Southampton FC are a club that is no stranger to the odd heavy defeat or two over the last 50 years or so, but surely the Red Devils defeat to Liverpool at Anfield on Sunday was a bigger thrashing than either of our recent two debacles given the size of Manchester United, will Saints get the backlash.

When Saints went down 9-0 at Old Trafford a couple of years ago there were extenuating circumstances, an injury crisis that saw two youngsters in the starting line up and a bench made up of two goalkeepers, one senior player and 6 youngsters.

If that wasn't bad enough we were down to 10 men after only a minute after Alexandre Jankewitz was sent off, if that wasn't bad enough in the 86th minute with the score only at a mere 6-0 we had Jan Bednarek sent off by Mike Dean and with even the man he fouled telling the ref he hadn't been touched and the VAR people saying that Dean had to review his red card, the hapless referee became just about the only ref in history not to go with the review and change his decision, meaning that we went 7-0 down from the resulting penalty and with only 9 men conceded 2 more.

But Manchester united had no extenuating circumstances at Anfield, in fact they were on a high, 7 days earlier they had beaten Newcastle to win their first trophy in 6 years when they beat Saints 3-2 at Wembley also in the league Cup final, followed that up by despatching West ham in the FA Cup to reach the last 8 and in the week leading up to the game it was being hailed from all quarters that United were back to winning ways and that the last few years of Liverpool of Liverpool domination in this rivalry were about to end.

At Anfield they would confirm this by a fine win !

But the reality was quite different, instead of ending Liverpool's era they plunged to their joint biggest defeat in their history and at the home of perhaps their biggest rivals of the past 50 years.

Unlike Saints who after their defeat at Old Trafford had to bite their lips and go to the next League game at Newcastle with another bench packed full of youngsters, United have the luxury of a full squad to pick from and the luxury of playing in front of a crowd baying for a reaction against the 2nd bottom team in the Premier League.

It is not looking good for Saints and at this stage it is worrying to think which way the game will go next Sunday.

However their is one chink of light and that is Saints will not be the first opponents that United will play after the Anfield debacle, that honour falls to Real Betis on Thursday evening, where they host Real Betis in the Europa League in the first leg of the latest round which will see them compete for a place in the Quarter Finals.

So the hope for Saints is they get the backlash from the Liverpool game out of their systems against the Spanish side.

Indeed Saints take on United sandwiched between the two legs and will hope that the United focus will be on the Europa League where should they win it they will get into the Champions league next season, although in fairness Unites should qualify through the Premier League, although the Anfield rout perhaps ended any lingering hopes they had of a storming end of the season and overtaking Arsenal & Manchester City.

So although this is not a great time for Saints to travel to Old Trafford, it is not the end of the world, in truth this season we have been better on the road and as shown at Chelsea, sitting back and going on the break is perhaps our best tactics, we can stifle the opposition and then use the pace of the likes of Kamaleen Sulemana & Charly Alcatraz to catch them on the break.

The worry of a backlash will still be in the back of Southampton supporters minds, but we can go up there with a little more confidence than we would have done only 3 weeks ago, there is no expectation to get anything up there, all we initially want is to not be embarrassed, however you never know, backlash's often take more time to materialise than a team would like.

Photo: Action Images

andoverpedro added 10:59 - Mar 7 i think all us realists know there is a back lash coming , but hopefully just like many years ago when fergies team lost 5-0 at newcastle came to saints the following week expected to hammer the saints but they lost 6-3 so you never know miracles can happen .
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ItchenNorth added 11:07 - Mar 7 Complete joke. Ten Hag OUT he's taken the club as far as he can.
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Jesus_02 added 11:10 - Mar 7 The 9-0 had lots of extenuating circumstances , including Jan Bednarek. I know he cares, I know he is a senior player but why we brought him back in the first place is beyond me. I just about accepted that he may have be a decent back up due to injuries but why he has become a regular starter is beyond me. I think sometimes I am watching a different game. Lets hope we don't get an OG .

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A1079 added 11:57 - Mar 7 I am dreading the game at Man U. I think we will reap a backlash and whilst a defeat would not have been a surprise anyway, we can ill afford a big loss which will add to our already parlous goal difference. Difficult to know how we play the game. Clearly we need to keep it tight, very tight, but equally if all we do is try and defend with no outlet, then sooner or later we will crack.

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SanMarco added 12:56 - Mar 7 Such 'backlashes' are difficult to quantify. We were expecting to lose at Old Trafford before the events of Sunday and we still are now. I don't see that much has changed. If we defend like we did in the first 20 mins against Leicester then it won't be a backlash as much as a well-deserved heavy defeat. A narrowish defeat to not trounce our goal difference any further + a hard-working (and non-error-strewn) performance would probably satisfy most of us. Of course a sensational win would be rather nice but I fear it is a little bit unlikely! Interesting that we have the 2 exact 9-0 fixtures in a row. My attempt at optimism: we did well enough in the first leg and we are overdue a draw...

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Colburn added 16:33 - Mar 7 We also had Kayne Ramsay at RB.. Martial cheated and we conceded 9 because of that.. I don't care what happens on Sunday as long as we are together and fight. And actually Utd are a bit dodgy now for top 4 and it looks easier on paper to qualify through winning the Europa league. It wasn't long ago that Leeds gave utd a tough game by pressing them high, the blueprint is there, Utd still struggle to play through this system. I think we can get a point if we are tactically smart.

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underweststand added 08:47 - Mar 8 Whilst your headline poses an interesting (if obvious) question Nick, there may be a better answer AFTER United play Real Betis in the Europa League game on Thursday. Older fans still hold grudges against MU - over a long period of time, and so there was a feeling of deep satisfaction when I looked at Liverpool's 5-0 lead, deep into the second half, and asked myself - why should it stop there?, and then came another answer to prayer, with Liverpool's final demolition of United with their worst-ever defeat ... .....AND they finished with all 11 men still on the pitch, but to no avail. One assumes that United fielded their strongest side in the fixture, and we may wonder - what line-up they will field for Thursday's fixture? , with our fixture just 3 days later. We know European football is the minimum requirement for United managers - given their (admitted) European glories in their now fast forgotten past under Alex Ferguson. A convincing win against Betis may signal that MU are "back to normal", and that the Liverpool result was merely another embarrassing blip in their already mediocre season. Anything less than a convincing win should be a boost to Saints' confidence and that a 3 point return on Saturday would be worth 10 points in confidence for Selles and his team. Saints are often held in some sort of contempt by the big teams, who willingly buy our best talents, whilst considering us as annoying interlopers in "their" Premier League. A defeat for United on Saturday would deeply undermine their manager's position and he wouldn't be the first United manager to get the push after a defeat by a Saints side. NOTE for those who may have missed it, see HIGHLIGHTS LIverpool 7 Man.United 0 on You Tube ....Oh... I did enjoy writing that ....

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highfield49 added 09:29 - Mar 8 Interesting fixtures this weekend when all of the relegation threatened clubs won't be too optimistic of gaining points. Bournemouth v Liverpool, Everton v Brentford, Leeds v Brighton, Leicester v Chelsea, Spurs v Forest, Palace v Man City, Spam v Villa, Saudis v Wolves so all isn't doom and gloom at Utd. I wonder how many Bournemouth fans are looking forward to three points against Liverpool? Everton playing our upcoming opponents, Leicester facing a revived Chelsea and, recently winless, Palace taking on City, so damage limitation all round. Whilst there could be a backlash from Utd it isn't guaranteed so let's be positive and add to their misery if possible.

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