Usually the visit of Liverpool to The Dell & St Mary's was something that Saints fans looked forward to in the calendar, it was a game that often threw up a shock result for the home side, but as we go into the latest clash with the Merseyside men, there seems little hope of that this year.

Liverpool arrive at St Mary's on Sunday afternoon as Premier League leaders, with a 5 point lead over their challengers going into this weekend , whatever happens at St Mary's the Redmen will still be top, the only question being by how many points.

Their League record is the exact opposite of our own, 9 wins, 1 draw and 1 defeat.

So a look at the form guide offers no real hope of anything else that their 10th win and our 10th defeat of the season.

It seems that Saints best hope of a weekend without defeat lays in the hands of Bert, Storm Bert to be exact.

The weather system will bring heavy rain and snow, together with strong winds to large swathes of the country, perhaps it will stop the Liverpool team travelling to the South Coast and get the game called off, that is perhaps the best hope as it seems Southampton will miss the worst of Storm Bert.

But that should not mean Saints fans should stop performing rain dances or praying to whichever God that they worship whilst their is a slight chance and perhaps our only chance of stopping the Liverpool machine winning this weekend.

So if the weather doesn't come to our aid, then our chances do not look great, there is a slander hope in that Liverpool will likely be missing 4 players for the trip to St Mary's, goalkeeper Alisson Becker hasn't played for over a month and will not be fit for the game, he will be joined on the sidelines by Trent Alexander-Arnold, Diego Jota & Federico Chiesa, although the latter has not played since his debut in September, so it not a big loss.

Virgil Van Dijk is said to be fit and will return to his old stomping ground at St Mary's.

Aside from long term injuries, Saints will be missing Aaron Ramsdale & Jan Bednarek, but these are two of our better players during the debacle of a season so far, however it seems that Ryan Fraser is now fit to return as is Sulemana who had his best game for the club in the dead rubber 4-4 draw against Liverpool 18 months ago, in our final Premier League game of 2022/23.

So all the signs do not look good, leaving the only question to be answered whether Russell Martin will actually wake up and see where he is going wrong and realise that he has to adapt his tactics to suit the players he has to hand.

He did that briefly at the end of last season when he realised that Alex McCarthy cannot play with his feet and he adapted the possession football game and ultimately we were promoted because of that,

But this season he seems to have wiped that learning experience from his memory and in the opening game of the season we paid the price at Newcastle by Alex McCarthy getting caught playing along the back and messing up a simple pass to gift the only goal of the game.

So will he have learned his lesson finally or will he blindly impose his doctrine whatever, if he does, you feel that he will not last much longer, given the next 5 games are against top 10 sides.

So there is not much to be hopeful about going into this game, the Saints supporters attending games cannot be accused of getting on Russell Martin's back so far, but this could be one game too far if we lose heavily and do so making the same errors.

The team selection is anyone's guess, aside from Alex McCarthy who will have to come in the only other certainty is Jack Stephens and this tells you something about the manager.

It reminds me of John Peel favourites, the musical combo from Manchester The Fall, some of you may have heard of them, formed in 1978 by Mark E Smith, they released 31 studio albums across constant line up changes in a near 40 year career up to Smith's death in January 2018

Mark E Smith was the only constant member throughout their time, when asked about the other 66 members of the band who came and went, he had a saying, " If it is me & your Granny playing bongos, it is The Fall"

This reminds me of Russell Martin, Mark E Smith was uncompromising it was about his vision and nothing else got in his way and that seems to be Russell K Martin's stance, as long as the team is Jack Stephens & your Granny in goal, then it is a Southampton team that will play possession football.

So start praying and if you get up on Sunday morning and draw the curtains to 4ft of snow and blizzard conditions then perhaps we will be unbeaten this weekend.

All Photos Via Reuters

Block8 added 10:12 - Nov 23 I had a dream last night that we win 2-1! Problem being that I scored both our goals, one from a cross & one from outside the box. So unlikely on all levels 😩 Still there is hope however small, in the score line anyway!
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mascott514 added 12:58 - Nov 23 We're getting a point 0-0 Macca has a belter
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saintpete01 added 09:15 - Nov 24 Block8 Dare to Dream 😴👍
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saintpete01 added 09:15 - Nov 24 Block8 Dare to Dream 😴👍
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Flamingbankers added 10:58 - Nov 24 Yes, the Fall released a lot of overrated nonsense as well. Peel was the equivalent of SR.
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SanMarco added 11:15 - Nov 24 Well done for finding another analogy Nick. The name The Fall alone is fairly suitable for this season. Was there ever a band called The Drop? Must have been a song called Relegation Blues... In times past weather like this would have had the chatting football classes talking about it being a great leveller. Sadly RM is the least likely manager in history to adapt tactics for the conditions or even to give us the best chance of winning. If our chance of getting anything is 1 per cent then surely it is the manager's job to get that up to 2 or a heady 3 per cent. Not our Russ. Quarter of a per cent will do for him as long as we 'play the right way'. Sorry Block 8 and saintpete - I am finding daring to dream difficult. It would be lovely if those dreams come true...

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