Saints face perhaps their most physical game of the season as they travel to Stoke City.

Slowly but surely Tony Pulis has fashioned a side that can survive in the Premiership, ironically he has done it by using many Saints players over the past few years, but they play in a way that Saints have rarely done except in the days of Ian Branfoot and that is by playing a very physical game relying on getting the ball into the penalty area and keeping it there by fair or foul means.

The Saints defence face an aerial bombardment in which a player will have the specific task of blocking the goalkeeper's path to the ball whilst other players wrestle with ours, in short its not going to be a pretty game.

Given Saints weakness in defending set pieces and the fact that Jose Fonte apart we dont seem to be a tall team, even normally we have to bring our lone striker Rickie Lambert back to add height when defending corners, this could be a very tough afternoon.

Nigel Adkins has to do something different in this one or risk seeing a heavy defeat, although its hard to see just what he can do with no real options to hand to combat Stoke's usual game, he has two choices really, set out an attacking side and try and take the game to them and push them back, or make a couple of changes and hope they work and that we can ride our luck.

His first decision is in goal, even his biggest fan would not sing Kelvin Davis's praises when it comes to coming off his line and dealing with crosses, but this is going to be the main part of his afternoon, the ball is going to be hit in from the wing, from midfield and even from throw ins and the goalkeeper is going to get a rough ride, its just not Kelvin's game he is not physically tough enough. So does Adkins have options ? if Gazzaniga is fit then he perhaps offers the best of the bunch, he is tall and he has shown he is not afraid to come and get the ball when neccessary, Artur Boruc has not played for over two months, he is fit enough to sit on the bench but is he fit enough to play to Premiership standard, by all accounts not and it would be a gamble to throw him in in this game when he is not only carrying a few pounds, but not match sharp on judging things like crosses etc.

But Adkins has problems with his back four in this type of game, neither Shaw or Clyne are physical players and i cant remember either of them winning a header, thats not a criticism of either they just arent that sort of players, Yoshida is tall for being Jpanese but short for a centre half, so perhaps Nigel needs to make a few plans himself on this one, one option would be to play Jos Hooiveld in the back four and push Luke Shaw to left midfield, this isnt ideal but would keep us covered on the left, whilst adding some much needed aerial strength, worryingly this is the only real option I can see.

Good managers need to be proactive sometimes, I appreciate that Nigel Adkins hasnt a lot to work with at the moment and especially for this game, but he needs to show that he has the tactical nous to do things, he has got it wrong on too many occasions with selections ie the Sunderland game for one and substitutions as the Man Utd game illustrated, if we are to survive he has to get it right more often to be blunt.

Sadly just about the only ray of hope  can find in this game is the fact that Stoke are on a run of good form and that has to end sometime, they will be on a high after beating Liverpool on Wednesday perhaps we can burst that bubble, its not encouraging, but I cant find a better suggestion as a basis of why we might get any sort of result here.

So my line up would be

Davis/Gazza/Boruc (Sorry I cant really pick one its going to be luck)

Clyne Hooiveld, Fonte, Yoshida

Puncheon, Schneiderlin, Cork, Ramirez, Shaw.

Lambert.    

Photo: Action Images

stmichael added 11:27 - Dec 28 26 Aug, 13:30 Stoke City0 - 0Arsenal 28 Aug, 19:45 Stoke City3 - 4Swindon Town 15 Sep, 15:00 Stoke City1 - 1Manchester City 29 Sep, 15:00 Stoke City2 - 0Swansea City 27 Oct, 15:00 Stoke City0 - 0Sunderland 10 Nov, 15:00 Stoke City1 - 0Queens Park Rangers 24 Nov, 15:00 Stoke City1 - 0Fulham 28 Nov, 19:45 Stoke City2 - 1Newcastle United 15 Dec, 15:00 Stoke City1 - 1Everton 26 Dec, 19:45 Stoke City3 - 1Liverpool Unbeaten but not particularly free scoring and struggled to put away other lower placed clubs like ourselves. If we are still in the game with 15 to go I think we could nick something.

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SaintNick added 11:40 - Dec 28 I dont think Stoke are a great team, they just play to a certain system which I think unfortunately is one that we are least suited to combat
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slynch added 11:48 - Dec 28 Some good logical thinking, there, StNick. As for your goalkeeping dilemma, I'd go for Gazza, cos he's tall and also is very good at keeping the ball at the other end of the pitch. I re-watched the last highlights and Davis' distribution nearly got the team into problems once or twice and invited pressure on the back four.
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SaintNick added 12:00 - Dec 28 If Gazza was fit id have no problems but is he fit is the question
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stjay added 12:07 - Dec 28 Good points. Personally I think the attacking approach is the best way to go though - we have a ray of light in that their 2 regulars from central defence are missing. This gives us a real chance as Stoke rely heavily on the fact that they don't concede. I would therefore like to see Rodriguez and Lambert up front together as a powerful attack against a defence who aren't used to each other. Ramirez and Puncheon looked better when they switched sides the other day - Ramirez seemed more potent stepping inside and shooting with his left and Punch would be good at heading outside and whipping balls in. The rest of the team picks itself although you may be right about hooiveld's inclusion, in which case a straight swap for Yoshida would be best (our centre backs don't seem capable of defending the wings from what I've seen)

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slynch added 12:14 - Dec 28 Stoke have 2 1st team defenders out through suspension. Saints could take advantage of being top of the Fair Play League?
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BlackRod added 12:19 - Dec 28 Here we go again. Nigel is damned if he does and damned if he doesn't. He knows more about the fitness of his players than we do and will pick the team accordingly. Hopefully his critics will be eating humble pie come 5.00pm, but there are bound to be some negatives that we can focus on.
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SaintNick added 12:42 - Dec 28 I applaud your faith in the manager, no one was saying he doesnt know who is fit and who is not, but his selections have to be called into question after the Sunderland game, we werent eating humble pie after that one were we, Nigel is learning along the way, he has never been near the top flight as a player or a manager before or had to deal with players of the quality needed before, he is not beyond criticism, just because he is making mistakes doesnt mean that I want him to fail, I want him to succeed and succeed well

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ugliest added 12:56 - Dec 29 Think you must have a bad day with promoting Hooiveld in the team......did you sleep well?
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