Claude Puel may turn to Ryan Bertrand to solve his central defensive crisis as he attempts to plug a massive gap in the middle of the defence.
It cannot be argued that Saints have a massive problem ahead of the date at Wembley at the end of the month, although Yoshida has proved to be an able deputy (at times) there cannot be too many Saints fans who consider him to be of the consistent standard overall to replace both the departed Fonte and the injured Van Dijk on a long term basis.
That is evidenced by the utpourings of vitriol on social media afet Saints inexplicably failed to land a central defender in the January transfer window.
No disrespect to Yoshida who has been a big servant to the club, but he would not get into any other Premier League side as first choice and therefore he is not good enough in that role for ours.
But there is no use moaning about it now, we cannot do much about the problem other than trying to solve it with what we have, the cruel truth is that Jack Stephens is a little too raw and at 23 you have to wonder why he has not really pushed for a first team place in his five years at the club, there is a good answer I feel.
Florin Gardos has limited experience at this level and if he was slotting in alongside Virgil Van Dijk I would feel confident that he might be able to do a job, but after two years out I wonder whether he can come back and show why we signed him in the first place.
So we have to think outside the box and therefore it does please me to read that Claude Puel is thinking of playing Ryan Bertrand in the centre of defence.
This makes sense for two reasons, firstly we do have adequate cover for him in the left back role with Sam McQueen able to deputise ad secondly Bertrand will bring pace, experience and leadership qualities into the centre of defence and that is just what we need at present.
It is the leadership qualities we really do need, we have no one commanding the back four without the two men who were so outstanding last season in the centre, Yoshida is not a leader of men and with a game that sees plenty of lapses of concentration in him he cannot lead by example.
This is not a new idea though, Ronald Koeman used it on several occasions during his reign and this has been suggested to Puel by someone withing the club as an option as he commented.
"It’s always difficult, but I don’t like to suffer in a situation like this,”
"We work on the training ground and we find a solution to give the squad possibilities, solidity and opportunities. We will seek to develop other players."
"The former trainer [Ronald Koeman] found the solution with Bertrand at centre-back. It’s a possibility also for us. We will see for the next game.”
This should bring a little hope to those Saints fans who have been going into meltdown after the close of the transfer window, I reiterate the fact that now that window has closed we have to look to what we have and not surround the build up to the Cup Final with negativity.
If we as fans are positive then it can only help the club tackle Manchester United at Wembley a task that would be difficult enough with a full squad, but constantly whinging about what has happened and now cannot be changed, will only bring the morale and the atmosphere around the club down further and will only hamper our preparations.