Saints travel to East Anglia for the second time in just over a week, this time it's to fellow Championship club Norwich City in the Carabao Cup, the big question is what Will Still will do in this game formation wise.

The three Championship matches played so far have seen 5 goals leaked, all of them should have been avoided, a good organised defence would not have let any of them in, let alone a couple.

We all know the problem, but only one man has the ability to stop the rot at the back, in each game he has changed one of the players in his back three, but it has changed nothing on the pitch.

So will Will Still try something different at Carrow Road, will he stick with a back three or will he revert to a back four, in which case who will be the two central figures.

Still has hinted that he will be playing a strong side, that he sees the Carabao Cup as a springboard for his team to find their shape and form, but with a bloated squad he has to give some of the fringe players a game to keep them sharp.

But the manager must surely know where the issues lie in this team and he must know that in the defence at least the answer is not already at the club, that he has money and he needs to spend some of it, not a lot, but he needs to consider someone like Ben Mee to come in and take charge at the back, there are no leaders in his team, Southampton fans have known that for several years, can Still be the first Saints manager since Covid to wake up to that fact.

At Norwich Still will once again look within his own squad to find a solution, he will shuffle the pack, but the reality is that good teams are built with a good spine and we don't have that, good teams have a leader and we don't have that and good teams are built with a strong defence that can not only repel what is thrown at it but can build the play up from the back and at present we don't have that, in truth we haven't had it, since Jose Fonte & Virgil Van Dijk threw their toys out of the pram.

Other teams in The Championship look at our squad with envy, but it is not producing the goods, Will Still has to show us why he is so highly regarded and jjst why we appointed him.

This game is a free hit, we aren't going to win the competition, it provides us with a chance to experiment and give the fringe players a chance to show what they can do, this game in this respect is important as it also gives the manager a chance to show the fans what he can do, that he is aware of the problems and is dealing with them.

It is anyone's guess what the team will be tonight, of course we want to see it win, but if it was to go out on penalties after drawing the game 0-0 we might be able to take some comfort from it.

All Photos Via Reuters

HythePeer added 09:33 - Aug 26 Defence? Has a striker scored a goal yet?
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mushinexile added 10:33 - Aug 26 Who says we aren't going to win the competition? Somewhat defeatist there, Nick
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BigbadBarry8myboat added 22:24 - Aug 26 One game without Jack Stephens, one clean sheet.
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