The 32 year old penned a deal until June 2027 on Friday, less than 24 hours out from the match, after winning four of his first five fixtures as interim.<\/p>\n
Saints could climb into the top half of the Championship table with a win against the Blues, who have won just eight points from nine away games.<\/p>\n
But the newly-promoted outfit will be no pushovers, winning four of their last six league outings, scoring four goals in three separate matches.<\/p>\n
Here is how we think Saints will line up to face Birmingham…<\/p>\n Goalkeeper<\/strong><\/p>\n Some of Gavin Bazunu<\/strong>‘s work was called into question again against Millwall, particularly the third goal, but the number one also made some vital stops.<\/p>\n Defenders<\/strong><\/p>\n Having conceded three goals last time out, Eckert could opt to make changes here. Taylor Harwood-Bellis<\/strong> is the only certainty to start.<\/p>\n But we will play it safe by predicting that Nathan Wood<\/strong> and Jack Stephens<\/strong> retain their places again, likely to the disappointment of Joshua Quarshie.<\/p>\n Midfielders<\/strong><\/p>\n Flynn Downes<\/strong> was a big miss through suspension at Millwall, so he will be a welcome returnee to partner alongside midfield stalwart Caspar Jander<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Tom Fellows<\/strong> and Ryan Manning<\/strong> were key players in the four consecutive wins under Eckert, and will hope to deliver that level of firepower again.<\/p>\n Attackers<\/strong><\/p>\n Finn Azaz<\/strong> and Adam Armstrong<\/strong> both netted despite defeat last time out. They have scored eight goals between them in the last four matches.<\/p>\n They will be supported by star man Leo Scienza<\/strong>, who dropped out last weekend due to illness. He has shaken it off and is ready to spark the attack.<\/p>\n Full predicted team<\/strong><\/p>\n (3-4-3): Bazunu; Harwood-Bellis, Wood, Stephens; Fellows, Downes, Jander, Manning; Azaz, Scienza, Armstrong.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n ( function () {<\/p>\n })();<\/p>\n The 32 year old penned a deal until June 2027 on Friday, less than 24 hours out from the match, after winning four of his first five fixtures as interim. Saints could climb into the top half of the Championship table with a win against the Blues, who have won just eight points from nine … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12371,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12370","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Southampton-FC-predicted-team-vs-Birmingham-City-Championship.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12370","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12370"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12370\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12372,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12370\/revisions\/12372"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12371"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12370"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12370"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12370"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Saints have a permanent head coach in Tonda Eckert (Image: Southampton FC)<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n
Taylor Harwood-Bellis scored a brace last time at St Mary’s (Image: Richard Crease)<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n
Leo Scienza missed the visit to Millwall (Image: Southampton FC\/Chris Moorhouse)<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n
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