After a end to the transfer windows that saw only outgoings, Saints now need to refocus back on what has proved successful so far.
Mauriccio Pochettino is known for playing a system and making it work, however he is not used to having money to spend and big egos to keep happy, the three high profile arrivals in the recent transfer windows will give him a headache that although he will be glad to have could mean he might take his eye off just what has made him successful as a manager in the place and that is the system that he plays.
The problem is now though that he still doesn't have the players that he perhaps would have liked to have played that system and by that I mean true wide men, what he does have though are four players in Lambert, Osvaldo, Lallana and Rodriguez who are attacking minded players and the temptations will be to accommodate them. In a formation.
There are those that will point to the fact that Osvaldo was used in a wide position at Romania, that is true but that was a completely different style and formation that. Pochettino knows and loves.
So does he now try and keep everyone happy or does he stick to what he knows and trusts, ic he does then that means choosing between Lambert and Osvaldo for the lone striking role and as difficult as it might be keeping one on the bench, if he does that then he will be sticking to his guns and how he knows how go play, if he tries to switch to accommodate it could be a recipe for disaster and many a club has found to its cost that spending big doesn't mean success unless you buy wisely and more importantly use those players properly.
It's early days yet so no conclusions can be drawn but if we are to ensure that we are keeping moving forward then we need to make sure that we dont change just for change sake, we brought in Pochettino for a reason and that reason was how he put out his teams, if we don't give him the right players but ask him to change the habit of a lifetime is that good?
I would say not and in an extreme situation could mean yet another change in manager, don't get me wrong I like MoPo, but you can draw comparisons with David Moyes, questions are being asked about him at United due to him being in a completely different type of management than he was at Everton, can he succeed after changing his style? This could be the question we as a club will be asking of Maurricio Pochettino.