The start of yet another new era under Sport Republic with Simon Rusk taking temporary charge until the end of the season with Adam Lallana as his assistant, can they turn around a squad that is low on morale and leadership.

Simon Rusk took charge of two games back in December whilst he filled in as manager after the sacking of Russell Martin, what we learned from back then, was that he could organise and put out sides that were well set out with players playing in their proper positions.

A narrow 2-1 defeat to Liverpool in the Carabao Cup was followed by a solid 0-0 draw up at Fulham, two decent performances coming on the back of the shocking results under Russell Martin, Rusk kept it simple, gave his players leeway to clear the ball when necessary and do the basics rather than the suicidal.

His task will be a lot harder this time, back in December he inherited a team that were well drilled, but playing in a way that did not suit the players to hand, now he has a squad where the morale is at rock bottom after Ivan Juric's baffling spell in charge where selections and tactics were puzzling to say the least.

So hopefully Rusk will do as he did in December and take the side back to basics.

He has already admitted that he will have a large squad and that there will be disappointments, but it will be interesting to see who returns from the cold, in his pre game comments he admitted that Charlie Taylor was carrying a minor knock, so would not be returning, but it was encouraging that he was mentioned, likewise Ryan Fraser who is fit and ready to go and could return, albeit on the bench.

So it seems there will be changes and in the main I would think they would be for the better, footballers at any level and the Premier League is no different in this respect, players want to know where they stand, play in their normal positions and that if they play well they stay on the pitch and keep their places for the next game.

All of that was alien to Ivan Juric who chopped and changed his starting line ups and played players out of position, bizarrely he would also take off players playing well for no apparent reason as he pursued a scatter gun approach in all of his dealings.

He alienated players, Taylor & Fraser were two players with the experience we desperately needed but were ignored and it wasn't as if those that played in front of them were doing well, what sort of manager allows the then top scorer to go out on loan and not replace him when there is still a chance of avoiding the drop.

I have always maintained that this squad is not as bad as it's points total suggests, under different managers it could have stayed up.

Assisting him is Adam Lallana, this has raised some criticism on social media, there are those that cannot forgive him for demanding a move back in 2014 and see that as deserting the club and that there is no forgiveness.

As I have covered in another article Why Adam Lallana Deserves A Second Chance At Southampton Club legends at all clubs do sometimes depart under a cloud and then return to be a success a second time around.

But the big big question will be what team Rusk selects and who is in and out of the squad.

I think he will keep things simple. a solid formation with players in their proper position and a strong spine to the side.

Perhaps the only real changes will be at full back, where although KWP will be a cast iron selection, it will be about what side of the pitch he will start on with several options at both right and left back, so there could be some re jigging here.

In the centre it picks itself in my view, Big Les Ugochukwu, Mateus Fernandes & Flynn Downes, I would imagine that the departure of Juric will lift a big weight off of Downes shoulders and he will be raring to go for this one.

The biggest question will be how we set up in an attacking way, Rusk has already suggested that Tall Paul Onuachu is struggling with injury, but is this a little smoke screen either way.

At Fulham back in December we set up to keep it tight. we essentially had just one forward on the pitch in Adam Armstrong, with the two wide men playing deeper flanking a solid central but he is not available against Villa as he is out on loan, so perhaps Rusk will go for Cameron Archer, and Tyler Dibling if he goes for a front three, but I suspect it will be more a 4-3-2-1 formation.

Dibling could well be employed in a roving role playing deeper and looking to run at the Villa defence, or he could be used as a winger,

Villa arrive with hopes of pushing into the Champions League for a second successive season, but they will be in a quandary, do they keep focused on the league and pushing forward or will they have an eye on the home game against PSG on Tuesday evening.

My feeling is that players may well be rested given our League position, but not too many.

But Villa's away form is not great, they have won 6 times on the road, drawn 2 and lost 7 and that number of defeats is something to raise eyebrows, Ipswich and Wolves in the bottom 4 have only lost 8 and Villa seem to either win or lose on the road, they are beatable.

However that defeat to PSG on Wednesday was their first defeat after 7 straight wins after a rocky period in January & February, so perhaps they are due a Premier League blip.

It was a narrow defeat up at Villa Park back in December, just 1-0 in one of Russell Martin's last games in charge, but that counts for nothing now.

But hopefully the atmosphere at St Mary's will change from the last few games, we are relegated and now that is out of the way, we need to concentrate on getting those 3 points that jump us over Derby County's record.

We don't need the gallows humour of the Tottenham Hotspur stadium travelling support, we need to get back to a year ago when St Mary's was buzzing and the fans took us from a poor April to glory in May.

The time for the post mortems will be at the end of the season, for now there is still one job to do and lets get that out of the way first.

All Photos Via Reuters

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