Making the Grade: Match Day 3, Southampton vs. Sunderland

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SOUTHAMPTON, UNITED KINGDOM – AUGUST 27: Steven Pienaar of Sunderland is tackled by Steven Davis of Southampton during the Premier League match between Southampton and Sunderland at St Mary’s Stadium on August 27, 2016 in Southampton, England. (Photo by Harry Trump/Getty Images) /

Midfield

For such a key component of the 4-4-2 diamond, the four in the middle turned in a decidedly average performance this match.

Oriol Romeu seems to still be growing into the defensive mid role in the new formation; it’s a wide range of pitch to cover, and at times he looked a bit lost. Given it’s still early in the season, and he’s only really had two games’ worth of play, it’s forgivable for now. Going forward though, he’ll need to step up in a big way.

Steven Davis turned in a bang-up performance which saw him playing more of an improvised left-back position than as a midfielder. With Targett getting forward early, often and excessively, it left the veteran 31 year old with little choice. While perhaps necessary, this frequent tracking back broke the diamond that holds the formation together, which didn’t help matters in midfield.

Pierre-Emile Højbjerg had a good shift before coming off for James Ward-Prowse late in the match. Nothing of note, good or ill, from the Dane’s performance; at 21, he’s still young and perhaps not yet ready to play the full-90 in every game.

Standout: Steven Davis

Davis showed great awareness in midfield to recognize the imbalance created by Matt Targett and track back to correct it. It’s not a position he normally plays in, but he did well to get back and make tackles when it counted.

Snoozer: Oriol Romeu

Like I said, Romeu is still growing into the formation’s requirements of him at defensive mid. Getting more help from the backs would definitely make the workload easier, but for now he’s got to step up and get all over the defensive third to shut down supply. He didn’t do that well this outing, and was saved more by Sunderland’s inability to string attacks together than anything else. He won’t have that courtesy at Arsenal.

Grade: 6/10

Next: Forward, March!