Saints travel to Stoke City hoping to improve on last seasons draw which saw them give away a two goal lead due to defensive lapses in concentration.

Stoke City may be fourth from bottom but they still have one of the meanest defences in the Premier League having conceded only 10 goals in their opening 9 fixtures, what has let them down however has been their ability to score goals, they have notched only six all season in the Premier and two of those cam in last Saturday's defeat at Old Trafford.

At home goals have been at a Premium at both ends of the pitch, they have not scored in the last three home fixtures in the Premier, two have been 0-0 including a creditable draw with Man City and another against West Brom, last time out., in fact the last time they scored at the Brittannia was on the second Saturday of the season when in their opening home fixture they beat Crystal Palace 2-1.

Therefore this has all the making of a low scoring game, Stoke a team who rarely score or concede at home and Saints who have yet to hit more than one on the road or concede more for that matter.

So most likely score based on these statistics would be either 0-0 or a 1-0 victory to either side.

However this is a game that Saints have to target to win, with a hard set of fixtures coming up, they have to get the points on the board as quickly as possible if they are not only to put distance between themselves and the chasing pack lead by Swansea on 11 points in 9th, but keep up with the top 5, Saints have set themselves high standards so far this season and they need to keep living up to them.

But they can do that, last week Saints look far better balanced than they have done all season and although the temptation for Mauricio Pochettino to bring back Osvaldo must be big, the key to winning this game will be to avoid doing so for two reasons, the first is that question of balance, why Saints played so well last week was because in playing the formation that they used to play without trying to accommodate both Lambert & Osvaldo, they actually knew were the lone forward was going to be, Lambert is very good on somethings and not so on others, but we played to his strengths and reaped the benefit, put bluntly we knew where he would be, unlike other weeks where the team rarely knew where either Osvaldo & Lambert would be at any given time and therefore could not play to either players strengths.

The second reason is that Lambert deserves the nod over Osvaldo due to his performance last week, Osvaldo got the nod at Old Trafford, but to be fair although it was a tough game, he didn't perform to the standard needed, Lambert however took his chance and should be in the driving seat, use this to keep both players on their toes and it is no bad thing, try to use both at the same time and it will negatively impact on both players game.

But the key areas will be unchanged against a Stoke side who despite a change in style under Mark Hughes still rely heavily on big players such as Huth, Sawcross and Crouch to be in the thick of the action in their opponents box, the difference between this season and last though, will be Lovren and Boruc, the central defender and keeper will relish commanding the box, unlike last seasons defence who struggled heavily with Kelvin Davis not looking comfortable even in his own six yard box.

But key to Saints winning the game will be Jay Rodriguez and Adam Lallana, not a lot attacking wise happens without one or both being involved as was shown last Saturday, Lallana takes the plaudits as his is a more flamboyant style, but Rodriguez looks a bigger, better and more confident player than last season and his more direct approach contrasts with Lallana, Adam's style relys on trickery whilt J Rod has pace and mobility and an ability to make runs along with a more physical presence, at present the unsung hero of the team, I feel that that could soon change.

So aw always its about Saints doing what they do well, that's keeping it tight at the back and taking their chances when they come, as I say I feel that they are better set up to do that now than at any other point this season.

Perhaps the only real question is whether a fit again Steven Davis is preferred to James Ward Prowse, the youngster proved his worth last week and is fast improving in leaps and bounds so much so that this question might not be asked much longer, but Davis might be better suited to countering Stoke's more physical approach.

But that is the only real change I foresee indeed hope that Pochettino is considering, last week it was said that was one of the best Saints performances in the top flight ever, I don't quite think that's true, but it is most certainly a winning formula, we should not be looking to tinker with it too much, some managers trip up because they feel that they have to keep changing, Pochettino doesn't seem to be one of them so far, however he does have the white elephant of a £15 million striker in the room and like all Premier managers the pressure is always on to justify a record signing, the key will be in doing what is best for the team and not justifying a big signing.

Photo: Action Images

brady100 added 14:45 - Nov 1 Good article, as mentioned setting ourselves such high standards means however difficult, this is the type of game we must be winning or at least draw.
0

stmichael added 15:35 - Nov 1 Think I would take a draw from this one. They will be physical and SRL could be important defensively too. Difficult game but one thing we may find to our advantage is that they and their crowd are unlikely to raise their game for us like they might a Man C or Man U. Its still just Southampton to them no matter how we are doing in the table and i can see us ambushing them.

0

LesVivian added 16:29 - Nov 1 Whatever the Club are saying, Osvaldo is clearly unhappy and is underperforming - there is no reason to play him in front of RL, whatever he cost. I hope the manager recognises this, and indicates that Osvaldo must fight to get back in, like RL, Steven Davis and JR have done!
-1

Blogs 32 bloggers

Southampton Polls