Saints biiggest worry at the moment is not the quality of the squad, but the team's morale after a gutless display at Arsenal.

Last season our winning start got us for to a flyer and instilled a winning mentality that a couple of blips apart, carried us through to the last weeks of the season, this season its the exact polar opposite and there are a few players in the team who appear shell shocked.

Perhaps thats why Nigel Adkins surprisingly didnt make any changes to the starting line up, perhaps he thought that with enough battered players in the side already, he didnt need to add another two or three to that number, metaphorically speaking keeping his powder dry for the coming weeks when the games should be less tougher.

The 6-1 defeat at Arsenal was our biggest loss since, well our last 6-1 defeat at Arsenal, a week of so before we were due to meet them in the FA Cup Final of 2003 and that perhaps highlights our problems and the debth of them, even in what many Saints fans would consider our worst season in living memory, 2008/09 when we were forced to play a team top heavy on youth, we never got drubbed to the levels that we did on Saturday, a couple of 4-1 defeats at Coventry and QPR were as bad as it got (Ironically Danny Fox was playing for Coventry in that game) Back then we knew we werent good enough as a team, but we did have a spirit about us that kept us in with a chance of escaping the drop until the weight of all our problems finally suffocated us.

But now the team seems to have lost that winning mentality, its lost its confidence and its lost its swagger, it seems a side that isnt comfortable in whe way its playing, it knows it hasnt the personel to play the way its being asked too, a couple of near misses against the two Manchester clubs put a little gloss on the situation, but in both those games we defended appalingly at times, we almost got away with it but we seemed to know we couldnt hold out, we have conceded 14 goals in 3 games, lets be blunt most of them have been caused by defensive frailties, even Saturday's great free kick came from a stupid foul being conceded needlessly.

The manager has to be big and bold now, the rumour is that the 4-5-1 formation is not of his doing, certainly he seems unsure of whom to play and prior to the window closing we diodnt have the personel to play it, now the manager either has to find out if our late signings can transform the team or he has to make a big statement and set up the team in a formation better suited to the players he has got.

Quite simply to play the 4-5-1 you have to have the pacy wide players to do so and they have to be of a certain quality, Ramirez will hopefully sort it out on one flank, but then the other side is a problem, bluntly we havent got anyone else with pace and quality, unless Manyuka can play as a winger and there is nothing to suggest on his profile on the offical web site that he can, then we have a problem.

Footballers are often portrayed as not being the brightest people, however on the field they know whats happening and where they are having to mend and make do.

So the next two games will point the way to whether we can repair our season or if its going to be a long cold winter, but morale and team spirit is that unmeasurable something that you cant quite place your finger on, but its definately there and the reason why the bottom clubs can beat the top ones on their day, we have to find it fast, that means Nigel Adkins leading from the front and showing the players they can have confidence in him, get some of that confidence in the players back and you are maybe not half way to getting back that morale, but certainly on the right path. 

Photo: Action Images

slynch added 10:09 - Sep 17 NC needs to employ a defensive coach, I believe Arsenal have done that recently to good effect.
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StSaint added 10:36 - Sep 17 More doom and gloom. According to your cheery offerings, the manager isn't picking the players we sign or the formation that they play in! The players aren't happy with the formation and have no confidence generally. We got promoted as a result of everyone else doing that much worse as opposed to our good play and everything good has evaporated over the course of 4 games. Please get a grip.

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SonicBoom added 11:26 - Sep 17 We won virtually every game for 2 years. Now we have lost 4 games, 3 against some of the top sides in Europe, and now we have no confidence in the system and the players have lost all confidence?
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richardmdcooper added 11:28 - Sep 17 Well said StSaint - very negative article..The first two paragraphs in particular are ridiculous..Maybe, just maybe, NA stuck with the same team that nearly got a result against Man U especially with the new players being away on international break. - Aside from Saturday, team morale seems pretty good..COYR
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SaintNick added 11:45 - Sep 17 If you were at Arsenal you would have seen a team torn apart from the kick off, you could name at least half a dozen players who were shocking and seemed to have to fight or confidence, most of the goals conceded seemed to be the result of multiple errors. There wasnt much there to be positive about to be blunt, i could just blindly say that everything is fine but it didnt look that way and we were conceding these kind of errors last season, Adkins clearly stated on several occasions that he wanted two new central defenders and a goalkeeper, we didnt get them we are paying the price now

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REEDYREEDOREEDZ added 12:12 - Sep 17 This article is way too negative. Try to keep things in perspective. Ok, so we have conceeded 14 goals in 4 games. This is awful and needs correcting. But 12 of those goals were against 3 of the best sides in Europe who all have a good chance of winning the Premiership and possibly the Champions League this year. Its all about the Villa game now. That will be a true signal of where we are at. If we conceed 2 or 3 against them then we are in big big trouble. Villa (like Wigan) don't have great attacking options so we if we are conceeding too many against teams like that then we could be cannon fodder until January. If however, the defensive problems are addressed this week and we keep a clean sheet next Saturday, and score 2 or 3 ourselves then we can suddenly be more optimistic about our chances. COYR!!

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bstokesaint added 12:32 - Sep 17 Nick, I was there on Saturday and have seen every game this season and you are being way too negative. There's no doubt Arsenal had a decent gameplan and executed it clinically. However they are a Champions League side under one of the best managers the Premiership has ever seen. A manager in fact who likes buying our players because he's so enthused with our brand of football. If we're going to concentrate on the negatives then near post strikes and our vunerability at left back against a pacy winger need to be addressed, but it's too late in the day to discuss the ifs and buts of the last transfer window, and there's little point in speculating on the tranfser policy unless there are some facts to base this on. You've said it yourself that bringing in Shaw is a risk, and doing the same with the keeper would be another risk. It's no huge surprise that NA thought this too when looking at our starting line-up. As just about every other poster has said the season will start against Villa. I appreciate your comments that a 6-1 hammering can be bad on morale, but our players should be big enough to get over this. For me NA comes across as an excellent motivator and has twice got us over the line by staying positive. He'll know more than most fans that we can only make realistic prognosis when we've played teams outside of the Champions League standings. I expect the usual taunts and "going down" comments from non-Saints fans, but then that's what you'd expect from people who haven't witnessed some of the better football we've played this season.

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SaintNick added 12:53 - Sep 17 I take some of the points, yes 14 goals is way too much and it could have been 16 but for a couple of botched penalties, Arsenal had scored only two goals in their opening three games, all against sides that havent made great starts. Just about the only reason for keeping in Kelvin at the moment is that we have no one proven to take his place and that isnt good, I didnt think Butland was the answer, but we should have got in experienced cover for Davis in case he wasnt up to it, now we are screwed, do we leave in a keeper who is clearly not up to it or do we throw in a youngster. Staying positive is a good trait, I applaud Nigel for it but thats what he is paid to do he can hardly to anything otherwise, to say the season starts with the Villa game though is to forget about the wigan fiasco

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SingaporeSaint added 15:07 - Sep 17 The wording is strong - probably a bit too strong, but there is some truth in this. This is a group of players who are not used to losing - so losing and losing heavily will likely have a psychological impact. You have to also add the two 'first team' friendlies against Ajax and Udinese that we also lost and is 6 on the spin for many of these players. Conceding 19 goals. I think a few players will need an arm round them and be told they are still good players and the defence does need coaching to instill a bit of confidence which is definitely missing. Without doubt Morale will be a bit low - we need NA do really do his job this week, some leaders to emerge (hopefully Yoshida at the back and Ramirez on the ball) and make the right decisions and put in much improved display versus Villa.

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SaintNick added 16:07 - Sep 17 I think a big problem is that there is little premier experience on the park, we aways used to have some wise heads on the field but we dont just seem to have that anymore
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robhythe added 17:00 - Sep 17 Can we stop saying the season starts against Villa!!! Its making me nervous!! lol
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Whatsforpud added 17:15 - Sep 17 Nick, you say that Adkins stated he wanted 2 CBs and a keeper, but didn't get them. Well he did get two out of three! You can't write off the new keeper, just because he is young. Lets see how he does
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thingummy added 17:28 - Sep 17 time to put a tenner on a top ten finish methinks
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landsdownsaint added 18:21 - Sep 17 Will Adkins be able to get the messages across to the likes of Yoshida on the park ? What I heard on Talkshite lastnite the bench were having nightmares getting instructions understood!
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saintstowin added 20:19 - Sep 17 we all agree that confidence, or morale, is vital for every team and no doubt ours will be taking a hit right now. but as long as we, as fans, recognise our club's fantastic achievements and keep a decent sense of perspective surely that can only help? worth trying i reckon. after morgan's goal the other day i definitely saw somw swagger and that was about 130 minutes of football ago. we have some good players and i think it's going to look that much better in a month's time.

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DJI added 08:58 - Sep 18 I agree with Nick that moral might be a problem but it is now, more important than ever, that the fans on Saturday get behind the lads to the very end. If things don't go quite okay on occasions, encourage them. At the end, don't boo the team if the result isn't what we wanted; none of us at City or Arsenal away booed the lads, we simply applauded and cheered them off the pitch. And please, don't let's see a mass exodus before the final whistle, regardless of the result at that point. The Buses still run after 5pm and if you're a few minutes late home, so what; set your Sky+ to record the X-Factor/Strictly and stay to cheer on our lads.

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