Saints fans will arrive at St Mary's this evening wondering what sort of team will Mauricio Pellegrino will put out after Sunday's changes and lack of substitutions till late on.

If Mauricio Pellegrino was prioritising tonight's game against Leicester when he picked his team to take on Arsenal on Sunday, he seems to have a strange set of perspectives.

The big surprise was that neither of our big summer signings played any part in the game, the manager not including either Wesly Hoedt or Mario Lemina in the starting line up was a shock, but the fact that neither, especially Lemina played any part in the game was nothing short of poor management as the side was dead on its feet in the final 20 minutes and ultimately Lemina playing no part could be considered the biggest single factor as to why we did not hang on for a win.

The team selection on Sunday seemed to suggest that there is an issue in the Saints camp, after all if you asked any Saints fan who the team should have included, both before and after the game, then 99.9% would all have mentioned Mario Lemina's name.

After a month out Lemina returned off the bench against Everton and seemed to suffer no reactions to his injured ankle, he followed that up with a full game at Manchester City where he looked his usual self, if that tired him a little you could understand why he was again on the bench for the trip to Bournemouth, but only 16 minutes off the bench there, meant that he should have been fit and raring to go against the Gunners.

But the sight of Lemina warming up during the second half was heartening, but despite seemingly endless jogs up the touchline he was not brought onto the pitch and that ultimately cost us big time.

Likewise Hoedt, he is young and fit and would be one of the first players in the squad ready and able to managed three games in six days, but no, he was dropped again for Yoshida, I have nothing against the Japanese central defender despite what some would say apart from the fact that Hoedt is a better player and that is why I found the team selection strange, just as Van Dijk and Hoedt seemed to beforming a decent partnership it was ripped apart. Apart from this Hoedt would appear to have been a better fit against the Gunners in that he can carry a ball and pass it and as we found, that was attributes we could have well done with to relieve pressue albeit temporarily.

That could also be attributed to our failure to hang on the win, look at the Arsenal goal and how Giroud peels off, loses his man and has a free header, I leave it to you do decide who was marking him.

Likewise the inclusion of Jack Stephens, Stephens had a great game, but his selection was completely out of the blue, he had not played a single minute of first team football in 3 months, Jeremy Pied had played well at Bournemouth, this is not a dig at Stephens who as i state played very well, but I can't fathom the managers decision given that the player had been ignored for so long a period, it was almost as if he did it to keep the player happy rather than any other reason.

Football is a tough game at Premier League level,there is no room for drops in standards even for brief moents they get punished.

So whilst I could see what Pellegrino was doing to a degree against the Gunners, his failure to make changes in the final 20 minutes of this game cost us dearly and could continue to do so this evening.

Charlie Austin played all but the last 4 minutes, he was shattered, will he be 100% recovered for tonight, given his injury track record it is a well known fact that his appearances have to be managed, it is not just the ability to be able to play a full 90 minutes, but with Charlie the damage playing him too much can do to his body, he has to be used sparingly at times, on Sunday he had done his job, asking him to chase down the Arsenal defence in the final 20 minutes was poor management, especially when our main form of attack is a breakaway and with all due respect, no one would put much money on Charlie in a sprint from the half way line.

So the worrying thing on Sunday was that Pellegrino appeared to have forgotten a few of the things that he had learned in the previous weeks, he regressed to the first third of the season where his tactics and team selections were not working.

The big question though is whether the manager is trying to win a power battle in the dressing room, the three highest transfer fee's for the club all started the game on the bench on Sunday, is there an issue between them and the manager ?

Certainly Boufal's gestures when he scored his wonder goal against West Brom indicated that he was unhappy, although since then he has figured more, but whispers are that both Lemina and Hoedt have had differences with Pellegrino and perhaps there benching on Sunday was the manager wielding his power.

It would be easy to draw these conclusions, Hoedt cannot be happy with the way he has been in and out of the team of late, he can consider himself to be one of our better performers when he has played and the slip against Bournemouth was his only error of this kind so far, if I was him I would be unhappy.

Likwise Lemina, before his injury he was in line for the player of the year award, his limited time since his return showed just as good form and did not suggest any injury, yet he played no part on Sunday in a game where we were getting overun in midfield.

Pellegrino was not pro active at any point and to be blunt he was not even reactive, Arsene Wenger made several key changes, taking off a defender for an attacker and the final one rescued a point for him, we did not react to any of them, our first change was like for like Boufal on for Redmond, by this stage we were under the cosh and camped on our own penalty box.

The game was crying out for Lemina or even Steven Davis, but there was no sign of the former and ironically only a sign of the latter as he waited to come on and had a grandstand view of the Arsenal equaliser from the technical area.

I would say there wasn't a Saints supporter in the ground who could not see what our problem was and who did not know what we should have done, certainly the pundits knew, so why didn't Mauricio Pellegrino make the required changes when they were needed.

He is a respected footballing brain, surely he could see, there must have been a reason that we the fans don't know about, injury would be the first and as mentioned there has been no suggestion of that so it must be something else.

Perhaps Mauricio Pellegrino is right in what he is doing if there are divisions in the dressing room, however his job is still to get results and having made a point and benched players, he should have then used them to achieve what his job is and that is win a game of football.

Perhaps I have read this wrongly, perhaps years of "issues" at Saints have clouded my judgement, perhaps it is ust me who thinks that Wesley Hoedt and Mario Lemina are the best players for their position at this football club, whatever it is, three days later I just can't put my finger on what happened on Sunday both with the team selection and the substitutions or lack of them.

Hopefully tonight we do not pay the price with a tired team out there especially in key positions where the likes of Charlie Austin are indispensable at the moment.

Photo: Action Images

saintmark1976 added 10:22 - Dec 13 I have no more knowledge than you Nick as to what happens between individual players and the manager. If I had to hazard a quess his team selection against Arsenal may well have been influenced by those above him in the management chain who I would suggest for obvious reasons would wish to avoid a defeat against Leicester at all costs.
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charlie357 added 10:23 - Dec 13 Think you could be grasping at straws a bit here. Yoshida is more mobile than Hoedt, so I think he was brought in to better deal with the likes of Lacazette, Sanchez and Ozil. A job that he did fantastically well. It was only when Giroud was brought on that Hoedt would've been seen as a better option and perhaps could've helped us prevent that goal. Pied was decent against Bournemouth but I feel that he switched off a few times and his defensive positioning wasn't the best, so I can understand that Stephens was brought in to give a bit more defensive solidity. In fact Stephens was one of the best players on the pitch, so can't really see why you are questioning the decision to play him. Romeu and Hojbjerg have both been in excellent form recently so would be harsh to drop either of them for Lemina unless we were going to change to a 433, in which case he could have been brought in for JWP.

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Santos added 10:39 - Dec 13 Sorry whilst Pellegrino has had a reprieve since the win against Everton. A leopard can't change his spots i'm afraid. Yes the team are performing better but I think that seems to be down to the players own volition. The world and his wife and child could see the addition of Lemina in the last 20 would have made a difference. Whilst i love yoshi and we can argue about who was to blame for the goal but if you stick Hoedt in the same spot as yoshi he flicks the ball due to him being 6 inches taller!!! Have been patient but sorry to say the guy is loosing us points all over the place, so many time this season I thought we need a sub here and it never happens until after the event. Sorry but bad management of a decent squad. As for tonight feel we are at a similar position to the build up to the Everton game MP needs to win this!!!

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thornhill1976 added 11:32 - Dec 13 He has no idea what he is doing. It's all a blag. He picks the side out of a hat before the game.
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SanMarco added 11:51 - Dec 13 I totally agree on the substitutions question. On the starting line-up however I don't understand the problem - it worked and we were winning. Finish the job with the correct subs and job done.
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IWOZTHERE added 13:07 - Dec 13 Starting line-up and choice (or lack of) subs was indeed puzzling whether it was a good performance or not?...Give MP the benefit of the doubt for now, as it was a good performance, but doubt certainly exists and Nick explains it well. I just hope he's not 'rotating for the sake of it'. There's nothing like playing a settled side to build positional awareness and 'telepathic' understanding between individual players.

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redandwhitedee added 13:08 - Dec 13 Nick. You do love a whinge don’t you. Defensively that was the best performance I have seen at saints for many years and for me the manager called his team selection and tactics and tempo/motivation spot on. Yoshida and Stephens were outstanding. By the way VVD was marking no-one when giroud scored. At least Yoshida made a challenge and was simply beaten by a brilliant leap and brilliant header. These things can happen. Lighten up, and praise the manager finally making brave choices and getting them right.

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SaintNick added 13:16 - Dec 13 Saintmark I would suggest you put far more credence to rumours that the management picked the team rather than the"manager" as has been pointed out elsewhere, if that was the case then so many big signings would not be on the bench.
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SaintNick added 13:19 - Dec 13 Charlie 357, I can agree with you about Stephens being brought in for defensive solidarity, but if that was the case then why didnt he come in against Bournemouth for instance, it worked in that we remained camped in our own half for a lot of the game and it suited us defenivily because we worked hard and kept them at bay, the questioning of Stephens was about the reasoning to play him, not as to what sort of game he had.

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SaintNick added 13:25 - Dec 13 redandwhitedee, I am not whinging just calling a situation as i see it, our defenders were outstanding but it was far from the best defensive performance in years anymore than last season was our worst ever as some would tell you. Yoshida and Stephens were outstanding, I have said that from the start, but if you want to be clinical about why we conceded the goal watch the repaly closely, you will see Yoshida marking Giroud about 5-6 metres away from where the Giroud headed the ball, you will see Giroud peel off and leave Yoshida floundering, you will see Yoshida make a desperate attempt to head the ball but be stranded, you will see Van Dijk leave the man he was marking and make an attempt to block the header, but be too far away, but most of all you will see Giroud have a free header on goal. You are right it was a brilliant leap and header from Giroud, but it was also a briliant piece of losing your marker and leaving him for dead. Watch the video closely and you will see it exactly as I have described, that is not being biased against Yoshida it is fact. Do I blame Yoshida ? No he was like his team mates dead on his feet having run his socks off, if we had had fresh legs 10 minutes earlier we would have stopped them pushing us so far back, so its the manager I blame

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LordDZLucan added 13:44 - Dec 13 I thought Pellegrino got his initial team selection right on Sunday. We were 1-0 up for most of the game, in control and he had managed to save players for the Leicester game tonight. But I agree that he didn't react to the Giroud substitution. Putting on an extra centre back would have been the right thing to do.
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SaintBrock added 13:55 - Dec 13 The team selection on Sunday seemed to suggest that there is an issue in the Saints camp Ha! Ha! he was not brought onto the pitch and that ultimately cost us big time Ha! Ha! Ha! he was not brought onto the pitch and that ultimately cost us big time Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Sorry Nick I can't read me of this tripe, I'm rolling around the floor in fits of laughter.... this is not a dig at Stephens Oh please Nick... i'll be here all afternoon... Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha!

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SaintBrock added 13:57 - Dec 13 I have nothing against the Japanese central defender despite what some would say !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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SaintBrock added 14:01 - Dec 13 To be serious Nick, Mr Gao was watching on Sunday. We fielded 6 English players including 2 from the Academy. Maybe as we didn't expect to get anything from that game Les was making some sort of point to the new owner?
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SaintNick added 14:07 - Dec 13 SaintBrock sarcasm is the lowest form of wit, if you cant be bothered to explain why you thought it was tripe then it is perhaps better to say nothing at all
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LordDZLucan added 14:58 - Dec 13 To be honest, Nick, I have some sympathy with SaintBrock. You keep on trotting out the same old prejudices when the relevance to the game we've just watched is tenuous to say the least!
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charlie357 added 15:46 - Dec 13 Nick, the game against Bournemouth is a game we would have been set up to go for a win. Pied is a more attacking minded full back so he was the obvious choice to fill in for the injured Cedric. However, Arsenal was always going to be a tougher game. We were always likely to be defending for 75% of the game so Stephens suited the game more as he is much stronger defensively.

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SaintNick added 15:52 - Dec 13 Charlie 357 I agree with you, I have always said i could see why Stephens might be preferred to Pied for that reason, Lordlucan, They are not the same old prejudices, they are the same old occurrences happening at different times, free header in the box again on Sunday from a player who has lost his marker, if it hadnt happened then I could not fault anyone, it is just the same old people making the same mistakes. Two hours ago I asked people to watch the video of Sundays goal and tell me I am wrong in what I have said, a couple of people accused me of saying the same old things, no one has actually turned round and said i am wrong in how I described it though

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SaintBrock added 16:04 - Dec 13 Oh come on Nick, lighten up. There's nothing going on behind the curtains. Pellegrino has told us more than a few times that we have a very busy schedule through December, some games are more winnable than others and that he intends to use his whole squad to get the best outcomes he can. In effect he is telling us that he'll keep his best players fit for games such as leicester tonight that we can win and rest players for them. What you nor I do not know is how well individual players recover after matches. If you take Lemina for example, we know nothing of his recovery trajectory, not indeed that of Hoedt. Nor do we know if Lemina is fully over his recent injury, maybe we brought him back too soon and setback his full recovery. Other key players like Bertrand, van Dyke, Romeu may have super fast recovery trajectories that allows them to paly even match. Until you have access all the data that the manager has been given on a daily basis by his sports scientist it is simply daft to build all sorts of conspiracy theories about the presence or absence of particular players for individual matches. When the mid season dust has settled and we get back to one match per week, then you might expect our best XI players to be picked every week.

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SaintNick added 16:16 - Dec 13 SaintBrock, much sense in what you say, but If we were trying to keep our best players fit for tonight why was Austin allowed to run himself into the ground, why did we not make the last two subs until the final few minutes when everybody could see that certain players had run themselves into the ground. I dont expect our best players to be picked every week, but I do expect the squad to be used properly, I wouldnt have taken either of Stephens and Yoshida off on Sunday they had good games, but it was a strange decision to pick them, most would agree with that.

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LordDZLucan added 16:32 - Dec 13 At least if you play Hoedt you get a different mistake every match. He's got the full repertoire!
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redandwhitedee added 16:55 - Dec 13 Saintnick. Have you been at the pre-Xmas Sherry today ? You don’t normally spend so much time arguing with others in here. Your argument as usual is wrong. Those players you constantly berate annoyed you by playing exceptionally well. Just as they did earlier in the season. You just could not resist a dig at maya when our weakest link on Sunday was in fact vvd.

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aceofthebase added 22:21 - Dec 13 Nick you are a Championship Blogger.
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LoisDeem added 20:26 - Dec 14 More perplexing surely were the changes to the line up for last night. This particularly as it threw up what by all accounts (on this and other forums) was one of our 'strongest' line ups -the Saints in heaven forbid! This was one of the most inept and gutless performances I've seen from a Saints team for some time. Add this to the home cv and psyche and it makes grim reading, and it looks even worse on playback, explain those statuesque defensive positions Saints. We now need strong resolute performances throughout the team from here on if we are to stave off relegation. Whilst I am usually in favour of picking a winning team, I would also advocate keeping this weak, lily livered team together for Chelsea, if only to prove themselves -we need this out of our systems..

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