Southampton -head coach Ivan Juric has suggested that new signing Albert Grontbaek can offer competition to Mateus Fernandes for their huge competition to the city of Ipswich on Saturday.
Danish international Gronbaek came on loan from the French side Rennes more than a week ago and has to appear before Saints, but Juric emphasized that he has a role to play.
“I think the best position for him is the position of Mateus Fernandes,” said Juric.
“He can even play as an attacker or even in the back, as he sometimes played for the national team, but I think he spends the best position of Mateus.
“Of course it is a different standard, but he played in the national team and he played a number of good games. Sometimes players like [Kamaldeen] Sulemana.
“They go to one place and cannot express themselves, and then maybe something changes, and they are good. I think he is a good player, and he will do great here.”
Van Gronbaek is expected to appear his first performance on Portman Road, while Ipswich head coach Kieran McKenna hopes for a more competitive achievement than in their 4-1 defeat in Liverpool previous time-out.
“It was a difficult block with two games and it came in a difficult phase of the season for us,” he said. “But if we follow the lessons in the right way, we will be stronger for it, and it will help us in the games that come up.
“Look, it's a difficult game on top of a difficult game. We have made some mistakes that we can learn from. There are also reasons for that, but I feel that it is one, if we follow the lessons on the right and hard Working up to them, we can be stronger for. “
During that competition, forward Wes Burns was stretched with what looked like a knee injury. According to McKenna, it is potentially a serious for burns.
“Not good,” he said when he was asked about the Welshman. “It was not an impact, it was a movement. We crossed our fingers, but the knee is very swollen and it is on crutches. He goes for a scan. We hope it is not as bad when it looks, but It looks like a serious one “
𝐒𝐨𝐮𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐦𝐩𝐭𝐨𝐧 𝟑 𝐍𝐞𝐰𝐜𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐥𝐞 𝐍𝐞𝐰𝐜𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐥𝐞 𝐍𝐞𝐰𝐜𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐥𝐞
A clear start for Southampton, but that was as good as it got Newcastle to recover.
For the first time in their history, Southampton has lost six consecutive Home League matches.#Sounew pic.twitter.com/ckm0mffvai
– Opta Analyst (@Optaanalyst) January 25, 2025
Players to watch
Ipswich – Liam Delap
This season, Delap scored eight goals in the Premier League, which is at least twice as much as any other Ipswich player.
The 21-year-old has scored two of the last five league goals from Ipswich, including a goal against Chelsea at the end of December.
Southampton – Mateus Fernandes
Fernandes got an assist against Nottingham Forest in Southampton's most recent road in the Premier League.
The 20-year-old also has an average of 2.5 shots per match in his last five league matches and hopes to hit the decisive blow to the tractor boys.
Match -Forecast: Ippswich Win
Ipswich is unbeaten in their last four league matches with Southampton (W2 D2) and won this exact fixture 3-2 in the championship last season.
This season, Southampton has earned only six points in 23 Premier League matches (W1 D3 L19), the least from every side in this phase of a campaign. The only two other parties who win one victory after 23 games are West Brom in 2004-05 and Derby in 2007-08.
Saints have all lost six of their Premier League matches under Ivan Juric, with Juric only the second manager who loses his first six games responsible for a club, together with Mick McCarthy in Sunderland (lost first 14). Southampton has never lost seven consecutive league matches.
Only Tottenham (21) has dropped more points this season of winning positions than Southampton (20) in the Premier League.
Saints have lost 71% of their matches in scoring the first (5/7), the highest ratio by one side in one season, while they sent 2.14 goals per match after having gone 1-0, with alone Sheffield United last season admitted more per game when scoring the opener (2.27).
Saints have also confronted with the most shots on Target (34) and have admitted this campaign the most XG (12.9) in the Premier League.
Opta wins probability
Ipswich – 49.5%
Drawing – 24.4%
Southampton – 26.1%