Southampton supervisor Russell Martin has a really clear philosophy.
Final season, his workforce broke the information for highest common possession, most profitable passes per recreation and greatest passing accuracy of any facet in Championship historical past.
And he has not modified his strategy within the Premier League.
They presently sit prime of all 5 of those metrics for any newly promoted Premier League facet since 2003-04*. Actually, solely Manchester Metropolis have a greater passing accuracy and extra 10-plus-pass open-play sequences within the Premier League this season.
Nevertheless, the issue is that they don’t seem to be doing a lot with the ball. Solely 22 per cent of those open play sequences have resulted in a shot.
For context, Manchester Metropolis and Liverpool – first and third for such sequences – have had 40 per cent and 36 per cent of their 10-plus-pass open play sequences ending in a shot or contact within the opposition field.
Extra alarmingly, this strategy has led to Southampton conceding probably the most errors resulting in pictures (6) and targets (4) within the Premier League this season.
Russel Martin has reacted to his facet’s poor begin and altered the workforce’s formation from a 3-5-2 to a 4-2-3-1 within the final two league video games.
Taking part in extra direct and slim, that they had two of their three quick breaks and their highest anticipated targets (2.49) this season of their earlier recreation in opposition to Ipswich.
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The Saints are additionally solely one among six Premier League groups who haven’t conceded an error resulting in a shot of their final two video games.
Southampton are adapting. Will outcomes observe? The early indicators are encouraging for Saints followers.
*Knowledge since Opta information can be found
