With only one win in our last eight games its time to get another three points on the board before we get dragged back into the bottom three.

A month or so ago Saints appeared to have dragged themselves out of the mire, however a series of games were points have been thrown away due to dodgy defending and errors has seen the clubs below us haul us back into view, so much so that we really have to get a win on the board and fast, the problem for us though is that with our next two home games being the in form Liverpool and then Chelsea its hard to see where that win will come from.

Liverpool arrive at St Mary's as the form team in the Premier League, at the turn of the year many people were writing them off as a force in English football, however in the last ten games they have won six, drew two ( Man City & Arsenal away) and lost only two, a 2-1 defeat at Old Trafford being no disgrace leaving only a 2-0 reverse at home to West Brom as the only blip on their fixture list in those ten games.

They have moved from mid table to fifth in the league, suddenly a Europa Lague place is there to be played for and they still have an outside chance and to be fair it is outside of getting into a Champions league spot.

So they come South knowing that in the words of Nicola Cortese, "if they aim for the moon they will at least get the stars" in simple terms keep winning and they will get something out of this season and with only Chelsea to play in the teams above them, they know that a barnstorming end of the season is very much in their hands.

Our only consolation in all of the above is that they are going to have a big say in who goes up and who goes down, they also have to visit Aston Villa next time out after St Mary's and also have trips to Reading and Newcastle, at home they have to entertain West Ham and QPR on the final day, our job is to beat them on Saturday and give them even more of an incentive to win those games, Steven Gerrard has spoken of Liverpool being capable of winning ten out of ten, lets make it nine out of nine after their trip to Saints.

It wont be easy though, as mentioned they are the form team and with a couple of much needed attacking options in the January window they are starting to pick up momentum, Luis Suarez is without a doubt one of the best strikers in the Premier league, if not THE best and they play to his strengths, which sadly are probabaly our weakness's, they are good at gettng the ball quickly up to Suarez on the break and Gerrard can hit a ball long range with potent accuracy.

But they do have an achilles heal and its this we need to exploit, defensively they are still not all there, without Reine in goal they are also vunerable and truthfully they still have to rely too much on Gerrard and Suarez at present, in short they are a work in progress this season and can be caught out.

The job for Saints will be to take their chances and make sure that the errors of recent weeks are cut out, with Suarez you cant give him a sniff at goal.

So this is a winnable game for Saints, perhaps the key for us will be Rickie Lambert, at Anfield he didnt play and that will gall him being such a big Liverpool fan, he will be desperate to make amends and score, not to mention that his drought at home has to end sometime.

Truth of the matter and sadly im doomed to say this weekly till the end of the season, is that we didnt strengthen in the right areas in January and we have very much paid the price since, that being the case we dont have many options for Saturday, however I still expect to see some changes.

I fully expect to see Nathan Clyne restored to right back and Yoshida returned to the middle probably in place of Hooiveld, Liverpool arent about aerial power they are about pass and move, we need to have speed not brawn, this isnt a criticism of Hooiveld who had a decent game up at Norwich, but he isnt suited to what is needed.

In midfield I think we perhaps need to restore Davis to the centre and probably Ramirez will need to be dropped to the bench to do this, we need Davis to get in the face of Gerrard and not give him time to pick his spot or more to the point pick out Suarez.

This is a game that will show if Mauricio Pochettino is a one trick pony as some reports from Spain have suggested or if he genuinely has the tactical nous to adapt to differing situations, he has mentioned that he doesnt intend to change his system, that it will still be about pressing and out scoring the opposition, thats all well and good, but that formation does need to be changed from time to time.

I know that perhaps one of my favourite phrases is must win games, I know that annoys some who like to pedantically point out that there are still plenty of games and points left, but the fact is unless you truly are sat in mid table with nothing to play for, then every game is must win and for Saints this is a pivotal weekend, win and we will take a big leap forward and take the pressure off the next month or so, lose and we will be nervously looking over our shoulder and ruing that last minute equaliser by Wigan.

At Norwic we took a big step forward and showed that we can keep a clean sheet, we need to take a bigger step against Liverpool, not only show we can keep another clean sheet but show that we can take the lead and not only hold that lead but kill off the game.             

Photo: Action Images

Bulgarian added 09:42 - Mar 15 I may be a fool, but having in mind our defensive worries, I would very much fancy Forren for a start along with Fonte. Clyne on RB with Maya on the bench. Another thing is the pace/creativity issue. I am left with the impression Ramirez is better in a starting role, so I will leave Lallana for the 2nd half to replace him. Totally agree: Davis should start with Spider and Cork, so maybe Punch should also be in line for a strong 2nd half. And a question to all of you: I don't know if it's too claustrofobic and paranoic, but I definitely feel the SMS pitch is shorter and narrower from other grounds. I have seen the stats of all Premier pitches and in terms of parameters we do have a "normal" size ground, however when we attack it's always the feeling we lack a yard or two to widen our attacks. Is it my supporter's heart deceiving my senses or is there some logical explanation, anyone left with similar impressions?

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ItchenNorth added 10:16 - Mar 15 I completely agree with 'Bulgarians' first three paragraphys. I'd certainly start with Ramirez (Lallana can for this game be the ace hopefully up our sleave), would ike to see Forren in now (Maya and Hooiveld are too suspect still imo) and Davis can add a bit of steel. I'd start Boruc Clyne Fonte Forren Shaw Davis Cork Snider Ramirez Lambert J Rod
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SonicBoom added 10:48 - Mar 15 Why are you both putting Forren in. so far he's had 2 under 21 games to build fitness. I don't think that even if fit we should be starting him against Liverpool.
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mg2104 added 10:58 - Mar 15 We will get chances as we have done most games this season, we just have to start taking them!
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Bulgarian added 11:20 - Mar 15 About Forren: 1. Hooi and Maya are somewhat unconvincing for the task of keeping Suarez at bay. We know there's at least 1 goal between them to gift Liverpool, so in this situation we have nothing to lose realistically. So why not try something different? 2. True - Forren is not proven. However a) with international duty in mind; b) having played the U21 game against LFC; c) coming here and thus snubbing Anfield it must be some extra bonuses to his desire and concentration level. If we don't throw him now, then when? Playing as a surprise package near Suarez he may fail us, but may shine: although it's simple fishful thinking, it's not such a stupid gamble. 3. He will at least introduce some new aspects of play in our predictably fragile defensive line - again, could work either way. 4. Who can say that realistically we expect to get something from this game? At least this Saturday we have nothing to lose. 5. OK, it's what we have seen on videos etc., but Forren appears more than the other CBs to be capable of producing something we heavily need: deep long crosses. I hope this might benefit SRL. Btw: Shaw is a real gem, but he's been lacking crossing experience. I suspect this is why in the last month he has tried more forward runs. That's pretty much it - a fan's opinion, but at least I'm trying to see some logic here.

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REEDYREEDOREEDZ added 11:43 - Mar 15 Putting Forren in is a gamble and I don't think Poche will do it. I'd expect our CB pairing to be Fonte and Yoshida. Poche is likely to set us up tactically the same as the City game with Davis in midfield in front of Cork and Schneiderlin. As for the wingers its a toss up between J-Rod, Lallana, Ramirez and Puncheon. Whoever plays wide for us will need to track Glen Johnson and Jose Enrique as they'll be bombing forward at every opportunity. The trouble is I'm not sure any of our wingers are good at tracking back! On recent form J-Rod deserves to start. One thing is for certain and that's the fact that we need more goals from our attacking midfielders. The four named above have only scored: J-Rod 3, Lallana 2, Ramirez 4 and Puncheon 5 in the Premiership. All of these players need to be more clinical in thier finishing to take the burden off of Lambert.

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slynch added 11:50 - Mar 15 Remind me, please. How far were Saints out of the mire a month or so ago?
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ItchenNorth added 11:50 - Mar 15 SonicBoom; yes putting Forren in is a gamble but 'Bulgarian' has summed it up (again !) for me, certainly points 1-4 anyway. We don't know each other by the way before anyone asks !!!!
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SaintNick added 13:07 - Mar 15 I would love Forren to come in and be the real deal, but there is cleary something not quite right with him, he has been here fortwo months now but apart from one non playing appearance on the bench is yet to get even a sniff of first team action, given this is the one area that we really struggle in then clearly he is not impressing the manager in training
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schatfield added 15:06 - Mar 15 Will be an interesting game this one, and something I feel our defense will really be tested on, so lets hope the back 4 stand up and stay strong here. Shaw and Clyne hopefully will be starters, Fox will be a liability if he starts. Would also love to see Forren start and partner Fonte. Our other 2 defenders fill me with dread.
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ExiledSupporter added 17:46 - Mar 15 The doubts about Forren arise from the fact that MP has clearly not considered him suitable to dislodge our more experienced, but perhaps less capable defenders. This fairly strongly implies that MP has either been very disappointed with the purchase or more likely that this is just another punt on the part of Cortese and advisers. So no reason to think that Forren is necessarily all that good. Certainly Adkins had no part in the recruitment. I would like to think that Forren was a real star in the making, but nothing that Cortese does fills me with much confidence and if MP has his reservations then there is something very wrong with our transfer judgements...yet again.

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slynch added 22:01 - Mar 15 Yea man. That Cortese bloke, dammit! He's has brought nothing but misery, failure and decline since he joined Saints!
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gastonenzo added 04:53 - Mar 16 I think this will be an easy win for Saints, 5-0.
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