Southampton At Brentford The Preview Friday, 3rd Feb 2023 09:06 Last May saw Saints fans up in arms on their first visit to Brentford's new stadium as the team collapsed to a an embarrassing 3-0 defeat, can they now make this trip one to remember and kick start a run of winning games. As I have said on many occasions, despite the fact that we have been largely awful for the last 4-5 months, we have not been cast adrift at the bottom of the Premier League, indeed if we had just drawn two more games we would actually be out of the bottom four. That shows that although we have a tough task ahead, it is not an impossible one, more to the point the two things that were largely responsible for that terrible run, namely the lack of a striker and a bad injury run, have now been dealt with. The arrival of Paul Onauchu up front along with other attacking options in the 5 players who arrived in the January window, now give us some great options.
But the reality is that now the excuses must stop and for that matter so must the continual sniping at the club, whether it is the owners or the manager, we have to get behind them and judge them on what they do going forward and not what has gone on in the past. So to Brentford, the first question is whether Paul Onauchu will play any part in this game, as it stands i think the answer will be no, his signing is subject to a work permit and that could take a day or two, although I don't see it as a problem. When we were in the EU, players with other European clubs were eligible through their European work permits, that is now not the case. So sadly I don't think our new striker will be playing any part in this game, although perhaps the club are playing down this issue to confuse Brentford a little, but if he has the work permit then in my opinion he has to play. Nathan Jones now has the tolls to hand that arguably Ralph Hasenhuttl did not, now he has to show us that he is the man to lead us forward, as mentioned he has to be judged on what he does for us going forward, not perceptions of what he was at Luton or Stoke City.
Aside from the availability of those signed on deadline day, the other question is whether Kyle Walker Peters is fit after having to go off at Newcastle, if he isn't then perhaps the signing of James Bree will be timely. How will Jones line up his side is also another question, will he stick to playing three central defenders and playing two wing backs ? Id KWP is out I would suggest that he doesn't have the players to do that, this formation will work if you have two players who are essentially wing backs out wide, but in Romain Perraud and James Bree I do not think we have that. They are both more comfortable in a traditional back four than as wing backs, I have not seen a lot of Bree so I have to go on his roles at Luton , but Perraud in my opinion doesn't have the engine to get up and also get back for 90 minutes as is needed, this is not to slur him, I just don't think he is that type of player.
In the centre of defence we have a myriad of options, the problem is none of them have yet to show the consistency needed, I was surprised that we did not play Caleta-Car at Newcastle as he is an organiser and in a back three you really need that. Another question is whether Romeo Lavia is started, he is being used sparingly, he should not have played 87 minutes against Blackpool, he should have been in the starting line up at Newcastle and that was shown when he came on at half time, but will starting him be a step too far in what is clearly a managed structure to get him playing 90 minutes week in week out. Other than that it is going to be virtually impossible to pick the rest of the team, James Ward Prowse is of course a given, as is probably Che Adams given his goal at St James Park and the fact that he is our top scorer, but I could not begin to guess who will be out wide or the centre of the park.
Hopefully that will include our two deadline day signings but we will have to wait and see. So Brentford in my mind should mark the start of Nathan Jones's Southampton tenure, this is the first day when we can truly judge him, we have to forget what has gone on in the past few months, as I said he may have replaced Ralph Hasenhuttl, but he still had many of the same issues that hampered the Austrian. Only now have those issues gone, we have to judge him on what he does next, the Villa game was a disappointment, but we had a great result at Everton, so his last two league games have shown promise, as well as the cup performances.
We as supporters have to be part of the solution and not part of the problem, let's stop moaning about what we think might happen, but wait until it has actually happened. We go to Brentford with a lot more hope than we have had in 4-5 months and that is something that seemed unlikely a month ago. Photo: Action Images Please report offensive, libellous or inappropriate posts by using the links provided.
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