Saints At Sunderland The Preview Saturday, 11th Feb 2017 10:03 Claude Puel has to show the fans that he has the tactical nous to make subtle changes and alter the course of not just this game but the season. This is a vital game for Saints and indeed under fire manager Claude Puel, the stark reality for Saints is that the failure to land an experienced and fit central defender in the transfer window is now costing them dearly. Although I do not like to point the finger at individual players as after all football is a team game, the fact is that the Yoshida/ Stephens partnership is not good enough. I will not go too deeply into this here, but it is common sense that these two players having both failed to seriously push for a regular place in the first team over the past five years are not suddenly going to turn into truly Premier League quality central defenders overnight, this has been a major mistake by Les Reed and his back room team and not only have Saints paid the price but Claude Puel who is having to mend and make do. Now after a couple of results that have both resulted from defensive issues both in errors and concentration, Puel has to look how he can plug this gap. I would again suggest the best fix would be to move Bertrand into the centre alongside Yoshida to offer that organisation and pace that is lacking and move McQueen into the left back spot. This tactical change is glaringly obvious, if only because there are no other options. With the threat of Defoe who will use speed off the mark rather than height this makes perfect sense. This is a very important game not only for the league but the forthcoming cup final, firstly in the Premier we need to get a win that will take us over the 30 point mark and into the home straight, the fact that we are only 3 points off the top ten and indeed would have been 9th if we had beaten West Ham tells you one thing and that is we are not as bad a team as some would have you believe. Yes of course it is if only, but it is a good indication of the quality we have and that is stil there, but also shows that we have a lot of issues. We are a good team playing badly with the added addition of injury issues, that should give us hope that if everyone pulls together then we can turn this round. A win at Sunderland will do just that. They know they are not a good team, but they come into this on the back of a good win and will target ourvisit as a chance to get off the bottom of the table, but they know as we often found out at this stage of the season in the past, that this will put pressure on them from their own fans and Saints have to capitalise on that. There is no reason why we should not go out there and get a result, a team with this line up is more than a match for anyone. Forster Soares, Yoshida, Bertrand, McQueen Davis Romeu, Clasie Long , Gabbiadini, Redmond Outfield Subs, Tadic, Rodriguez, Hojbjerg, Stephens, Sims, Martina We know where the weakness is so we need to do something different, plug the gap, win the game and then gain the confidence that we can go to Wembley and get a result. Simple isn't it ! But sometimes football is simple there is no need to make it complicated and that in essence has been our problem this season, too many changes when not necessary and too much complication when we are on the pitch. So today we will find out whether Claude Puel has what it takes to be the manager of Southampton Football Club in the long term, either way it will perhaps not give us the final answer, but he could go a long way in restoring the faith of the core of the supporters in him to eventually get it right. Photo: Action Images Please report offensive, libellous or inappropriate posts by using the links provided.
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