What will Ronald Koeman have up his sleeve this weekend as his Saints side take on Sunderland at St , with the Dutchman you can never be sure until the team is announced.
Last seasons four meetings with Sunderland in hindsight defined the season, the first just over a year ago saw Saints struggle and only equalise in the final minute and was perhaps an indication of things to come as we found out early on that we had no plan B.
The second meeting came in the Capital One cup and was the first indication that Pochettino had absolutely no interest in a cup run for his side.
The two meetings after Christmas saw a League meeting that again showed that once we got a two goal lead, sides knew that we didn’t have the game plan to change tact and concentrate on not giving goals away and protecting the lead.
The FA cup game up at the Stadium Of Light was perhaps the first time that some Saints supporters started to question whether Mauricio Pochettino was the great manager some had claimed or whether he was just a one trick pony.
That is one insult that cannot be thrown at Ronald Koeman, already in his Saints career he has shown that not only can he pick sides to suit the game he wishes to play against the opposition, but he can adapt throughout the game itself as the game progresses.
So what will he have up his sleeve this week for the visit of the Mackems ? Will he feel the need to lock down the centre of the midfield and therefore play Wanyama or will he feel a more passing game is in order and perhaps restore Jack Cork to the starting line up.
One thing is for sure he likes to keep the opposition guessing and that is no bad thing, last term we were too rigid and not at all adaptable and that was reflected in our results where we beat teams with worse players and struggled against those with better, yes I know that sounds a little obvious, but it does show that tactically we could not change games, that is certainly not the case under Koeman and on Saturday his team have the opportunity to exact a little revenge on Sunderland for the results last term as we take another step towards restoring this club to its former glories.