Southampton: Are Saints showing too much early-season respect?

Southampton have had a slow start to the season, in which loses against Burnley and Liverpool now make their visit to Brighton a crucial game when they visit the Amex Stadium later this week.

Performances have so far been hit and miss, with Saints failing to get a proper grip on either fixture whether that be due to poor defensive errors or looking toothless up top, in large periods against the mentioned opposition.

It’s not that the infamous ‘red and white’ have struggled to create chances, in fact this is considered one of their strengths; players such as James Ward-Prowse, Nathan Redmond and Yan Valery have all chipped in with one key pass per game in their current campaign.

This would instead show the weaknesses in Southampton’s finishing in front of goal, in particular against Liverpool where Che Adams and Danny Ings both had notable chances to snatch a point or even possibly three against Liverpool; in fact the team’s only goal this season being scored through a freak mistake by their goalkeeper Adrian.

Likewise in the same train of thought, Ralph Hasenhuttl’s men have also conceded five goals thus far and have struggled to defend against attacks down the wings or skilful players for that manner; former Southampton star Sadio Manè proving this point with his wonder-strike this weekend just past.

Due to this, many fans have started to question the preferred choice in line-up of the Austrian manager, and in particular the five-at-the-back that he has employed in both opening fixtures so far. It’s safe to say that Hasenhuttl is respected highly within the Southampton fanbase, and in the same breath almost feels like ‘one of us’ due to his charisma, energy and enthusiasm on the sideline.

But, given that Southampton have zero points on the board so far, the question must be asked on if Hasenhuttl’s set up is showing too much respect to his Premier League opponents, so is it?

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Four-at-the-back?

The main brunt on this line of thought is down to the mentioned implementation of his 5-3-2 formation; in which the Austrian manager had used in Southampton’s previous campaign to help sure up their defensive record.

It should go on record however, that there are some teams that operate on the front foot using five defenders such as Sheffield United and Wolves, both teams operate in an aggressive manner and therefore press their oppositions into making mistakes; to which we saw against Liverpool for the first half from Hasenhuttl’s men, who were unfortunate to not gain points from said fixture.

However the call to change to a back-four from the fans is mainly for two reasons, from a tactical stand-point it will make the defence easier to organise and hold shape to prevent space being exploited in behind Southampton’s centre-half’s, thanks to the pace and recovery of the full-backs.

In making this switch, it would pin back Ryan Bertrand and Yan Valery with more defensive responsibilities, however if advised to make offensive runs in an attempt to cause upcoming opposition problems out-wide, stretch their defence and as quoted show them less respect by being more daring and direct tactically.

With this, the back-four would also allow Saints to switch to a more offensive system and start with attack minded players such as Sofiane Boufal, Moussa Djenepo or Danny Ings who could in turn create more goals or press upcoming opponent Brighton into making mistakes.

Either way, despite whatever system that is used by Hasenhuttl, in order to show the opposition less respect and to play on the front foot; his team should play more aggressive and therefore nullify their opposition to avoid conceding, and in turn keep creating chances; as mentioned the Saints’ main weakness thus far being their finishing.

In conclusion, if the the team can perform as they did in the first-half on their game against Liverpool and get Che Adams to start his goal-scoring account down on the south-coast; the sooner Southampton will achieve a positive string of results and in return; begin to climb the table in the push for a top-half finish.