" Southampton are in turmoil at the moment. They lie second from bottom in the league and have not won in seven games. They also have star striker James Beattie out until November with a broken toe, and Kevin Phillips is out with a calf strain. Birmingham are also not doing much better, and they havent won in six games - they are definitely missing the goals of Mikael Forssell who is out till the New Year and their other striker Clinton Morrison is out until mid November. Tough times!

Looking at this game, I dont think either team has enough to win it at the moment, and I cant see there being many goals. Southampton have not scored in three games and it is difficult to see where the goals will come from, while Birmingham have their best two strikers out injured! For me, Bimingham should have enough with the handicap today. The Blues have drawn two out of four games away from home, the problem is they simply cannot find the goals to win games. Southampton have already conceded six goals at home this term and look like a shambles at the back - Birmingham will start with Emile Heskey and Dwight Yorke, and these two have the quality to take advantage of a dispirited team. Get on Birmingham 0, +0.5 at 1.7 with Betfair [£20 Free Bet]. Birmingham average nearly a goal a game away from St Andrews and a single goal may be enough today. "My main concern against Watford is that our midfield is our strength and Watford will probably bypass it with most of their play. We're also very suspect on set pieces (especially in-swinging free-kicks) because Weaver hasn't got a clue how to deal with them and he causes all kinds of uncertainty in our defence.In fact, the last one was actually a cross from open play but it resulted from the second phase of a set piece and the players were lined-up on the edge of the 18-yard box the same.

Anyway, I watched Watford the other night and I'm just not sure how we'll cope if they do manage to get a few of those in-swinging free-kicks from wide areas. I take the point about the number of inswingers, and you could say that it is the keeper's job to push the defence out, but there are few of them that he should have been able to claim and I would be more tempted to look at the individual defenders failing to pick up their individual players, or simply heading in their own net. I have no problem with Weaver to be honest. He has surprised me. I was sceptical after he had been out for so long.


 

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