Regugal contributor Dan gives us his thoughts ahead of the trip to Selhurst Park to take on Crystal Palace.

On Saturday, Saints travel to Selhurst Park to take on Crystal Palace who are now under new management. Palace hired Roy Hodgson earlier this week after unfairly sacking Frank De Boer after four losses from four in the league with zero goals scored. Many eyebrows would’ve been raised when it was announced that De Boer was to be replaced by Hodgson but the new appointment could be a disadvantage for us or prove to be a huge advantage; only time will tell.

Saints aren’t in the best of form with no goals scored in four of their five competitive games this season and the run gets worse when going back to the end of last season. So far, we have three league goals to our name and they all came from one game; furthermore, two were penalties.

After a dismal home defeat to Watford ended our short unbeaten start to the league season last time out, we have five points from four league games which, in my opinion, is pretty poor when you look at the fixtures. However, we have a good chance to pick up three points on Saturday when we visit a struggling Crystal Palace side.

Like I’ve said before, we won’t know whether Palace’s change in management will be a benefit or not for Saints but we do know that if there is any bad record held by an opposition, we are likely to help them break it! Obviously, we have to be positive and see it as a great opportunity to win a football match which may help confidence going into next weekend’s test against United but it is never easy to know what to expect when a team changes their manager mid-season.

Virgil Van Dijk may be in contention after playing his first competitive football match in eight months this week, albeit it was a 4-0 defeat for the under-23s. He did look rusty and was at fault for three of the goals but the main thing was that he needs to regain match fitness fast so we can have him back in the team. I would imagine that Wesley Hoedt will start and whether he will have Maya Yoshida, Jack Stephens or Virgil Van Dijk alongside him I don’t know but I would assume that it will be Stephens again; I doubt that Van Dijk is ready.

Prediction: Palace are having goal scoring issues like us but are still yet to score in the league this season. It would be very typical of Saints to help them break this record but I do think that in most games our defence is pretty solid and I can see us getting opportunities so I think a 2-0 win isn’t too much to ask for!

Photo: Action Images

warrens76 added 10:08 - Sep 14 Palace should have buried Burnley, let us not kid ourselves...They counter much quicker than us and have despite results a Watford physicality to their game.. We talk about scoring however the loss of Spider, Wanyama, Toby who broke up attacks again and again and pushed us straight back at them has had just as much effect on clear goal opportunities as the loss of Mane and Pelle.. To add to this our high press constantly robbed the opposition of the ball in their half and quite frankly terrified teams, anyone suggesting it's just a clinical striker, which, 3 seasons ago was all that separated us from CL football (had we owned a Van Persie, Aguero, Sanchez or a Lampard) is not seeing the fact that the team today does not in so many areas resemble anything we associate with the Southampton 'way', it is gone, deceased, it is no longer... This is what we have to accept is our fate after selling off most of our stars and losing 3 managers in 4 years 'really' achieves, those who swallow the BS that we are steadily improving, incremental steps and all the other spin, need to replay a few games from 2012-13-14-15 and ask themselves and the apologists whether the football today is even on the same friggin planet as then..take a look and the bigger picture will appear.

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Keesie66 added 10:41 - Sep 14 Nicely said Warrens76..... 4-2-3-1 ...... after the 2 comes very little we are so lightweight in midfield and truly miss a cutting edge creative/combatitive midfielder who will open up defences.. the other option would have been a target man a la Pelle who Gabi or Austin can play of of but we do not have the height/strength there either. All sofa managers aside Pellegrino has more knowledge and experience than us and he is right next to the fire... he needs to sort the system and players that is his job and I am convinced he is giving 200% in trying to do this...... we are all frustrated understandably...

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warrens76 added 10:56 - Sep 14 Keesie66 ta mate, I feel that too many (even if half a dozen it's too many) supporters have more faith in the way the club is being run than concentrating on the 'actual' football it has eventually led to. I swear that without Marcus KL would have come in for the ride this dumbing down deserves, if for the sake of compromise we accept NC overspent and was running club into the ground the counter reaction was also too extreme, players came and bought into either the project or bigger things, the project has gone yet players are 'stuck' here on a cushty 50k and more per week, so there is a lack of hunger to throw in... If they hand their minds right I believe we would not have had the shockers of Wolves and Watford, that mental edge would have found the points against Swansea and or Huddersfield as well, there is more in all this than the individual quality, there is for me no dynamic...I do not think we will do down but the days of scaring the top clubs have long gone, indeed relegation candidates now look at us as a team to pick points up from.

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Wembley76 added 11:14 - Sep 14 An article about the Saints chances at Palace turns into 'doom & gloom' from the first two posters! Struggle to call them supporters but, hey, they both were happy to get to Wembley, ecstatic to beat Inter Milan...... and that was with the 'duffers' who are still following the Markus Liebherr template. But yes, "shit happens" but getting on the back of the players, manager, board et al will certainly pay dividends, NOT!

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bstokesaint added 12:38 - Sep 14 I'm not convinced that it's as simplistic as saying we've sold some gems and now we are a team of 'leftovers'. In fact if you look at the money we've received for the likes of Shaw, Lovren, Morgan, Fonte and Chambers we've actually done some pretty good business. Unfortunately people have a tendency to remember the few good ones that got away. Back to the current team, I still think we have some real quality. The likes of Cedric, Bertrand, VVD, Romeu and Gabbiadini would still attract the likes of top clubs. Forster isn't a bad keeper. He's desperately out of form compared to the season before last, but you'd like to think he hasn't just lost it all! Then you have the additions of Lemina and Hoedt, both of whom have top European experience and are players historically we'd never have even been linked to. I agree the biggest problem at the moment is maybe a certain amount of just going through the motions (for a £50k a week pay cheque) and a lack of confidence. We definitely have a midfield crisis and I'm not sure that Tadic, JWP and Boufal justify their places in the team right now. We need goals. I'm not sure how the manager is going to turn this around and get our best players playing like they should and the rest of them raising their game to an acceptable level. I'm already prepared for Palace's first win of the season if we go out at the weekend with the same attitude we've had so far this season.

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warrens76 added 13:17 - Sep 14 Basingstoke saint, If the defence comes into it's own and Lemina is a box to box midfielder then maybe we can almost bypass playing 3 of Tadic, Bouf and Redmon, JWP..I actually would very much like to see Austin up front with Gabbi and Long on the shoulders served up by the wing backs and Lemina, i could see goals in that..
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the_saint added 13:21 - Sep 14 Bstokesaint just about sums it up and for me always like reading his and San Marco comments as they always say what I'm thinking ( maybe brothers from another mother)
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bstokesaint added 13:40 - Sep 14 Ha Saint, who knows. Yes Warrens that might work. I think we need to gamble a bit. Let Romeu protect at our defence and let the others try and run at opposition defences and get in behind. It must be so easy defending against us. Opponents know when we break we'll slow it all down with a sideways or backward pass and then re-build after the opposition have everyone back behind the ball. Even if we win a free kick we have no threat to make it count. If I was defending I would hate to play against Shane Long. Even playing recreationally (and now I'm getting on a bit) there's nothing worse than constantly having to track someone with pace and movement. If you throw Gabbiadini into the mix too then we could work defences.

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LordDZLucan added 14:28 - Sep 14 I agree with just about everything that has been said so far. I would just add that if we're to achieve anything against Palace on Saturday, to use rugby parlance, we need to front up and big time. No more shirked tackles, no more giving the ball away in our own half' no more feeble attempts to win a header. The players have got to be prepared to die for the cause on Saturday because that is the mentality that Palace will take into the game under a new manager.

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BoondockSaint added 14:30 - Sep 14 bstokesaint- I must heartily disagree with you: I think only VVD and Gabbiadini are on the radar of big clubs. Forster is not a bad goal keeper-but he's working on it: hanging around Hart on the national team and picking up his bad habits! It's only good business if you sell Lallana, Shaw, Chambers and Lovern and use that money to buy Mane and VVD. But we have stopped doing that. Because of our reputation as a selling club and sheer lack of ambition just to compete, we are not a club that up-and -coming players and managers want to come to any more. We used to be everyone's second favourite club because when we played a bigger club, their rivals knew we were dangerous. Big clubs were afraid of coming to our grounds and dropping points. This is no longer the case. As warrens76 says-"....indeed relegation candidates now look at us as a team to pick points up from." We need to somehow change this loser mentality and get back to what we were 2-3 years ago.

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DPeps added 18:56 - Sep 14 I watched some highlights from 2013 through to 2016 games recently. The difference between then and now is quite striking. Of course there were some poor performances there, but when we were good we were incredible. With the exception of some of the league cup games, last season was turgid. This season seems to be following the same pattern, except without the league cup. Hopefully the team can turn it around at Palace

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