I have waited a couple of days to write this report, to give me time to reflect on what I watched on Friday evening with some sort of clarity rather than raw emotion, but there is no easy way to dress things up and the problem and indeed the solution is there for all to see.

It seems that teams have worked out what you need to do to beat Southampton, it is all quite simple really, firstly you go at them in the opening minute of the game, then you sit back and wait for the opportunity to win the ball and counter attack and then you go at them in the final minutes of the first half, the opening minutes of the second and then the final minutes of the game itself, injury time of both halves is crucial in this.

Still at least it couldn't start as badly as it did at Sunderland, but it could, Jamie Vardy scoring after only 21 seconds as a shapeless and undisciplined Saints flayed desperately before the ball was slotted home by Vardy.

In truth we could have and should have equalised with a couple of good chances either saved by the keeper or spurned before McAteer doubled the lead on 18 minutes.

On 25 minutes Sam Edozie got a well taken goal and surely now it was game on, for a while it was and although Saints didn't get a second you felt that in the second half at only 2-1 down they could take the game to Leicester, put pressure on them and and get something out of this.

The problem was that they couldn't even hold this deficit, in the 3rd minute of 3 minutes of injury time they conceded another shoddy goal and now it was an uphill struggle.

Leicester now had a simple task and one they they were disciplined and organised enough to implement, sit back behind the ball and wait for their opportunities.

Saints for their part had their opportunities to reduce this deficit, but 20 minutes into the second half and the game was truly over, we had the ball in the left hand corner flag, a simple pass was mishit and suddenly 3 Leicester players crossed the half way line with the ball with not a Southampton player in sight.

How the hell does this happen, this is schoolboy stuff, you always keep someone back on the half way line, but we don't.

Now I can't believe that Russell Martin has this as part of his game plan, that he insists that all of his 10 outfield players push on and leave no one at the back to cover, this is just a plain lack of organisation on the pitch and there we have the problem in a nutshell !

I am sick to death of saying this but there is no leader, it is easy to blame individuals, the goalkeeper is an easy target, but look at the first goal, it is fired past him and he has two defenders next to him, he has no room to spread himself, what are they doing marking fresh air on their own goal line.

The next two goals were similar tales of woe, the second goal McAteer completely unmarked to slot past Bazunu and the third goal saw defenders sliding in everywhere, but nowhere near the ball.

I have already dissected the fourth goal and it is this goal that perhaps gives us the clue as to why we are shipping goals.

Gavin Bazunu was left completely exposed, three Leicester players way ahead of any other Saints player, how does this happen, on the face of it our back four was strong, we had Walker Peters proven in the Premier League and played for England, Taylor Harwood- Bellis, very experienced in the Championship and a member of Burnley's back four last season, Shea Charles a great talent, but needing as any player does at his age a mentor and Ryan Manning supposedly the best left back in the Championship last year.

So where are we going wrong ? a lack of leadership is the answer and unless we either find this leader or change our style we are going to keep leaking goals at a higher rate than we can score them.

The full backs job is to push on that is what they are instructed to do, so it is harsh to blame either KWP or Manning for doing their job, the issue is our failure to keep two players guarding the back line as we push on, that falls down to the two central defenders and also the two holding midfield players.

When we attack they all push forward, but none of them really look around and see the gaps that are appearing and plug them.

It is in essence the Charge of the Light Brigade, onward and onward, the only focus what is in front of us and not what we are leaving behind us, it is quite frankly football played by six year olds.

As I have mentioned Russell Martin surely isn't instructing them to do this, so why is it happening, sorry to bore you, but a lack of leadership.

If I was the manager I would be scouring the out of contract player lists for a 32 year old central defender from somewhere, otherwise we have to adapt.

As I mentioned in the preview to this match, perhaps have a back three allowing us to push the full backs forward, but also meaning we can keep two of that three back at all times, perhaps sitting Shea Charles in front of the other two, certainly we also need at least one of the central midfield players to sit and hold.

We have to go back to basics and build our side from the back, not just during the game, but our side in general, great sides are built from the back upwards and with a leader in the centre, both in the defence and in the midfield, great Saints sides have also been built that way, Chris Nicholl & Alan Ball when we were promoted in 1978 and for most of the following 4 years, Mark Wright & Jimmy Case and in later years Fonte & Steven Davis.

But can you see two players of this ilk in our squad ? I certainly can't, having experience is one thing, leading by example is another, but being a leader is a completely different thing altogether and we do not have one.

Even an organiser would greatly improve us, but again we have no organiser in defence, someone who holds the back line.

The plain truth of this is that we are not a bad side, I would say that we are one of the top 3 sides in the Championship in terms of quality, if not the top, but all of this is useless without leadership on the pitch.

This is why we are being beaten, the other sides know how to play against us, they know how to exploit our Achilles heel, as I say we have to change something and we have to do it fast.

This was another set back for us in the space of a week, but there are still 40 games to go in this season, we are still only 1 point off the play offs and at this stage 5 points from the automatic promotion spots is not a large gap to make up.

No one said this season would be easy, we did well to start it in such a great fashion, we have hit the buffers, but that does not make it terminal, it is an issue that we have to deal with now and keep ourselves up with the promotion race.

Ipswich Town arrive tomorrow night and we cannot afford a 3rd defeat in a row, we have to stop the rot.

Photo: Action Images

Boris1977 added 14:19 - Sep 18 PS Nick, thanks for your resilience and the energy you spend on maintaining a space where we can share our (differing) opinions. Following Saints over the past 5 years has been difficult and trying to review performances and keeping us in the loop on transfers etc takes a lot of effort. COYRs
6

margilamb added 14:38 - Sep 18 Saints look a poorly assembled team of misfits. There clearly are some good players at the club but they appear to be carpenters told to lay bricks. To make matters worse our management has decided to play endless foreplay football, fudging around the edges with no hint of ever getting to the cigarette and coffee. Defensive tactics seems to consist of dropping their trousers, bending over and asking the opposition if they would be kind enough to switch the lights off before they leave.

6

Avior added 16:10 - Sep 18 Sorry Nick but although a leader would help, it is not the root of the problem. That I am afraid lies with RM and to some extent the fact that he did not get enough of the right type of players in during the window. His possession based plan is flawed because he is only executing half of it and choosing to ignore some basic principles that are there because they work. If he insists on playing out from the back then fine but particularly when pressed that has to be executed quickly with a 3 to 4 pass movement to beat the first line. Not further and further back into ever more dangerous areas. You also have to be able to knock it long mainly to mix it up but also because if they are pressing there has to be space behind. To be fair Bazunu did just that very well on several occasions eg our goal and demonstrated by the fact w e "only" had 55% posession. On the subject of nobody hanging back at corners etc that is totally down to RM. We are not a tall team and will lose a lot of corners which will come out to edge of box. With only 1 or 2 players on the edge we will lose a lot of second balls. With nobody behind them we will conced a lot of goals. His other big failing is that our midfielders play too much facing the wrong way and rarely on the half turn. They also seem unwilling or unable to effect the game. Smallbone was truly dreadful on Friday, failing to execute the basics, find space or hit killer balls. Unfortunately I think you can only play 1 maybe 2 of Charles, Smallbone and Downes, so he will need to get Stuey or Alcaraz humming otherwise we are f*7k7D. Most will not agree but I think we are OK up front both wide and centrally, but only if we start to deliver quicker and better quality ball behind defences. i will be amazed if we get anything out of Tuesday. Good side with a coach who is everything that RM is not.

5

halftimeorange added 17:04 - Sep 18 Let's be honest about things - it doesn't matter whether we're discussing the board, the management or the players - Saints are hapless, hopeless, leaderless, brainless and fruitless - in fact, less of everything! So, the less said about things the better! Even that doesn't make things less worse.
0

mattlegod added 17:09 - Sep 18 Whilst I am as disgruntled as everyone else on here and can agree with many points, there is one thing I am hanging onto in the hope this is temporary. We have not yet been afforded a weeks training with this whole squad. Following the unsettling transfer window we then lost the vast majority to international duty and came back to a CD which wasn't first choice. Charles is a great player, but it looks like his strengths are in midfield. Why was TH-B consistently only 10 yards away from Bazunu when GB was trying to play out, it only served to narrow his options and then Leicester were able to intercept. It really was a shocking display but I'm hoping over this next week we start to see a difference, hopefully with Bednarek alongside T H-B, Charles holding midfield and Manning replaced!

2

ItchenNorth added 17:20 - Sep 18 Aren't we all a cheerie bunch on here ! It's good to get our Southampton back, it wouldn't be the same if it wasn't like this on a Monday 😂 I'm looking forward to Tuesday's game and visit of Ipswich. It's should be interesting. COYR
1

ItchenNorth added 17:24 - Sep 18 Oh and shout out to Bazunu who possibly had his best game for the Saints.
2

Big_T added 17:56 - Sep 18 I'm sorry nick but kwp and Manning have been at fault for so many goals it's just blindingly obvious. Kwp has no grounding or understanding of his position, he may be a good attacking full back ( although there isn't any evidence to suggest that , he can't cross and can't beat his man ) but even a junior player should learn that you keep your eyes open and react if things go wrong ! If you're pushing forward and letting opposition players walk into place behind you , you should have enough awareness to keep your eyes on the danger. As soon as his piece of play is finished or lost he should be on his bike , getting back to fullback position. But he doesn't, he waits , and waits only then does he react and start jogging back to defence all the while hoping that someone else will do his job. How many shots at goal from our right back position where kwp still isn't in the final third ? And if he does get back he's then always behind the advancing attacker never stopping them getting into the box .

4

saint66 added 19:50 - Sep 18 A lot of comments on here after Nicks analysis of Friday nights match. One thing he failed to mention was that the Saints defence was picked to pieces by Leicester with such ease that in truth they could and should have scored 7 or 8 goals against this appalling defence. It ticked round to the 87th minute and we were still passing the ball back to the goalkeeper as nobody could find a way out of the penalty area. I dread to think what the Ipswich Manager will be telling his players prior to tomorrow night . Just keep pressing on the back four and the chances will fall at our feet.

4

Farlow added 21:28 - Sep 18 Nick I guess it was Russel Martin who told you Ryan Manning was the best left back in the championship.Nobody ive spoken to has a good word for him so get rid. Nepotism!
1

SanMarco added 22:27 - Sep 18 I come too late to the wake to say much not already said. RM like the previous two SR managers has a learning curve far too steep to climb before he is dispensed with. In any form of life you have to learn from failure and in football you have to learn very quickly. Will RM learn? The signs are not at all good. Most of us betting on the score tomorrow will be thinking at least 3 for Ipswich.

2

bryanK added 06:24 - Sep 19 Like Nick I have taken time to reflect on the utter shambles of Friday night. Tactics were childish and have no place in the cutthroat championship. We are not MK Dons or Swansea this is a club with supporters who demand respect and will not accept waiting 3 months before this manager gets it right. If the next 3 fixtures show no signs of rapid improvement sack him.
1

Blogs 31 bloggers

Derby County Polls