Southampton: Should the Saints play one or two strikers up front?

The biggest talking point on the south coast right now is the evident lack of goals and whether the Saints should be playing two strikers in an attempt to fix this point-costing problem.

Currently, Mauricio Pellegrino’s men have only scored five goals this season with two coming from the penalty spot. This worrying lack of finishing has led to many Southampton fans calling for a change in formation to a two up top attacking-based side.

For the previous few weeks Shane Long has been the chosen man with Manolo Gabbiadini and Charlie Austin making the bench. In fairness to the Irishman, he has put in some good performances and has been one of our most consistent players over the last couple of weeks. However, this comes without a goal.

Shane Long would never be considered as a goalscorer, evident through the fact that he has only scored 18 Premier League goals in 98 appearances for the Saints. But he does provide something very different from the other two strikers at our club. His excellent work ethic and tireless running and chasing of the ball makes him a constant threat and absolute nightmare to defend against.

STOKE ON TRENT, ENGLAND – SEPTEMBER 30: Maxim Choupo-Moting of Stoke City and Shane Long of Southampton battle for possession during the Premier League match between Stoke City and Southampton at Bet365 Stadium on September 30, 2017 in Stoke on Trent, England. (Photo by Alex Livesey/Getty Images) /

With this being said though, both Charlie Austin and Manolo Gabbiadini have scored this season and are players you would consider as goalscorers. So is this why we’re not scoring goals? Would the combination of Long and one of the other two turn us into a free-scoring team?

Logic would suggest yes to the question previous, you keep the intensity and hardwork of Long and you get to add the goalscoring prowess of either Gabbiadini or Austin. On this argument, two up front could be the answer to our problems, or it would seem ridiculous to not even try it.

But then an argument to that is, do we have the other players to play a 4-4-2 or even a 3-5-2? It’s difficult to tell as a fan, we can all have our opinions and ideas but this would require Pellegrino to sit down, have a look at his squad and make a decision based on what he has in front of him. He’ll know his players better than we do.

In order to make a decision on whether we should play with two strikers or one, research into the top scoring Premier League teams of the 2017/18 season so far felt necessary.

Top of this list is Manchester City with 22 goals and, even with the likes of Aguero and Jesus playing together, their most used formation this season has been 4-3-3, with a lone striker.

Second on the list is Manchester United with 21 goals. Most common formation? 4-2-3-1, with one striker. Third is Spurs with 14 goals, so far playing with a 3-4-2-1 formation.

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And finally Liverpool are fourth with 13 goals and playing a 4-3-3 formation this season.

Now obviously these teams can afford and do have world class strikers and players in their line-ups, something that we would struggle to match as Southampton. But the one thing these clubs have in common is that they all play with one out and out striker. Even though these teams have better players all over the pitch, surely as professional footballers our team could replicate their style of play?

So does our problem lie somewhere else? Are we lacking the creative spark in midfield to gift the strikers these opportunities? Quite possibly. Dusan Tadic has not been performing to the levels we have seen him reach over the past couple of seasons. Nathan Redmond’s performances have dried up after a good end to last season for him and Sofiane Boufal has so far not lived up to his £16m price tag.

Maybe the formation and our strikers aren’t the problem, however I would still like to see Pellegrino line up with two strikers in the near future, whatever the formation may be, as it hasn’t been working this season so far with one. But we should be prepared that our problem may not lie with the quality of our strikers or formation.