An important game for Mauricio Pellegrino, although Saints have made a solid start to the season the jury on him is still out amidst the Saints support, he needs to show he can motivate the team and end the goal drought.
Saints fans have been patient with Mauricio Pellegrino, he is at a disadvantage in that he has inherited a squad with issues, Virgil Van Dijk for one, but perhaps more importantly a squad that was on the back of a goal drought at the end of the previous season.
It would be very hard for a new manager, any new manager to come in and just click his fingers and solve all the problems in one go and the off field problems with Van Dijk were very disruptive, but although Saints have made a solid start the goal scoring problems persist and the fans are starting to lose patience.
The problem is that they can see that the formation is not working going forward, some think that it is just a question of playing two strikers or changing a couple of players but it is more than that and Pellegrino needs to now show that he is tctically aware enough to be pro active and solve the problem.
That came to a head last week at Brighton with yet another game with few chances created and the supporters are sick of seeing the same things repeated week in week out.
Pellegrino came with a great reputation, the fans were willing to give him time, but the perception of him is starting to become one of a manager who is defence minded and not tactically aware, a good team as Saints are will get results, but it really should be doing much better and as i say the perception of the manager is starting to go downhill and that is a worry.
That is why today's game is so important, Pellegrino needs to get the fans back on side, he needs to show he is not just going to do the same things week in week out and hope they work out, he needs to show he can change tactics and change games.
Most Saints games this season that have not been wins have felt like points dropped not fair results, we should have got more out of all our draws and losses, we haven't left any of the three defeats feeling that we should have lost, but we have left feeling like we should have scored or in the case of Stoke scored more.
The problem is that when you are not scoring defensive lapses cost you dearly and that has very much been the case.
The good news though is we have the squad to turn it round, we just need the manager to realise he has to play to our strengths not how he would want us to play, a style that at the moment we do not have the personel for.
If he is going to keep with a back four I would like to see him stick with those who played at Brighton, that is our best back four and has the ability to defend and attack.
In midfield I would like to see Romeu and Davis in the centre with Redmond and Tadic out wide, then perhaps play Manolo Gabbiadini just behind Charlie Austin.
Use our strengths, get the ball wide, thenget the ball into Austin who can then bring Gabbiadini into play, the Italian is best with the ball at his feet running at defenders, he rarely got that chance at Brighton.
But there is also a case for the manager to go three at the back, again that could see Yoshida alongside Hoedt and Van Dijk, that would see a defensive due of Romeu and Davis in central midfield with Soares and Bertrand as wing backs, you could then sit JWP or even Boufal in front of them in a free role with the instructions to get the ball into the two front men.
Im not saying this would be the best formations, but it seems smple enough to me and if I can think of a few ways to change our lack of creativity in front of goal then so should the manager be able to.
I like Mauricio Pellegrino he has an aura about him that Claude Puel never had, but he now needs to start showing that he can adapt and change things.
The fact that in any of those line ups we did not have Redmond, Tadic and Long, shows that we have the attacking options, we are just not using them to their full abilities.
This is a winnabe game for Saints, Burnley have a good away record, but that is down to the fact that they won at Chelsea 3-2 on the opening day and then a 1-1 draw at Spurs and a 1-0 win at an Everton side in freefall, those three goals on the opening day accounted for half of the six goals scored on the road in their five games so far, they usually score but never more than one in the games since.
We should be able to beat them, we can keep a clean sheet we jut need to score goals, it is time we put a side to the sword and did so, if we can do that today then the table will look a better place to go into the International break, it will leapfrog us above Burnley at least and possibly another club.
But it is all about getting the result and for all I have said I would have swapped the 2-2 draw against Newcastle for a boring 1-0 win and I would do the same again today.