Can Saints beat Ipswich and revive faint hopes of one of the greatest escapes in Premier League relegation fight histories ? Or will it be another defeat ? I think we are now pre programmed to answer that now.

Southampton supporters are now shell shocked and the players are not much better, hindsight shows us that if we had won just two games since the arrival of Ivan Juric, then we would have gone into this game with a fighting chance, but straight defeat after straight defeat, some with reasonable performances and for that matter excuses and others where to be honest it was inexcusably embarrassing.

Ivan Juric has undoubtably instilled a fighting spirit in the side, we compete in games, but what he has failed to do so far is put in place leadership and organisation on the pitch.

It appears that he is already thinking of next season and abandoned hope on this one.

But there is experience and leadership in the background, Juric promised that it was a a clean slate and everyone would get a chance, Charlie Taylor & Armel Bella-Kotchap would perhaps say that has not happened and so might Cameron Archer.

Ultimately we have lost these games because our defending has been disorganised and awful, individually Jan Bednarek & Taylor Harwood-Bellis are decent players, Premier League standard, but as a central duo they are not a good pairing, I can't quite put my finger on why but they are not.

So what will the manager do at Portman Road ? The good news is that he will have at least 3 players available that he did not have for the weekend's defeat to Newcastle, Tyler Dibling and Kamaldeen Sulemana are fit again according to Juric in his press conference and there is also loan signing Albert Gronbaek.

Aaron Ramsdale is back in training although Juric was a little more coy about his chances of playing.

There could also be one wild card and that is signing from Brazil, Welington.

So the first point of interest when the teams are announced will be how many of them, if any, are in the starting line up.

If he plays all of them that could be 5 changes to the side that lost to Newcastle.

Personally I would be surprised if more that 2 of them started, as i mentioned we lack leadership and organisation in the back line, bringing in a South American who is not an established top player even in his own country in Welington, on the face of it doesn't seem like it will solve the problem.

Charlie Taylor might well be the experience we need, Bella-Kotchap the pace but it seems that Juric has written both off without giving them a chance.

Up front we chop and change, Tall Paul scored at Nottingham Forest but was invisible against Newcastle, its one good game and one bad game for the striker, personally I think he is better coming off the bench.

So sadly I think at Portman Road we are pretty much going to do the same things and get the same results, we will show promise, we will perhaps score a goal and have a few near misses, we will probably have a disputed VAR call, but we will also poorly mark at the back and leave someone with an easy chance.

For Ipswich this is a game they have to win, with Everton recently winning a couple of games, the relegation battle is now firmly a four horse race and one of those horses is lagging woefully behind, so realistically it is any 2 from the 3 clubs above us to join us in the Championship next season.

So perhaps the best hope for us, is that all the pressure is on Ipswich, a win for us would give us a little hope, but not much whilst for them it would give them a big boost in the relegation battle.

Sometimes that can be something that spurs on both the team and the crowd, but at other times it can be a weight on the shoulders.

The truth is our season went wrong when we threw away our lead against Ipswich away in the 97th minute, if we had held on to that lead then perhaps the season might have panned out differently, when we threw the 2 goal lead against Leicester away and lost, that pretty much condemned us, that was perhaps the point that Russell martin should have gone.

If we had held our own in those two games the Premier League table would now read
Wolves 16 points
Ipswich 15 points
Leicester 14 points
Southampton 11 points .

We would still be bottom but this would be a game in which a win would have seen game on for the final third of the season.

All Photos Via Reuters

saintmark1976 added 11:31 - Jan 31 Didn’t we throw away our lead against Ipswich at St Mary’s Nick ? Top photo appears to show Ross Stewart, any update on his fitness or is it now conceded that his career with us is unfortunately over ?
2

andywelsh added 12:23 - Jan 31 I don’t really understand this constant call for Taylor and Bella Kotchap to come and save us.Two managers who see them train every day have not believed them to be good enough to replace what we have. Bella Kotchap has also struggled when out on loan. Taylor came from a side that also got relegated, so there is no guarantee that he is a premier league quality player. Whatever you think of our managers they clearly know more about players and football than we do, so I think we should accept that these players are not currently at a level to help us.

1

SaintPaulVW added 12:23 - Jan 31 Regardless of form and the actual team put out, in my mind, we are going to get some more points at some point this season. This could be the game to do just that. COYR
2

andywelsh added 12:24 - Jan 31 I also think Juric is about to welcome back Stephens. Can’t wait to hear what you have to say about that!
4

Colburn added 22:29 - Jan 31 Andy don’t wind him up.. but it is fair to say that we weren’t getting spanked in games apart from the ones he got sent off in. I’m not defending him, he’s made 2 stupid gaffs this season which have cost us, but we were more solid overall. We need a win just for the manager really, there’s no chance of a miracle escape.
0

Blogs 31 bloggers

Southampton Polls