Nigel Adkins has a nice problem to deal with.

The old adage in football is that you dont change a winning side, however it could be said that in today's modern game of big squads and tactical battles, thats an outdated view.

But whatever the rights and wrongs of that footballing cliche, Nigel Adkins having won his opening three League games now has to take a long ard look at his team for Saturday's game against Millwall, he has of course actually broken the "Winning team " rule, putting in Dan Seabourne in place of Arron Martin after the opening day win, and switching these two again must be a big thought on his mind, as good as Seabourne was at Barnsley he was bad at Portman Road and Adkins has to ponder this one long and hard, assuming of course he doesnt make a signing before the weekend.

But he has several other decisions to make, perhaps the biggest is at left back, Dan Hardings supporters will point out that he has made a good start to the season and i wouldnt deny that, but we have signed Dan Fox for a reason and Adkins now has to decide whether to trust his own judgement, in certain ways the manager is on a hiding to nothing, if he keeps in Harding and he has a stinker then many will say that he should have put Fox in, and simiarly if he plays Fox anything less than a man of the match performance from the ex Burnley man will prompt some to say he shouldnt have replaced Harding.

Winning teams do get changed and shrewd footballing brains know that the reason teams keep winning is that the manager doesnt allow them to rest on their laurels, he spots where a player needs to be changed whether its a tactical decision for the one game or a more permanent change. Sometimes the easiest thing is to do nothing, but thats what sorts out the men from the boys.

Last week i spoke of how the key to Saints season will be how Nigel Adkins deals with certain situations and obviously team selection is one of them, of course I have my view on what he should do in my opinion, but that is exactly that only my opinion and its Nigel who has to live or die by his decision, the point I am making is at this time none of us know what the right choice will be, but one of us, ie Nigel has to make that call, its perhaps a position he hasnt been in too much before, but with a squad chomping at the bit comes dilemas like this.  

He wont always get it right, no manager does, but its the ones that get it right more often than they get it wrong that get the success, Sir Alex Ferguson might not be a popular figure amongst football fans and many will say that anyone could have taken United to the levels thay are now at with the money they have had to spend, but its a lot more than money, Sir Alex has rebuilt that United side more times than I can count and each time they have come back as strong as before, thats because he knows when players need to be replaced, perhaps a long time before the fans do and he is not frightened to make difficult decisions in replacing them, if Nigel Adkins can learn those lessons then he will have a long and succesful career in the upper reaches of the footballing tiers rather than being another journeyman lower league boss.   

Photo: Action Images

bstokesaint added 13:09 - Aug 18 I couldn't really comment on Fox because I've never seen him play, but squad rotation is important in a long season. You can't just give fringe players action in cup games, especially when those fringe players are as good as ours. I wouldn't make wholesale changes and unsettle a winning team, but just keep everyone involved. I can't see that Schneiderlin and Barnard will enjoy sitting out of the first team for too long. At the back there are a number of options available too. We are about to see what NA is made of.

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saintBob added 13:49 - Aug 18 I think if Dan Fox gets a start on Saturday, the fans will give him time to settle but of course he will be under pressure to perform, which is what they all are given the competition for places. It's said that when a team is playing with confidence and has the winning mentality then the players will want to play all the time and tiredness isn't a problem. Adkins has won three promotions albeit from league 1 and one of those through the play-offs. Also he has been through relegation. He has a better quality team than he had a Scunny and it seems to me that he knows how he's going to use the squad. I think he will bring back Aaron Martin in Place of Seaborne as the only change and we may not see Fox start until the next round of the Carling Cup. I believe Barnard and Jaidi are still not fit. It will be interesting though to see what happens if we slip up against either Milwall or Leicester. Let's hope not though, and keep this winning run going!

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legod7 added 15:37 - Aug 18 Nick, I do hope you are very glad that the best left back we have has extended his stay at the club by a further 2 years. If that is not a statement of intent to Danny Fox I do not know what is. Looks as if that puts Ryan Dickson down the pecking order now. As for NA buying players then putting them straight into the team, this has only happened so far with Jack Cork.The other players he has bought,namely Forte, Chaplow and de Ridder have only so far had places on the bench with Chaplow only playing towards the end of last season because of injuries. So with 3 wins out of 3 I cannot see there being much change to the line-up for Saturday.

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SaintNick added 18:31 - Aug 18 Legod a couple of things, I doubt if any of us have really seen Fox play, so we arent in a position to say whether he is better than Harding or not, but taking the emotion out of it, isnt it a bit strange for a club to spend £2 million on a left back and then extend the man he has been bought to replace's contract, one of them is going to be twiddling their thumbs . Chaplow did originally play when he arrived on loan and he plunged Stephens another loanee straight in as well and the same with N guessan, who then barely played after, so the reality is up till this season he did tend to play new players more than not. As I said a good manager will not just pick a side because it won its last game, he will spot what needs to be done and make the right selections

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