WHO PICKS THE TEAM??

A poster on the Echo website tonight says.....

"We are doomed and MLT's words in the week were echoed by NA's post match interview, ie he doesn't pick the team."

Am I reading this wrong or has NA admitted he doesn't pick the team??

From what I read he indicated the club decided, Cortese and Reed in my view, to play 4 3 3 throughout the club at all levels, concept being anyone being brought through could then easily fit into the team and style, the southampton way!

Fine as a concept reality is different you have to use the players you have and for 433 to work you need a rock solid back 4, 2 industrious big ball winning midfield players who can run for 90 minutes (toure type) and the 3 up front have also to track back. We dont have that in our squad so no wonder we are struggling.

Adkins does however I believe pick the team, cannot believe he is told dont pick Lambert or to sub him, similarly his choice to use Guly and not pick Chaplow. If he is being overuled on formation then go out with some pride, pick the shape you want and if someone else at the club doesnt like it tell them to stick it, might get the sack but will anyhow playing a system the players are not good enough for.

It's like groundhog day with this bloody football club, it really is. You think that, with the demise of Lowe and Co, administration and new people coming in - not just new owners, chairman, etc, but new management and different playing staff - things would have changed but it seems that the same ugly problems of the past have returned. Weren't there rumours of Lowe interefereing with training and dictating how things need to be done? Lowe thought he knew better, which is why I think Strachan ultimately walked. I fear the same might - I say might as it is just conjecture at this point - be happening now. That said, I have a feeling that it is Reed who is the malign influence, not so much Cortese. I think that Cortese lets Reed get on with it.

What is it with Saints? If I was superstitious I'd be thinking that curses were at work.

Unfortunately football clubs attract egotistical individuals, it must be that feeling of potential hero worship they crave. There arent many clubs with decent chairmen, would you want Sullivan and Gold at Spam?Yanks run Utd Abramovich sacks at a whim.

Thing with cortese though is not his money but he is the link to the Liebherr money, Suspect he is one of the top paid CEs in Premiership and also will be hard to get him out without a big pay off. Reid is for me one of the real problems, far to much influence over the way the club is run, a yes man for Cortese and has never actually achieved much himself in the game, a failed manager which is always dangerous when in such a position of influence.

I agree, I think Les Reed is the problem. He is in charge of recruitment and, to be fair, Nigel has been reported as saying he wanted defenders but Reed, for one reason or another, did not recruit any. I do not for one moment believe than Saints chased a load of targets yet none wanted to come; if Saints are so lacking in attractiveness how, then, did they manage to convince Gaston Ramirez to come here, a player who, by all accounts, half of Europe would like to sign?

Reed was a failed manager and, for some reason, has been landed on Saints. There is a lot of conjecture flying about but I think Cortese delegates to Reed the day-to-day running of the football side of things (i.e a sort of 'Director of Football' role) and Reed oversees what happens. I think it is Reed, not Cortese, who is dictating terms.

Anyway, no matter who is in charge, I am fed up with various Saints regimes thinking they can reinvent the wheel. Lowe tried it, hiring Clive Woodward and we all know how well that went. The 'Southampton Way' and sticking to a 4-3-3 is not working and is not going to work; we are a newly-promoted Championship side which does NOT have the players to make it work. Thinking we are the English Barcelona is a load of arrogant crap and while Nigel et al stubbornly cling to that ethos, we will continue to lose games and ship an average of three goals each time.

I would like to see Nigel get a bit more backbone and say look 433 isnt working with this squad at the moment, need to get some wins so picking what I think we are comfortable with, 442 at home maybe a bit different away from home to make defence more solid. Once we get to jan may be able to bring in more players which will help us go to the 433 formation which longer term is the aim.

Put Cortese, if it is him, on the spot and see if he sacks him. What I dont quite understand is Adkins will get the sack if results dont change, playing 433 means they wont change so he will get the sack. Doing it his way and being open might tempt them to sack him but guarantee they won't if we start winning.