da betway： New Southampton manager Mark Hughes will look to lead the club to last four of the FA Cup in his first match in charge when they face League One outfit Wigan Athletic at the DW Stadium on Sunday, on the back of a 3-0 defeat against Newcastle United at St James’ Park last weekend that finally saw Mauricio Pellegrino get the sack.
da mrbet： It looked to be a must-win fixture for Saints in their bid to retain their Premier League status with the Magpies lying just a point above them in the standings prior to kick off, but they found themselves 1-0 down with barely a minute on the clock and a lacklustre performance saw them lose 3-0 in the end.
The result and the display proved to be the final straw for the south coast outfit’s board, and they relieved Pellegrino of his duties on Monday day following an horrendous run of just one win in 17 top flight games, much to the delight of the fans.
Hughes has been handed the task of leading Saints – who currently lie one point above the relegation zone – in their final eight Premier League matches this term, although he has the extra cup tie against the Latics to deal with first of all.
It certainly won’t be an easy task to beat the League One high-flyers given they have already beaten Bournemouth, West Ham United and Manchester City to reach this stage, with the 54-year-old not wanting to get off to a negative start.
The former Stoke boss will be considering making some changes to the XI that was beaten so easily by Newcastle as he looks to turn his new side’s fortunes around, and he should quickly look to get the fans onside by making a couple of important alterations to his team.
Here are two big changes the 54-year-old must make when Southampton face Wigan…
Having impressed from the substitutes’ bench in the draw against Burnley last month and then been one of Southampton’s biggest attacking threats when he started against Stoke City at St Mary’s, Saints fans were left confused when Sims was relegated back to the bench for the trip to St James’ Park last weekend.
James Ward-Prowse previously would have felt hard done by when he lost his place on the right to Sims given he has been in decent form in 2018, but the 20-year-old has the pace and direct running to make a difference in the final third for the south coast outfit, and has impressed the fans with his displays.
Tadic hasn’t done enough in the attacking midfield positions for more than 18 months now and it was no surprise that he was hooked off at half-time against the Magpies following another anonymous showing.
With Ward-Prowse deserving of his spot on the right and Sims able to play on the opposite flank, Hughes should look to play Redmond through the middle behind the striker – if he intends to play a 4-2-3-1 system or even a 4-4-1-1 formation – and drop Tadic to the bench at the DW Stadium.
While Southampton pride themselves on their ‘black box’ system when it comes to recruiting players, it is hard to believe that Mauricio Pellegrino had no influence on the signing of Carrillo from Monaco during the January transfer window given his questionable goalscoring record and the fact he worked with him previously at Estudiantes.
The 25-year-old certainly hasn’t looked as though he is the answer to their problems in the final third in his first eight appearances for the club in all competitions, failing to get on the score-sheet and providing two assists.
Meanwhile, Gabbiadini has largely had to make do with cameos from the substitutes’ bench having only started once in the Premier League since December 16, and he wasn’t even handed a start by Pellegrino against Stoke having scored the equaliser in the 1-1 draw against Burnley, leaving the St Mary’s faithful well and truly confused.
While the Italy international hasn’t been in the best of form in the last 12 months, he is still the most natural goalscorer they have available right now and has to start games.
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