Southampton match thread sponsored by Trevor Morley's head

[Mike Hunt]

The decision to sack Brian has been justified to be the wrong one - 0-1 1-4 and 0-2 - Poor old Brian - he really could not have done any worse. Sideways move by the club that frankly beggers belief!

Come on man. Adkins needs to work with what is here. There is only so much you can polish a turd.

[TBM]

The decision to sack Brian has been justified to be the wrong one - 0-1 1-4 and 0-2 - Poor old Brian - he really could not have done any worse. Sideways move by the club that frankly beggers belief!

Were you expecting it to just suddenly change over night with the same players?!

[Millsy]

The decision to sack Brian has been justified to be the wrong one - 0-1 1-4 and 0-2 - Poor old Brian - he really could not have done any worse. Sideways move by the club that frankly beggers belief!

I love Brian and didn't want him sacked but you can't judge Adkins in two performances where he's clearly trying to learn about his squad.

[Ouroboros]

The decision to sack Brian has been justified to be the wrong one - 0-1 1-4 and 0-2 - Poor old Brian - he really could not have done any worse. Sideways move by the club that frankly beggers belief!

You're complaining that Adkins failed to stop us losing at Old Trafford, 10 days before he was appointed?

Tough crowd.

[Haag Royal]

[quote="Rax"]The decision to sack Brian has been justified to be the wrong one - 0-1 1-4 and 0-2 - Poor old Brian - he really could not have done any worse. Sideways move by the club that frankly beggers belief!


Utter rubbish. No one let alone Adkins or even Fergie could have done much more with that shower of a team today. And as for the Captain that BmD chose then that says it all.

[Biscuit_Boy]

The decision to sack Brian has been justified to be the wrong one - 0-1 1-4 and 0-2 - Poor old Brian - he really could not have done any worse. Sideways move by the club that frankly beggers belief!

So, do you think if Nigel had been in charge at the beginning of the season, he'd have looked at our squad and said 'these are good enough to survive in the Premier league'? I don't think so, but Brian did, and he's left us with one of WORST squads in Premier league history. That's why he had to go.

[holsgrove breaks a leg]

If only we could fast forward to June. A real deflating end to the season which smacks of 97/98 - and the recovery then didnt exactly go to plan. Hopefully we can get in a mixture of players that are both 'game changers' and mobile and energetic. I cant think of a Reading season that has contained so few players who i barely hold any excitement towards bar a fit Kebe and a starved of service Alfie. The whole midfield needs a complete refit next season and whilst their is room to hide in the championship I am not confident in any one of our rb/lb's-none offer any support in attack. When we bought Gunter he hadnt exactly been part of a then progressive Forest side-finishing what 18th? It will be an interesting position in the summer, do we (or more to the point does Adkins) really believe the majority of the squad are still capable of a top 6 finish thus resulting in a minimal amount of summer arrivals say 3 or 4, or will there be a complete sea change and introduction of 8-9 new players pre season?. The trouble i have is that both contain contain risks considering where we are as a club - keeping faith with too many ala Mcdermott could restrict what Adkins wants to implement in his first full season and too many changes requires spot on management to get that squad cohesion up and running.

[Ian Royal]

Well after a very promising 30 mins we reverted to self-defeating hoofball and wide open defending. Guthrie was excellent when we played decent football and utterly anonymous when we hoofed. Alf got littlr service and fluffed his one real chance. Even then it ws a game of tiny margins. A slightly different view from the ref or a less well timed challenge and we get a pen. A braver federici or the throw given the right way or kelly not heading into danger and we don't go in one down. A less alert boruc and it's over the line.

Hrk was good. Morrison promising. Karacan has just been so poor.

Adkins has a lot of work to do.

[holsgrove breaks a leg]

If only we could fast forward to June. A real deflating end to the season which smacks of 97/98 - and the recovery then didnt exactly go to plan. Hopefully we can get in a mixture of players that are both 'game changers' and mobile and energetic. I cant think of a Reading season that has contained so few players who i barely hold any excitement towards bar a fit Kebe and a starved of service Alfie. The whole midfield needs a complete refit next season and whilst their is room to hide in the championship I am not confident in any one of our rb/lb's-none offer any support in attack. When we bought Gunter he hadnt exactly been part of a then Forest side-finishing what 18th? It will be an interesting position in the summer, do we (or more to the point does Adkins) really believe the majority of the squad are still capable of a top 6 finish thus resulting in a minimal amount of summer arrivals say 3 or 4, or will there be a complete sea change and introduction of 8-9 new players pre season?. The trouble i have is that both contain contain risks considering where we are as a club - keeping faith with too many ala Mcdermott could restrict what Adkins wants to implement in his first full season and too many changes requires spot on management to get that squad cohesion up and running.

[Y21]

The decision to sack Brian has been justified to be the wrong one - 0-1 1-4 and 0-2 - Poor old Brian - he really could not have done any worse. Sideways move by the club that frankly beggers belief!

What a load of old toss that is! Brian was sacked for failing to improve the squad to make us competitive. I've no doubt BMD could have lost those three games as well, but at least we have someone in charge who has no reason to be loyal to these players and may actually move some of the deadwood on. The real test will be the squad lining up for next season. If there are too many familiar faces and no new quality, then we can question the sacking.

[Royal Monk]

Adkins turned Southampton into a pretty good team , which could be seen today. I cant wait for him to cast aside the crap players we have and rebuild the team, if we end up anything like Southampton then we might have a good chance of going up and staying up.

[TommyF]

I have now come around to Antons way of thinking. As successful as Brian was last season it was hardly great to watch. More of the same this season.

Ok, Brian would again be well placed to get us back up again but I don't think his style was progressing and we would never become established.

If Nige cal get us more like the Saints then this change of direction will be justified

[ScottishRoyal]

Mariappa not tracking back and losing his man who then slots the ball into the net. Mariappa has been shite recently. That's 2 new CB's to add to the shopping list over the summer.

Mariappa went in for the challenge but itwas Ledge that didn't then pick up the runner.

[Big Ern]

The decision to sack Brian has been justified to be the wrong one - 0-1 1-4 and 0-2 - Poor old Brian - he really could not have done any worse. Sideways move by the club that frankly beggers belief!

I think today fully justified the decision to sack him. Absolutely no quality in the squad and players who can't pass the ball. Brian assembled one of the worst teams to ever play in the Prem, and this squad that Adkins is trying to work with is all Brian's.

Also, the 0-1 against Man Utd...come on. Adkins wasn't in charge then

[soggy biscuit]

Never seen so much hit & hope

Hoooooooooooooooooof!!

[Big Ern]

I have now come around to Antons way of thinking. As successful as Brian was last season it was hardly great to watch. More of the same this season.

Ok, Brian would again be well placed to get us back up again but I don't think his style was progressing and we would never become established.

If Nige cal get us more like the Saints then this change of direction will be justified

It was clear for all to see the difference between what Nigel wants to achieve and what he is having to work with. 2 sides, one an Adkins side, the other a long ball hoof ball team lacking quality all over the pitch. Hopefully Southamptons performance is a glimpse as to what to expect in the future.

[howser]

The first 30-40 mins we played some decent stuff, looked like a week with Adkins had got through to the players the value of passing the ball, however we go a goal down, heads go down and the rest, as they say, is history !! all the bull earlier that sacking Mcdermott was wrong, for god sake get over it it's done, happened, don't spend the rest of this season looking back. we would have done no better if he had still been there today.

The team we have until the end of the season was McDermotts, full of players not good enough to grace the Premiership, a matter which most on here could see last November, two awful transfer windows adding players who have made little or no impact, well as they are generally from the lower leagues they are hardly likely to !

We have totally disrespected the quality required to stay in the Premiership, thinking we could stay up there with a team full of slightly above average championship players, we have reaped exactly what we have sewed and have earnt the right to be returned to the Championship due to our historical and stupid transfer policy.

I suspect that is about to change !!

[windermere_royal]

If Nigel didn`t know that task he had before then he certainly does now. we are down, use the rest of this forgetable season to experiment with some of the youngsters , as said before he build the side that played us off the park today, I`m hoping its a glimpse into the future.

[windermere_royal]

The first 30-40 mins we played some decent stuff, looked like a week with Adkins had got through to the players the value of passing the ball, however we go a goal down, heads go down and the rest, as they say, is history !! all the bull earlier that sacking Mcdermott was wrong, for god sake get over it it's done, happened, don't spend the rest of this season looking back. we would have done no better if he had still been there today.

The team we have until the end of the season was McDermotts, full of players not good enough to grace the Premiership, a matter which most on here could see last November, two awful transfer windows adding players who have made little or no impact, well as they are generally from the lower leagues they are hardly likely to !

We have totally disrespected the quality required to stay in the Premiership, thinking we could stay up there with a team full of slightly above average championship players, we have reaped exactly what we have sewed and have earnt the right to be returned to the Championship due to our historical and stupid transfer policy.

I suspect that is about to change !!

Good post, agree with every word

[RoyalBlue]

The decision to sack Brian has been justified to be the wrong one - 0-1 1-4 and 0-2 - Poor old Brian - he really could not have done any worse. Sideways move by the club that frankly beggers belief!

Come on man. Adkins needs to work with what is here. There is only so much you can polish a turd.

Absolutely. Today showed without any doubt at all that McDermott's sacking was fully justified, in fact he probably should have gone earlier. Today proved that the squad McDermott assembled is nowhere near good enough for the PL. Last season we had the 'best team' but the two clubs who went up with us had far better footballers. Then those other clubs invested sensibly to add some other really good players to their squads. McDermott completely failed to recognise that having the 'best team' would not work in the PL and failed to add the quality players that were needed.

And before people claim McDermott was denied funds or that 'everyone at the club decided enough had been done during the summer', he was the manager, he had to have the prime say in deciding whether enough quality had been added. If he didn't believe that was the case, then he should have fought his corner, if necessary offering his resignation and speaking out publically(he ended up getting sacked anyway).