Jo Tessem Discusses Russell Martin’s Challenging Midfield and Defensive Choices for Southampton

Southampton will be missing Jan Bednarek, Aaron Ramsdale, Taylor Harwood-Bellis, Tyler Dibling, Flynn Downes, and Adam Lallana for their home match against Chelsea at St Mary’s on Wednesday (19:30 GMT). Former Saints player Jo Tessem recently offered his perspective on how manager Russell Martin might configure his team to confront the Blues, during an appearance on the “Goin’ Home With Adam And Jo” podcast. Tessem commented on the midfield situation, stating, “The midfield is going to be a bit tricky because Joe Aribo can come in and Mateus Fernandes is still available, but Lesley Ugochukwu can’t play against his parent club. But everyone else is out, so this is going to be tricky.” Regarding defensive options, Tessem continued, “[Yukinari] Sugawara has to play. Jack Stephens has to play. Charlie Taylor probably has to come in as the left-back or you have got [Kyle] Walker-Peters, which then allows you to put Charlie Taylor in at centre-back with Jack Stephens. So that issue could be sorted, but this is a tricky one [for Russell Martin].” He also recalled, “But, if we go back to last season, Adam Armstrong popped back into midfield, with success, for quite a few games. However, this is Chelsea so it is a different level – but who else are you going to put in there?”