SAINTS boss Nigel Adkins defended his decision to change formation for the defeat at Carlisle.

Having picked up some good results using various adaptations of a 4-4-2 system, Adkins switched to 4-5-1 at Brunton Park.

Rickie Lambert ploughed a lone furrow up front, with Adam Lallana and Alex Chamberlain out wide.

Dean Hammond was the holding midfielder, while Richard Chaplow and Morgan Schneiderlin ahead of him were given licence to break forward.

But Adkins drew some criticism for the switch after Saints fell to a 3-2 defeat – which leaves them in tenth place, two points off sixth and four back of second.

However, the manager insisted it was the correct decision and said he had made the change because he hadn’t been happy with Saints’ level of performance on the road in recent weeks.

“The last two performances away from home (at Huddersfield and Notts County), for me, have not been good enough,” said Adkins.

“We’ve allowed the opposition far too much dominance of the ball.

“We’ve come away to a team who like to get the ball forward to the big centre forward and get the bits and pieces off that.

“You have to make sure that, one, you dominated the first ball and, two, you landed on the second ball to then go and counter-attack them and go the other way.

“There’s more than one different way to play football.”

Adkins also stressed that Saints must be able to adopt different styles and formations if they want to progress up through the leagues.

“If you look at that formation you’ll probably find that all the top teams, i.e. Chelsea, Man United, Man City and Arsenal, play the same formation as that.

“It’s a forward five where you’re moving people around to create space.

“We’ve got to be good at doing that, because, if we go to the next level, teams are good at doing that.

“More and more teams do it more often.

“We can’t just be able to play one style of football.

“Just because you’ve won the previous games doesn’t mean you stay with the same formation.”

Adkins believed that the system had, in essence, worked.

It was, he argued, individual errors and poor finishing that had cost them.

“We did create chances, but didn’t put the ball in the back of the net,” said Adkins.

“Defensively we gave poor goals away.

“Take them away and we probably win that game."

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