Jamie Carragher: Manchester United position 'about right' ahead of Southampton trip

Jamie Carragher has his say on the subplots surrounding Sky’s live Monday Night Football - in this column, the Liverpool legend speaks of his admiration for Southampton and assesses Louis van Gaal's resurgent Manchester United ahead of the clash at St Mary’s.

Southampton's blistering start to the campaign has been nothing short of breathtaking. Consecutive defeats to Manchester City and Arsenal however appear to have knocked the Saints down to earth and, for the first time this season, have really questioned their top-four credentials.

But with Manchester United coming to town on Monday night, Carragher sees no reason for doom and gloom on the south coast...

How important is Monday’s game for Southampton, especially after two defeats in a row?

CARRA SAYS: I think Southampton will be looking at Monday’s game – along with the last two against Man City and Arsenal - as bonus games really. No one was expecting Southampton to get anything from these three games but on the other hand you don’t want to lose three on the bounce. I watched their last two games and in the City game, from start to finish, City were much better.

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But I watched the Arsenal game and they were very unfortunate, not just because of Alexis Sanchez’s late goal but they had an excellent chance to take the lead through Graziano Pelle early on and overall they played well, they never really looked in too much trouble. They went down to 10 men because of the injury to Toby Alderweireld and they suffered with that but they definitely deserved a draw and if they put in a similar performance at home I think they’ll give United a really tough game.

St Mary’s has been a really tough place to go to for a few years now – initially, while under Mauricio Pochettino, Southampton took some big scalps. Ronald Koeman has come in now and done a great job but they are yet to really beat what you would call a top team, the sort of side that you would class as a higher quality. From Tottenham and Liverpool away at the start of the season they have always come up short even though they played well, they never really took a big scalp and I think Monday presents a perfect chance for them to claim that elusive win against a big side. 

Do the injuries to Morgan Schneiderlin and Toby Alderweireld, coupled with the two defeats to City and Arsenal, show that Southampton lack the strength in depth to mount a sustained challenge for a Champions League spot throughout a busy festive period?

CARRA SAYS: We’ve always said from the start that Southampton’s first XI will give anyone in the league a game. I’m a big fan of theirs, they’ve got great pace, strength and ability in the team they’re organised. They’ve got a lot of things going for them but where they can’t match the big teams is in size of squad and quality of payer in reserve and when they do have injuries it will tell. They’ll be missing Schneiderlin, who I think is a fantastic player, Alderweireld come off the other night and he’s a good player as well so when they do get injuries that’s the problem for the so called ‘lesser’ clubs.

It’s tough for everyone who plays games that close together over Christmas but it’s whether they can keep players fit. And that’s the same for a lot of teams really besides the top teams as most of them don’t have the numbers or quality in reserve. Southampton are very good team. It’s not a flash in the pan what they’ve done this season.