A repeat of last season's eight goal drubbing of Sunderland looks unlikely as Saints go into the game with a crisis up front ! Or do they ?

Saints go into this game without Shane Long and Charlie Austin who will both miss the game through injury, add to this the fact that the two likely to replace them Graziano Pelle and Sadio Mane haven't scored between them in the Premier League in months and the word crisis is being bandied about with gay abandon.

But there is no reason why it should be, the loss of Shane Long is immense, over the past three months he has been arguably Saints best player in any position let alone up front, but Charlie Austin has only scored once so far and his loss is less of a problem.

But to replace them we have last season's two top scorers Pelle & Mane and that shows the depth of the squad at the moment and add to that there is Juanmi who will com into contention who being a Spanish International is no slouch.

That shows the depth of Saints squad at the moment and when you consider that Koeman also has Jay Rodriguez to come back and that may be a consideration in the near future if not today, the phrase is Crisis what crisis !

Sunderland are not a good side, the Premier League table does not lie, but they are a side in troubles both on and off the pitch and they are at a stage of the season when they either have to dig in and become the team who pull themselves clear or they sink.

We have to make sure that today is not the day they lift themselves way clear of the bottom three.

We have to concentrate on what we do well and even with the loss of Long and Austin we still have plenty of options in our squad to be able to send home Sunderland for a second year running with a flea in their ear.

Perhaps having those options has worked against us in recent games, certainly switching the side around at Bournemouth did not hep our balance and by the time we had rectified it we were a goal down, we need to get it right from the start this time.

I liked the side we started with against Chelsea, ultimately it did not win but it had the right balance at the back and in the midfield.

Keep the back three of Van Dijk, Fonte and Bertrand, use Cedric and Targett as wing backs and keep a tight middle three of Clasie, Romeu & Davis and play Mane and Pelle up front.

That is a good side and has the ability to move the ball quickly and get Sunderland on the back foot, Targett and Cedric have the crossing ability to feed Pelle and help him end his goal drought and likewise the middle three can win the ball and find Mane quickly to put them under pressure.

Now this is not a bad starting line up and we still have Juanmi, Tadic & Ward Prowse to offer options off the bench.

This is why we should be approaching this match with confidence not with talk of crisis, yes we need a few to step up to the plate today, but they are all players who have done so before on many occasions and are quite capable of doing so today.

Beat Sunderland and we are in good shape to move forward into the final third of the season, perhaps we will not qualify for Europe, but we can achieve a top ten finish and if we do so that will be only the second time we have finished in the top ten of the top flight for thre consecutive season in our history.

Judging by the reactions of some Saints supporters at Bournemouth on Tuesday night any game that Saints do not win is a crisis some have lost sight of the big picture and that is to establish ourselves long term in the top ten of this division, perhaps it shows how our standards have gone up in the last two years that now finishing 8th would not be seen as a triumph but a disappoinment.

Photo: Action Images

corkcitysaint added 14:27 - Mar 5 No Austin, no Long… Yoshida to score..
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