CAN MANCHESTER UNITED BE SAINTS' FIRST PREMIERSHIP SCALP???

What do you think? For some reason I am feeling a bit more confident than I did before the Wigan match......hope it's a good sign!!

I'm not feeling at all confident, despite ManU's abysmal record down here. But at work this morning I overheard two plastic Mancs (both southerners) predicting they'll slaughter us 7-0. My reaction was 'Bloody plastic mancs, don't forget you have a dismal record here'.

If it wasnt for Van Persie I would fancy our chances but he is a different class. Would prefer Guly doesnt start and go with a bit of bite, Chaplow to play out on right and with Clyne take on Raphael. Plenty of crosses please to test their goalie, great at shot stopping but cannot deal with crosses. Play to our strengths give Rickie the servcie and will be okay though think will be a draw.

Hope the players will be looking over their shoulders at the 3 new guys who will be available for next game and raise their game

There's no getting away from it, we need points and quickly. We're already playing catch up and the season's three games old (inc. today's matches). WHU have won 3-0 against Fulham in the early kick off and the only other team apart from us who are on 0 points are Aston Villa. People can say that three from the first four games (Man C, Man U, Arsenal) are kind of 'bonus' okay to lose games but this is crap, especially as we lost against Wigan, who are a poor side but a poor side who taught Saints a football lesson. I know they are top teams but we should be able to compete not shrug our shoulders and say 'Oh well'.

Got a weird feeling that tomorrow could produce the shock result of the season so far. Maybe 3-0 to Saints, 2 goals for Lambert and 1 for Rodriguez?

I hope so Mike. Still think a draw but we will have Ramirez, Mayuka, Yoshi in plus Cork back so will be a stronger outfit. One more defender and think will be okay but do need points on the door soon which is why even 1 point today would be fine for me. We will beat wigan at their place.

Saints team: K. Davis, Clyne, Fonte, Hooiveld, Fox, Ward-Prowse, Schneiderlin, S. Davis, Puncheon, Lallana (c), Lambert
Saints substitutes: Gazzaniga (GK), Rodriguez, Lee, Guly, Richardson, Mayuka, Seaborne

Man U team: Lindegaard, Rafael, Ferdinand, Vidic (c), Evra, Valencia, Carrick, Cleverley, Kagawa, Welbeck, Van Persie
Man U substitutes: De Gea (GK), Evans, Giggs, Chicharito, Nani, Scholes, Powell

Come on Saints!

Almost. But that defence is a f*cking nightmare, they will get us relegated. They have GOT TO BE REPLACED during next transfer window.

Bottom of the league. No points, only team with zero points. Really pissed off. We should NOT have lost, Nigel's subs, plus the keeper and defence lost us that.

Biggest blame rests at Adkins door. No one at the game could believe his substitutions. Heard him on Solent on way back about looking to bring in some energy! Lambert was causing ferdinand and Vidic problems all game plus always adds height to our defence. Adam was roaming all over and causing real problems, Puncheon and I am not a fan had a cracking game. I could understand taking off Puncheon due to being knackered but Rickie and Adam?

Then he puts Mayuka in as centre forward and plays Rodrigues out wide left. What on earth was he thinking?? Why no Chaplow on the bench, the type of midfield palyer (Hammond was our other) who can come on and close down a game. Wanted energy? we had the duracell bunny , Tadarni Lee on the bench bring him on. Poor decison making which cost us today and may well cost Adkins in the future.

Think Adkins position was always going to be a bit iffy due to relationship with Cortese is now on very thin ice. My complaint with him in Championship was always liked to be to clever and this I am afraid was obvious again today. Talk about learning lessons is rubbish this is nothing to do with the Premiership quite simply in any division, even non league you dont sub your best 3 players.

Shame that this has taken the gloss over a good performance but again showed how we need to improve the defence and only one of our new signings is a defender and will presumably replace Fonte who was at fault for the winner. 8 goals in 3 games is pretty obvious and also suggests the formation, 433 may create chances but leaves the defence exposed and they are not good enough.

In addition to Puncheon who probably had his best game for saints Schneiderlin had a good game as did Davis and Ward Prowse. Rickie took his goal and battered Ferdinand, Adam was creative Hooveild was okay at the back, Fox was again a weak link, he does try but is always a yard off the pace and he knows it so has no confidence in getting forward. Cline needs some new boots as he slipped to allow first goal and slipped on several occassiosn, our pitch is proving slippy so Adkins if so clever how about insisting they wear boots where the players dont fall over!

If anyone can work out the logic Adkins was using for his sub descions please let me and Cortese know!

I couldn't believe it when Lambert and Puncheon then a bit later Lallana were subbed. That changed the game and was incomprehensible.

It's three games in but the table makes painful reading, as we're the only team in the division with 0 points and are rock bottom. Adkins made a smart-arse comment during his post-match interview about being the strongest team in the league as we're propping it up. That was not funny and far too flippant, in my opinion, given our start to the season. We need to get something at Arsenal, even a point will do. I am not panicking yet but Saints need to start getting points and soon.

I heard his comment and wasnt amused and doubt cortese will see the funny side. Alright being Mr Nice Guy but we should have had at least 2 points by now based on how we have played and the manager will be judged on how many points we have not how nice he is or the ability to crack a joke, otherwise we would have Michael McIntyre as manager!

2-1 up vs. City I felt Saints would lose, 2-1 up vs. United I felt Saints would win it....... feel absolutely gutted. Watching on Sky, it seemed the midfield trio of Schneiderlin, Davis and Ward-Prowse were brilliant, and up front Puncheon, Lambert and Lallana all played well.

I agree that the substitutions made no sense and can have done NA no good at all if he is hoping to keep his job for any length of time.

I thought Mayuka showed a couple of useful touches and it was good to see him involved but I can't remember a single worthwhile thing done by either Guly or Rodriguez. In fact I have seen very little so far from Rodriguez to show why we spent out so much for him.......... we could have had Buttner and another good defender or keeper with that money.

Beginning to wonder how much patience NC is going to have with Nigel, but worried that a change of manager mid-season could be disastrous.

well the rodrigues thing is weird. he has played a centre forward for Burnley, their top scorer last 2 seasons we paid 6.5m for him then play him wide left? Adkins said he wanted to pit his height againt a small defender . what good that would do out wide other than win some throw ins! Makes no sense whatsoever and having made a poor decsion to take off Rickie to then play the most obvious replacement out wide is madness, in my view.

He said Guly worked his socks off, well he hardly touched the ball and Adkins and assisitant at one stage were screaming at him to track back.

Changing managers is not good as continuity does help in the long run but Adkins has got to get out of his head some of the theories and stick to the basics, i.e. dont play players out of position Rodrigues is a centre forward

Any idea how near to ready Shaw is? Might be worth giving the boy his chance?

Changing managers isn't the answer, Saints have tried that before, notably in the disastrous 2004/05 Premier League season, and look where that ended up.

As for Guly, I've never been in the outright anti-Guly camp but I am changing my mind. That bloke is a passenger and bringing him on was a mistake.

From a United website.....

If the Saints can play like that, with that intensity on a regular basis, they’ll be ok. Their problem may well be that it’s easy to get themselves ‘up’ for bigger games as shown by their poor result at home to Wigan. In Rickie Lambert they have a striker who a bit like Grant Holt last year will cause problems as something of an unknown to a lot of defences. Maybe they’ll be disappointed not to have tested Anders Lindegaard a bit more – they didn’t always convert pressure into chances.

The player who notably caught the eye was Adam Lallana. He was forever busy and never standing still. Good on the ball but better off the ball he made things tick over for Southampton and is one player who could even get an England call up some time this season if he carries on like that. Importantly, his work ethic appears good – he chased down United’s midfielders and performed an important team role. A special mention as well to Jason Puncheon who supplied a few very good crosses during the game.

In truth, United probably would have been lucky to get a point. Sloppy performances should be and usually is punished at the top level. The gloss of the win mustn’t deceive – this should have been a defeat and Ferguson will have hopefully dished out the infamous hairdryer treatment.

The final word must go to Ferguson, on his 1000th league game it was his substitutions that changed the game for United and ultimately turned a deserved defeat into a stunning and typical Ferugson-era late win.

I think that report is pretty much spot on. Saints, as we've seen in the first three games, can get themselves 'well up' for games against the likes of Man U and Man C, etc, but it's the Wigans, Stokes and Swanseas of this world who concern me.

From a Saints perspective I wish Scholes had stayed bloody well retired! But, reading reports all round the net which back up my initial thoughts from yesterday evening, it's the disastrous defending and questionable subs which cost Saints. What on earth was Nigel thinking? No new CBs in the window (Fonte and Hooiveld need replacing in the next transfer window or it'll be back to playing the likes of Brighton and Derby again. Although the Championship is a good league) and those subs yesterday were a joke. Also, Saints - and they have been guilty of this many, many times over the years, must realise that a match lasts for at least 94 minutes these days. Rare is the occasion when there is no added time - and, bearing in mind it was Man Yoo, we got Fergie time - I know the devious old bastard was pointing at his watch at least once towards the end of the game.

While I said in my previous post that changing managers is not the answer (Ferguson is a great example, he was one game from the sack during his first year or two in charge but turned it round and look what happened there) but it's not down to us, the fans, Cortese's in charge and I don't think that he is an individual blessed with a lot of patience. Any more f*ck ups like yesterday - and not to mention cocky unamusing quips about being the 'strongest team in the league' - and Adkins will be on thin ice.

hard to say if Shaw is ready as havent seen him and Fox isnt that bad just struggling against better opposition. Think would be a bit of a gamble, Cline makes mistakes only to be accepted but Richardson would be pilloried if he did.

What we lack is a dominant centre half not just for marking his own player but leading the defence. dont think we have that in our Japanese signing.

Think Adkins probably deserves 12 games as for all we know he may have been jumping up and down for centre halfs but bids might not have been accepted plus we spent so much time on ramierez deal. By 12 games he would have the new players and we will see if he has been able to learn from his mistakes.

We all know Cortese is not patient and as Nostro says will be his decision alone what happens. If NA gets some results a point at Arsenal followed by win against Villa then the confidence will come through, two defeats and if he will ever get 12 games.