This is not the game that Mauricio Pellegrino would want after the debacle against Leicester City, it could be the game that either makes him or breaks him.

The performance against Leicester City highlighted that there is something not quite right in the Southampton squad, certainly Mauricio Pellegrino has made some baffling selections and on Wednesday it looked like his squad have lost faith with him.

Some would say lost faith with him again ! Wednesday night was a very similar performance to the one that the team displayed at Anfield a few weeks ago, a clear the air team meeting seemed to solve a few problems after that, but the casual onlooker would surmise that the manager has tinkered too much with his team.

This was levelled at Claude Puel last season and was ultimately the start of his demise, is deja vu about to strike !

Players know what is right in team selection and what is wrong and the omission of both Wesley Hoedt and Mario Lemina in recent weeks is indicating that soething is wrong although it is hard to pinpoint just what.

Both would have reason to question the manager why they have been left out of the side and both would have reason to be angry with Pellegrino, whose selections against Arsenal and substitutions were strange.

So the manager turn it around against Chelsea, can he unite the dressing room again or has he truly lost it beyond repair, we will find this out at Stamford Bridge this afternoon.

Pellegrino has to show his own players he is the man to lead them, they clearly did not play for him against Leicester and that was a throwback to Sunday against Arsenal when they were left to run themselves into the ground without any positive help from the bench.

If he is to do that Pellegrino needs to get back to basics, play his best players in the best positions, that means Soares, Hoedt, Van Dijk and Bertrand, that means Lemina,Romeu and Hojbjerg, that means Tadic and Boufal and up front that means probably Long up front for this game.

Putting Long in might sound strange, but this is not a game for Charlie Austin to start, even under normal circumstances I would not think it was his game, but given the way he has been run into the ground by the manager over the last two games, I would say even less so.

This is going to be a game for strong players and strong character being shown, there is no room for anything less.

A few weeks ago after the defeat at Liverpool it looked like Pellegrino had lost his way but he appeared to have learnt his lessons, the last two games showed that he appeared to have learn't very little or at least thought he knew better.

This afternoon we will find out if Pellegrino has any future at Southampton Football Club or if the job is too big for him.

Photo: Action Images

FARESAINT added 10:16 - Dec 16 True words there. The only thing i dont agree with is Long. Austin should start with Gabbi. Austin is not an impact sub, he needs game time and he needs to start. Long is the perfect impact with his speed, he just needs to come on earlier rather than with 5 mins left on the clock. The danger today is the managers style of play, we cannot defend for 90 mins against Chelsea. Go with a 3-5-2 and take it to them?

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Consigliere added 10:25 - Dec 16 Agreed, save that I would play Yoshi as the best chance of scoring against Chelsea is from a set piece and he is good at these.
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1970 added 10:35 - Dec 16 we're be undone by an early goal or poor defending as usual and chelski will run out comfortable winners, we are in trouble as I've said before and Pellegrino or puel are not the people to get us out of it we need to tell the big time charlies in our squad they are not for sale and then get a manager that will give them the kick up the back side that they need, I hate to say it but would we accept koeman back?????? we're going down if we don't sort it soon coyr

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the_saint added 11:34 - Dec 16 Most of us thought puel was out of his depth tactically and his rotation and subs were baffling so he got sacked a new man comes in and is a carbon copy of puel now the question is how two back to back managers be the same? The answer is they are not somebody at the club is having to much of a say on how they want the team to play. Deadly silence from the board. Koeman went as he wouldn’t toe the line and no manager can say anything as they would of signed a disclaimer in their contract as would have the players no doubt. So to sumerise it all up it’s a complete mess and the only people that can sort it is our Chinese owners

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wibbersda added 17:02 - Dec 16 Agree whole heartily with you 1970.
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