Saints take on the Canaries in this 3rd round replay and need to get a result to keep the fans from complete mutiny.

Sadly for Claude Puel the pigeons are coming home to roost for him at the moment, after getting his rotation policy wrong he is now faced with an uphill task after the defeat at Burnley where he needs to get something out of the next three games with the problem being that these three games all come in a seven day period culminating in the most important of all against Liverpool at Anfield for a place at Wembley, add to that a few injury problems and you get the feeling that Claude is not the luckiest of managers, at least not this season.

So there will be rotation for this game and some of that will be forced through injury with Steven Davis out and both Virgil Van Dijk and Ryan Bertrand doubtful.

It is strange that Bertrand is doubtful, he seems to be missing from all the less important games of late, a mystery illness being cited at one point, but when he has come back in he looks fit.

Replacing him will not be a problem, Sam McQueen can continue his footballing education in his place.

The real problem will be in the centre with the big problem being whether Puel will risk playing Jose Fonte, certainly Fonte should be fit after all his last game was only two weeks ago at Everton and he is still training with the squad, it is all about attitude and this will tell us whether our Captain has affection for us or is only concerned about money.

The downside for Fonte is that should he play then he will be cuptied and that may affect his chances of a move to those clubs who seem to keep getting linked with him but arent seeming to actually making any attempt to sign him.

Surely if Liverpool, Everton or United want him, they want him to be available in the FA Cup a tournament that is going to be very important to them this season in terms of qualifying for Europe, the big clubs need European competition even if it is only the Europa League, the problem in that there are only four Champions League places for six big clubs and one Europa League place for fifth, that means the FA Cup and indeed League cup will start to gain more precedence going forward due to this, if Fonte is cup tied it will reduce his attraction to these clubs.

If Fonte does play then it could signify an about turn by him, cup tied in the FA Cup could mean he would see Saints League cup semi final as his best chance of glory, he might be keen to then stay and throw his lot in for the rest of the season.

If he doesnt play then Puel has problems, assuming that he is going to play Cedric then he has to pair Yoshida with either the inexperienced Jack Stephens or Cuco Martina who has played in the position in Holland.

Personally I would plump for Stephens, he has reasonable experience at League One level from his loan time at Swindon Town so playing Norwich is not as big a step up as it would be should we be facing Arsenal or another Premier league club.

That is also the case for other youngsters who might come into the side, however I would hope that Puel whislt making changes that are to be blunt neccessary due to the number of games in the next week would have learnt from his mistakes and keep the spine of the side strong.

I would like to see an attacking line up, Long and Rodriguez rarely play together and seem to be the default substitution for each other why ? Give them a run out together to both find their shooting boots.

Therefore I would be happy to see a line up like this.

Forster

Soares, Yoshida, Stephens/Fonte, McQueen

Hojbjerg, Clasie JWP

Rodriguez Long Tadic

Subs Lewis, Martina, Romeu, Reed, Redmond, Seager, Stephens

This side whould be strong enough to put Norwich to the sword who are missing striker Nelson Oliveira who is banned and also left back Martin Olsson who has been sold to Swansea City, the Canaries are not in good form themselves having won only 3 of the last 16 matches and slipped to 11 in the Championship.

Their issue is not scoring goals although the loss of top scorer Oliveira will be a blow to them tonight, but conceding them they have let in 39 goals from 26 games in the league a defensive record that is better than only 5 teams in that division..

This is a good opportunity for Saints to fins a bit of form and bring back a bit of a smile to the fans faces.

It looks like it will not even be half full at St Mary's tonight and with Norwich bringing a few due to their club paying for transport it could be that in the home sections barely a third of the seats are full.

But that may be no bad thing, with Claude Puel under fire from a growing section of the crowd it would be fair to assume that those staying away are doing so for a reason and that is their attitude towards Puel and his style of football.

That being the case the majority of the crowd there tonight will be there to support the team and not get on it's back the moment the slightest thing does not go to plan.

Yes it's a siege mentality, but that has served us well over the years and there are those out there who have forgotten that, we used to close ranks and rally behind the team for important games in the past, now that seems to have changed with social media meaning that many would prefer to rant away on that rather than focusing on this football club playing through this bad spell and getting back to winning games.

Yes there are things wrong with what has happened over this season, but we can't change those, we can only hope that mistakes have been learn't from and with good support tonight we can get back to winning ways again.

Photo: Action Images

ericofarabia added 13:07 - Jan 18 Hope those who go along get well entertained and are treated to a few goals to cheer. Remember how few people could be bothered to go to The replay at Villa in 76 ;-)
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SanMarco added 13:27 - Jan 18 Strange to think of such poor crowds for the FA Cup third round. It used to be one of the big events of the year. The FA Cup seems to be going the way of the League Cup in being killed off by 'Champions League' qualification for the big 6 and staying in the over-lucrative 'Premier League' for the rest. It doesn't help for us that it comes in a very crowded month between too very big games in the semi-final. No way Fonte will play so we will be pretty weakish at the back. If we are 'due' a game where we suddenly score 4 or 5 I am not sure I want to waste it on this one - but beggars can't be choosers. Whatever the reasons for the way our season is panning out I think most will agree that Puel needs success in at least one of the upcoming three games. Lose them all and I can see the Swansea match as extremely crucial for his future at the club.

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REEDYREEDOREEDZ added 14:07 - Jan 18 I heard a good idea for the FA Cup; give the winners a Champions League place. Then everyone will be A LOT more interested!! I think playing Long and Rodriguez together is a good idea. Both are quite versatile, can run the flanks and generally have good movement. Give Tadic a free role so he can focus on finding pockets of space and then he can look to pick out their runs. I fear tonight Norwich will sit back and look to absorb the pressure so there won't be any space for Long and Rodriguez to run into (assuming they both play). They'll have thier back to goal which isn't thier strength. We don't have any strikers who hold the ball up well/consistently. It might be a night of 70% possession, 90% sideways passes, 0% goal threat. I hope I'm wrong!! Need an early goal and a bit of luck or quality in front of goal.

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