rodriguez up front. Same line-up as v's Reading in the 2nd half. Prob with Guly and Mayuka to come on if we're struggling to make the breakthrough.

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stmichael added 13:21 - Dec 21 Anyway - cheers for all of your posts this year. Despite constantly trying to pick holes in your posts, it's a good platform for debate and you make some interesting points. Merry Christmas! Ditto - even though you are a light weight when it comes to drinking!! By the way didnt we have some brilliant trips to Sunderland in the 80's. Do you remember 50 of us taking their main pub on match day? OK it was mid day and the kick off was at 8.00 pm but lets not let the facts get in the way of a good story.

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SaintNick added 13:33 - Dec 21 if your about on xmas eve for a drink Mick give us a call a few going out for an afternoon drink
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ExiledSupporter added 17:58 - Dec 21 I fear that NA will try to squeeze Lambert and Rodriguez into the starting team and I don't think this works, but I'm not convinced he has grasped it yet! If he doesn't then personally I would like to see Lee on the left because a) he deserves a chance and has some pace, b) Ramirez will be more influential in the centre, c) Lee is unlikely to be any less inept in defending than Lallana frequently proves to be or Guly usually turns out to be. I'm not sure that the (perhaps unintentional) implication in your article ie. that a 4-5-1 formation puts a greater responsibility for tracking back on the wide forwards than it does when a 4-4-2 formation is used, is valid. If, away from home, we play Cork, Schneiderlein and Davis across the middle parked in front of the defence and then Ramirez and, under normal circumstances, Lallana behind the striker who runs the channels (ie Rodriguez) in a 5-3-2-1 formation our chances of picking up more points away will be better. Cork and Davis would provide the necessary cover for the full backs that none of Ramires, Lallana, Guly, Lee or Manyuka or de Ridder (remember him) are apparently capable of. Of course whether it is ever possible to get fast wide men, who can cross the ball accurately and track back effectively is questionable; and if they exist would be very costly by virtue of their rarity. Nick, who are these players in the Prem who meet these criteria...I'm not sure that I can readily identify them?

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