I'm convinced Southampton will finish top eight this season. Said as much in my pre-season predictions but they seem to have improved even more than I thought.
Could see in Pochettino's period there last season that he had taken them up a notch from Adkins' side. I was one of many shocked to see the managerial swap mid-season (and still think Adkins was treated horribly), but you can definitely see why they did it, harsh as it was.
Pochettino is a very good young manager. His pressing style was tailor made for such a young, energetic Saints side.
One of the reasons I thought they would finish top eight this season is what I saw of them against the top teams last season when he arrived. They outplayed ourselves, Man City and Chelsea at St Mary's, winning those games 3-1, 3-1 and 2-1. They went to Old Trafford and were absolutely fantastic, even Ferguson said they deserved a point or three. Then I watched them in their game at Tottenham, they were the better team by far and it was only because they didn't take their chances that a late Bale wonder strike punished them. Deserved to win that, too.
So I knew Pochettino has the tactical nous to play well against the better teams, who by nature tend to be the ones that play a short passing game, which his tactics seem to work wonders against. He did struggle to engineer results against the more direct sides though, proven by QPR winning 1-2 at St Mary's and West Brom 0-3. Even at the start of this season they were held to draws at home by Sunderland and West Ham, and beaten at the incredibly direct Norwich. But in the last two months they seem to have overcome those problems a bit, putting teams like Hull and Fulham to the sword comfortably enough. Southampton beating Swansea recently with Pochettino's style of play was as sure a result as I'd seen up to that point of the season.
I was at a wedding so missed our game against them but I was expecting them to take points off us, to see that they perhaps should have won by more didn't even surprise me, and it should have done. I turned over to the last 15 minutes of their draw at Old Trafford and just thought to myself how brave they are in their style of play; they were so aggressive in their attacking play and you actually sensed an inevitability about them netting a late equaliser.
They did struggle against Arsenal though, the other day. Showed that the very good technical players can find a way around them if they play it right, but even then you can't ignore how much they missed Lovren who has been a revelation for them. Their main worry this season will be fatigue; their players could be shot by March time if they persist with this style, but if they're doing as well as they have been then who knows, they may keep it up on adrenaline alone. I think they'll end up in 8th not far off whoever comes 7th (Everton or Tottenham most probably) but a fair bit ahead of the team in 9th (probs Newcastle, Swansea or West Brom). They are very good and deserve credit for coming a long way in a very short period of time. They were kind of my adopted second team before the season started, but because of where they are I'm disconnecting any hope of them doing well at the moment!
Love their mix of players, too. You've got the excellent partnerships made of foreign players through the spine of their team, likes of Lovren-Fonte and Schneiderlin-Wanyama. Then there's the English lads who have been with them since they promoted from League 1- Lambert, Lallana, now fully fledged England internationals. Shrewd English signings from the Championship like Clyne and Rodriguez, both of whom fit perfectly in to their style of play. Local lads who have come through the youth team; Shaw, Ward-Prowse, Chambers... I could go on. They are just a very likeable club/team at the moment. They haven't got a super strong squad but players such as Cork and Ramirez are more than good enough to slot in. Then there's their record signing Osvaldo, who doesn't seem to have settled yet but must have something about him.
If they strengthen their goalkeeper, bring in a natural wide right player and a few others over the next few transfer windows, as well as hanging on to most of their current crop then the only way is up for them. Of course, the opposite could happen with Pochettino jumping ship when a bgger club offers him something or their stars wanting out for pastures new. Seems unlikely though, they are building something there.