Saints fans biggest talking poit this week is whether Rickie Lambert will be fit for the visit of Portsmouth on Saturday.
Nigel Adkins hasspoken today saying that Lambert could and indeed should be fit on Saturday, but the problem for supporters is that with a policy of trying to confuse the opposition regarding who is injured and who isnt, fans dont know what to believe and having been told that Lambert would be fit to face Blackpool last weekend they are sceptical that anything has changed and that he again might be missing.
The problem for Saints here and it isnt their fault, is that whilst it serves a purpose to keep the opposition guessing whether a player will be fit or not, once the player has missed a game it can be counter productive to the fans who will then start to speculate about the players chances and in the case of Lambert, it can instill the wrong message in the fans and make them edgy on the day of the game.
However if any team can cover the loss of their leading scorer it is Saints, even with Tadanari Lee out injured they still have better attacking options than most teams in this division, Sharp, Guly, Connolly & Barnard are all players that have or are capable of hitting double figures in this division and in this respect Saints have no fears.
The big problem though is that without Lambert, Saints have to completely change the style of play and that contributed to the defeat at Blackpool, back in the transfer & loan windows earlier in the season I suggested that for a side that relied heavily on one player, that if he should get injured then we should have a like for like replacement in the wings, not only to replace Lambert when he was unavailable, but also to give him a rest when neccessary, whilst Sharp and Lee are good players in their own right, they are totally different to Lambert and compliment him rather than replace him, someone like Lukas Jutkiewicz would have been ideal.
If Lambert is missing against Portsmouth it will be a blow, but not a blow that in this game is insurmountable, in fact if it was any other bottom three team other than Pompey, supporters would probably not be so worried, indeed many would advocate resting Lambert for another game, keeping him in reserve ready for the tougher games in the last five