Southampton supervisor Russell Martin has a really clear philosophy.
Final season, his crew broke the data for highest common possession, most profitable passes per recreation and finest passing accuracy of any aspect in Championship historical past.
And he has not modified his method within the Premier League.
They at present sit high of all 5 of those metrics for any newly promoted Premier League aspect since 2003-04*. In actual fact, 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 aren’t 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 method has led to Southampton conceding probably the most errors resulting in photographs (6) and objectives (4) within the Premier League this season.
Russel Martin has reacted to his aspect’s poor begin and altered the crew’s formation from a 3-5-2 to a 4-2-3-1 within the final two league video games.
Enjoying extra direct and slender, that they had two of their three quick breaks and their highest anticipated objectives (2.49) this season of their earlier recreation in opposition to Ipswich.
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The Saints are additionally solely one in every of 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 data can be found
