Saints travel to Villa Park hoping for a repeat of last season's win, a loss however would leave us having lost three in a row and with the possibility of letting in the two clubs behind us to come past us at the post.
Saints have to tran and make sure that they dont go down to their third defeat in a row when they take on struggling Aston Villa in the Midlands at the weekend, for their part Villa know a defeat could leave them with a foot in the relegation dog fight and although it would be unlikely that at least four of the six clubs below them overhaul them, they will still want to get three points that will virtually guarantee their survival especially as they have a game in hand.
Saints problems are that Mauricio Pochettino is out of his comfort zone, what we have learnt about the Argentinian in his 15 months in charge at St Mary's is that like at Espanyol previously he has a very fixed and disciplined way of setting out his sides, this means that he plays the same formation week in week out and that on top of that he likes to keep the same players in that formation without too much rotation.
That is all well and good until injuries kick in and when that has happened we have found that although we are strong in some areas we are inherently weak in others. In short half of the squad is able to make significant contributions whilst the other half does not and seems to have been neglected by our transfer committee.
In terms of our problems at the moment the loss of Jay Rodriguez is such a blow not just because we have lost our leading scorer but that we have no like for like player to replace him and that is causing the manager problems, on one hand he wants to play his preferred system but on the other he cant do that without an attacking player in the mould of Jay Rod, again we would have the same problems if we lost Adam Lallana.
Last week against Cardiff the worry wasnt that we lost but the manner in which we did so, yes we had plenty of possession but little of that looked like damaging Cardiff and after they scored we could not change our system and tactics, all the changes were like for like, bringing on Wanyama for Cork was never going to win us the game, however if the manager had thought outside the box and perhaps took off Fonte and brought on Wanyama to cover the centre enabling us to push on Lallana or even Clyne, that would have upset Cardiff's rythym, instead they were enable to see out the game fairly comfortably.
These points are perhaps emphasised by the damning statistics that we have not once this season won a game after going behind, our system is fine until a side handles it, when they do we have no plan B, we keep the same formation and in the main all substitutes are like for like.
Without Jay Rod the system is flawed, so in the final four games Pochettino either has to hope that a flawed system can gain the four points we perhaps need to make sure we hang on to 9th and the six we need to probably hang on to 8th.
So the big question in the final four games starting at Villa is whether the manager can show he can adapt, that he can change tactics and personel rather than just play a system with the only changes being like for like players.
Perhaps this is harsh on Pochettino who has done a great job at Saints and undoubtably taken us on a step or two, but the real question is can he take us on another step or two, comparisons can be drawn with David Moyes at Everton and how Roberto Martinez has taken essentially the same squad and got more out of it, this time last year the loss of Moyes was seen as catastophic, now much much different.
So Mauricio Pochettino has to show that he can adapt and conquer, it it tough for him given the injuries and state of the squad, but injuries happen and the squad should really be much better, we do have like for like players who could replace J Rod, yes they are untried youngsters, but they are the future of the club give them a run out now rather than Guly who great a servant as he has been will not be here next season.