I don't think it will be easy but I think at home and against a side that Poch knows well we will win.
A question Saints fans may be able to answer is: How different is Koeman's team to Pochettino's, obviously I don't mean in personnel but in style of play etc.? If Koeman has made some changes significant enough to throw Pochettino off then that could be significant, although I'd sincerely hope that the manager and his staff would scout every team properly and not just rely on his old inside knowledge of the club.
MP doesnt know half of our team. Keeper, CB, LB, winger, CM and striker. I'm sure he's been well informeed though. Will be a tough match but after 6 wins on the spin we will be playing with no fear.
I don't know why some of us seem so confident we will and can beat Southampton. I've seen nothing in our play thus far to say we are anything but underdogs in this match.
Koeman doesn't get his team to press as much. Koeman also prefers a 4-3-3 type formation whereas Pochettino always played 4-2-3-1 with us. Koeman has a front 3 of Pelle, Tadic and Mane (watch out for him by the way, he's been superb in his 2 appearances so far) with a midfield 3 of Davis, Schneiderlin and one of Cork and Wanyama. But our front 3 will cause you problems on Sunday. Koeman has really got them linking up very well already.
I think the draw against le arse will give us a lift,the defence had a good game and were well organised,prehaps we are slowly adapting to MPs style,and we are at home,where we don't often get beaten
Cheers TA. That you're not pressing as much as you used to might help us, as in the Liverpool game we were caused all sorts of problems by them pressing us far, far more effectively than we could press them. I'm worried about this one though, even though we got a good result and performance (in some aspects anyway) in the derby we're still well away from where we need to be right now and at the moment, you're outperforming us and exceeding so many people's expectations - you're on a high while we are at the potential start of a recovery of form. I hope Pochettino can use this game to justify why he moved on from you, I have no doubt you're hoping quite the opposite!
Oh, I forgot to mention Pochettino's teams aren't that great at holding onto leads. Look at the 2 games between us last season!
If Southampton come here thinking they can win then it will make our task much easier, especially if they want to play football.
I'm never confident about just about anything. I think both teams will want an open game, so it will be high scoring. I also think that once again we'll play a different nine, ten or eleven against Besiktas. Saints fans have to be laughing after the way they've started, when just about everyone thought they'd struggle to stay up. The funny thing is, I think we've really benefited from the deals we didn't make with them. The Schneiderlin deal falling through may have opened the door for Capoue, who has been one of our best couple of players. Not picking up Rodriguez looks smart since Chadli has four goals in what seems Rodriguez's role.
By rights, home advantage and the quality of players we have means we should beat you Soton lads and that's no disrespect but just an honest observation. That said, we should've beaten West Brom at home and didn't so I'm not massively confident. The Besiktas game will likely see a rotated side so I don't think it will affect us massively when facing you guys, similar to the Forest game, the likes of Vorm, Dier, Fazio, Davies, Paulinho, Stambouli, Townsend, Lennon, Soldado and Kane will be looking for game time and I think they'll get it on Thursday. You guys have been really impressive under Koeman, a much better start than I think any fan including yourselves expected. Hopefully we can put an end to the new manager honeymoon period and leave with 3 points. We've blown hot and cold in home games, so we're due a good one now (hopefully!). I am worried about Pelle though, looks a real handful, Kaboul and Vertonghen will need to be on their toes. His goal record since he joined Feyenoord and now you guys is ridiculously good and I'm amazed he's not featured for the Italian national side yet. Though while we worry about Pelle, you'll have to worry about Chadli who looks like he's finding his FC Twente form now. I think if we perform well, we can come away with a 2-1/ 3-1 win but I wouldn't be devastated with a draw.
Nah, we should beat them at Saint Marys, too. Quite easily, I reckon. That's not being arrogant, merely realistic. Bear in mind, for example, that Saints will have slumped dramatically down the table by then, so all confidence will be gone. We might even knock in our biggest goal tally of the season.
