Town boss Paul Jewell is considering a change of formation for newly-promoted Southampton’s visit to Portman Road this evening (KO 7.45pm). The Blues manager is weighing up whether to move to his preferred 4-4-2 from the 4-5-1 he has utilised in both Town’s league games so far this season.
Jewell was disappointed with the display against Hull on Saturday and says visiting sides increasingly appear to have the upper hand, both in the Premier League and the Championship: "We didn’t play very well.
"Hull have one of the best defensive away records in the league. It’s getting almost easier to play away from home now. I don’t know how many Premier League home wins there were on Saturday [none, although Manchester City won last night].
"It’s getting more and more difficult. Teams - and we’ve done it to opposition sides - sit back and say ‘break us down’ and then the patience aspect comes into it.
"It’s almost easier to play away from home. I want to try and get rid of that and embrace playing at home and really look forward to it.”
That could see a switch to a two-man frontline: "I think possibly we might have to have a look at changing formation, although I think if we’d won 1-0 on Saturday no one would probably have mentioned the formation.
"I think what we’ve got to be careful of doing is putting too much onus on Michael Chopra. I think we’ve got one of the best strikers in the division and we can’t expect him to do it all on his own. We’ve got to give him help and take more responsibility all over the pitch.”
At his former clubs, the Blues boss has generally been a fan of 4-4-2, even if it isn’t universally popular: "I was reading an article by Dennis Bergkamp and he said the biggest crime Martin Jol committed at Ajax was playing 4-4-2. It got him the sack. They play 4-3-3 and whoever goes in as manager has to play that way. If that’s the Ajax way, that’s the Ajax way.
"But I think we’ve got to be more adaptable than that. We talk about systems but it’s still 11 v 11. I like two strikers, even if one drops off.
"Trying to fit people into a team is not easy. You’re trying to think what’s best for the team, not just one player.
"The idea of the three in midfield is to get forward. We’ve got two wide players who you wouldn’t call defensive.
"Chopra didn’t have a partner against Bristol City and he got two goals, no one mentioned a partner then, although I’m still aware we need [to bring in] another striker.”
Jewell says thoughts of the defeat to Hull were put to one side well ahead of tonight’s game: "The frustrations last until Saturday night and Sunday. We can’t let it carry on until Monday, it’s done.
"Just like this time last week. We weren’t basking in the Bristol City game, we were looking forward to another match. Certainly in this league, there are always games to look forward to around the corner.
"If we go into the game feeling sorry for ourselves and being negative, we’ll get beaten. We’ve got to try and be upbeat about the game.”
The Liverpudlian says Town have to get over a nervousness which has developed when they are playing at Portman Road: "Certainly at home, there’s an edginess and a fear factor about us, which has been about us for quite a while, I think, long before I got here. I don’t know why.
"Portman Road is a lovely place to come, but we want it to be less lovely for the opposition. We want it to be a bit more unattractive because they all love coming here.
"But it’s up us, as a team, to get our supporters excited, to get them loud and vibrant and to scare the opposition. That has to come from the team.
"I don’t think the fans have been anything except superb, certainly since I’ve been here,” he added. "We have to give them more excitement at home.
"They pay a lot of money for us to entertain them and quite a bit since I’ve been here we’ve been a little bit disappointing.”
Jewell says the club as a whole needs to pull itself out of the malaise of the last few seasons: "We’ve got that mid-table-itis, if you like.
"We’ve got to try and shake those shackles off. It won’t come easy, it’ll come with winning games and bringing people in and moulding the younger people that we’ve already got here.”
But he warns that there is no quick fix: "I think if we can build the club up and the team up and moving forward together, we’ll be a lot stronger in the future.
"This club has already been in administration once and have seen the pitfalls of that, so if we can grow slowly and strongly, it’s far better.”
Jewell believes Southampton manager Nigel Adkins is assembling a decent squad: "They’ve got good players, Adam Lallana is a quality player and we know we’re going to be up against it. But that’s the way it is and that’s we’re looking forward to.
"I want us to embrace games rather than be scared about them. It’s a game of football and we’re at home. We should be looking forward to it, and I’m sure we will be.”
One Saint he knows well is striker David Connolly. The Irishman, who has scored two goals in two games this season played under the Town boss at Wigan, where he impressed him despite injuries hampering him: "He’s very clever, he’s very bright. He gets his shots off, he can link the play. He’s got a really good football brain.
"Unfortunately when he was with us at Wigan, and since, he’s been blighted by injuries and this is the first time he’s been injury free for a while.
"He’s been in and out of Southampton’s team for the last two years, but he’s always been a threat has Connors. He’s a terrific lad, a very bright footballer and the goal he scored against Leeds was typical of him.
"Him and Rickie Lambert will be a force to be reckoned with and again, it shows you Southampton’s intent when they tried to buy the boy Jay Rodriguez from Burnley for just over £4 million.”
The Blues will again be without central defender Ãvar ingimarsson, who is out for around two weeks with a thigh strain. Lee Martin has a tight hamstring but is likely to be OK to keep his place wide in midfield.
Jewell will stick with David Stockdale in goal and the impressive Aaron Cresswell and Carlos Edwards as his full-backs. Damien Delaney and Tommy Smith will continue at the centre of the defence in Ingimarsson’s absence.
In midfield, the Blues boss has choices to make with Keith Andrews perhaps coming in for his first start alongside skipper Grant Leadbitter if Town are switching to 4-4-2. Veterans Lee Bowyer and Mark Kennedy are also contenders but may be rested with the games coming thick and fast at this early stage of the season.
Martin and Josh Carson may well fill the wide roles with Jay Emmanuel-Thomas perhaps playing in the position behind Michael Chopra that he occupied in the friendly at Colchester. Alternatively, the ex-Arsenal man could be wide with one of Nathan Ellington or Jason Scotland making their first league starts of the season.
Southampton boss Nigel Adkins says he and Paul Jewell know one another well: "Me and Paul Jewell are the same age. We were schoolboys at Liverpool together and we played in the same team at Wigan, so I have known him for a long time.
"He has done fantastically in management, what he has done is top drawer and he now has an opportunity to go and do it again. He has had teams promoted from the Championship and stayed in the Premier League and done well there too, so Ipswich have a manager who will give them every opportunity to get back there.
"They are a big football club and as I have said, there are a lot of clubs with aspirations of getting into the Premier League. It's a long campaign and it is about how you navigate your way through it. We have had a good first week, but we won't get too high in the same way that we wouldn't get too low if results go against us a little bit.”
Second-placed Southampton have no new injuries with defender Radhi Jaidi (knee) and striker Lee Barnard (ankle) closing in on first team returns, but midfielder Richard Chaplow is suspended having been sent off in the weekend 1-0 win at Barnsley, which followed their opening game 3-1 home victory over Leeds. Promising youngster Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain was finally sold to Arsenal last week.
Historically, the Blues just have the edge, winning 25 games (24 in the league) between the sides, losing 21 (16) and drawing 18 (18).
The teams met most recently in a fourth round FA Cup tie at St Mary’s when the then-League One side ran out 2-1 victors. Wayne Thomas lashed home from distance before Michail Antonio added to their lead, with Pablo Couñago pulling one back for the Blues in the final minute.
Last time the clubs met in the league was at Portman Road in March 2009 in the poor run of form which eventually led to former Southampton star Jim Magilton’s Blues sacking.
The 3-0 scoreline if anything flattered Town with the relegation-bound Saints missing several opportunities in addition to goals scored by Jason Euell (2) and Matthew Paterson.
Earlier in the campaign in Hampshire, the teams drew 2-2 in a bit of a rip-roarer. Goals from Saints Andrew Surman and Tomas Peckhart sandwiched strikes by Town’s Owen Garvan and Alan Quinn.
Southampton’s squad contains former Blues Kelvin Davis and Dan Harding, while Davis’s deputy Bartosz Bialkowski spent time on loan with the Blues during the 2008/09 season without making a first team appearance.
No current Town player has been with the Saints, although keeper-coach Malcolm Webster worked at St Mary’s during ex-Blues boss George Burley’s time as manager there.
Tonight’s referee is Jon Moss from West Yorkshire, who last season showed 87 yellow and 10 red cards in 42 games. Moss’s most recent visit to Portman Road was the derby in April, while he was the official who red-carded Andros Townsend and Claude Davis in the Blues’ 2-1 win at Crystal Palace in Town’s third league game of last season.
Squad from: Stockdale, Lee-Barrett, Edwards, Cresswell, Delaney, Smith, Ainsley, Kennedy, Leadbitter, Bowyer, Andrews, Emmanuel-Thomas, Martin, Carson, Healy, Drury, Chopra, Scotland, Ellington.