Saints go into the penultimate pre season friendly knowing that now is the time to step up the pace as they prepare for the big kick off in a fortnight.
With only two pre season friendlies left, the ante will be upped as hopefully Mauricio Pochettino will be starting to know just what shape his side will be taking next season, of course like any pre season friendly there will be substitutions and changes, but being this close to the big kick off Pochettino will be looking at several key areas and considering his options.
In goal its probably a no brainer, Artur Boruc will be the main man, but in defence its different and when the staring back four is selected perhaps only Luke Shaw can be reasonably confident he will be in it at the Hawthorns, at right back Nathan Clyne is carrying an injury and Callum Chambers might be asked to carry his good pre season form into the big show. In the centre Dejan Lovren looks a shoe in, but who will partner him ? it could be any one from three.
In midfield its anyone's guess, Wanyama and Schneiderlin are definates, but the other three are really open to speculation, it could be that Jack Cork would also keep his place as Pochettino looks to perhaps play a holding central three who can cover the two wide men allowing them to attack more thus ensuring we don't get caught on the break as we did on far too many occasions last year, but who the two wide players will be is really something I wouldn't want to put money on, certainly it could be any two of Lallana, Ramirez, Rodriguez & Puncheon.
But its up front that the real shock could be, with the high tempo pressing game requiring a forward who can close down the opposing defenders and stop them running the ball out of defence there is speculation that Rickie Lambert might not be first choice next season, certainly that seems to be the case if rumours of new signings are correct, you don't pay £20 million for a striker to sit him on the bench, but if Saints fail to land a striker, it could be that Jay Rodriguez could be getting the nod ahead of Rickie and that SRL will be used more off the bench as an impact player, its premature to write Rickie off just yet, after all he has confounded his critics in each of the last two seasons.
But perhaps the most worrying is that it is now the time to get serious and with two weeks to go we have made only two additions to the squad, anyone coming in now will have little time to adjust to not only a move to Southampton itself as a City and the upheaval, but to fitting into the squad and pattern of play and Saints supporters are obviously concerned that having failed to land players early in the transfer window that like last season there will be a last minute rush and history tells us and indeed all football clubs that when signings are rushed there are a higher proportion of failures.
Now Mauricio Pochettino will be getting down to business on the pitch, he has got the squad fit, he now needs to fine tune and decide just what his best starting line up will be, the two pre season friendlies left and some hard work on the training ground will go a long way to helping him decide that.