Constant Re-Shuffling Is The Cause Of Southampton's Problem's Wednesday, 15th Oct 2025 10:26 Good teams are usually built on solid foundations, a strong spine down the middle and then a team that week in week out knows who is playing where and what they are doing, but with only one player having started all 9 games played so far that is not Southampton under Will Still. After 9 games Saints have only lost twice in the Championship, but they have turned too many games from potential wins to draws with errors that have led to goals being conceded that should never have happened. It is hard to pinpoint why this happens to us so often, but a look at the squad stats on games played perhaps highlights just where the problem lies. The old adage is that "Form is temporary, but class is permanent" does not seem to be one that Will Still adheres to, his answer to every issue seems to be to change things, he does not seem to have confidence in his own players or for that matter his own judgement. The stats table perhaps highlights just where we are going wrong, we have only one player who has started all 9 games in the Championship, that man is Shea Charles, but even he has not completed all those games, being hauled off in two of those games both around the 79th minute. Against Stoke this was supposedly tactical, after pulling a goal back and the game at 2-1, we looked to get an equaliser, so who replaced Shea, Mads Roerslev a right back, in the other situation, he was replaced in our last game at Derby by Flynn Downes, there was some method in that. But it is not just the fact that we have only one ever present that is worrying, aside from now out of favour Gavin Bazunu ,we only have four outfield players who have started more than 5 games and you may be surprised to find out who those players are, Ryan Fraser who has started 7 games has also come on as sub in the other 2 and he along with Ryan Manning & Adam Armstrong who have both started 6 plus 3 as sub are the only players in the squad that has appeared in all of our League games. Jack Stephens has started 6 games but has been out of favour in the last 3 and after that we have just four players who have started 5 games. That means that Bazunu aside just 9 outfield players who have started in more than half the games played so far in the Championship, That means that we have 17 outfield players who have made appearances this season but have not started more than 4 games, in fairness two of those have left the club, but it is shocking that so far Will Still has used 27 different players in the Championship this season and out of that number perhaps trusts just 3 of them to be regular starters. This is breeding uncertainty within the squad, whatever level they play at, footballers need confidence and that starts with knowing that your manager has faith in you and there is barely a player in this squad that can say that. They need a run of games where they can play with freedom, to play through bad periods, when they know that they will be dropped or hauled off at the slightest sign of an error or things just not going for them, they stop doing the things that win games and just keep passing to a team mate rather than risk the wrath of the manager with a shot or pass that doesn't quite come off, hence at times it looks like Russell Martin has been giving the team talk. Will Still blames the players, saying that they haven't yet changed their mindsets, although that could be said to be part of the problem, it isn't the biggest part of it, the main problem is the manager isn't instilling confidence in his players or for that matter he isn't instilling in them confidence his his own abilities. Each issue is dealt with by change and in many cases it is change for change sake, when you are changing 5 players in a 20 minute period between the 60th & 80th minutes, you suddenly have a team that has changed 50% of it's outfield personnel, that means they have lost shape and players have been reshuffled to accommodate those coming on. When you are chasing a game, that is not helpful it is a hindrance, suddenly no one knows what they are doing or where they should be. The one thing you could say about Russell Martin is that his team in the Championship was a settled side and although we didn't like the Tippy Tappy football, the players knew the system that they had to play and how to play it, changes were made that improved the side, they were not scattergun as they are under Will Still. The truth is and i truly believe this, we have the biggest squad and in terms of overall quality the best, yet we sit in the bottom half of the table. I have said this before Still's problem is that he has too many options and he cannot decide who the best ones are in any given situation. Bizarrely in the last game at Derby, his starting line up did not have Flynn Downes, Gavin Bazunu, Taylor Harwood-Bellis, & Jack Stephens, plus Joe Aribo & Sam Edozie who have not featured in any of his squads, 6 players who were all a major part of our last promotion team. Even stranger is that it also did not include 5 of our 8 summer signings, Finn Azaz, Tom Fellows, Damion Downs, Mads Roerslev & Elias Jelert, all not selected to start, but where on the bench. That also tells us something about how the manager is failing to not only utilise players who have been there and done the job two years ago, but how he has not integrated our new signings, Jander has impressed and started the last 4 games, but for Scienza this was his full debut after 3 appearances off the bench, being played out of position it smacked of desperation by the manager. The hope is that he will now start to keep a settled side, the signs were there after the defeat at Hull, he backed his own judgement and we should have beaten Middlesbrough and did beat Sheffield United, but he didn't build on that, he had to tinker, dropping Finn Azaz, rather than backing him to find the form he had at Middlesbrough by giving him the chance to play through it, no he dropped him and brought in Leo Scienza, essentially a left winger, playing in central midfield. When Ross Stewart was injured in the same game, he didn't replace him like for like, he bought on Tom Fellows a right winger, we suddenly had no centre forward, but in Armstrong, Fraser, Scienza & Fellows, 4 men out wide. Again Will Still not having the confidence to back his own judgement, Damion Downs is getting a lot of stick, but it isn't all his own fault, he is a focal point at the moment, but in the games he has played he has been no different to those around him, he is running around like a headless chicken because so are those around them, there is no pattern to the play, we are not playing to a system. Downs is having to be reactive not pro active, he has to chase the ball and at any given time he doesn't know where it is going to go. When Ross Stewart got injured at Derby we had a pattern, if Down had been brought on as a like for like replacement he might have had a chance of doing something as we were playing well, by the time he did get on we were a shambles with Scienza taken off and no playmaker in the centre of the park. Again Will Still wasn't backing his forwards, not just Downs but Cameron Archer who remained on the bench. I am not suggesting that Damion Downs is going to be the saviour of Southampton here, I am saying that he is a great player, just that he is a player who is playing badly in a team of players who are playing badly due to the constant chopping and changing, let's reserve judgement till we have seen him for more than 181 minutes in a poor side. So the big question is whether Will Still can back his own judgement and find a settled side, can he resist the urge to change things at every turn and more importantly can he start to back his own players, can he instil in them the confidence that they themselves need. All Photos Via Reuters Please report offensive, libellous or inappropriate posts by using the links provided.
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