Southampton (H) pre-match thread

[Nick]

2 minutes ago, Mark said:

We should know by now Vardy doesn't work well with other strikers, for all of his scoring run he was the lone striker with Perez and Barnes wide. It admittedly worked once with Iheanacho in the diamond formation away at Villa but I don't see that working at home, it'll just mean Maddison and Tielemans occupying wide areas and Iheanacho in his space.

Amen.

[Nick]

4-1-4-1 with Hamza for Wilf and Pérez and Barnes wide.

 

If Vardy is on a hat trick and we are 2-0 up with 30 mins to go I don’t care - get him off and Nacho on. Give the big lad some deserved game time and preserve the top goal scorer in the league for the next game.

[Mark]

8 minutes ago, whoareyaaa said:

It worked last night in the space of ten minutes? And numerous other times when they have played together 

Iheanacho has played a few memorable through balls through to Vardy but it's not enough to change from our most fluid setup (4-1-4-1). Tielemans and Maddison have better games in 4-1-4-1, because there is width from wingers leaving more space in the middle. Three at the back as well as three in midfield makes it all congested, especially at home against a team like Villa and Southampton I expect.

[TrentFox]

With 10 days between Villa last night and Burnley away, it’s a massive opp to hit the Burnley game onwards with a refreshed squad after a hectic schedule. Therefore, I’d be tempted to do a WHU away and make many changes, just once more, to revitalise the squad. Could put out something like below and still probably do a job vs Saints. 
                       Kasper

           Evans  Benko   Fuchs 

Justin       Hamza    Mendy     Albrighton

                        Barnes

                Gray         Nacho 

[Sunbury Fox]

Must avoid conceding the first goal in this one. Our recent patchy home form has coincided with a return to the unfortunate habit of going behind early that we developed under Puel. We've conceded first in 4 of the last 5 at home against PL opposition. We also conceded first against Burnley and Tottenham earlier in the season. We won those 2 games in the end but in general falling behind makes it incredibly hard to win in the PL. Going behind in 6 of 11 games at home v PL sides is way too many.

[Gillies Apprentice]

Losing Wilf also massively diminishes our aerial competitiveness ,which I think is partly why he played 3 at the back last night .As Choudhury is nailed on to start on Sat , I wouldn't be surprised to see Benkovic brought back in if he's fit , especially as Fuchs has played so much recently ( although on form there would be a good case for dropping Chilwell instead )

[StriderHiryu]

1 hour ago, Ric Flair said:

How do we get Iheanacho in the team with Vardy, without playing the dreaded diamond or 3 at the back? Could we risk 4-4-2 and drop Tielemans? 

Southampton currently play a 4222 system which is basically a 442 with two holding mids and two narrow midfielders in front of them. So going 442 to match them could definitely be an option. 

 

Personally I expect 4141 with Hamza coming in, as Tielemans played much better when Hamza was next to him. 

[Deeg67]

31 minutes ago, Mark said:

We should know by now Vardy doesn't work well with other strikers, for all of his scoring run he was the lone striker with Perez and Barnes wide. It admittedly worked once with Iheanacho in the diamond formation away at Villa but I don't see that working at home, it'll just mean Maddison and Tielemans occupying wide areas and Iheanacho in his space.

I suppose you're going to argue that Okazaki wasn't really playing as a striker during our title run or something?

[SexyGammonFox]

We need to start quickly. To often at home we have ambled through the 1st half, allowed defensive teams to settle into a pattern and find their confidence.

 

That said we have generally been very good in the second half of games. But we do seem to heap pressure on ourselves by starting slowly. 

 

Id love to see what the split is between goals scored in the first and second half at home is. 

[burleighfox]

Safe to say it won't be nine nil. Just got to keep Ings quiet!

[eddylcfc]

Kasper

 

Ricardo

Evans

Soyuncu

Chilwell

 

Hamza

Maddison

Praet

 

Iheanacho   

Vardy

Barnes

 

Iheanacho has to play for me but tricky to get him central alongside Vardy unless you go 3-5-2 (doesn't suit us - as shown last night) or 4-1-2-1-2 diamond which I'm not a fan of as our team lacks width. I have him on the right hand side here but not an ideal scenario. Lots of dilemmas for Brendan!

 

[TheF1Bob]

This won't be easy as it seams.

 

2-1 to us.

[AKCJ]

Kasper

Ricardo Evans Soyuncu Chilwell

Hamza

Praet Maddison

Perez Vardy Barnes

[Nick]

I’m worried for FPL purposes that Pérez won’t play.... then I’m torn as whether or not to sub in Barnes or Gray? 

[Pliskin]

Time to start Albrighton, it’s about time we put a wide man in who will actually get balls forward early. It will be another defensive counter attacking display from the opposition, so we need to be ready to break them down.

[TonyN11]

2 hours ago, Swan Lesta said:

4-1-4-1 with Hamza for Wilf and Pérez and Barnes wide.

 

If Vardy is on a hat trick and we are 2-0 up with 30 mins to go I don’t care - get him off and Nacho on. Give the big lad some deserved game time and preserve the top goal scorer in the league for the next game.

Agreed, this is what Pep does - it's a team game and no-one is bigger than the team!

[StanSP]

2 hours ago, Dahnsouff said:

Was thinking this about Justin

 

Similar, but more Nacho!

 

Schmeichel

Ricardo - Evans - Soyuncu - Justin

Mendy

Hamza - Maddison - Barnes

Nacho Vardy

 

We really need some more CBs...

 

Hamza there? I'd put him in Mendy's position and have Pèrez there instead 

 

 

[urban fox]

10 minutes ago, StanSP said:

Hamza there? I'd put him in Mendy's position and have Pèrez there instead 

 

 

My thoughts too. Wouldn't have both Hamza and Mendy together. That's why we were so poor/frustrating when playing with two DM against lower sides at home under Puel. Maybe Albrighton for Barnes to give Justin a bit of cover and experience to get him settled. Barnes/Gray maybe off the bench if we need something a bit more direct from the wide players later on. If two up front not working we can always bring Youri/Praet on for Nacho and revert to 4-1-4-1

[harpendenfox]

A point would be fine on Saturday. They may be fresher than us, determined to right some wrongs, and they are in form. Obvs love a win, but in the big scheme of things a point would be decent

[StanSP]

I've got a feeling the team and more so Rodgers will want to put right the poor game choices yesterday and be up for the 3 points on Saturday even more.

 

We have to forget about the 9-0 in October. It essentially means nothing when it comes to this Saturday's game and I'd hope that the players have put that out of their minds. It won't happen again. Southampton's players have clearly forgotten about it. They'll want to continue our good form so it's vitally important that we get the selection right on Saturday and everyone is raring to go from the start. Can't have a slow first half or opening period. An early goal would be great for us to then go back to our preferred way of playing controlling the game and the tempo. 

[Xen]

51 minutes ago, urban fox said:

My thoughts too. Wouldn't have both Hamza and Mendy together. That's why we were so poor/frustrating when playing with two DM against lower sides at home under Puel. Maybe Albrighton for Barnes to give Justin a bit of cover and experience to get him settled. Barnes/Gray maybe off the bench if we need something a bit more direct from the wide players later on. If two up front not working we can always bring Youri/Praet on for Nacho and revert to 4-1-4-1

Thing is under Puel we were playing with 2 out-and-out CDMs in Mendy and Ndidi, with neither of them wanting to be the ball-player so they'd win it back and not much else.

 

Now, though, both Ndidi and Hamza are much more comfortable with the ball at their feet and - especially in Hamza's case - look to play the ball forward and kick off an attacking phase, which is what lead to the equaliser against Villa. I still wouldn't pair Mendy with Ndidi as they both operate in a similar space between the lines, but Hamza is definitely capable of stepping up into a box-to-box role and dictating play a bit more.

 

It'd be a very different system playing with a single pivot (rather than Puel's double pivot) and I think it'd give us a bit more aggression further up the field to win the ball back sooner and catch them out with an early attack.

[DerbyshireFox]

Wilf is so pivotal to the side, so will be a big loss - as we saw last night. Hamza is nailed on to start. This will be difficult. Southampton are in form and I expect them to be very motivated from the start after the reverse fixture. We need a decent home performance or this is a potential banana skin. I’m optimistic as ever, but if we get a Norwich/Everton performance it could be a difficult afternoon. However 38/42 (41/45 since Newcastle?) points against outside the ‘big six’, I’m gonna go for a hard fought 2-1 win

[TonyN11]

1 hour ago, harpendenfox said:

A point would be fine on Saturday. They may be fresher than us, determined to right some wrongs, and they are in form. Obvs love a win, but in the big scheme of things a point would be decent

[Tuna]

They'll set up to frustrate us like Villa did and I expect them to be successful, like Villa were.

 

Will be a tricky encounter, if we can be clinical in front of goal we will win.

[Dahnsouff]

There are some Saints fan questioning if they should go to a back 5 after our Villa game, but most reject the idea because that was the formation when 0-9 happened.

 

Plus they don`t have Mings