Saints supporters seem to have differing opinions about where the team needs strengthening, but for me there are just the two key areas that need to be dealt with urgently.

Most Southampton fans on line have two areas of the team that they want strengthened in the transfer window, they will tell you that we are desperate for a striker and a goalkeeper.

However I am not sure that Tonda Eckert & Johannes Spors will be in agreement with them, I don't think they see replacing Gavin Bazunu as a priority, but I do think that they will be considering a striker in the coming weeks.

But for me neither position is where we are lacking, since the January transfer window of 2018, when Virgil Van Dijk left the club under a cloud, we have lacked a leader of men in the centre of defence, a true Captain, an organiser who leads both by example and by respect.

I have now been saying this for 7 years and i am getting sick of doing so having watched successive teams and managers struggle with the defensive side of things.

We are top heavy with centre halves and if we are to bring someone in then we need to look at a little bit of transfer dealings in both in and out in this area.

We have 5 central defenders and none have shone this season, but that is as much as to how they are being employed as to their abilities.

Ronnie Edwards in my opinion has the passing ability and pace that we so lack in a pedestrian back 3, yet he is being overlooked, rumours abound that Queens Park Rangers are about to make a move for a man who was superb at this level for them on loan a year ago.

If Tonda Eckert doesn't rate him then time to get rid, I would be sorry to see him go, but we truly need to have a clear out at the back and bring in someone who can do a job.

Personally I would take drastic action and send out Nathan Wood & Jack Stephens on loan and replace them with a good experienced Premier League battle hardened centre half, there must be a 30-31 year old out of favour at a club somewhere who meets that criteria.

If we continue with the same 3 that played at Birmingham playing in the same positions, then we will get the same results and that is shipping goals that should have been prevented.

So the big key area for me in January is here in the centre of defence.

But it is all the goalkeepers fault I hear you all cry !

There is a tendency at the moment for a section of our support to blame Gavin Bazunu for everything, to claim that every goal conceded should have been stopped by him, but the reality is that is not the case.

I would agree that Bazunu has made mistakes, but he has made a lot more saves than he had dropped clangers, the problem for him is that he is playing in front of a defence that is not organised, you sort the defence out and suddenly Bazunu will be a different keeper.

The last 3 goals conceded, the two at Oxford and at Birmingham were all about poor defending not poor goal keeping, a failure to deal with critical situations, at Oxford it was about failing to leave someone on the edge of the box to pick up loose balls and then letting their striker get in one on one on the keeper in the final minutes.

At Birmingham it was that game of head tennis all because we had not dealt with the initial cross and thought the ball was going out.

Gavin Bazunu let in less goals than any other keeper when we went 22 games unbeaten two years ago in this division, he was a big part of that run.

Up front it is a different dilemma, in Cameron Archer and Adam Armstrong we have players that will score goals, they offer differing options, but neither are big and tall.

We do have two big strikers, but one has spent much of the last two years injured and has been injured for several months as we speak, I like Ross Stewart, but he hasn't played in 3 months and is at least a month away, can we be confident he will stay fit after that ? I am not too sure.

I think there is a good player in Damion Downs, however he is young and struggled in the earlier part of the season, in his defence he was playing in a team where those around him were just as bad, he was not the only culprit.

I think he can still be a force at this club, but the question is whether it will be this season or next.

I think that he will go out on loan and that will suit both him and his World Cup hopes and also us, as we can bring in a loan striker.

So in this transfer window i would hope that Saints will concentrate on a central defender and a centre forward.

If we get the right men in these positions, especially the one at the back, then we have a strong squad and that includes the goalkeeper.

That is not a position that we need to prioritise "IF" we get it right in the centre of defence, if we don't then we could sign any keeper that you would care to name and it will not make much difference.

We need a goalkeeper who can get us into the play offs, Gavin Bazunu did that two years ago and can do it again.

So a key window for Johannes Spors and his recruitment team, they need to get it right, both in who they buy, but also in shipping out others, they do have issues regarding those coming back from injury, but if they do get it right then I think we can start to be consistent and move up the table.

I am sure that there will be many who disagree with me, especially in regard to the goalkeeper, but I have explained my reasoning in each case, I haven't just launched a witch hunt against those whom I think might leave.

I have also been realistic in where we will be able to get players who will improve the team, that should be the priority of any transfer window, improving the team not just adding extra choices.

That is where we have gone wrong in the past, but in his one transfer window so far Spors has done well, now he needs to do it again, however I do expect more to leave than come in.

All Photos Via Reuters

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