Southampton v West Bromwich Albion
SkyBet Championship
Saints host West Bromwich Albion hoping to repeat Leeds’s demolition of Norwich City last night, if the fans match the fervour shown by the home fans at Elland Road, then anything is possible.
As I said in the leading up to the first leg at the Hawthorns, Russell Martin has to again “Keep it simple, play your best players and change little”
We have a job to do, let us get it done and then worry about what comes in the next game. Keep it simple with 4-3-3, the formation that saw us through the 22 game unbeaten run.
Looking at Southampton social media pages, there seems to be a clamour to start Ross Steward if Che Adams is again unavailable for this game, I am not sure that is the right thing, it is a lot to ask of a player who has made just two short substitute appearances in the last 6 months and indeed just four in the last 16 months.
His core match fitness will be not yet be there and we should not risk him getting injured again by playing him too much too soon, better to keep him on the bench and bring him on when there are tired legs to run at then have him having to chase and graft early in the game.
If Che is not available move Adam Armstrong to the centre, with Ryan Fraser on the left and David Brookes on the right.
Keep the midfield simple, Will Smallbone, Flynn Downes and Joe Aribo
The back four should be KWP, THB & Jan Bednarek and then we come to the controversial selection issue.
Should Jack Stephens be on the left or should it be Ryan Manning ?
don’t think Stephens has played too badly as a defender, indeed to a degree i think this hybrid left back/central midfield role works, however the reason it doesn’t is that Jack can carry the ball forward into some good positions, but the problem is that he gets caught on the ball and also his passing is not good enough under pressure.
I fully expect Jack to play, but I am not sure that he should do so unless it is as a conventional left back and even then I am not sure he should be in before Ryan Manning who offers a far more attacking option up the wing.
The reality is that West Brom are not the force away from home that they are at the Hawthorns and we showed that we can more than match them there, that being the case we need to put them on the back foot and take a leaf out of Leeds books last night.
