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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



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Block8 added 10:29 - Feb 3
Perraud is our best left sided defender without any doubt whatsoever!
He in my opinion strengthens the team whenever he plays & I fail to see how you can say he's not an option as wing back? The fact he is our third highest goal scorer says he is and I've not seen anything that says he is weak in the engine department? He also has a nice little niggle to his tackling that I like.
11

mattlegod added 11:50 - Feb 3
I agree with much of what has been said. I am not a fan of having a back three, although I agree we need alternatives we still look to fragile at the back when playing this way.

Bree had a much improved second half against Newcastle, I felt he struggled in first half but to be fair he needs time to adjust. I'm buoyed by our new signings and feel the owners have given Jones everything to avoid relegation and kick on next season, but to do that I'd like to see him playing round pegs in round holes. My biggest concern is Diallo, I just don't think he is strong enough as a regular stater.
3

StEdmund added 12:02 - Feb 3
Interesting that Ings is injured again. A £12 banana skin avoided thank goodness!
0

StEdmund added 12:03 - Feb 3
.... or should that be £12 million!
0

WestSussexSaint added 13:12 - Feb 3
The wing back experiment should be confined to the bin. It hasn’t worked on the several occasions NJ has tried it. The Newcastle game demonstrated how much better the players performed when we switched to a back 4.

Even if Onauchu isn’t available, hopefully his sheer presence in the club will spur Adams and the other strikers on to hit a scoring purple patch to strengthen their case against getting dropped.
3

WestSussexSaint added 13:15 - Feb 3
Just seen that Bela- Kotchap and Celeta-Car are both starting for the B team today so unlikely they are starters tomorrow.
0

SaintPaulVW added 14:07 - Feb 3
I see that 'Perraud isn't a wing back' is the new 'not rating Jack Stephens/ Yoshi' lol

Perraud should play because he's scored more goals this season than Arma.

I'll be happy with a draw tomorrow. It may be too early for our deadline day signings to have any meaningful impact so I'm not expecting to see them.

COYR

4

davidargyll added 17:08 - Feb 3
Tomorrow will be interesting, especially for those front line players that really haven’t put in a goal-scoring shift this season. We all know who they are.
So if I was say Che, and I saw that I am no longer the shoe-in I was in the first half of the season, I can say to myself:
EITHER “Soddit, we are going down no matter what I do, but I can always join Leeds next season, so I will just play as I have done and maybe get a lucky goal.”
OR, he can say “Christ, if I don’t start hitting the back of the net toute suite, then my days of stardom such as they are over, so I’d better start trying a lot harder immediately from the off tomorrow.”
Let’s hope and pray tomorrow it’s the latter.
2

Boris1977 added 09:44 - Feb 4
Fair article Nick although footballers and managers will always look for excuses rather than take genuine responsibility for their shortcomings.

It's going to take a monumental effort to pull ourselves up the table but the sooner that happens the easier it will be. If were still bottom at the end of the month the game will be up.

I agree that we should support the team and judge them on results but this equally applies to the team and manager. If Jones continues with variations of 3/5 at the back and playing players outside their most effective positions he will and should receive stick. As the cliché goes - you're only as good as your result - and Newcastle was a joke after 20 minutes yet the system only changed due to injury and when the damage was done.

We're at the business end of the season now, results are the most important thing - showing spirit and losing is worth nothing. COYRs
2

Boris1977 added 15:52 - Feb 4
Clueless Lilliputian
0

AmericanSaint added 17:35 - Feb 4
Nick - looks like you predicted the score 3-0 AGAIN in a hapless performance.
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