Here we go again, will Saints crumble at the back or will they get away with it ? this is the question I posed all last season and nothing has changed, one thing is for sure we have to stop leaving players unmarked at the back.
On the opening day of last season Saints travelled to Turf Moor and saw a result that proved the blueprint for the rest of the season, they looked good going forward and at the hour mark had got away with a few things including a VAR penalty appeal, then on 63 minutes they conceded a soft goal and did so another two times in the next 12 minutes.
Suddenly a game they looked like they could go on and win had been gifted to the opposition, it would not be the first time that this had happened and it would not be the last.
Literally every goal conceded was soft last season and so far the 8 goals in the 3 opening days have not seen anyone cover themselves in glory.
The blunt truth is we have not learnt anything and we bloody well should have and signed perhaps the final piece of the jigsaw puzzle, indeed by giving Jack Stephens a four year contract we are perhaps showing faith in him that is not justified on the pitch and if the opening three games are anything to go by, he could turn out to be yet another player who we have on our books who can't get in the side, but can't leave due to the wages we are paying him.
So this preview of the trip to Turf Moor is exactly the same preview of every game last season, will we get away with it when we leave players unmarked, or will we be punished for yet more kamikazi defending and the stark truth is we will gift a side chances.
I'm sick of writing the same thing, but more to the point I am sick of seeing the same thing, it is not just the odd game here and there, but every game.
Some will say that some of the mistakes have come when the ball has been given away and they are right, but every side gives the ball away, every attack does not end with a chance on goal, whether you are Liverpool, Man City or Saints you give the ball away, the only difference is who you have behind you at the back and their ability to defend.
As I said every attack you have does not end in a chance on goal and that should be the same in reverse, every time we give the ball away we should not be conceding, we cannot defend quick counter attacks and the other teams have cottoned on to that, we are slow, disorganised and out of position.
So unless we have signed a player that we haven't told the World about yet, we go to Burnley needing to try and do something different.
There might be a change in goal, Alex McCarthy was indecisive against Spurs and really should have been organising his defence better, I can see a change in between the posts.
In the centre of defence Bednarek and Stephens are not a balanced partnership, then again nor are any combination of Bednarek, Stephens & Vestrgaard, in my opinion Bednarek is the only one of the three who does the job he is paid to do and that is get in tackles and blocks, so it is only a question of who plays next to him, the problem is that Stephens can't hold the line and Vestergaard is too much like Bednarek, whichever way we go there is no contrast.
I think Vestergaard will come in if only because we have to do something, I actually think that it will be Bednarek who is dropped, not because he deserves to be, but because we have to have someone who can play the ball at the back, Stephens can do that, he can carry the ball forward, but he cannot defend.
So it's anyone's guess what the result will be today, but a third successive defeat puts us in trouble and more importantly without any options to change it at the back.
The worst thing is we are so close to being a decent side, yet our central defence is Championship at best.
You have read all this before, sadly it won't be the last time or long before you hear it again unless Ralph does something in the transfer window.