Saints V Crystal Palace The Preview Tuesday, 3rd Mar 2015 12:42 It cannot be denied Saints are suffering a crisis in front of goal, but it has to end sometime and this game is as good a game as any. In recent weeks Saints have gone from being in the driving seat for third spot in the Premier League let alone fourth, to now looking like they might struggle to make the top six the spot they currently hold, but with Spurs only two points behind with a game in hand even that is looking precarious. So it cannot be denied that tonight's game is crucial not only in the need to get a win and keep us pushing forward but in the need to score and break through the mental barrier that has become our failure to score in recent games. That barrier is more mental than physical because in all of the games where we have struggled to score we have dominated play and had plenty of chances, the problem has been we have not taken them and the longer the problem has gone on the more we have tried to take that extra touch to ensure a goal and in doing so found it a touch too many. This is good news in that in essence the solution is simple, get in more shots rather than try to create better chances, in short have a go a bit more, not very technical but sometimes in football you need to ignore the technical side of things and just shoot. On the injury front its looking very much like Toby Alderweireld will be fit to play, the question though is whether to risk him from the start tonight or whether to hold him back and give him that extra 10 days to recover before we travel to Chelsea. Given that our problems are not so much in defending, I think that Ronald Koeman may opt to stick with Yoshida tonight nd hold Alderweireld in reserve, the emphasis will be on attack not defence. One big question is whether Koeman keeps faith with Pelle, on one hand Pelle is not playing that badly and is crucial in how the manager wants to set out his team, but on the other there are elements in the crowd who will be on the Italian strikers back from virtually the kick off and that could prove detrimental. However Koeman is a strong manager and he will not bow to the crowd, he didn't do that in the early days when Pelle was under fire almost from the off and his faith was rewarded with a great first half of the season from the striker, however he has tailed away in terms of goal scoring but he is still setting up chances, Pelle like most striker out of form just needs a goal, when he gets it more will probably follow. So it can't be stressed how important tonight is, Chelsea's win on Sunday has given us more to play for, a top six is definitely within our capabilities and that placing is good enough for Europe now, it is not pie in the sky it is reality, win tonight and we put pressure on our rivals and we start to move away from those outside the top seven, Swansea start the round of midweek fixtures six points behind us, we want to increase that to nine tonight as well as put the gap between us and Spurs to five and with Spurs hosting Swansea tomorrow that will be a good position to be in with one or both of them having to drop points. Saints fans in the meantime need to have faith in Ronald Koeman, lets respect what he has done so far and in that context allow him to get on with his job now by helping him by supporting all of the players he selects for tonight not just some of them, we are Southampton Football Club that means being united together in one common aim and that is qualifying for European Football next year. To do that the team needs support, if you are going to go tonight support the side, if you are unable to do that then perhaps better not to go or to keep quiet, that is better than some of the abuse i witnessed towards our own players on Saturday. 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 bloggersLeeds United Polls[ Vote here ] |
