Morning all.
It’s Southampton at home today, the second weekend in a row we’ve faced a newly promoted side. After what happened last weekend, you can be quite sure Mikel Arteta will have reminded his players that even the smallest lapses in concentration or discipline can be punished at this level. We left it very late to beat Leicester, and while there wasn’t much to complain about from an attacking perspective, we conceded two goals we could have done better with.
With regards team news, it’s particularly focused on right-back ahead of this one/ Arteta was asked about Jurrien Timber and Ben White, and said:
We had to modify training for a lot of players. We’ve done the same today because of the load that they had, so it’s a decision to make this afternoon, whether to involve them, yes or no. They are close, and Tomiyasu as well is quite close to being involved, so good news.
However, Timber isn’t in the Netherlands squad for the upcoming Interlull, so I don’t expect to see him today, and while you never know with Ben White, he might well miss out too. Could there be a welcome return for Tomiyasu? Perhaps, it’d be good to see him back, but if not the manager has some thinking to do when it comes to right-back.
In the absence of all other senior options, I wouldn’t be that surprised to see Thomas Partey play there. I thought Riccardo Calafiori was excellent there against PSG, but I’d rather see him do his stuff from his more natural position, not least because it feels a bit like he has opened up the left-hand side a bit. Arteta can choose from Jorginho or Mikel Merino to fill the midfield gap, and it means he can keep one senior defender on the bench in the shape of Jakub Kiwior.
I know we have a couple of young players who could potentially get the nod, but I think after what happened last weekend, and the fact we’re going into an Interlull, he’ll play as strong and experienced a team as he can. That’s why I don’t think there’ll…
Source link : https://arseblog.com/2024/10/southampton-preview-learn-the-lessons-of-last-weekend/
Author : arseblog
Publish date : 2024-10-05 07:27:10
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