Without Aaron Ramsdale, Southampton have been deemed as more fragile than local rivals Portsmouth in the keeping area.
The status of clubs has changed but Aaron Ramsdale arriving in a team wounded by defeats is still unchanged. The Southampton loanee's new team Newcastle United took another preseason loss on the road, and will hope the 27-year-old helps restore some lost pride in their consecutive La Liga tests.
Given, how rock bottom the Magpies find themselves in terms of momentum, Ramsdale will surely improve that atmosphere whenever he concludes his stay there. At Southampton, his absence will be felt but the moment calls for damage control and the more it's done, the better.
Still, Football League World documented their AI giving one of the lowest ratings to Will Still's keeping unit, across the whole Championship. Not just the top six, but Southampton were tagged weaker than Portsmouth and that will not go down well with the St. Mary's faithful.
Ramsdale's unavailability will affect Saints but not this poorly
A little over three weeks ago, Don Goodman was critical of the Pompeys and it was well justified given they were barely hanging on for points. Specifically, the report hailed Portsmouth's Ben Killip to outperform Alex McCarthy which is an extremely harsh take on the latter.
Both of them have worn the Three Lions badge but McCarthy has done it for the senior side while Killip's exploits have been restricted to the reserve side. That's without counting the 35-year-old Saint's two promotions and a respectably long Premier League career in front of the top-flight debut awaiting Killip.
Honestly, Southampton fans know the drill that actual comparisons are done in two halves of fourty-five minutes and they will find out soon enough whether AI got it right, or hopefully wrong.