With only one win in our last eight games its time to get another three points on the board before we get dragged back into the bottom three.
A month or so ago Saints appeared to have dragged themselves out of the mire, however a series of games were points have been thrown away due to dodgy defending and errors has seen the clubs below us haul us back into view, so much so that we really have to get a win on the board and fast, the problem for us though is that with our next two home games being the in form Liverpool and then Chelsea its hard to see where that win will come from.
Liverpool arrive at St Mary's as the form team in the Premier League, at the turn of the year many people were writing them off as a force in English football, however in the last ten games they have won six, drew two ( Man City & Arsenal away) and lost only two, a 2-1 defeat at Old Trafford being no disgrace leaving only a 2-0 reverse at home to West Brom as the only blip on their fixture list in those ten games.
They have moved from mid table to fifth in the league, suddenly a Europa Lague place is there to be played for and they still have an outside chance and to be fair it is outside of getting into a Champions league spot.
So they come South knowing that in the words of Nicola Cortese, "if they aim for the moon they will at least get the stars" in simple terms keep winning and they will get something out of this season and with only Chelsea to play in the teams above them, they know that a barnstorming end of the season is very much in their hands.
Our only consolation in all of the above is that they are going to have a big say in who goes up and who goes down, they also have to visit Aston Villa next time out after St Mary's and also have trips to Reading and Newcastle, at home they have to entertain West Ham and QPR on the final day, our job is to beat them on Saturday and give them even more of an incentive to win those games, Steven Gerrard has spoken of Liverpool being capable of winning ten out of ten, lets make it nine out of nine after their trip to Saints.
It wont be easy though, as mentioned they are the form team and with a couple of much needed attacking options in the January window they are starting to pick up momentum, Luis Suarez is without a doubt one of the best strikers in the Premier league, if not THE best and they play to his strengths, which sadly are probabaly our weakness's, they are good at gettng the ball quickly up to Suarez on the break and Gerrard can hit a ball long range with potent accuracy.
But they do have an achilles heal and its this we need to exploit, defensively they are still not all there, without Reine in goal they are also vunerable and truthfully they still have to rely too much on Gerrard and Suarez at present, in short they are a work in progress this season and can be caught out.
The job for Saints will be to take their chances and make sure that the errors of recent weeks are cut out, with Suarez you cant give him a sniff at goal.
So this is a winnable game for Saints, perhaps the key for us will be Rickie Lambert, at Anfield he didnt play and that will gall him being such a big Liverpool fan, he will be desperate to make amends and score, not to mention that his drought at home has to end sometime.
Truth of the matter and sadly im doomed to say this weekly till the end of the season, is that we didnt strengthen in the right areas in January and we have very much paid the price since, that being the case we dont have many options for Saturday, however I still expect to see some changes.
I fully expect to see Nathan Clyne restored to right back and Yoshida returned to the middle probably in place of Hooiveld, Liverpool arent about aerial power they are about pass and move, we need to have speed not brawn, this isnt a criticism of Hooiveld who had a decent game up at Norwich, but he isnt suited to what is needed.
In midfield I think we perhaps need to restore Davis to the centre and probably Ramirez will need to be dropped to the bench to do this, we need Davis to get in the face of Gerrard and not give him time to pick his spot or more to the point pick out Suarez.
This is a game that will show if Mauricio Pochettino is a one trick pony as some reports from Spain have suggested or if he genuinely has the tactical nous to adapt to differing situations, he has mentioned that he doesnt intend to change his system, that it will still be about pressing and out scoring the opposition, thats all well and good, but that formation does need to be changed from time to time.
I know that perhaps one of my favourite phrases is must win games, I know that annoys some who like to pedantically point out that there are still plenty of games and points left, but the fact is unless you truly are sat in mid table with nothing to play for, then every game is must win and for Saints this is a pivotal weekend, win and we will take a big leap forward and take the pressure off the next month or so, lose and we will be nervously looking over our shoulder and ruing that last minute equaliser by Wigan.
At Norwic we took a big step forward and showed that we can keep a clean sheet, we need to take a bigger step against Liverpool, not only show we can keep another clean sheet but show that we can take the lead and not only hold that lead but kill off the game.