Can Saints win on the road for a second time this week and in doing so push themselves onto the fringes of the play off places, has Will Still finally found a winning combination after shuffling and re shuffling the pack.
The win at Sheffield United was more about the result than the performance, the Blades huffed and puffed and at times looked dangerous, but a Southampton side who are still a work in progress stayed firm and took home all 3 points.
Will Still has put his faith in a combination of youth & new signings and the question is whether he has the conviction to stay with them or whether he will tinker a little bit too much.
For me the big question is who plays in goal, Alex McCarthy has played in 3 games including the League cup tie at Liverpool and conceded 4 goals and to be blunt he made a present of the first goal at Anfield and should have done much better with Boro's equaliser and went down too early with Sheffield United's goal on Tuesday, in truth he should have done much better.
So who will be Will Still's choice for the trip to Derby ? I would think that he will stick with McCarthy, but the fact is I'm not sure that is the right decision.
The back line has looked a lot better, so I would not expect too many changes, in the midfield and out wide opinions are divided into two on Tom Fellows, most Saints fans I have spoken to have the opinion that Fellows has been one of our better players since he has arrived, but Will Still feels different having substituted early second half against West Brom and at half time at Bramall Lane, so will he start him at Pride Park or opt for starting Ryan Frazer.
Up front it should be Adam Armstrong & Ross Stewart, the question here is whether starting a 3rd game in the space of a week is too much for Stewart given his injury issues, the Scottish striker didn't have many admirers this time last week, but now is seen by some as the saviour of the season now.
As I have mentioned in an earlier article, the problem for Will Still is that he has too many options and can't make up his mind about any of them, last week he made some bold decisions and gambled on dropping some big names, but should he restore one them to the side, that is the question.
Form wise there is not a lot too choose from the two teams, in terms of form there is not a lot to choose, in the last 6 games Derby have won 1, drawn 4 and lost 1, whilst Saints have also won 1 but drawn only 3 with 2 defeats.
But the Rams will be without Ben Brereton Diaz who being on loan from Saints cannot play in this game, he has started 4 games for Der by and scored 1 goal, indeed he is joint 2nd place in the scoring stakes, the big threat for Rams is Carlton Morris with 4 goals in 8 Championship performance, he scored in each of Derby's opening 4 fixtures, but has failed to hit the target in the last 4, Derby supporters put this down to the fact that he started the season as a traditional centre forward but has played in a deeper role in those 4 blank games.
Morris will be the dangerman for Derby and if we can keep him quiet then it will give us the foundations to build on.
A win for Saints will see us move up the table, we are only 3 points off the play off positions and that has to be our first target, it is unlikely that 3 points at Pride Park will get us into those positions, but it would be good to cut some of that gap down.
Will Still has now had a month to work with his new signings and although initially it hasn't quite worked out, the last 2 games has seen progress made, Still has stopped his constant tinkering and stuck with the basis of the side and it's worked, defenders need to know there roles at the back and not be constantly changed and likewise strikers who up till now have been constantly changed.
So we should fancy ourselves for this one with all respect to Derby, we have achieved 10th place without really finding our form, if we can start to have some consistency and find that form, then we should move up the League.
But proof of the pudding is in the eating, Will Still has had his honeymoon period, the jury is still out on his ability, but he deserves the chance to show that he can move us forward, but as they say in football, at most clubs a manager is only 4 bad games away from the sack at any time in the season, lets reserve our next judgement when we know where we sit after 12 games.