Saints take on the Cherries in the New Forest derby, although given the name, most Southampton fans care more about who has the best trees in their half of the forest, than how Bournemouth are doing.

Judging from Saints fan social media, after Portsmouth most of our fanbase seem to hate Liverpool more than the rest of the league, followed by the rest of the Big 7 in ascending order.

For the majority of the crowd at St Mary's today, this is just another game in a car crash of a season and most will be bemused as to why Bournemouth fans seem to call us "Scummers" or seem to think there is a rivalry.

So most of the background noise will be from the away section talking about "sending Scummers Down", despite the fact that what will have sent us down isn't two games against Bournemouth or individually any other team in the Premier League, but a number of other factors that have led to us finding ourself in this position, unless Russell Martin was deciding his team selections and tactics via an online poll of Bournemouth supporters, then the Cherries will have had no more of a hand in sending is down than any other team.

So having said that, it could well be that Ivan Juric did indeed pick his team to play Burnley in the cup last week and his tactics via that route, so he might well be doing so again this week.

Will he again play 4 full backs and just one central defender ? if not who will partner Jan Bednarek in the centre of defence and who will make up the rest of the team.

I suspect that there will be changes from the side that faced Burnley, it is just about how many.

The back line will perhaps be the easiest to predict, Kyle Walker Peters, Jan Bendarek, AN Other, Wellington.

The centre of midfield should almost pick itself, Big Les Ugochukwu, Mateus Fernandes & Joe Aribo.

The real lottery is who plays in the remaining four positions, who will be the two wide players and who will be the striker or will there be something different.

Kamaldeen Sulemana is a player with great pace, but he is also one who doesn't seem to have much of an end product yet, nor does he seem to have established himself in a position, is he a winger ? or is he a striker ? at present it is difficult to tell.

A player with pace will always have an advantage over one without, but it is about how you use the ball, how many chances you create for other and how many you score, or the other way round depending on where you are playing.

So far Ivan Juric does not seem to know his best starting Xi nor how to use substitutions, he puts out a good starting XI and then ruins all the good work with substitutions as at Manchester United, or picks a poor one, but sees his team rally when he brings on those players he has dropped as at Nottingham Forest and to a lesser degree Newcastle United.

This game does have some meaning though, it is all about getting points that will push un nearer overtaking Derby County's record low points total in the Premier League.

That stands on 11 so if we could win today, then that would take us over the line on that, so would bring some cheer, if we can get a draw then its a step nearer.

All Photos Via Reuters

IanRC added 10:07 - Feb 15 You say Sulemana does not have end product but who created the winning goal against Ipswich.
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saintmark1976 added 10:51 - Feb 15 Spot on Nick, Juric still hasn’t the faintest idea as to his best team, which if nothing else is at least consistent with all other members of Sports Republic’s senior management. Collectively totally and utterly clueless the lot of them.
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Bowlercow added 10:53 - Feb 15 It was after this fixture at Dean Court that SR should have told RM that he had to adapt his possession game or be replaced If they beat us convincingly again today then Spors first job will be finding us a replacement for Juric For those who can remember it Bournemouth were12 points from safety in League 2 when Howe took over They turned it around big time So keep the faith

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HythePeer added 11:31 - Feb 15 Neither Southampton nor Bournemouth are in The New Forest, nor Derby come to that.
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Colburn added 11:58 - Feb 15 Who should play instead of Sulemana, Nick? He’s carried out biggest threat and the end product has been there in the past at times, Liverpool and Leeds at home when he had a little confidence and belief in him. RM treated him appallingly because of the full, ineffective game plan of RM. I agree that some substitutions have cost us but that’s because of the lack of quality and hunger in those replacements.. can’t keep blaming the manager, he’s only been here 5 mins, stepped into a shit show and he’s trying his best to change the mentality and tactics into something the opposite of the last bloke. It takes time and a couple or 3 windows to change up and the board gave him little in January to help. I like the guy in many ways, maybe he’s not for us but I much prefer him and his style over RM. Downes needs to grow a pair and grow up, that isn’t helping and he’s being paid how many thousands per week? If he’s refusing to play he should be sued. I’m with Juric on this one.

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SaintPaulVW added 14:31 - Feb 15 I think Juric is trying to find players with a bit of fight in them. He's not too fussed if he has to play them out of position. Fernandes and Wellington have a bit of a spark and even Sulemana is giving it a go. Whether this is the right approach for Saints in the long term, that's Ivan's problem. As Sports Republic seems just an exercise ATM in making Dragan's large fortune smaller, it's up to DS to get the right staff in to safeguard his investment. With all this doom and gloom, hopefully we can pull one out of the bag today. Who knows? COYR

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