The stakes are high and Saints need to invest now if they want promotion.

The key to improving any squad is usually not wholesale change, but gradual evolution over a period of time and it has to be said that is what has been happening at St Mary's over the past two years and now is the time for a little more of it.

The problem is that we are now at a stage where we have some good players who are fans favourites and that being the case its sometimes difficult for supporters to notice key areas that need changing, to illustrate this, when Saints signed Fraser Richardson & Danny Butterfield and let the reliable Lloyd James go, it was fairly easy to see the natural progression in this, however earlier this season the signing of Danny Fox to replace Dan Harding was harder to accept by some and it took an error in the game at Fratton to perhaps highlight that when you are chasing promotion you have to have players in that dont make too many errors.

The problem is at the moment, Saints do have a big squad, injuries should not be too much problem too it, apart from up front where we are stretched due to the long term absence of Lee Barnard and the inability of David Connolly to stay fit for long and we looked to be stretched further with the loss of Rickie Lambert for three games, however in the rest of the pitch it shouldnt be a problem, we have the numbers and most of them are proven Championship players, probably only Ryan Dickson and Ben Reeves not yet having had the chance to do so, our real problem has been our failure to utilise players like Danny Butterfield, Lee Holmes and the aforementioned Dickson, earlier in the season you could understand why they werent getting much of a look in, but given that when they have played they have contributed its a puzzle why over the last two months and 9 games since we beat Coventry on 5th November, a run thats yielded only 9 points why they havent got a look in at all.

So if we are to take that next step forward then we have to take difficult decisions and the first one is to bring in a new keeper, being blunt this is an area that could really cost us, a good steady commanding keeper will win you points you might not have got otherwise, I can hear the howls of outrage now, but for those shouting, ask yourself a question, is Kelvin really good enough for the Premier, at 35 you would have to say the answer is no, that being the case we should be looking at replacing him now, his error at Brighton wasnt his only blunder this season and to be frank I feel a good keeper would have dealt with the first of the three shots that Bristol City had for their goal last week, if the ball was got out of the danger area then we would have got a point at least and that could be vital. Like last season our shots on target/goals against ratio is not good, Brighton had five shots on target and three went in, one of the other two was the fumbled shot that lead to the first goal and that isnt good, away from home Saints have conceded 19 goals in 12 games, thats 6 more than any other side in the top six and 3 more than Pompey and even one more than Forest who are second from bottom, if we are serious about promotion then we have to stop this leaking of goals on the road and it has to start with the goalkeeper.

In defence its hard to see why we are going wrong, but as mentioned the way we are leaking goals on the road has to stop, Fox and Richardson are mainly tight given that their role is to get forward and put in crosses, something they have done with great effect, the real problem is in the centre, Hooiveld and Fonte are individually good players, but there is something there thats hard to put your finger on, they just dont click as a partnership, Nigel Adkins has hinted as much and rumours still abound that we will bring in another centtre half, Liam Fontaine was again mentioned till his injury, 99% of the time we are tight at the back, but every game there are individual lapses of concentration and errors those that howl derision at me again need only look at that away goals tally, do we want to watch a side full of players we like ? or do we want to see players doing their job for the full 90 minutes, again Nigel Adkins wasnt wrong when he said after the pompey game that he cant remember a goal scored against us that the opposition really had to work for where we didnt give it away to some degree.

In midfield we have plenty of bodies, even without Chaplow there are plenty of options, the right side has been a problem and tactically we have got it wrong on too many occasions by trying to shoe in one of our central players, but it isnt the most crucial area to look at, and why the manager hasnt tried a combination of Butterfield and Richardson along the right flank is a puzzle.

Up front is the other crucial area though, I said when the loan window shut and people were asking why I was so keen on Lukas Jutkiewicz that we had no covver for Rickie Lambert, for a team that plays a certain way and rarely seems to change its style and everything channelled through one man, not to have a like for like back up for him is utter folly and with the absence of Connolly all season we have struggled to change things up front, if only to give one of the front men a break late on.

I fear though that one of the oft mentioned targets of Maynard, Sharpe or Rodriguez wont be on their way, Adkins has hinted of his admiration for Jutkiewicz and i have a feeling that he may be the only truly expensive proven signing this January at least on a permanent basis, with Tadanari Lee being a fairly low cost gamble, this wont best please many who accepted that perhaps Oxlade-Chamberlain was sold a little bit too late to utilise the money in August, but did expect to see a big chunk of it spent in January.

Ideally then Saints would bring in an experienced goalkeeper & central defender of Premiership quality and two strikers, if we did this then I feel that would be the next pieces in the jigsaw and give us the firepower to take us towards the Premier League, it would be good to see a fair chunk of the alledged £15 million from Chamberlain's sale used to do this, certainly we could get what we need for around £7-8 Million in total, possibly less.

In four weeks time we will have some big questions answered, are the Club's owwners serious about this challenge and are they willing to back their manager with cash in the transfer window and indeed is the manager able to make some difficult decisions regarding certain positions.          

Photo: Action Images via Reuters