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Saints V Hull City The Verdict
Saints V Hull City The Verdict
Wednesday, 30th Nov 2011 09:43

All the problems mentioned in Yesterday's preview came to haunt Nigel Adkins.

In some respects Nigel Adkins went for the predictable against Hull City in trying to solve his midfield dilemma, but he found that three central midfield players into four doesnt add up to a side with width, with that in mind you could also see why he brought in Harding and rested Fox, he hoped that this would perhaps add pace down the wing, but unfortunately it was the wrong wing and Fraser Richardson pushing forward on the other flank only added to our defensive frailties which once again surfaced.

For the first half Saints looked very disjointed and couldnt seem to find any rythym whatsoever, Hull playing a crisp passing game were finding it easy to cut through us and it was lucky for us that it was only one goal down at the break.

Second half Adkins introduced Steve De Ridder and his arrival unsettled the visitors, in truth we werent really creating anymore chances, De Ridder for all his running delivered little and always seemed to want one touch too many, but his speed helped unerve Hull and make space for Richardson.

The game was changed in the first ten minutes of the second half when just about the only two crosses of any accuracy where met with just about the only two pieces of clinical finishing (OK three if you include Guly's first effort) outside of these two pieces of play though and it was mainly huff and puff.

From a minus point of vierw, Nigel got it wrong with his first half team tactics and selections, Saints have done well with the fact in Richardson and Fox they have two full backs who can go forward and deliver accurate crosses, with the abscence of width this was perhaps needed more than ever, if harding was meant to get down the line and deliver, he certainly didnt and this lack of service from both sides being unbalanced instead of just one, meant that our front two got little service and were left fighting for scraps meaning they both had relatively poor games.

Second half was better but only just, we ran about a bit more but didnt create much more than the first half, I made a point last week about signing Lucas Jutkiewicz and having no options in the way we play if Rickie is out injured or off form, this came home to roost last night, in fairness to the manager he did try to change patterns late in the game by taking off Lambert and bringing on Barnard with 20 minutes left, but we still struggled.

According to the stats we enjoyed 70% possession, that being the case to only get six chances on target was appalling, two of them came when Guly scored the first goal, perhaps that highlights the lack of accurate service our forwards got, they werent missing chances, they just werent getting good balls to work with. 

On the plus side, we still won a game in which we played badly and against one of the better sides in the Championship, teams will always have dodgy spells, no matter what division or standard, in this league what wins you promotion is your ability to play through those spells and keep getting points and last night we did that.           

Photo: Action Images



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LostBoys added 10:14 - Nov 30
Agreed but the problem last night was that the 'opportunities' that there were fell to Guly and Lallana. Guly had at least three headers around the 6 yard box and missed all of them and his goal came after he hit the goalkeeper first time with a shot inside the box. I think the oppositin have sussed Lallana and his 'switching back' movement ended in losing the ball in promising positions. That having been said Hull were the best passing side seen at st Marys for a long time and looked good with their 30% possession.
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patred added 10:25 - Nov 30
I don't think our balance will be restored until Chaplow is fit again.
Adkins 3 central midfielders into 2 is a cop out, he didn't learn from that same mistake at Bristol City. He has to make the decision as to which two central midfielders he plays and replace a wide player with someone who can play there..De Ridder is the obvious candidate ATM.
Chaplow, with his all energy game helps us to maintain some width and enables Richardson to bomb on.
Schniderlin, Cork, or Hammond cannot do the same job.
The width we lose on the right also ties up Lallana, who has to remain tight on the left touchline to maintain any pretense of width, albeit without pace, a complete waste of talent.
So, simples Adkins! choose 2 of those 3 not all 3 !!
Good that we got 3 points having said all that, but that was more to do with Hull not taking the opportunity to exploit poor team selection.
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simmo400 added 12:04 - Nov 30
Nick i find myself agreeing with you most annoying lol. We were too slow passing it about in the first half. Hull gave us a lesson in that respect and cut through us on afew occasions. 2nd half Nigel did well introducing width and then Hull had to start thinking instead of just defending the slow passes in front of them. We were slightly lucky last night and really the result after saturday was more important than the performance. If we can sort our away form this will decdrease the pressure on the home form. Barnard still a lightweight upfront im afraid, pretty clueless on holding the ball up or even winning a flick on.
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tiptop added 12:11 - Nov 30
Sorting midfield is def is the next challenge for NA.
Stnick.
Haven't we been playing without wingers all season with that midfield 4 up until this point? The players have been doing the job..until now it seems.
patred.
Sorry,not sure I understand your midfield line up..Lallana?Is it something like:
Lallana/Chaplow/Cork/De Ridder?
Could give Lallana the ball...up front in more of a free role. By bringing him to the front of the diamond is one way. But that leaves no natural width again ie.De Ridder.
3 midfielders in the diamond.I'd go: Cork/Schneidelin/Chaplow
...Or bring Lallana into offensive midfield? Thats never been done right?Something like:
Chaplow/Lallana/Hammond/Cork(or De Ridder).

head scratcher. Let me go away and think about this!
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bstokesaint added 13:18 - Nov 30
We missed Chaplow last night, massively. Agree that much with Patred. He's a different kind of midfielder from the others and we see more width with him in the side. I wouldn't go as far as to criticise NA's team selections because our success says he knows what he's doing. What I would say is that a few of our better players aren't playing to the best of their ability and that includes Lallana, arguably our most influential player. NA needs to do something to get these players looking a bit more of a threat.

One thing I've also noted recently is a real lack of shots from around the edge or just outside the box. It's like we don't feel we can score unless we literally walk the ball in. Again we have more capability in this area. I can't knock our scoring record, but against Bristol City in particular it became a bit frustrating that we weren't testing the keeper for all our build-up play.

It is good to see us pull away futher from third place. Let's forget West Ham for the moment and just concentrate first and foremost on making that automatic promotion gap as big as possible. It would be nice to have an away win on Saturday. It's a definite winnable one. COYR.
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legod7 added 13:41 - Nov 30
Why don't we resort to the type of line-up we had at the beginning of the season.Chaplow was on the bench.
Midfield Lallana , Cork, Hammond , Guly. Lambert & Connelly up front.
Now we put Barnard in place of the injured Connelly
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tiptop added 14:03 - Nov 30
Well somethings going to happen and depending on how long Chaps is out it might well be a 4-4-2 like legod7 says (with Gully or De Ridder).
Last night it was the first postmatch interview i've heard where NA didn't discuss the performance. Just the fact we got the 3 points.
He knows this could be a tough part of the campaign and one he's got to navigate. Starting with the positives.
He'll be determined to get Lallana on the ball I reckon...
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saintBob added 17:24 - Nov 30
The criticism on Barnard is a bit harsh as he's hardly had chance to get into his stride. With everything that's been said, Hull are a decent away team but they do tend to buckle under pressure. They looked like the best team we have played at home so far. De Ridder was running around like a headless chicken and needs to show some control. We put our chances away when we had to & at the right time. a typical Championship game I thought.
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