Southampton V Burnley The Preview Sunday, 4th Apr 2021 09:05 Saints and Burnley are level on points separated only by goals scores and if Saints are to put to bed any lingering worries about relegation, they need to score more goals than the Clarets today. The big question is whether James Ward Prowse will be fit to play, but Ralph Hasenhuttl has a few other posers to answer with the return of Danny Ings and Theo Walcott to the squad. It will be a big loss if James Ward Prowse misses his first game since God knows when, but it doesn't need to be terminal, we have options, the most obvious being utilising Stuart Armstrong in the centre, but the rumour mill says that Ralph might well bring back Alexandre Jankewitz into the side after his little faux pas at Old Trafford. Certainly Jankewitz is a talent and he should be given a chance both by the manager and those that seemed to think he should be shot at dawn for that tackle against United, but he should be played because Ralph thinks he is ready and not for as is said in some quarters because that if he doesn't get a game he is likely to try and press ahead with a transfer request. Personally I think that Armstrong should get the nod as we have plenty of options out wide. But the other big question is does Danny Ings start, whilst that sounds a no brainer, there is a bigger picture to consider and what we don't want is the striker coming back too early. At Bournemouth Nathan Redmond had a brilliant game and doesn't deserve to be dropped, likewise neither does Che Adams and he will be buzzing after his goal for Scotland in midweek. Therefore I am minded to keep Ings in reserve on the bench for this one, bring him on late in the game and make sure that he is fit for the trip to West Bromwich Albion and Wembley. What is really needed though is the desire that we showed at both Bournemouth and Sheffield United, when we played Brighton there was complacency and hopefully as was shown in the FA Cup game, we learned our lesson and can go out and put this game to bed. The first of three games that truly shape our season, we were a good team up to the New Year when we started getting injury after injury , we now have most of those players back and we need to get back to winning ways. Photo: Action Images Please report offensive, libellous or inappropriate posts by using the links provided.
You need to login in order to post your comments |
Blogs 31 bloggersSouthampton Polls[ Vote here ] |