Saint aim to break their 23 year old hoodoo.
If ever Saints have the chance to beat the opening day hoodoo, then this fixture against Leeds is it, OK I said that last year against Plymouth, but back then the club was in a turmoil that few knew about that lead to the departure of Alan Pardew a couple of weeks later, however this year it should be a different story in that we seem to now have a settled squad, which although hasnt been improved drastically in the transfer window so far, does have a winning mentality about it.
The opening day line up is still a little unclear though with only Davis, Fonte, Lallana & Lambert 100% sure of playing and the other seven positions up for grabs.
At the back its still a toss up between Richardson & Butterfield for right back, on the left Harding looks sure to start if only because Ryan Dickson has missed a big part fo the pre season, but first real big decision for Adkins will be whom to play alongside Fonte in the centre, the Daily Echo seem sure that it will be Seabourne with Jaidi on the bench and whilst they havent got any great degree of knowledge more than the rest of us, they have obviouly spoken to the manager and may have got a feeling for his thoughts.
In midfield the only sure starter is Lallana, the fitness of Chamberlain is unclear but he looks unlikely to figure, in the centre its a caseof perm two from four, Cork looks set to start along with Schneiderlin which would leave Chaplow & Hammond vying for a place on the bench.
Wide right assuming Chamberlain isnt ready then its a straight fight between Guly who you would say probably deserves it due to his pre season form, or the new man De Ridder who obviously is an unknown quantity, I would expect Adkins to be cautious and go with Guly, preferring to use De Ridder off the bench.
Up front Lambert will certainly start and David Connoly will probably continue his return from the dead alongside him, being preferred to Barnard who has had a few knocks in pre season.
But perhaps the biggest connundrum for Nigel Adkins is the bench, with only five subs allowed it means that he has to consider the make up of the substitutes with a little more planning, with 7 choices he could obviously pick two players for each are plus the keeper, but with five and assuming he does use one of those positions for the keeper, he literally can have one for each area, plus a wild card depending on the situation and its this fifth man whois crucial, at home it will presuambly be a more attacking sort of player, whilst away perhaps more defensively minded, it might seem inconsequential changing the number of subs, but in reality it will affect games a little more than you might think.
If Saints do beat Leeds and smash their opening day, 23 year winless streak, then they will also set one club record and that is for consecutive wins, this would be the 7th in a row coming after 6 straight vicories at the end of last season.
Putting my title as prediction league winner up for ridicule I will stick my neck out and state now that I think Saints will wn 3-1