| Southampton v Newcastle United FA Premier League Saturday, 25th January 2025 Kick-off 15:00 |  |
Southampton V Newcastle United The Preview Friday, 24th Jan 2025 09:47 Saints don't have that good a record against Newcastle United lately, so there won't be many Southampton supporters who are holding out any hope of anything other than yet another defeat. The last time Saints beat Newcastle United was back in November 2020 when goals from Che Adams & Adam Armstrong gave us a 2-0 win over the toon army. Since Ronald Koeman left in the summer of 2016, that win remains our only victory over Newcastle in 15 attempts including our League Cup semi final two years ago.
The tally is 1 win, 3 draws and 11 defeats, so the recent track record does not offer us any hope that this will be the game that will see us pull within 2 points of the Premier League lowest points record held by Derby County. Add to that the fact that we will be without Tyler Dibling, Kamadeen Sulemana & possibly Aaron Ramsdale through injury and that Ivan Juric has said that new signing Albert Gronbeaek will not feature, makes the chances of pulling off a win or even a draw even more slimmer. However whether Juric is telling the whole truth on the injury front is another matter, although Dibling is definitely out, I would not be surprised if we saw all of the other 3 play some part. The truth is though that we should already be within spitting distance of that 11 point total, we really should have got the 3 points at Manchester United, the substitutions made by Juric in that game cost us at least a point and probably all 3 and then 3 days later at Nottingham Forest the wrong selections in the first half of that game saw the task of getting anything out of it too much of a hurdle to overcome.
That has been the case in Juric's reign so far, he is experimenting too much, it is almost as if he saw escaping relegation as a forlorn hope after our defeat to Palace in the last game of 2024, since then our form has been up and down, we have seen clear signs that this squad is not as bad as some would say, as we did at Old Trafford in the first 70 mins or so, then we make changes that change the game and not in a good way. So what does he do for the visit of Newcastle United, a team who have hopes of a Champions League place for next season, but whose own form has been patchy, including a 4-1 home defeat to Bournemouth last time out. That came after a run of 7 straight Premier League wins, that had transformed them from mid table also rans at the start of December into top 4 contenders and in the process saving Eddie Howe's job for another stay of execution. So what does Juric do on Saturday ? Hopefully Aaron Ramsdale will be fit to take the field, but Sulemana & Dibling don't then I would play a central defensive trio of Harwood-Bellis, Bella-Kotchap & Bednarek. if Juric isn't going to play Bella Kotchap then play Wood.
But we have nothing to lose playing ABK, we need his pace and we need his height, forget about the last 18 months, we need to use everything we have to hand. I would switch Kyle Walker-Peters to his natural position of right wing back and play either Ryan Manning or Charlie Taylor on the left. In the centre of the midfield it is a tough one but my trio would be Big Les Ugochukwu, Joe Aribo & Matteus Fernandes. Up front again a poser, there will be cried of play Tall Paul and I can understand why, he had a good end to the game at Forest, scoring his first goal for the club, but on the other hand was anonymous in his previous 3 Premier League appearances.
It's a tough one, I would play Adam Armstrong for his workrate, we cannot afford people not getting back and covering, but then do we go for Cameron Archer who offers pace or Tall Paul. The truth is Newcastle relish high balls into their own box, they have Dan Byrne who at 6ft 6 is only an inch shorter than Tall Paul as a rock in their defence, so we won't even have Tall Paul as an unchallenged aerial threat. That being the case if we are to beat them it is going to be about hard work and running, keeping it tight at the back and not allowing the likes of Tino Livramento to get forward. So for me the team is. Ramsdale Harwood-Bellis, Bella-Kotchap, Bednarek KWP, Manning. Aribo, Big Les, Fernades. Archer, Armstrong. On the Bench I would not be surprised to see Albert Gronbeaek sat there. perhaps even Sulemana, after that there is still Ryan Fraser who would love to put one over Eddie Howe, Tall Paul, Suguwara, Taylor and perhaps a wild card such as Amo-Ameyaw or even Dom Ballard.
Dom Ballard has his supporters for a try in the first team, but personally he doesn't have the goals on his CV yet at League level, throwing him in now might halt his progress, I would rather see him go to a Championship club and make an impact that will give him confidence for next season. The truth is for this one is that it is going to be hard to see this as anything other than a defeat, but these days we go to game only with hope and not with any expectation of a win. All Photos Via Reuters Please report offensive, libellous or inappropriate posts by using the links provided.
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