da dobrowin： While it was never confirmed in the press, it would certainly seem as though former Southampton manager Claude Puel wasn’t popular with a number of the players because of his often negative style of play, and that was perhaps shown by the fact that James Ward-Prowse and Oriol Romeu were the only ones to publicly thank him following his departure in June.
da bet7： One of the aims for executive director Les Reed in the summer therefore would have been to select not only a good coach, but one that would get on well with the players in order to try and better the eighth-place finish the south coast outfit secured last season.
Mauricio Pellegrino was appointed as Puel’s successor following the usual interview process, and the Argentine arrived at St Mary’s after leading newly-promoted Alaves to a ninth-place finish in La Liga, as well as the Copa del Rey final, in his only season in charge.
Already, the majority of the Saints players seem happier than they were at points last season, with Ryan Bertrand and Virgil van Dijk both looking committed to the cause in recent matches despite the fact that they were both heavily linked with moves away from the club during the summer – we all know the latter in particular was keen to go.
While players like Sofiane Boufal and new addition Wesley Hoedt may not be happy right now as they find themselves on the substitutes’ bench rather than in the starting line-up, that issue is natural in any large Premier League squad and they will be fighting for their place in the side.
Pellegrino may be popular with the players but there is something that is letting Southampton down right now, and that is his tactics.
One of the 43-year-old’s biggest issues when he took the reins was to sort out the team’s goalscoring issues after they netted just 41 times in their 38 Premier League matches last season.
That clearly isn’t good enough if the club wants to be in contention to qualify for European football again this term, and they certainly haven’t got off to the best of starts this term to try and rectify that problem.
While the opening day goalless draw against Swansea City was perhaps one of those days seeing as his team had 29 efforts on goal, the 3-2 success against West Ham United that followed was certainly fortunate.
Saints were leading 2-0 against 10 men before being pegged back to 2-2, and the Irons were the better team before Charlie Austin’s last-gasp penalty.
That match was certainly an early indication of the naivety in Pellegrino’s methods, and the fact that he was out-thought by Marco Silva in the 2-0 home defeat to Watford in September also showed that the former Alaves man still has plenty to learn.
The south coast outfit have tended to favour getting the ball out wide to the full-backs or wingers before crossing it into the box so far this term, but with many of those not being good enough and the lack of a real target man – or goalscorer when Shane Long is on the pitch – in the penalty area when they are, it certainly hasn’t proved to be a fruitful tactic and there needs to be more variation in the final third to boost that disappointing goal tally.
The sign of a good manager is learning from your mistakes and making changes, but the jury is still out on whether the 43-year-old has the ability and confidence to do that.
While Southampton did beat a poor Crystal Palace side 1-0, they then took just one point from three matches against Stoke City, Manchester United and Newcastle United, with the loss against the former looking particularly poor given their current spot in the Premier League table.
Saints’ most likely goalscorer, arguably, Manolo Gabbiadini found himself on the substitutes’ bench in two of those three matches, while Boufal was for all three despite the XI often including too many ‘safe’ rather than attacking players.
Despite the latter making a positive impression off of the bench against the Potters – he helped set up the equaliser – and an encouraging cameo against the Magpies, the Moroccan once again failed to make the starting line-up against West Bromwich Albion on Saturday even though Nathan Redmond was dropped and Dusan Tadic is clearly out of form.
While the south coast outfit were always on top against the Baggies, you never really saw them scoring and it was only an incredible piece of solo magic from Boufal that finally found the breakthrough.
Now I think that goal and impact would see the majority of Premier League managers select the 24-year-old in the starting line-up against Brighton and Hove Albion on Sunday, but I am generally unsure whether Pellegrino will do that.
He seems to be the kind of cautious coach that would keep the attacker on the substitutes’ bench as he knows he can make an impression from there, rather than giving him a go from the beginning of the game.
We will see this weekend.