Saints host the Hammers hoping to earn the first win of the Premier League season and continue the progress made since the opening day defeat to Everton, but they do have injury issues.
Saints will be without 4 players for the visit of West Ham on Saturday, but the good news are that only two of them could have normally expected to play a part, Theo Walcott joins Stuart Armstrong in the treatment room alongside long term absentee Will Smallbone.
Thierry Small recently signed from Chelsea is not yet match fit.
Saints have looked good in part in all three of their opening Premier League fixtures, but the truth is they have failed to win any of them due to poor defending and that is where Ralph Hasenhuttl has to sort out the issue.
In goal I expect Alex McCarthy to continue, although he was dire in the opening two fixtures he looked better at Newcastle so I would be highly surprised if he was dropped for this one.
But the back line is really where Ralph needs to sort out the problem, put bluntly we have run around like headless chickens in all three games and we rely heavily on luck to make sure we aren't punished for slack play.
The first question is whether Ralph goes with a back 3 as he did in the second half against Manchester United or his usual back 4.
I would suspect that it will be the standard back four.
If that is the case then if we use the thoughts of the fans to predict the back four then most would say that he needs to put square pegs in round holes and play Kyle Walker Peters at right back, Jan Bednarek and Mohamed Salisu in the centre and Romain Peraud at left back. This would mean pushing Tino Livramento into the right midfield spot.
Most would agree this would be our strongest back line, Jack Stephens has done ok in the opening three games, but only ok and he is not consistent enough over 90 minutes to be ahead of the other options in the centre of defence.
Our new signing from Torino Lyanco could be in the running, but I suspect that at best he will be on the bench, in fact I would be surprised for him to be there, in many respects he was a strange signing, a player who at 24 was not first choice for Torino and for his age he doesn't have great experience, the question is firstly is he good enough and secondly is his English good enough ?
I would suspect that he needs a little more time to adapt before he comes into the side.
Ralph has to change the side at the back, as I said we have been ok for long periods of the games so far, but lapses have cost us dearly, 6 goals shipped in 3 games is not good enough.
In midfield as mentioned I would like to see Livramento employed to give us pace both up and down the line, I feel that he could form a great partnership with KWP on that side.
In the centre assuming they are fit there are only two choices James Ward Prowse and Oriol Romeu.
The next issue is on the left of the midfield, we have options, Moussa Djenepo has been good in the games he has played, but he has lacked an end product, at time he has been breathtaking in beating his man but he just hasn't delivered the final ball be it a cross or pass or an attempt on goal.
At Newcastle Nathan Redmond came off the bench and changed the game, many still didn't give him the credit, but those who were there saw him take on his man and both goals came from his ball into the box, a superb cross for Moi Elyounoussi for the first and then a through ball for Adam Armstrong who was brought down for the penalty.
Football is about who produces the goods and Nathan Redmond produced them at Newcastle twice and you don't get too many people do that in a game.
A third option could be the aforementioned Moi Elyounoussi, he has looked ok in the opening games but there is still a way to go before he convinces me he will become a serious contender for a regular place, but he has made a decent start in trying to prove that this season.
A fourth choice could be Nathan Tella, although I think Ralph sees him as more an attacking option up front at present.
Up front some have suggested that Armando Broja replace Che Adams based on a couple of goals against Newport and a goal for Albania, I think Broja will play a major part this season, possibly a major part in this game, but he shouldn't start ahead of Adams at present.
Adams is forming a decent partnership with Adam Armstrong that has seen them link up well and produce goals, we need to nurture that and make Broja push them for his place.
The good news is that this season I can talk about viable options, experienced options and even changes of formation, for the second half of last season I was talking about how many experienced pros we could actually put out due to injury etc and then typing names I had never heard of to go on the bench etc.
So that bodes well for the rest of the season, but we cannot avoid the issue that we still havent sorted out the centre of defence and that needs to be done and fast, it almost like last season cost us a point at Newcastle and nothing has changed at least not yet.