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Saints At West Bromwich Albion The Preview
Friday, 7th Apr 2017 11:38

Saints travel to the Midlands for a game that will determine whether they have any chance of overhauling the Baggies for 8th place in the league, but as normal we have more injuries than an episode of Holby City.

Saints hopes of finishing 8th rest on beating West Bromwich Albion at the Hawthorns on Saturday afternoon, a win would bring us within 4 points of them with two games in hand and a chance of a good run taking us up into 8th by the end of the season.

However a defeat would see us 10 points adrift and even if we were to win the two games in hand that would still be a big ask to make up the ground in a short period.

A draw would of course suit the Baggies more than ourselves and if that was the case I would rather be in their position 7 points clear of us than ours.

But the problem is that Saints go into this game with an injury list that wouldstretch the NHS to it's limits, definately out are the long term causalties of Charlie Austin, Virgil Van Dijk and Matt Targett, add to that shorter term Manolo Gabbiadini who is unlikely to return for this match and that in itself would be bad enough.

However there are also doubts about Steven Davis who damaged an ankle on Wednesday and Ryan Bertrand who missed that game with a hamstring issue.

Then it gets worse with Oriol Romeu, aguably our most consistent player over the season being suspended for two games starting with this one.

That leaves Claude Puel with a quandary.

The centre of midfield without Romeu and Davis would normally not be a problem, after all we have Hojbjerg and Clasie to come in, but neither of them have played much in the last two month.

Hojbjerg has come on as a sub twice since the end of January, 8 mins at Sunderland and 3 mins against Palace.

Clasie has featured just once since he started in the defeat at Swansea on the final day of January, that was 3 mins at Watford over a month ago.

So whilst both have been fit and in full training, neither will have match sharpness and that would be a big enough issue if we had to put one of them in let alone both, this highlights the full circle that Claude Puel's selection policy has turned, not only has he kept the same team week in week out barring injury, but in most of the games he has rarely used substitutes for long periods, most of his changes not forced by injury have been as in the case of Hojbjerg on Wednesday, a few minutes at the end running the clock down.

This means that suddenly with issues in the centre of midfield we are looking at players who are not match sharp coming in.

The up side is that we do have strength in depth, we can cope with this and hopefully fresh legs might be good for us and the players coming in have a point to prove.

Once again though I have to harp on about our centre of defence, for most of Wednesday night it was tight, but the reality is that there were far too many occasions were our centre halves were not tight enough or had lapses in concentration and this gave Palace changes that they should not have had and to be blunt should have scored from.

Puel has to be pro active here and look at the pairing and throw Caceres in, otherwise what was the point in signing him, or we can just hope that West Brom are just as wasteful as Palace and Bournemouth, each of which would have both hit three goals if it wasn't for poor finishing.

But on the plus side going forward we did look good on Wednesday, although I have criticised Puel for his lack of substitutions and giving players game time, on Wednesday it was difficult for him to take off any of his central midfield trio or the 3 attackers, all were having good games and creating chances and we had to keep faith with them from that point of view.

It paid off in the end and sometimes late wins like that kick start season's, Saints are the best side outside of the top six, but unlike Everton or West Brom we have yet to put together a run of straight wins, only twice have we won two Premier league games in a row, it is testimony to how good the squad actually is, that with so many issues with injuries and other off the field distractions that we are still 9th, indeed we are only four points short of our total of 41 points after 29 games last year.

Last year we had an amazing late run and we need to do something similar again, it will not get us to 6th or even 7th, but it can get us to 8th and we need to build on the confidence of Wednesday with a win at the Hawthorns.

It is hard to pick a team with so many unknowns at the moment in terms of injury, but I will say that in defence we need to sort things out, conceding only one goal in the last two games looks good on paper, but anyone who was there knows the lapses that we had and the chances both Bournemouth and Palace squandered after our poor defending.

I have nothing against Yoshida & Stephens, if they play on Saturday I would be delighted to see them put in a sterling performance and keep a clean sheet, but I want it to be through our play and not the fact that the opposition cant hit a barn door, that has not been the case in the last two games..

If we can beat the Baggies then for the visit of Manchester City we should have Gabbiadini back and then we can get a head of steam up and haul them in.

Photo: Action Images



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LordDZLucan added 13:46 - Apr 7
Yoshida and Stephens have been very good since they came together back in January. In fact Yoshida has been that good that I think we need to get him on a longer term contract before another club comes in for him. Problem area for me has been left back. Ryan Bertrand hasn't been at his best recently and Sam McQueen's reluctance to tackle led directly to Palace's goal on Wednesday night. Therefore, if Caceres can play left back then bring him in; otherwise leave well alone.
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Sanguin added 13:54 - Apr 7
If Caceres doesn't start when Yoshida has only been back in the country for two days, then I'm not sure Puel will ever start him.

I thought our defence looked really shaky at times on Wednesday. Stephens and McQueen together is too much inexperience in the back four. If Bertrand is injured then Puel has to start Caceres just to ensure we have some calmer more experienced heads maintaining the line.
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bstokesaint added 14:00 - Apr 7
I agree Lucan with extending Yoshida’s contract. If there was an award for most improved player I think he’d be a worthy contender. I don’t buy this because “nobody has come in for him” he’s not a PL player. As I’ve said before he’s never going to be world class, but we’ve been spoiled with the likes of Lovren, Toby and now VVD who have all been exceptional defenders. If you compare someone like Fonte to Yoshida I don’t think there’s much between them and Fonte had the advantage of a long run in the team. The Hammers’ fans I work with don’t exactly rate Fonte, so it’s not like he is considered to be a cut above. Although prone to mistakes in the past I do feel Yoshi’s pace has bailed us out on a few occasions. I still need to see more of Stephens to make my mind up on him.
It is a good point you make Nick about comparing this season with last. The Puel critics will argue he’s not up to the task, but we’re only 4 points off last season at the same stage. I can’t see us mirroring last season’s epic 7 wins, 1 draw and 1 defeat from the last 9 games, but even if we won them all I don’t reckon it’d be enough to qualify for Europe. That does kind of suggest the standard of the PL is that much higher this year and so we haven’t struggled as much as some may think. It’s good that many of us still find of areas that we think we could improve on, but I think the key this summer is hanging on to VVD, Romeu, Bertie, Cedric and Gabbi. If we can do that and build the team around these big players then I can see next season being very exciting.
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helpineedsomebody added 15:11 - Apr 7
The way wba play it's called alehouse football
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allsaint54 added 16:56 - Apr 7
My big issue defensively is Forster. Any shot on target unless straight at him ends up in the net. How many good diving saves has he made this season? He rarely comes out for crosses unless there's nobody around him. His distribution is poor and setting up of defensive walls is suspect.
All of this cannot give any confidence to the rest of the back four. Surely a time for Hassan to start & see if he's worth keeping. Definitely a need for a rethink for next season. Hart's going to be availabl.
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SanMarco added 20:06 - Apr 7
No Romeu is the big news - I am already preparing a place behind the sofa to watch the Man C game from...Tomorrow we will be weak in the central area and quite frankly a point would be a very good result.
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1teeminants added 22:09 - Apr 7
Yoshida has been very good this season Nick. Most people agree but not yourself for some reason . He is Definitely our most improved player. I thought he was our man of the match in Milan and he has put in some good performances in the league. Yes he has made a few errors in the past but that's what they are, in the past and now he has buckled down ,taken his opportunity, gives 100 % all the time and his confidence has increased no end by having an extended run of games and he is making hardly any errors. Many I speak to in the pubs agrees he's our most improved player so there's something you're missing I think but we're all entitled to opinions.
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1teeminants added 22:14 - Apr 7
Puel was saying today Nick how impressed he is with Yoshida and how he is definitely a leader and captain material along with Van Dijk and Davis.
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