Southampton V Brentford The Preview

Make no bones about this game, should Saints lose to the Bees, then with only 3 days gone of the New Year, we will just about be done and dusted in any effort to try and avoid relegation back to the championship.

There is no longer any leeway for Saints, we go into the New Year with just 2 points out of our last 9 Premier League games since the victory over Everton, that is an appalling record and although the performances have dramatically improved in terms of cutting out the defensive errors, the fact remains that we now need snookers to stay up.

So the arrival of Brentford, who have become something of a bogey team since we beat them 4-1 at St Mary's almost to the day 3 years ago, since then we have met them 4 times and each times has been a disaster, 3 away defeats where we conceded 9 goals and scores just 1 and a 2-0 defeat at St Mary's in March 2023.

Perhaps the only ray of hope as we go into this game is that Brentford's away record is just as bad as our, they have an almost identical record, yet to win yet, they have drawn 2 on the road and lost 7, whereas we have drawn 2 and lost 8, having played one game more.

They have scores 6 goals and conceded 16, whereas we have scored 5 and conceded 17, so on the face of it, we actually have a chance in this game, Brentford might have destroyed us in West London, but they are a completely different kettle of fish on the road.

So what will Ivan Juric do this game ? Now he will have time to have assessed his squad a little bit more.

One player who won't be playing is Mateus Fernandes who picked up a yellow card in the defeat at Crystal Palace, I would expect either Adam Lallana to get a rare start or Joe Aribo to play the more attacking role.

A question that hasn't yet been answered is whether Chelsea will recall Big Les Ugochukwu, that looked a formality a fortnight ago, having barely featured under Russell Martin, but he has played in all 3 games under Ivan Juric, and so the situation might have changed, we will find out when the teams are announced.

I would think that the situation is being re assessed and that being the case I would like to see Ugochukwu start, I was surprised he didn't against Palace and I think he will be key against the Bee's.

I am of course assuming that Flynn Downes will be fit, he hasn't trained much this week and I would be surprised if he does start the game, but a role off the bench could be on the cards.

The only other change I would think will happen apart from if Flynn Downes is not fit, is that Cameron Archer will be back in the starting line up to replace Tall Paul Onuachu, to be blunt, Tall Paul has put in a lot of effort, but has failed to score, against Fulham & Palace he didn't really get on the end of a chance, against West Ham he had several good chances, but failed to do much with them, his efforts lacking power and direction, if Adam Armstrong had done the same with those chances, there would be mutterings about now being good enough for the Premier League, surely Tall Paul should be judged on the same standards, those of us who remember George Lawrence will know what I mean.

So aside from those two changes, I think we can see a team that is starting to find it's feet start to impose itself.

One player who should not even be on the bench let alone get on the pitch is Kamaldeen Sulemana, he has been given many opportunities to make a contribution to this club, yet aside from a dead rubber against Liverpool two seasons ago, he has done nothing, I would rather see Sam Amo-Ameyaw or Fraser Forster brought on before Sulemana is used again.

So my team would be:

Ramsdale
Harwood-Bellis, Wood, Bednarek
Bree, Walker-Peters.
Downes, Ugochukwu, Aribo.
Archer, Armstrong.

Subs, McCarthy, Bella-Kotchap, Manning, Taylor, Lallana, Suguwara, Onuachu, Fraser, Amo-Ameyaw.

That I feel is just about the strongest team and the strongest bench that we can put out at the moment, personally I would have liked to have seen Ben Brereton-Diaz getting a look in, before we make a final judgement and sell him on, but I think that if reports are to be believed he will be going back to Sheffield United before the week is out.

So last chance saloon for Saints in this game, win it and we can at least dream of overtaking the record for the least points in a season, perhaps even dream of getting within half a dozen points of safety come the final day, we can also hope that get on a little run and you never know.

All we as Southampton fans can ask for now, is that Ivan Juric restores some pride to this team and we go down fighting, even if the task is probably just too much now.

All Ivan Juric can ask of us as supporters is that we get behind the team and create that siege mentality that we used to have in those relegation battles of the 1990's.

What to read next:

Swans 3 Rovers 0 : The game ,the head coaches, the goals and the joy !
Swansea City blazed a trail through the Blackburn Rovers defence yesterday afternoon. Alan Sheehan plotted a more ruthless Swans first eleven and the game never really looked in doubt.
Swans crush Blackburn : Was it just a coincidence ?
It was Swansea City’s day today, the shackles were off with the team slightly tweaked, and at last we saw what summer signing Vipotnik is all about. His changing of position with Liam Cullen aided a more fluent and thoughtful Swansea attack and couple that with Myles Peart-Harris at last stepping up all the ingredients were there for a win. And win the Swans did.
Swansea City 3 - 0 Blackburn Rovers - Player Ratings and Reports
If you saw the match, please give us your player ratings and a mini match report.
TEAM NEWS : Swansea City v Blackburn Rovers
Teams are in.
Match day news : Swans test & another rebuild ahead
Swansea City take on Blackburn Rovers at the Swansea.com this afternoon (3pm) the first of thirteen fixtures which will dictate which competition the Swans play in next season. The Championship or League One.
Swansea City : Ramsay out of next Swans head coach position ?
Eric Ramsay, head coach of Minnesota in the MLS has distanced himself from the Swansea City head coach role. Ramsay, still only just turned their twenty three has his eyes set on his current employers so it looks like that’s another one off the list for now.
Swansea City v Blackburn Rovers : Sheehan such a difference : News & Comment
Blackburn Rovers come to the Swansea.com on Saturday without a permanent head coach or manager, but with little injury concerns bar one player.
Eric Ramsay : Casemiro praise & could Dennis Lawrence return to Swansea ?
We featured Eric Ramsay some fourteen months or so ago when the Swans were linked with him back at the start of December 2023. When he moved right into one of the top runners for the Swans job we republished the feature again at the end of that month.
Swansea City : Go for number one, save time looking for second best
We had had a good look around the latest betting on the next Swansea City manager. Basically the bookies in this market are generally far off the mark when it comes to Swansea betting. They wheel out a few anomalies like Russell Martin who would never return to the club and prey on fans hope more than sense.
Luke Williams : The Swans just need to stop making the same old cheap mistakes
Despite the wait - when it became apparent that the new Swansea investment team pretty much had enough of Luke Williams, the Swans head coach, the inevitable happened. A brief wait had to be taken when one of the Directors was dealing with a family funeral, it soon turned to a green light yesterday afternoon after a decision was made on Sunday.