A very important game for Saints, win it and the season will seem a lot more rosier, but lose it and it will ring alarm bells with so many tough games coming up thick and fast.

An old adage in football says that a good team does not become a bad team overnight and that is very much what Saints fans should remember as their team heads towards South London.

A few weeks ago and everything looked rosy, four wins and two draws saw Saints near the top of the current form table and things looked set for a challenge for the top five.

Then came back to back defeats to Stoke & Manchester City in the League and a draw against Villa, however such is the closeness of the Premier League table at present, even a late winner last weekend would have seen us in 7th.

So we go to Palace who themselves are 6th knowing that if we win we will jump above them, however that will be easier said than done in that we are not a side in confident mood at present.

But all sides suffer this from time to time and sometimes it is not the obvious that sparks a revival and hopefully the equaliser against Villa may be that catalyst, the fact is in the League we have not played badly, but we have been blighted by lapses in concentration and individual error and that has let us down badly.

When we keep it tight we can beat anyone in this division, but too often this season we have not kept it tight especially at Manchester City which is after all our only away defeat.

So going to Palace Ronald Koeman's job will be to get the team playing again with confidence, but more importantly cutting out these lapses, if he and indeed we as a team can do that then we have nothing to fear.

The first thing is to get team selection right, at times this season perhaps Koeman has got it wrong, perhaps having too much choice has not helped him, but he needs to be ruthless on this occasion.

The goalkeeper picks himself at present and hopefully the return of Fraser Forster to training will spur him on a little.

The back four should be Soares, Fonte, Van Dijk, Bertrand, no doubts there and that has cost us dearly this season when Soares has been dropped for Yoshida.

In midfield Wanyama and Romeu anchoring it, the Kenyan is the best we have on his day and Romeu has shown he deserves more of a crack than he has got.

In front of them Steven Davis, he has been our most consistent player this season, James Ward Prowse has had his chance to grab games by the scruff of the neck but hasn't done so.

Wide Tadic and Mane, both have to protect their full backs though a little more.

Up front Pelle.

That is just about the strongest team we can put out at present taking into account injury and form.

The bench will also be key, the six outfield players should be Caulker, Long, Juanmi, Ward Prowse, Clasie & Targett, that gives two players for each area of the pitch & covers both tactical changes and also those that could be caused by injury.

This bench perhaps shows us how strong we are as a squad and that we should not fear going to Palace but relish it, we have the players on their day to beat any team in this league and certainly the options to beat Palace.

So it will be about three things on Saturday, first get the selection right, second cut out te lapses and errors and then thirdly play with confidence, if we do all of those three things then we are capable of taking all three points and jumping ourselves up a place or two in the league.

Once again we have a full complement of support up at Selhurst Park and as ever the away support will get behind the team, it needs to do that and stay behind it, we have gone behind on more than one occasion this season away from home, but the Saints travelling support stayed with them and we have come back to earn points.

Photo: Action Images

TeamCortese added 13:55 - Dec 11 Nick! Your post is bang on the money and I have nothing to say. Keep it up!
0

TimSaint added 14:30 - Dec 11 We are where we are in the league, end of story. We are not a bad team in a very tight league and yes, the odd extra point here or there would have made a massive difference to our league position. With better finishing (Newcastle, Man Utd, Villa), less errors (Man Utd, Man City, Leicester, Everton) and more from the officials (Stoke) we COULD have had another 8 or 9 points and be in the top 4, but the reality is we haven't, so we have to get on with it and accept where we are. With our success over the last 2 seasons, expectation levels have risen and more people get more annoyed when points are dropped. After all, this is a results driven business and the margins between success and failure are very small. Palace themselves could have been 4 points clear of us, had they hung on to their lead on Monday and I am sure that every team in the league can point to some 'what if' incidents. We are where we are and to quote the old cliche, the league doesn't lie !! If we win tomorrow, we go above Palace, so that should be all the motivation we need. If we play to our capabilities, finish our chances, cut out the errors and maybe have some decent officials for once, we can win tomorrow and re-start our ascent up the league !! :o)

1

DPeps added 14:57 - Dec 11 This should be a good game. Assuming Cedric starts then a lot depends on how well he can contain Bolasie/Zaha. Big Vic and Romeu/Clasie need to keep Cabaye under control too. If we can do these things (and our attackers have their shooting boots on) then we win
0

SonicBoom added 15:29 - Dec 11 Let's hope we can get a win. A happy hunting ground for us. A couple of things though. You said Ron maybe has too much choice. Come on, we used to moan that our squad wasn't deep enough. we can't now use that depth as an excuse. Secondly you say we are not a bad team, but it's been a collection of individual errors. Surely a bad performance is always merely a collection of individual errors. What we need is for Ron to put square pegs in square holes and the team to do the basics properly.

0

corkcitysaint added 11:04 - Dec 12 A crucial game today indeed.. Another old cliche but the first goal is key. We go ahead, we may cling on for a win. Go behind and the way our confidence is at the moment would be hard to fight back. Palace are playing well but at least our away form has been good this season. Still in all, I can't see us getting a win today. However, c'mon Saints!!
0

aceofthebase added 13:24 - Dec 12 Agree with your team selection. Soares just better than Yoshida in that position as an attacker but not much better as a defender. The bench maybe not very visual as a couple of players are invisible. Not long now, I wonder what RK is thinking and who will be his starting eleven. C'mon Saints, play with strength and quality football.
0

aceofthebase added 14:26 - Dec 12 Something different from RK.
0

Blogs 31 bloggers

Southampton Polls