The key to Saints beating Manchester United at Wembley will be the performance of the central defenders, but what will the pairing be ?

Back in 1976, in the run up to the FA Cup Final the pundits were highlighting the Saints defence as the weak link with the centre especially in the centre where Stuart Pearson tipped to run riot against Jim Steele and Mel Blythe in our centre.

Forward 41 years and the prognosis is still the same, but this time the expected star of the final is Zlatan Ibrahimovic and the villains of the piece in the Saints defence are still to be decided.

Claude Puel has a lot of hard thinking to do ahead of Sunday's game.

The most likely to play is Maya Yoshida, it cannot be denied he has been a great servant to the club and over that time has put in some great games at various times, but it also cannot be denied that he suffers from lapses in concentration that can sometimes cost us dearly.

That is why he has never really established himself as a first team regular since his early days with the club and has spent most of the last four seasons as back up, at times falling down the pecking order behind Cuco Martina.

But he is the most experienced fit defender we "appear" to have so looks certain to play.

So conspiract theories aside and more of that later, it would seem that Claude Puel has a simple choice in the centre of defence, who to play alongside Yoshida.

The man in possession of the shirt in the run up to the final is Jack Stephens , four months ago his career at St Mary's looked to be ending it's course, as he approached his 21st birthday he had a total of one appearance in a Saints shirt to his name and that was only a 3 minute run out at Coventry in the FA Cup back in January 2012.

He had spent a fair time out on loan, but had only really done it at League One Level, a spell at Middlesbrough last season in the Championship ending with him being recalled because he could not get in the team.

An appearance in the League cup in the 1-0 win over Sunderland did nt look to have kick started his opportunities much until the trip to Everton a little over six weeks ago when a defensive crisis encompassing suspension, injury and toy throwing meant he came on out of position at right back.

But even that did not look like it would be the catalyst for a run in the first team, but then came another trio of mishaps, VVD's injury, Fonte's departure and a failure to sign a central defender in the January window all added up to last chance saloon for Saints and Stephens as well.

Even now he has very limited experience, just three Premier League starts plus two as substitute and although he is undoubtedly a decent player on the ball, that isn't enough at this level and his performances have been mixed, however his last one was his best and that gives hope.

But overall the Yoshida/Stephens partnership has not shown much to suggest that it is one that most Premier League teams would be happy with, Yoshida is a good foot soldier, but he is not a leader of men, he does not marshall his back four in the way that VVW or Jose Fonte do or rather did and sadly that is just what Jack Stephens needs at this stage a steadying hand next to him.

But Puel has to decide whether to keep faith with Stephens of throw in new signing Martin Caceres, the dilemma being that although Caceres has all the credentials and under normal circumstances there would be no decision to make, the Uruguayan has not played in a year.

But some would say that although he will lack a bit of match sharpness, presumably he is now fit and that being the case the skill and experience factors outweigh the inexperience of Stephens.

As they say form is temporary, class is permanent, there are those who would say a player of Caceres talent will still be a better bet than the inexperience of Stephens.

Whatever Puel opts for the only thing certain is that we need the two men chosen to go out and play the game of their lives, something that Jim Steele and Me Blythe did in the 1976 final.

Cup finals often throw up unlikely heroes and again another certainty is that we have three of them fighting for the two places available in the centre of defence.

But could Claude Puel spring an even bigger surprise ?

Does he have something up his sleeve that will be a pleasing shock to Saints supporters ?

We are talking Virgil Van Dyke here !

The club have been very coy on the exact extent of Virgil Van Dyke's actual injury and recovery time, when it happened it looked innocuous, indeed he tried to play on for several minutes and although he could run he looked uncomfortable, but no one thought it looked serious.

Recovery time was very much the centre of speculation with Claude Puel very coy about it, initially he suggested a month out, but has said little since, it has now been exactly a month since he limped off against Leicester City.

In that time we have heard little about the extent of the injury or how well Virgil is recovering and we have seen even less of the man himself and this is perhaps the strangest thing of all, usually when a player is injured for a cup final the club and indeed his team mates do their best to keep him involved and not left out, but there has been nothing, no pictures and no interviews.

It is almost as if Claude Puel wants to keep Manchester United and Jose Mourinho guessing.

Puel has form on this type of behaviour, he seems to like to keep the opposition guessing and there has been many times this season when the Frenchman has insinuated that a player will miss the upcoming fixture through injury only to see the said player named in the starting line up a couple of days later.

Also when we went to Liverpool, Puel took a tracksuited up Sofiane Boufal to Anfield despite the fact that he was not fit to play, but the intention was to make Jurgen Klopp unsure of what our line up may be.

Little ruses yes, but sometimes a little ruse gets big results.

So is Claude Puel keeping Virgil Van Dyke under wraps ? is he actually fit to play on Sunday ? certainly a month out would not affect his overall fitness too much and presumably he would have trained.

But there is the rub ! no one is reporting that he has been seen training, you would have thought that if he was on the verge of fitness then perhaps there would be a leak, so either Saints are in complete lock down or as is probably more likely, Van Dijk is still a way off fitness.

But we await with hope and trepidation, one thing is for sure though, the key area in this cup final will be in the centre of our defence, in every other area we can match United, they are not that much a better side than us on our day, but we really do need whoever the central defensive pairing is, to have the game of their lives, emulate their illustrious predecessors and make themselves the headline story in the football press this weekend.

Photo: Action Images

highfield49 added 10:03 - Feb 22 I think you've been browsing through your collection of "Roy of the Rovers" Christmas annuals again Nick. Always good to speculate, particularly when pre-match training has taken place well away from the media but, unless the VVD injury reports were a deception, I don't see how he could be fit for Sunday. Unless Caceres has demonstrated that he can fit straight into the team, maybe in a competitive practice match in chilly Spain, I think Yoshi and Stephens will start.

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WestSussexSaint added 10:21 - Feb 22 I think VVD is a non starter for me. In this day and age of 24hrs sports journalism and social media there hasn't even been a whisper of him training. The positive for Caceres is that he will have had a solid 2 weeks training with the squad to learn the system and the players. If he is a quick learner then he plays alongside Yoshida. Yoshida is much better defending when he plays with a "senior" partner so I think we will see these two in the centre of defence. One possibility not mentioned above is potentially player 3 central defenders, possibly with all 3 of Stephens, Caceres and Yoshida starting or poss Bertrand in for one of them. Although we saw this formation a few times last season under Koeman I don't recall Puel playing it so it is probably unlikely to be introduced for a major final. Whatever the defensive combination it is the 3 midfielders in front of them that will be critical to give as much protection as possible. To that end I expect to see Romeu, Davis and Classie to play in this 3. Finally sometimes attack is the best form of defence and in Gabbiadini we finally have a genuine goal threat who can make a goal out of nothing. Man Us defence is nothing special so I hope he continues his run at Wembley so we don't have to worry about Ibra at the other end.

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patred added 10:44 - Feb 22 not a chance of this happening according to this mornings injury updates Virgil Van Dyke Diagnosed as Malleolar injury sustained Jan 26, 2017 estimated earliest return to training March 23rd 2017 estimated earliest return to starting for the first team XI ...April 8, 2017. better news on Boufal though, he returns to full training today
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garethhartwell added 11:20 - Feb 22 Assuming VVD isn't fit, what about the other options? Gardos looked very good when I first saw him a few years ago against Swansea. I know he has had a lot of injury issues since but he could do a job couldn't he? What do those who have seen him recently think? And what about the option of playing Bertrand in the centre?
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SaintNick added 12:10 - Feb 22 Firstly I dont think VVD will play, however Puel does have a history of smokescreens with regard to injuries, the injury reports are reliant on the clubs being accurate with their information and Saints havent been doing that of late With regard to Gardos, he has one game in two years so even less than Caceres, so I dont think he will feature
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helpineedsomebody added 12:16 - Feb 22 I think you will find if man utd play 3 forwards then for me I would play Martin but play with a sweeper Ryan bertrand 2 wing backs cedric mcqueen that way pace wise Martin is covered over 90 minutes WHEN I WALKED IN WEMBLEY IN 76 I KNEW WE WOULD WIN THE CUP BELIEVE
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saintnathan added 12:21 - Feb 22 A big question for me is, has Caceres played against and marked Ibrahimovic before? If so how did he do? That could be telling.
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saintmark1976 added 12:59 - Feb 22 Good fun to speculate but the fact remains that if the club had not made a complete "dogs breakfast" of the Fonte situation then there would be no question to answer. Still, water under the bridge and frankly I don't care who plays as long as they give it their best.
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aceofthebase added 13:48 - Feb 22 Man Utd and Zlatan will focus on Cedric in the air so it is not just about that centre pairing. Strength in midfield is also required, Romeu picks himself as does Davis in my opinion but the others like Classie and JWP not really dominating enough. Hope we win, hope we play at our best whoever wears the shirt. COYS
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IWOZTHERE added 13:51 - Feb 22 VVD playing is wishful thinking (although I'm still wishing). Look at a back four of RB,JS, Yosh and Cedric? They are dwarfed collectively and individually by almost any combination of Man U's attackers. That's probably why Koeman preferred Martina to Cedric so often.It's also why (if fit), the experienced Caceres might get the call to stop them bullying us.
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BaselSaint added 14:32 - Feb 22 Why is Carceres not considered in this article. Surely there is a chance he can play?
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redandwhitedee added 14:44 - Feb 22 Jack Stephens played CB for 114 minutes in the Lge Cup 2 yrs ago against Man Utd (Rooney, Martial, Depay, Lingard all played..) and kept a clean sheet eventually his team triumphed on penalties. Maybe this could be a good omen... Please stop harping on about Yoshida having "lapses of concentration".. Which CB does not ? (except the super VVD maybe). Fonte had many more than Yoshida, which you never mentioned for some reason, and yet had longer runs in the team to supposedly iron them out. For me, they should play all 3 of our fit CB's for this one, and allow Cedric and Bertrand raid forward as much as possible pinning Utd back.

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redandwhitedee added 14:54 - Feb 22 Oh, and by the way, Caceres played against Ibrahimovic in 2012 "in his 1st match since joining in January".. (sound familiar ?).. and scored both Juventus goals in a 2-1 against Ibrahimovic's Milan.
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kjurwi added 15:25 - Feb 22 Think it´ll be Yosh and Stephens at central defence. Also think that the Sunderland game shows how we will play against Man U. 2 central defensive midfielders in Davis and Romeu, three offensive midfielders in Tadic, Ward-Prowse and Redmond (Boufal if fit) . and the new guy on top.
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NewburySaint added 16:54 - Feb 22 Where VVD is concerned i'll be 99.9% certain that he won't be playing on Sunday. I think they are being coy about him for the exact opposite in that he may have a season ending injury but we want to keep all opposition in fear that he may return. What Vardy did was pre-meditated (I was looking at it as it happened from my viewpoint no more than 20 yards away-it was probably to try and get out of his pocket...again) and was certainly more damaging than just a month out of the game-I've had the same sort of challenge & injury inflicted upon myself and whether at pro level or not that will still take a while to heal if I believe it to be ligament or and tendon damage as it looked.

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NewburySaint added 16:55 - Feb 22 And forgot to add, so Yoshi & Cacares, as long as he isn't carrying an injury,for me.
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Ronnie added 17:23 - Feb 22 Cacares and Yoshida for me. Assuming Cacares' training with the squad has gone well, I would use him for his experience and quality. I realise that match fitness would be a gamble but if he were a midfielder or a striker then it would be a much more difficult issue, but I think its different for a central defender where the strengths are more about decision making, skill, positioning and anticipation, rather than stamina etc. With free kicks and corners coming into the box, and the likes of Ibrohimovic attacking the ball, I'd much prefer the experience of Caceres in our penalty area. It would be gutting for Stephens though as he has one a decent job so far. Gardos is a mystery, he's been fit for at least a couple of months now but has only featured once (against Arsenal) - either he is still unfit or not considered good enough.

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SanMarco added 18:45 - Feb 22 It is going to be Yoshi + 1. I hope Caceres is ready, if not it will be Stephens. Bertrand is too valuable as an attacking option to go to CB and as Nick points out Gardos is a bigger risk in terms of game time than Caceres. I expect the next debate will be over midfield and will centre on JWP....
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dixiefrog added 08:59 - Feb 23 I can't see the Boss changing from Yoshi and Stephens in the middle whilst allowing Cedric and Bertrand to bomb down the wings. As the eternal optimist I'm going for a 1-1 draw, no goals in extra time and Saints to win on penalties. The icing on the cake would be for Ibra to sky his and Romeu to hit our winner. Call me deluded but I can't see anything other than a historic win for our boys.

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REEDYREEDOREEDZ added 10:01 - Feb 23 An 80% fit Caceras is better than a 100% fit Jack Stephens. Ibrahimovic will make mincemeat out of Stephens. He's too strong and wise for Stephens to cope with. The partnership of Yoshida and Stephens fail to deal with everyday crosses into the box. All United would have to do is get some decent balls in and Zlatan will win them all, much like Andy Carroll did a few weeks ago. Puel's got to throw Caceras in there. Another worry is how Davis is going to compete with Pogba, presuming Ward-Prowse will be out on the right again and Tadic as number 10. Romeu will be marking the United number 10, probably Mata with Mkhitaryan out, so Davis will have to handle Pogba. Or maybe Puel is all over this and has an out of form Hoijberg lined up. Or maybe he has Romeu lined up to deal with Pogba and Davis sits much deeper. With two weeks to prepare, he should have the answers.

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Dystopia added 16:28 - Feb 23 You're not quite right about Puel only mentioning VVD as out for a month. As he said on the 2nd or 3rd of February that after the latest scan VVD would be out for 2 to 3 months. Very unlikely he's secretly fit.
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