Saints welcome Sunderland to St Mary's looking to kick start Claude Puel's reign at St Mary's with a win.

Whilst another result similar to that of two years ago when the Black Cats were walloped 8-0 would be welcome, the truth is that Saints supporters would be grateful just to see a ame that is won and won well.

That means keeping it tight at the back and not being open to those little lapses in concentration that have cost us dearly, winning the ball in the midfield and keeping it and finally turning all these shots off target into ones that are on and ultimately into goals.

We have the firepower to score goals we just haven't utilised it properly yet.

That means a little more bravery from Clause Puel, in both of the last two games we have not been as adventurous as we could have been, especially in the last stages of both games where we were chasing a win in the case of the Watford game and to get back in the game against Man Utd, for those who say we lack goals, I would counter with the fact that we had two proven goalscorers in Austin & Rodriguez on the bench and between them they got 8 minutes in the Watford game and around 30 at Old Trafford.

So I expect Claude Puel to play a similar line up against Sunderland, there are a couple of selection issues though, at the back it is only about if Ryan Bertrand returns, Matt Targett has done nothing wrong and continues to improve despite what some of the fans would have you believe, but he does not have the pace that Bertrand does and at the moment Puel's formation needs an overlapping full back.

In midfield there could be some juggling and one choice is between Romeu and Clasie, the Spanish player went off early at United to be replaced by Clasie and although he is now fit, I would favour the Dutchman who is better at getting the ball forward quickly, against Sunderland we need to be looking to catch them on the back foot.

The big decision for me is up front, I think we need to start Charlie Austin in this one but how we accommodate him is another question, the simplest answer would be to swap Austin for Shane Long, but the Irishman has done nothing wrong.

This is a good choice for Puel to make though as he has to make tough decisions and that is better than a side that picks itself.

If It was me I would play a central midfield of Hojbjerg holding with Davis and Tadic in front, out wide I would have Redmond and Long with Austin as the central striker.

In the opening two games we have got a lot of crosses into the box, but we need someone with the physical presence to get on the end of them, for me this would be the best formation.

It would be hard on Clasie and Romeu to leave them out, but we have to take the game to Sunderland, we did this two years ago when in his early games Koeman preferred Jack Cork to Wanyama in games like this , this was because Wanyama could not move the ball quickly and get teams on the back foot, whereas Cork could.

As I said it's a nice dilemma for a manager to have and it is time for the Frenchman to show he has the tactical nous to try something different and change games.

Saints have the squad to pick from and hopefully this squad will get better in the coming days, then we can see what the season truly holds for us.

Photo: Action Images

Southampton Polls