Mauricio Pellegrino goes into a crucial week in his short career as Saints manager, by the end of it he will either be looking like he could steady the ship or he could be staring at the out door.
Mauricio Pellegrino's team selections of late have been puzzling, just as he appeared to have turned a corner after the debacle at Anfield, he seems to have taken more steps backward than he took forward in the past three games.
He seemd to have got some continuity in the side with some solid performances and suddenly it looked like he might be the man for the jon after all, but then came the Arsenal game and some strange selection decisions.
When a manager starts to bring in players who have played no part for a long period and injury is not a factor then there is clearly something wrong and if it is not blind panic, then it is usually something more serious.
For the Arsenal game the dropping of Hoedt and the strange decision to leave Lemina on the bench was something that puzzled most Saints supporters I spoke to and the subsequent changes for both the Leicester and Chelsea games were just as baffling and meant that apart from anything else the players themselves didn't seem to know what formation they should be playing
Ironically this suited us better against both Arsenal and Chelsea in that both sides pushed us back to a rearguard action that meant that everyone was camped on our own penalty area so that didn't leave much thinking to do, however against Leicester when we had more of the ball in the attacking third, we had no cohesion and Leicester just tore us apart on the break.
But are these selections being forced upon Pellegrino by circumstance, are their issues in the dressing room that are not apparent in general.
Virgil Van Dijk on the bench at Chelsea surely could not have been for tactical reasons, whilst most will say that Van Dijk is not the player he was and that is at least part due to the fact that he does not seem to be playing with much enthusiasm, he is still a better player than both Yoshida and Stephens at 75% effort.
No disrespect to either player but that is why Liverpool wre desperately trying to sign Van Dijk rather than them, it is a fact of life in any football squad.
This perhaps gives some indication of just where Pellegrino's problems lie, he seems torn between showing loyalty to some of his squad players whereas he probably senses that Van Dijk is not committed, certainly the squad seemed more committed despite Van Dijk being on the bench than they had been on Wednesday evening.
But it seems that these problems have been allowed to fester and have not been dealt with by the manager ad in doing so he has appeared to have hacked off several other squad members who have been upset by being inexplicably dropped.
Pierre Emile Hojbjerg was ignored for 3 months at the start of the season, but is now showing his class, Mario Lemina is the club record signing and the player who most Saints fans would have put forward as the best player of the season so far up to his injury, he has been in and out, Wesley Hoedt has formed a solid partnership with Van Dijk yet was dropped, this was not the first time either.
These are the man cases, Charlie Austin, Shane Long, Manolo Gabbiadini are three more who could feel the manager has not given them a fair crack of the whip either, this is a big number of players with potential grievances against the manager.
Professional players know when something is right or wrong in football, they know when something is fair or not, they will accept being left out when it is tactically neccessary or they are out of form, but not when there is no good reason behind it and it is just rotation for rotations sake.
Likewise professionals can accept Virgil Van Dijk back into the team as they know he is the best man for the job and they would know that Jack Stephens is the 4th choice central defender, Stephens himself will know that, his professional price will mean that he will be agreived that he has been overlooked for three months and he will feel that he should be above Yoshida, but he will know that Hoedt and Van Dijk are better, although he will probably feel that the manager should pick the players loyal to the club rather than those who want away.
That appears to be the case at the moment, Pellegrino is changing his side on a weekly basis and it has affected morale, but the problems are of his own making, he has failed to provide a foundation for players to know what the pecking order is, players like stability, they need to know where they stand and that the manager is consistent in his team selections.
That is now not the case and Pellegrino now has to show he has the strength to overcome issues althouh not entirely of his own making, certainly ones that he has made worse rather than better in the past couple of months.
This is why it is a crucial week for the manager, he has to beat Huddersfield Town on Saturday and he has to beat them well, anything less than a win will leave us looking uncomfortably over our shoulders at least into the new year when we have some winnable games again.
If he fails to win then his position is looking untenable, but the problem is who do we replace him with, the club needs a boost, the appointment of Pellegrino was a left field one, he was a manager who few really knew much about, he was very much like Claude Puel, if Les Reed should have done one thing better he should have gone for a charasmatic appointment after Puel.
Three years ago Ronald Koeman was the right man for the job, he was high profile and respected in football, he restored the morale after the departure of Pochettino, but after sacking Puel with only a season gone of his contract, Reed should have seen the need for someone who could revitalise not only the playing squad but the supporter base when he replaced the Frenchman.
On Saturday Saints fans need to be right behind the team, we need to remember what we want from our club, we want this season if not as succesful as the last ones, to at least be nothing more than a slight blip, sometimes you have to be patient and accept that every season cannot be great, the measure of a football supporter is that they stick behind their club when times are tough as well as when they are good.
This week that is needed lets beat Huddersfield and then we can worry about the next few days.