Saints head to South East London for a reunion with former manager Nathan Jones, although given the number of managers at St Mary's in the last few years, it is a surprise that we don't have more games against our ex's.

It's been a while since we last went into The Valley and took on Charlton and indeed Nathan Jones short tenure at Southampton manager seems an age ago, but the reality is that the 3rd anniversary of his arrival at St Mary's and his debut in charge at Anfield was a week or so ago.

There are some in the media stirring this up as some sort of grudge match, it may be for Jones himself who by all accounts was a very volatile character in the dressing room and training pitch, but from a Saints perspective he was a mistake corrected very quickly.

Ironically it is a bit of deja vu, we have just sacked Will Still after a similar number of games in charge and back then we replaced him with Ruben Selles initially as caretaker and then after 2 wins in 3 games as the man to try and keep us up after being appointed manager till the end of the season, there are those predicting we are about to repeat what turned out to be a big error.

But it will be a weakened Charlton side that Saints will take on, a big part of their side has been James Bree, who as he is only on loan at The Valley will be unable to play against his parent club, so that will not be a reunion on the pitch with his former team mates.

Bree has been a big part of Charlton's rise up the table this season, he has scored twice and contributed 2 assist to their position of 9th with 23 points, just a couple away from a play off spot.

He is not the only player who has played for Saints in the squad, Kayne Ramsay made 4 appearances for the club under Ralph Hasenhuttl, one being playing the full 90 minutes in our 9-0 defeat at Manchester United.

Ramsay is a regular in the Charlton side so is likely to play against his former club, although of the 20 players on duty that night, only Alex McCarthy & jack Stephens who both started in that match remain at St Mary's.

But a look at the form guide suggests that they are not a side who are consistent, in the last 4 games they have won 1 lost 1 and drew 2, to take 5 points out of 9, not promotion form, their position seems to be based on being able to put two straight wins together every now and then.

So we can go into this game with confidence, two straight wins showed that fundamentally we have a strong squad, one that although low on confidence, shell shocked by Will Still's selections & tactics, could still show the mental strength to battle though to get a win at QPR and follow that up by beating Sheffield Wednesday.

That gives hope that although Tonda Eckert may not be the answer longer term, at least not yet, that this is a squad that just needs to be managed properly with square pegs in square holes.

I would not expect too much change from the teams that Eckert put out in his two games in charge so far, the good thing about Eckert is that he seems to be keeping things simple, he is not trying to impose complicated changes and he is not making scattergun substitutions.

That has seen him win two games, Ok the one achieved at QPR saw a final 15 minutes when we were on the back foot, but the team showed that it had guts and spirit and dug in and won through, I did not see this as a bad thing, I aw it as a positive sign that we have a squad who can roll up their sleeves when they need to.

But we need to keep winning and this with all due respect to Charlton is a game that if you are a side with promotion aspirations you have to win, if we do then it will take us another step forward, perhaps not in terms of the number of places we will rise, but certainly in terms of points as we will get closer to a few more clubs above us.

The big question though is Tonda Eckert himself, it seems that at the moment Saints are hedging their bets, that Eckert is buying them time to find the right man, with every win it takes the pressure off.

Rumours abound, everyone has a theory on social media, but the reality is that the club are saying nothing so we don't know what they are doing, for all we know, they could be deep in talks with a manager, if that is the case to publicly say that would be disrespectful to Tonda Eckert and could have a negative impact in this coming game.

For all we know they could have been turned down by several candidates whom the fans would be happy with.

Also they could be considering that Eckert might be there man, not as far fetched as it may seem, if he was to embrace the experience of Paul Trollope & Adam Lallana instead of keeping them at arms length as Still did, then it could be a dream team.

There will come a time though when they might have to make a decision, it might be an easy one, If Saints beat Charlton to make it 3 games in a row and indeed follow it up by beating Leicester & Millwall, then unlike Will Still who seemingly gave a good interview and then could not deliver, he would have done the opposite, earned a shot at the job on merit not promises.

That might not please some, but we have rarely won 3 matches in a row in the last 9 years, let along 4 or 5.

However as we saw with Selles, a couple of early wins is no guaranteed going forward, this decision has to be the right one.

by 2.30pm on Saturday we will have answered another question.

All Photos Via Reuters

davidargyll added 09:27 - Nov 21 One point worth making is that Charlton has only let in four goals at home, the equal least in the Championship, whilst we have scored 11 away, equal second most. Maybe not yet an unstoppable force meeting an immovable object, but a draw seems more than a possibilty…
1

SaintPaulVW added 09:31 - Nov 21 It will be interesting to see if the extended break has given TE time to work with the team on his own ideas and set up. I think we have experienced a new manager bounce in that removing WS took an increasing 'will they/won't they sack him' distraction away that was affecting the team's performances. If Tonda can show real progress- which was all we really wanted from WS - then I think he should get the job. I think our key this year is to attack attack attack. Given our error prone defenders we struggle to defend single goal leads. I think we have the best attacking group of players in the league if they are given the service. Just need to start making the best use of the squad that we have. COYR

0

Bowlercow added 11:04 - Nov 21 Charlton have taken 5 of the last 9 points available That is not to far off promotion, or at least ,play off form g We need to average 2 points per game for the rest of the season so 5 from these next 3 games would do Any more would be a bonus TE has given us a bounce so would bringing in a new man give us another one A sold out away end again so let's hope our travelling support get what they deserve

1

underweststand added 13:47 - Nov 21 Although this match is a Championship game between the two clubs, it has been sidelined into a match between Nathan Jones who will want to prove Saints were wrong to sack him (although he's probably the only person who believes that )..and Tonda Eckert who will want to prove he's capable of managing a winning side on a consistent basis. IF.. Saints had already found another replacement for Still, he would have been in place already, but something tells me that " the Board / Spors " aren't totally convinced by any of the potential candidates they may have already interviewed already. This 3 match trail period will be a good test, Charlton (for the reasons above), Leicester for a number of historical reasons and Millwall because they are the type of rough/tough Championship side that we need to beat convincingly if we are to progress in this league. What is good enough to get Eckert the job ?.. At least 5 points, and/or preferably 2 wins.

1

StRipper added 15:36 - Nov 21 This match was one not to miss, to say I was there to see the great Nathan Jones! So glad the footballing gods threw this one up for us. And the timing is perfect. Like a reminder of how we ended up in the mess that we are ow, by trying ambitious, inexperienced, under qualified managers. With all this talk of who we could appoint as our new manager, I think a key point is getting lost. We are not entertaining and it is not enjoyable or exciting watching us play. And its been that way since Russ ball was shoved down our throats. We're turning into what Sam Allardyce did to Bolton. And look where they are now. That means that 3-4-3 has to go in the bin. And so far Eckert has shown a total lack of new ideas and that he will be just as married to that tiresome formation. We have to get back to playing like a Southampton side since time immemorial. Whoever does that and can read the game, am sure we can all get behind. But if we give the job to Eckert because he scrapes a few results, we're going no where but downhill

2

Monksway added 10:32 - Nov 22 Doesn't sound like Ekhert is embracing Trollope and Lallana. Trollope has gone to Wolves and Lallana to the u21 perhaps en route for the exit door. If Ekhert doesn't persuade RM's acolytes ( Bazunu, THB, Stephens, Manning Downes etc) to put in a proper shift then I'm guessing it will be all change again with Ekhert back to the youngsters and a new man and backroom staff appointed.

0

Blogs 30 bloggers

Southampton Polls