Saints (H) 3pm Saturday 19th April
7:50am, 31 hours and 10 minutes before kick off, guess no one else wants to do this...
Who would want to manage Saints?
They sacked Ruben Selles after they were relegated 2022/23 - their third manager that season - and hired Russell Martin on a 3-year contract. He got them promoted and was handed a new 3-year contract in July then sacked in December and replaced Ivan Juric on an 18-month contract who was sacked after just 107 days.
Now Simon Rusk in charge, hired as U21 manager in the summer, appointed caretaker for the two games between Martin and Juric, promoted to first team coach and now caretaker again with Adam Lallana as his assistant
Rusk started out with 3-4-3 against Villa, kept a clean sheet, switched to 3-5-2 in the second half and conceded three goals
Ramsdale
Harwood=Bellis Bendarek Stephens
Walker-Peters Fernandes Ugochukwu Manning
Archer Onuachu Sulemana
A noticeable absence from the starting line up was England U19 RW/CF Tyler Dibling (7th for minutes on the pitch this season), subject of much transfer speculation, He replaced Paul Onuachu at half time who had picked up an ankle injury and faces a late fitness test
Another absence was CM/DM (and occasionally CB) Joe Aribo, (5th for minutes) but didn’t get off the bench. RB/RM/RW Yukinari Sugawara (10th for minutes for minutes) hasn't started for three but makes regular appearances off the bench
Flynn Downes (8th for minutes) has missed the last two games, suspended for collecting 10 yellow cards
Who would want to manage Saints?
They sacked Ruben Selles after they were relegated 2022/23 - their third manager that season - and hired Russell Martin on a 3-year contract. He got them promoted and was handed a new 3-year contract in July then sacked in December and replaced Ivan Juric on an 18-month contract who was sacked after just 107 days.
Now Simon Rusk in charge, hired as U21 manager in the summer, appointed caretaker for the two games between Martin and Juric, promoted to first team coach and now caretaker again with Adam Lallana as his assistant
Rusk started out with 3-4-3 against Villa, kept a clean sheet, switched to 3-5-2 in the second half and conceded three goals
Ramsdale
Harwood=Bellis Bendarek Stephens
Walker-Peters Fernandes Ugochukwu Manning
Archer Onuachu Sulemana
A noticeable absence from the starting line up was England U19 RW/CF Tyler Dibling (7th for minutes on the pitch this season), subject of much transfer speculation, He replaced Paul Onuachu at half time who had picked up an ankle injury and faces a late fitness test
Another absence was CM/DM (and occasionally CB) Joe Aribo, (5th for minutes) but didn’t get off the bench. RB/RM/RW Yukinari Sugawara (10th for minutes for minutes) hasn't started for three but makes regular appearances off the bench
Flynn Downes (8th for minutes) has missed the last two games, suspended for collecting 10 yellow cards
Comments
"Frustrating not to have been able to draw upon him last week but to have him back this week is a real positive for us."
Sounds as if he'll be in the starting XI
On Onuachu
"He's back in and around it the last day or two, so it might be a bit 50-50 at this point"
Rusk used all five subs against Villa, apart from Tyler Dibling replacing Onuachu at half time...
CF Ross Stewart replaced Cameron Archer and CM Will Smallbone replaced LW Kamaldeen Sulemana after an hour
Stewart joined from Sunderland for £10m in August 2023 but has only made 11 appearances with no goals and no starts due to various injuries.
Smallbone made 50 appearances for Saints 2023/24 but only 16 this season due to injury. He scored in their 3-1 loss at Anfield last month but then missed three weeks with a hip
RWB Yukinari Sugawara replaced Ryan Manning 82nd minute with Walker-Peters moving to LWB
18yo CF Jay Robinson made his first team debut, replacing CM Mateus Fernandes 89th minute
Of the others who stayed gathering splinters GK Alex McCarthy, CB Nathan Wood and RB James Bree have been fringe players with CM Joe Aribo the only one to have played regularly this season
"He's just been out for a long time, and it's hard to replicate 90 minutes of Premier League football. You have to build players up safely, but he's getting stronger and building."
On the bench again
Summerville still out
Wan-Bissaka "needed an injection in his toe but should be OK"
"Everyone else should be OK".
Did you know Potter and Rusk were at Boston United June 2003 - February 2004?
Wan-Bissaka - Todibo - Kilman - Scarles
Ward-Prowse - Souček - Soler
Kudus - Paquetá
Bowen
Summerville started 45 games last season, previously his only major injury was two months at the end of 2021/22 season before he was a first team regular at Leeds
Fullkrug started 42, last time he was out for a prolonged period was two months in 2020 when he was at Werder Bremen I'm expecting exactly the same starting XI as Liverpool although I'm hoping Soucek starts instead of Soler
They expect Rusk will play a low block but they don't rate us, think we'll only win 2-0, 3-0...
They reckon JWP will finally score from a direct free kick as they have a tendency giving away fouls around the box - Bednarek and Stephens are named as particularly guilty - so he'll get plenty of opportunities
Subs: Fabiański (GK), Cresswell, Scarles, Mavropanos, Rodríguez, Souček, Irving, Luis Guilherme, Ferguson
AWB out with injury, Scarles benched, and....... Füllkrug starts. 4-2-3-1 by the looks of it (maybe 4-3-3).
Ramsdale,
Harwood-Bellis Bednarek Stephens,
Walker-Peters Ugochukwu Downes Fernandes Manning
Onuachu Sulemana
We are struggling to get going
Nothing positive to say for that 1st half performance. Oh dear.