All of a sudden the trip to Stoke City has become a vital game and Saints have the task of replacing suspended Jose Fonte who will be suspended.
Saints travel to the Brittania Stadium without suspended skipper Jose Fonte and Ronald Koeman now has a massive problem about how he replaces him.
Back in January I warned that Saints should have considered signing another central defender to replace the departed loanee Steven Caulker, when he left for Liverpool that left only Maya Yoshida as fit and experienced cover for regular central defensive duo Fonte and Virgil Van Dijk and to be blunt this is Yoshida's fourth season at St Mary's and he has yet to convince that he is of Premier League standard.
If the suspension had happened a game or two later then Florin Gardos could have come into the frame, but after his 8 month injury lay off he has yet to play even a U21 game and give that last season despite being fit he didn't play even a minute after February there are doubt's that Koeman would have wanted to play him anyway.
So why is playing Yoshida such a worry for Saints ?
The answer is that he is so prone to errors and lapses in concentration, he is a player that can look good for 89 minutes and have you wondering just why you ever doubted his ability, but then he will make a lapse in concentration or error, some that go unpunished and others that don't.
This has been a trait of his game ever since his arrival, this season some have been punished as per his giving the ball away at Manchester City to gift the opening goal and some go unpunished as did his clumsy challenge only seconds after coming on for the last couple of minutes at Swansea City when it could easily have been a penalty.
But sometimes he is just not up to the job as was shown on Saturday when he failed to make a challenge for Sunderland's goal.
Yes it is harsh to single him out in this way, but Premier League football is harsh, I said back in January that our squad now had Premier quality cover in every position, but central defence and now that is coming back to haunt us at a crucial time.
So in my opinion Ronald Koeman has to think outside the square to replace Fonte, he needs to do something different.
My own view is that he should play a central trio of Martina, Van Dijk and Bertrand, flanked by Cedric and Targett.
This is not ideal, Martina is not the greatest of players at this level himself, but he has experience and he can play either in the centre or full back so is versatile enough to cope with the formation, he also offer a little more height.
It is not the ideal scenario, but then again we do not find ourselves in anything near the ideal scenario.
This is a vital game for Saints and defeat would make it very difficult to launch a challenge on the top six in the final games of the season, e find ourselves in adversity so therefore have to do something different to break out of our three game winless spell.