Slave Bilic’s belief tells him there will be a reaction to last week’s 4-0 humbling at Old Trafford.
The boss’ positive words aren’t always matched by the level performance we require but hey it’s Friday and optimism runs high so I’ll shelve the cyncism for now!
Slav’s mantra is familiar as he declares: “I believe in my players. They showed on many occasions last season a good reaction when it was needed during tough times, and I have confidence that we will see that reaction again on Saturday.”
Speaking to the official site he added: “They have shown me the right attitude in training this week, and have worked extremely hard to prepare for this game.
Southampton are a good side. They have a new manager in Mauricio Pellegrino, but despite a few changes of manager in recent years, they keep the same model and the same system.
For me, they play good football. I heard a few people say last year that they were boring, but I don’t agree with that. They have some dangerous attacking players
They didn’t score against Swansea last week but they played well and should have won the game. They are a good team, and they were a good team last season, but we beat them 3-1 at their place and we have to find that level of performance again this weekend.”
‘They keep the same model and they keep the same system’ . I think that is called having a long term plan of how you want to operate. What is ours I wonder? He also mentions the changes of manager, suggesting that changes of manager, as all the pundits tell us, are a bad thing. So have Saints done better than us over the last 6 years in spite of the managerial changes, or because of them? I have no idea so am just asking.
Anyway, like Hugh I will try to stay positive. We will do to well win away to them twice on the trot, but I would see a draw as a good result . Just hoping for a good performance at this stage.
Thank you for your article Hugh!
Bilic can tell us all how well the boys played in practice this week..
However, if he persists with the 4-2-3-1 formation (which I feel does not suit us), then all the training in the world won’t achieve a good result!
He (Slav) must consider an alternate formation, in order to strengthen the midfield and provide Chicharito with an attacking chaperone; 3-5-2? 4-4-2? or even a 3-4-3.