Southampton 0-0 Stoke City: Three key takeaways

3 of 4

SOUTHAMPTON, ENGLAND – MARCH 03: Guido Carrillo of Southampton looks dejected following a missed chance during the Premier League match between Southampton and Stoke City at St Mary’s Stadium on March 3, 2018 in Southampton, England. (Photo by Jordan Mansfield/Getty Images) /

Killer instinct

The fact that Pellegrino continues to persevere with a lone striker, even though it hasn’t worked since Charlie Austin’s injury, is baffling. Saints have scored 11 goals in their past 10 games, and will need to up that ratio if they want to stay in the league.

Although I’m still confident that Guido Carrillo can be important to Southampton’s survival this season, his lack of goals has already seen some supporters lose faith. The big striker’s assist against Burnley last week shows that he has more than just goals to offer, but he needs someone with the killer instinct to partner with.

Unfortunately none of the options behind him seem to be the right solution. Redmond, Tadic, Boufal et al are all too wasteful to be considered reliable foils for a target man.

Strikers aside, the manager did make one change from the side that drew 1-1 at Burnley last week. James Ward-Prowse was dropped in favour of Josh Sims on the right wing.

And although fans will be pleased to see Sims back in the mix, Ward-Prowse could well have been the difference today. With 15 corners and 3 decent free kick opportunities over the course of the match, Saints certainly missed his set pieces.

Pellegrino desperately needs to find the recipe to produce goals, and he seems to be running out of ingredients…