Southampton At Chelsea The Preview Friday, 17th Feb 2023 10:07 There is possibly not a person in the country, let alone Southampton who will give Saints any chance in this match, but can caretake manager Ruben Selles turn a disorganised poorly led rabble into a football team that can once again get points in the Premier League. Saints supporters go to Stamford Bridge more in hope than expectation, but what little hope they had is gleaned from the fact that Nathan Jones, perhaps the worst manager in the club's history has now gone. His main crime whilst at St Mary's is that he appears to have turned what was before his arrival a decent enough squad with a few injury problems into a squabbling disorganised rabble. So Ruben Selles job is to get what is now a large squad into some form of order, Jones could not do that, the new arrivals seemed to complicate things for him, it made him uncertain of just what line up and indeed formation he should employ and as in the Wolves game, multiple substitutions in a short period merely served to make us lose shape. The first big question is just who will be in the 20 man matchday squad that will form the starting XI and the substitutes bench. Will those recently ostracised by Jones such as Caleta-Car, Bella-Kotchap, Orsic & Djenepo find a place.
It will be stabbing in the dark to try and guess but personally I would be happy to see them restored in place of Bednarek, Bree & Walcott, I don't want to be too critical of them, but none deserved a place in the squad ahead of any of the aforementioned quartet. What we want from Selles is to see him restore organisation and stability to the side, we had almost found it at one stage before the previous manager for some reason tore apart that what he had seemingly found. The second question is what formation will he play, will he play three central defenders of go to a back four. My guess is that he will go to a back four, get back to basics and to be blunt we haven't got anyone who is a natural wing back at present, Bree & Perraud are full backs and not wing backs, there is a difference, mainly to do with the ability and engine to keep going up and down to both attack and defend.
So if we go for a back four who should be in that and indeed the rest of the team. My line up would be as follows, I am assuming here that Kyle Walker Peters is not fit, if he is he slots in at right back. Bazunu Maitland - Niles, Salisu, Caleta-Car, Perraud Sulemana Ward Prowse, Lavia, Alcaraz A Armstrong Adams, Of course this line up is defensive, we have to get behind the ball early doors and get a grip on the game and then look to get our two wide men forward to support Adams. The midfield 5 have fluidity, the ability to push a man forward to support Adams from either out wide or from the centre, but still keep our shape to make sure that we can't be caught on the counter. Some will query why Adams and not Onauchu up front, quite simply work rate and that will be needed to set the tone of the game, likewise why I have Adam Armstrong in. Maitland-Niles is the nearest we have to a Premier League experienced right back at the moment, he had a good game against Wolves, he might not have shown it too often yet, but he is versatile and the best person for the position if Kyle Walker Peters is out.
Mislav orsic is back in because he is a quality player who just didn't seem to gel with Jones, hopefully going forward we will see his quality. The bench would be: Cabballero, Onauchu, Bella-Kotchap, Lyanco, Diallo, Orsic, S Armstrong, Mara, Djenepo, Edozie. This bench for me gives the option to make changes in all positions, although as you will see there is no place for Bednarek, Elyounoussi, Bree, Aribo & Walcott, of these Elyounoussi & Aribo have played some good parts this season at times, but haven't been consistent, they are unlucky not to be on the bench and it is only the sheer numbers in the squad now that see them omitted.
It is is highly unlikely that we will win this game, perhaps a draw is the best we can hope for, but we should still go there with hope, Chelsea themselves are in awful form. In their 5 Premier League games before the World Cup break they lost the 3 games before the break and drew the 2 games before that. They beat Bournemouth in the first game after the break, but in the 7 games since that they have drawn 4, won just one and lost 2 a record not that much better than Nathan Jones, in the same period. So with Graham Potter now under fire and Chelsea in real danger of not even making the Europa Conference League places, let alone the Champions League, this could be a key game in their season, defeat would be a catastrophe, they quite simply have to win. It is ironic, it could be said that Saints are playing for who will be their next manager, if they beat Chelsea, Potter might well be sacked, could he be in charge of Saints for the next home game ? We have beaten Chelsea once this season, so this is not as tough a game as it might seem at first sight, we just have to show the qualities we did in that game, that means not collapsing in their early bluster, and showing them we arent going to roll over, that will quieten the crowd and maybe even turn it against their team and manager. That is pure speculation, we just have to get on with the job of kick starting our season, that means picking the best players, putting them in the right positions and not scattergun substitutions when things go wrong.
I hope that even if this game doesn't end with a point or 3, that it shows we have our discipline and shape back and that will bode well for the season as I think we have a decent squad now, it has spirit, it just needs to be lead by someone who is calm collected and does not panic at every turn. Photo: Action Images Please report offensive, libellous or inappropriate posts by using the links provided.
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