‘A waste’: Flynn Downes claims Ipswich are ahead of Southampton but…

admin | February 26, 2024 | Other Clubs | No Comments

Southampton’s performance has deteriorated during a crucial season-defining phase for clubs with varying goals in the Championship.

Russell Martin led the team to a club-record unbeaten streak of 25 games from September 30th to February 13th. However, they were defeated 3-1 away by Bristol City in front of Sky Sports cameras.

After a surprising 5-3 home win over Huddersfield Town, the Saints rebounded with an away win over West Bromwich Albion. However, they have since suffered 2-1 home losses to Hull City and Millwall.

“Made it worse…” – Southampton fan pundit on Russell Martin’s recent tweaks

Football League World asked our Saints fan pundit, Martin Sanders, on what’s gone wrong at St Mary’s.

Martin’s decision to make significant changes after Flynn Downes’ second absence of the season was crucial, according to him.

“Flynn Downes is missing, which is a big miss for us,” Sanders began. “In a nutshell, he’s a big miss, but we’ve made it worse by tweaking so much to accommodate his absence.”

“We were without him over Christmas and Shea Charles played in that position, and we carried on playing the same way. However, this time, they’d tweaked so much that on the weekend, we had Jack Stephens switching between centre-back, right-back and central midfield,” he elaborated.

“It was a mess on Saturday. We didn’t have any structure and we’ve lost our continuity. We’ve lost one player but we’ve messed around too much, and that has been our biggest downfall. We need to get back to having a settled side”

Southampton’s problems have failed to go away

As previously said, Southampton won a chaotic game against Huddersfield on February 10th, but it wasn’t without flaws, as the Terriers raced into a 2-0 half-time lead and extended it to 3-2 before the Saints accomplished a spectacular turnaround.

Sanders believes that the squad’s lack of confidence and creativity in previous weeks is a result of that clash.

“Confidence is a big thing, and I don’t know why, in the first 45 minutes against Huddersfield, we looked like a side that had no confidence, which is very odd when you’ve gone 25 games unbeaten.

“It was 24 games at that time, and I don’t understand it,” he continued. “We have to find confidence and continuity very quickly, because Leeds will win the league if they carry on how they’re going and Ipswich have been brilliant.”

Sanders ended: “We have to get back on a run extremely quickly,”

How do Southampton quickly address their problems?

Southampton’s defeat to Millwall on Saturday revealed a troubling statistic: they lost the xG fight to a team that averaged only 0.97 goals per game in 34 Championship outings.

Southampton failed to impose any threat in recent defeats, including the first half against Huddersfield, and were played at their own game by the opposition, particularly Hull, who forced Saints to go long rather than their preferred method of building from the back, and when they did, Hull’s attacking threats pounced on Gavin Bazunu, Jan Bednarek, and Taylor Harwood-Bellis like a rash.

Downes’ absence has had a negative impact on the team’s chances of automatic promotion, resulting in a five-point deficit to Leeds and Ipswich.

To avoid falling behind the teams in second and third place, Martin must return to the basics of his game.

Southampton return to league action with an away match against 18th-place Birmingham City, following their FA Cup 5th Round clash at Liverpool on Wednesday night.