I dont think anyone needs reminding of the enormity of this game in terms of morale for the season.
Last season much was made of Saints haveing a winning mentality by supporters, it was oft quoted on message boards as one of the secrets of our success.
Now we are in the exact polar opposite of where we were a year ago, four straigh victories is now four straight defeats and we have to start winning games to ensure that we dont become entrenched in a losing mentality.
The more optimistic will of course say that there are still 34 games and that there is plenty of time to go, all this of course true, but it cant be denied that this run has to be ended soon especially as the excuses of playing top four teams have now run out.
Nigel Adkins has one big advantage though for the visit of Villa, he has new players at the club and can make changes to the starting line up from that, that was destroyed in the opening 40 minutes up at the Emirates and that is a very big advantage to him in trying to restore a little bit of confidence after last weeks debacle.
So with new players at hand Nigel has to get them back to basics, ideally that would be to return to a more traditional 4-4-2 line up, one that the players know how to play and perhaps more importantly that we have the personel available to play.
Whilst undoubtably 4-5-1 is the most popular in the Premier at the moment, the est teams are the ones that are flexible enough to change it when time and circumstance merit and perhaps this is one of those days, when you are on a losing streak get back to basics, firstly get the players doing things they are used to, get them passing the ball to each other short and then the wins will return, we proved that on more than one occasion last season after a dodgy spell.
But I fear that for one reason or another 4-5-1 will have to be played and if so then its important to get it right.
In goal I think Kelvin is still the man for tommorrow, although a few more displays like the one at Arsenal could see us needing to change, in the back four Yoshida needs to come in for Hooiveld, being captain of the Japanese Olympic team he is possibly a man with leadership qualities and that is something we are lacking in the back four.
Many are calling for Luke Shaw to be called into the side, many I would add who have never seen him play and are merely basing their opinion of him on the alledged bids from Arsenal & Chelsea, this is no basis to bring in a youngster and perhaps more importantly a defence in total chaos isnt the situation to do it either, yes Fox was ripped apart at Arsenal, but then again so was everyone and Fox has a reasonable right to ask where was his cover from midfield, haw will be one for the future, but ask yourself the question if he had played at the Emirates would it have changed the result, would we have won 1-0 instead of the 6-1 we suffered, I dont think I need to give that answer and that should perhaps put things in perspective.
In midfield Adam Lallana needs to come back in the centre with Nigel deciding which two from Scheneiderlin Davis and JWP play behind him, at Arsenal Adam played wide for one reason, Adkins four best midfielders dont go into three midfield places so room was made elsewhere, that happened last season on a couple of occasions with dire results, I would therefore like to see Lallana back in the middle and Ramirez come in on the left to add some pace, on the right its more difficult because quite frankly we havent got anyone who can do the job there consistently week in week out, for the visit of Villa we probably need to stick with Puncheon though.
Up front we are top heavy, Lambert will start but I fear his days of starting if we continue with only one up top are numbered, as Grant Holt found out at Norwich, the premier is a little more than just scoring goals, more than anything its about pace and work rate, Im sure SRL has the workrate but I fear he doesnt have the pace, hence the purchase of Manyuka, personally I would prefer to see Rodriguez up top.
So Nigel can rally his troops by bringing in two key players in Ramirez and Yoshida in key areas, but its still too little too late, however we cant change that now, we need to kick start our season with a win against Villa who are having their own problems and perhaps take ourselves out of the bottom three in the process.
Once again the fans can play their part, we need a full house with everyone behind the team even if things dont go right initially.