Insider: Plymouth Argyle looking for winning formula at Portsmouth

However, what has been different is most of the new recruits are younger players from Premier League clubs such as Arsenal, Everton and Manchester City.

Rather than taking experienced players from the lower leagues, the Pilgrims have gone with younger men, so perhaps unsurprisingly are having mixed results with them.

Some have done well, some haven't. And the problem is Adams is clearly trying to find a settled team but hasn't been able to do that yet.

Last season he employed a 4-3-3 and in the second half of the campaign it worked a treat, yet it didn't really work at the start of this term and he has tried a couple of different formations since.

Graham Carey, Ryan Taylor and Ruben Lameiras were the front trio which did really well.

However, against Millwall in the Carabao Cup, Carey and Taylor were on the bench and Lameiras not even in the 18-man squad.

They have gone from being the attacking focus to out of the side '“ and it feels as though this team is in a bit of a flux, trying to find the right system and combination.

Enduring a bad start to the season has happened before. It's not ideal and last season they recovered and managed to turn it around.

But the Pilgrims have not been able to put in a 75-minute performance, let alone a 90-minute one.

They were beaten 5-1 by Peterborough last Saturday, which is obviously a bad result but it was a weird match.

Adams' men had 59 per cent of the play, 22 goal attempts compared to the visitors' 11 and 10 corners compared to their five. Yet they were beaten 5-1.

They made some bad defensive mistakes and it has been a funny old start to the season, they haven't got going at all.

The manager is highly regarded at the club and signed a five-year contract in the summer, giving him the title of head of football as well as manager.

Adams is now Mr Football at Home Park.

He has an overview of the first team, reserves and academy '“ basically he has an input into any football decision.

The Plymouth board rate the job he has done.