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This article is part of Football FanCast's The Chalkboard series, which provides a tactical insight into teams, players, managers, potential signings and more...

With two games of the Premier League season already gone, Southampton boss Ralph Hasenhuttl has been adopting a 3-5-2 formation, but with little success.

The fixtures against Burnley and Liverpool have both resulted in losses - 3-0 to the Clarets and 2-1 to the Reds - with just one goal scored and five conceded. Humorously, the one goal scored was courtesy of Adrian kicking the ball against Danny Ings.

What's gone wrong?

In just two fixtures, some sections of the Saints supporters haven't been happy with two centre-backs in Jack Stephens and Jannik Vestergaard, who were poor against Burnley and Liverpool respectively.

That suggests that the centre-back department contains some of the club's weakest performers, which Hasenhuttl seems to be trying to address by playing as many of them as possible to overcompensate - it isn't having the desired effect.

To ensure he can have three centre-backs in his side, the Austrian has been using Yan Valery and Ryan Bertrand as wing-backs, although their ineffectiveness coupled with the centre-backs' failings suggest this is something that must stop.

How are Bertrand and Valery doing?

You would expect your two wing-backs to cause problems going forward, but the pair haven't done that in their two games so far.

Against Sean Dyche's side, Bertrand made no key passes, had two unsuccessful touches and delivered just one accurate cross, whilst Valery also delivered just one accurate cross but was dispossessed four times and had three unsuccessful touches - the fact that Burnley left-back Erik Pieters also grabbed two assists suggests Valery wasn't too good defensively, either.

Against Liverpool, the former Chelsea left-back again made no key passes, embarked on zero dribbles and didn't deliver a single accurate cross. Again, Valery also wasn't influential having made one accurate cross as well as being caught in possession three times.

Hasenhuttl might as well just restore the pair as normal full-backs in a four-man backline and put another body upfront or in midfield, as they aren't proving to be effective as wing-backs whilst the extra centre-back isn't helping the Saints become more solid either.

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