Three big questions for Southampton ahead of Nottingham Forest visit

The first of those final four games comes on Monday night when Saints visit Nottingham Forest. Saints are still mathematically alive in the race for survival but this really is the last throw of the dice. 

Defeat to Forest would see them go nine points above Saints and place them in an impossible position if they aren’t in that already.

READ MORE: 'We need to have a perfect game' Saints defender assesses huge Nottingham Forest test

For weeks, Saints boss Ruben Selles has encouraged his team to forget about the table and focus on the next game, focus on picking up points. But even for the immeasurably confident Spaniard, there was no hiding from the importance of Monday’s trip to the City Ground.

“There are moments when you're up and you're down but that is normal for all of us. Players know they can do it and it's not a game where we feel we're completely out of it, we compete against every team and it's our belief we have been competitive but for some reason or another we haven't got the points.

"If there is a time to do it then it is now."

Saints boss Ruben Selles on the touchline at St James' Park. (Image: PA)

Time has nearly run out on Saints’ Premier League stay. But it isn’t quite over just yet. Here are three big questions we’ll be looking for answers to on Monday evening…

1. Can Saints breathe life into their relegation fight at the last chance?

Somehow against all the odds in this disastrous Saints season, they could still go into next weekend’s home clash with Fulham just three points behind those in safe positions. 

In a season that has seen Saints win just six times - none of those back-to-back - while failing to win any of their last nine Premier League matches, Ruben Selles’s side don’t really deserve to be alive at this stage. But miraculously they are.

Of course, they will still need plenty of help to turn that barely ajar door into a pathway they can actually step through. Leeds United’s unsurprising defeat to Manchester City on Saturday was the first step while Saints should have a slightly better idea of where they stand come kick-off at the City Ground with Leicester City and Everton both in action earlier in the day.

Should the two of them lose, it would leave Saints still only six points adrift ahead of their game with Nottingham Forest. From that point though, the real challenge would begin: actually getting three points against Steve Cooper’s side.

Saints react to conceding at St James' Park. (Image: PA)

There’s no reason to believe any huge gulf in quality exists between Saints and Nottingham Forest. But that fact hasn’t really helped Saints in the past. 

They are currently on their longest winless run of the season and outside of semi-promising performances against Spurs and Arsenal, much of that run has been marked by meek displays and deserved defeats. That was certainly the case two weeks ago against Bournemouth and it was once again true in a much more difficult test last weekend at St James’ Park.

Saints will be hoping to receive as much help as possible in the hours before they get under way against Nottingham Forest. But none of that will matter if they can’t help themselves.

2. Will Saints’ destructive trends continue?

In some ways it was a major surprise to see Saints go into half-time 1-0 ahead at Newcastle last weekend. After all, Newcastle are challenging for a Champions League spot while Saints are almost certainly headed for the drop.

But in other ways, it was almost to be expected. Since Ruben Selles took charge in mid-February, Saints have faced some of the best in the league and also a collection of the worst. They managed to beat Chelsea - admittedly not the success it once was - while earning draws with Manchester United, Spurs, and Arsenal.

In that span of time, they also beat Leicester City while suffering disastrous defeats to Leeds United, West Ham, Crystal Palace, and Bournemouth. They also failed to score in each of those losses.

For the entirety of the campaign, under each of their three managers, Saints have failed to step up in their huge six-pointer or six-pointer adjacent games. And in pretty much all of those, they’ve failed to even land a blow on their opponents.

Saints celebrate taking the lead at Newcastle last weekend. (Image: PA)

Cast your mind back to early January. With the Nathan Jones era getting started in the worst possible way, Saints hosted Nottingham Forest with both sides in desperate need of points and a performance to build off of. 

Instead, they didn’t even create a shot on target as Forest scored a first half goal before easily holding out for victory.

While Jones departed just over a month later, things haven’t changed as much as Saints fans would have hoped under Selles. The catastrophic defeat to Bournemouth was the latest sign that progress has been minor at best - at least in the biggest games.

Once again, Saints completely failed to show up and not only did Bournemouth take all three points, but they really should have won by more than one goal. The Cherries were in good form coming into the game but there was no excuse for the meek acceptance of defeat that seemed to overcome Saints following Marcus Tavernier’s deadlock-breaking strike.

The travelling Saints fans on Monday will be realistic. They know that relegation is almost nailed on. But they will also be demanding a performance full of urgency and healthy desperation. That is absolutely a fair demand regardless of the final result.

3. What will be the surprise team selection?

Consistency is not a word that’s been part of Saints’ dictionary this season. That’s been the case for their performances on the pitch and the personnel putting in those performances.

It seems that each time the Saints team news is released an hour before kick-off there’s something that shocks the watching fanbse.

Against Crystal Palace that was the striker-less formation Selles chose while more recently against Bournemouth it was the returned presence of Alex McCarthy that caused surprise.

And last weekend at St James’ Park there were a couple of surprise choices, Lyanco starting at right back and Moussa Djenepo starting in front of him on the same flank.

With a squad of 30 players at his disposal and very few of those 30 players actually showing that they deserve their minutes, Selles has struggled desperately to figure out his best team.

Will Che Adams return to the starting XI on Monday night? (Image: Stuart Martin)

It’s led to constant chopping and changing as he searched for the right formula. Players have come in from the cold, played a game, and then once again become forgotten. 

The formation has changed on multiple occasions as well and all this means we really have no idea what team Selles will send out at the City Ground.

Saints have no more time to be careful or patient and Che Adams should come into the side from the start but it would be no shock to see Selles stick with a system that doesn’t utilise a natural striker.

We’re really just guessing at this point and you can read our full predicted team here but it seems smart to expect the unexpected when it comes to Selles’s choices - both from the start and off the bench.