The start of a 9 game run in the Championship over just 5 weeks that will sort out the wheat from the chafe in the promotion race, hopefully we have quantity & the quality in the squad to fare better than our rivals in this tough period.
Saints have come through 21 League games unbeaten and now they need to make it 22 against Huddersfield, the visitors arrive in good form having been unbeaten in the last four games, culminating in their 4-0 victory over Sheffield Wednesday that has seen them pull 3 points clear of the relegation zone.
So this leaves Russell Dilemma, with 3 games in the next 6 days, the next two after this tough away games, does he risk resting some of his squad for this one.
The answer is I think that he will, I would not be surprised to see Jan Bednarek rested and Jack Stephens slotted in, in the centre of the park I think either Flynn Downes or Stuart Armstrong might well get a rest and Joe Rothwell come in and up front there could also be a change or two with David Brookes and Sam Edozie perhaps given a start.
So I will not be surprised to see up to 4 changes from last week's starting line up, given the two games we have coming up at Bristol City & West Brom away.
Some may be in disagreement with this and say take every game as it comes and play your strongest side, but our strength is our squad and with players able to come into the side with the quality of Rothwell, Brookes, Edozie and Stephens, we have a luxury that our rivals do not have, we need to make good use of it.
Huddersfield as mentioned are unbeaten in four and sit one point and 3 places above the relegation zone, however two of those games came against bottom 2 sides and the other pair against teams in the bottom 10, so although good results and much needed against the teams around them, in general this season they have been not done well against teams in the top half of the table, Leicester despatching them 4-1 at the King Power Stadium on New Years day.
We need to do just that against a team that at time of writing is yet to replace Darren Moore who was sacked on 29th January, that was seen as harsh give that Moore presided over the 3 straight draws in the unbeaten run, however there certainly seems to have been a positive response from the Huddersfield squad to the sacking as they destroyed Sheffield Wednesday just a few days later.
So they are not a side to be taken lightly, they are fighting to stay up and have something to play for as they showed when we drew 1-1 with them up in Yorkshire, when their 87th minute equaliser gave them a vital point after Adam Armstrong had given us a first half lead.
But I still think that we are going to have to mix and match for this game and perhaps to a lesser extent at Bristol City in order to avoid fatigue and injury, yes Huddersfield have something to play for but so do Brookes, Rothwell & Edozie and they are quality players who our visitors would love to have in their team.
There will be yet again another packed St Mary's, the game would have already been sold out, if Huddersfield had not sent back around 1,200 tickets from their allocation, as of Friday morning around 200 of these are still for sale along with a handful of seats in the Chapel End, it is likely that these seats will be sold today.
You can buy a ticket using this link. Southampton FC Online Ticket Sales