(A) Southampton - Pre Match Thoughts

Premier League

                                             Saturday 16th March 2013
                                                St Mary's

                                  Southampton VS Liverpool


Tottenham was the platform. The stepping stone from which we could find our way to having a successful end to the season.  It's a game that could be remembered for years to come if it counts for something at the end of the season.  In that regard we cannot let that effort go to waste today.

Despite the joy and relief last Sunday, we've not really got anything to celebrate as of yet  and with the FA Cup semi final draw placing together Man City and the winner of Man United versus Chelsea, our route back into Europe just got a little bit harder.  At the moment fifth spot is the only guarantee of continental football. So while we're gunning for that, we may as well make a run at fourth.

Of all the teams down in the scrap for survival, Southampton are the one making the least amount of noise. They made their move in swapping Nigel Adkins for Mauricio Pochettino and are now seemingly calm enough to deal with the situation without grand proclamations having to be made about their end of season run in like Aston Villa or QPR.  The former Espanyol manager had and initial boost that saw them beat Manchester City but as of late has seen them only pick up one point in their last three.  It's a perfect collision of a team in great confidence meeting a team looking to find some.  Here's hoping Southampton are still looking at 5pm today.

If he does come back into the squad today, I'm hoping Pepe Reina is in the kind of form he showed in our last away game, although I'd like to hope he's not called upon to make as many saves, in spite of how good they all were.  The make up of the midfield will be interesting to see and with no sense of how Allen or Henderson will be used from here on in, I'd like to hope we get the energy from Jordan but would understand if we went for the same team that dealt with Wigan a fortnight ago under similar circumstances.  Just like in that game I'm really excited to see more from Coutinho. What he has shown so far is very encouraging and the longer he can keep contributing something, the more it will underline just how class he is.  Certainly Pochettino will know all about that, having had him on loan in Spain last year and was also keen on getting him to come to St. Mary's while we were after him.  Thankfully he'll be wearing the Liverbird today.

It's strange to be far less confident in this game than I was last week. I had this sense that it had been far too long since we had beaten Spurs and really felt like the game was ours to win.  Equally, I know that Southampton are desperate for the points and it would be just like us to fall at this hurdle.  We've won three in a row now and this would be a step forward in terms of continuity to get ourselves a fourth.  Today could be the day where we break the shackles of our inconsistency these last few years.  If we stay chained to them, European football will disappear over the horizon very quickly.