The first half of the season saw Mauricio Pellegrino chop and change his side without ever seeming to find what he considered the right balance, that now seems to have changed.

Whilst it cannot be denied that Saints had problems in their camp in the first half of the season and that trying to placate Virgil Van Dijk was the biggest factor in those problems, it also cannot be denied that Mauricio Pellegrino didn't help his own cause by continually changing personell in other positions, but in the past 8 games, the manager seems to be finding it easier to know his best side and that could be good for the rest of the season.

Pellegrino now seems to know the core of his side and although changes will have to be made and indeed can be made due to the plethora of quality midfielders we have, if he sticks to that core then we are not only more than capable of pulling well clear of the bottom three, but perhaps a shock in the FA Cup.

Saints have a far better squad than they had this time last year, in essence given that Virgil Van Dijk and Charlie Austin were injured for the second half of the season and that the squad is virtually intact otherwise, the additions of Lemina, Hoedt and now Carrillo mean that we are stronger than a year ago, add to that, that hopefully Austin will return to the squad in the next few weeks and there is much to be hopeful about in the final third of the season.

But the key is the manager, he now can have little complaint about the make up of the squad, if Claude Puel could get us to 8th, although that is probably now out of Pellegrino's reach, there is no reason why he cannot kick on now, if he does then he may have a future at this club, if he doesn't thn it could be another managerial change.

Photo: Action Images

skiptonsaint added 08:55 - Feb 9 The problem is so does everyone else
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montecristo added 09:02 - Feb 9 ridiculous statement
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SaintBrock added 09:31 - Feb 9 Bold indeed Nick, good job you don't have a glass jaw! Skipton has it right 'though. Never forget 'context' when making such claims.
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Sanguin added 09:39 - Feb 9 I don’t think it’s true that everyone else has a better squad. One of our strengths now is that our squad is so much bigger than it was a few years ago. We’re able to ride out key injuries, even without Austin we’ve managed to turn things around. The same isn’t true of a lot of other clubs in the PL, a couple of big injuries could see them drop like a stone.
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SonicBoom added 09:55 - Feb 9 I'm not sure Pellegrino has proved anything. Before the West Brom game we all thought we were staring down the barrel. If we had lost we would have been in the bottom three and right in it. We won. That was great and the three points were absolutely vital. Had we lost there would have been huge unrest and more of a toxic atmosphere for the manager. Let's not get carried away. We only beat the worst team in the league. We have Liverpool this weekend and whilst we all hope for the best there is the chance that we could lose. If we do then the manager will be back under pressure for the next game. What he needs is a run of consistent performances - where he picks a team people can understand. OK we will lose some but we want to see there is a coherent plan. Not his usual random team selection and panicky tactics. We are far from out the woods yet.

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steve73 added 10:10 - Feb 9 I'm all in favour of cautious optimism but this article seems a tad premature. This 'under the radar' run of unbeaten games is ok but still saw us dropping more points than we should have. We're still far too flaky in defence to go into any match with genuine belief that we're going to win it. Still, we're alive and kicking. Which is more than I thought a couple of weeks ago.

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Jesus_02 added 10:11 - Feb 9 A better squad maybe , but a better team in not sure. Its not that I doubt the commitment of players its just that we don't seem to play as a team as much. Despite playing dull football, there did seem to be a little more cohesion. Maybe the team have just taken time to "jell" Maybe its because very few people would agree on a starting 11 .
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helpineedsomebody added 11:01 - Feb 9 if we had a top class manager as we ve had in the past we would not be in this position & also we now have a new owner who has morgage the club up to the hilt & instead of investing in the club or as tubby said i cant afford to take the club forward anymore but the new owner will . we are back in the same position as when roops ran the club what did he say WE HAVE NO MONEY AS IVE SAID IN THE PAST NO INVESTMENT SINCE 1885 THIS CLUB HAS BEEN REIDY TO BOOM FOR YEARS BUT IS HELD BACK THROUGH EXCUSES FROM THE DIRECTORS/OWNERS

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SanMarco added 12:13 - Feb 9 I am with Sonic and Steve73. One win does not mean that we are out of the sh1t - remember the optimism after Everton? The 0-0 at Manure? At least the latest 'turning point' actually bagged us 3 points! Sanguin's claim that "we’ve managed to turn things around" needs to wait on at least 3 or 4 more good performances with a decent points haul as well. Away at Burnley will be no picnic and let's face it Sunday is hardly a likely win, especially as half the crowd will not even be cheering the team on due to certain distractions. Lose both those and we are back in the bottom 2.

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pete_boggs added 12:15 - Feb 9 Nick you've got plethora and dearth mixed up. If you put a bet on 8th make sure you wear a disguise because you might be led away by men in white coats.
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BoondockSaint added 14:03 - Feb 9 You are what your record says your are. "Whilst it cannot be denied that Saints had problems in their camp in the first half of the season and that trying to placate Virgil Van Dijk was the biggest factor in those problems, ..."????????? The biggest factor was we couldn't score goals because the owner(s)/Les Reed refused to properly replace Pelle and Mane.
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LordDZLucan added 17:14 - Feb 9 I'm with BoondockSaint on this one. The squad may be better than this time last year but its not as good as 2 years ago. And in the meantime other clubs have used the TV money to improve their squads and we haven't.
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davepid added 22:35 - Feb 9 Thanks for reassuring me that every time Long missed a straight forward header, took one more touch than he had time for or didnt quite time his run correctly it was because he was thinking about Virgil. So what’s on his mind now when he misses the same chances weeks after Virgils gone?
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