Southampton: 10 surprising stats from Saints’ 2017/18 season

A largely poor campaign for Southampton saw them struggle near the bottom of the table and flirt with relegation until the final games of the season.

The arrival of Mark Hughes saw vast improvements on the pitch after eight months of turgid football with a lack of attacking threat and  a leaky defence that seemed to be a recipe for disaster.

A change of personnel and of formation helped and the Welshman seemed to have given the players a huge morale boost that eventually led them to safety.

Unfortunately for him though, the season was still going to be remembered as one of the worst in recent history for Southampton even when their Premier League status was preserved with relative ease in the last two games.

Here are ten surprising stats that help to sum up the Saints’ campaign as a whole (stats according to premierleague.com and wikipedia.org):

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1) Southampton made the second-most crosses over the Premier League season, with 800 being lofted into the box. Only Spurs would hit more with 825, and the lowest figure was Arsenal’s total of 572.

2) Charlie Austin’s total of seven league goals saw him end the campaign with the team’s highest total. To perhaps sum up their attacking struggles and justify the frustrations of fans though, this was the lowest high-scoring total for a Saints player since the 1890s!

3) Oriol Romeu collected the most yellow cards of any players across the Premier League season. His total of 11 saw him top this particular category, and he added two more to that total in other competitions.

4) Southampton’s total of 15 league draws was the most of any team. This number also saw them draw the joint-second most games in Europe’s top five leagues; level with both Wolfsburg and Torino, but behind Montpellier’s total of 18.

5) Seven league wins from 38 games was the team’s lowest total since the 2004/05 season; notably when the Saints were last relegated from England’s top-flight.

6) The Saints’ shot conversion was the joint-second worst in the Premier League. Of their 450 shots across the season, just 37 found the net. This gives a conversion rate of 8.2%; level with West Brom and above only Huddeserfield on 7.7%

7) Despite his yellow card total, Oriol Romeu displayed some good stats too. His totals of 69 interceptions and 93 tackles saw him ranked eighth in the whole Premier League for each category. However, he also came in eighth place for fouls with 53 committed.

8) Dusan Tadic was poor for most of the season before turning in some match winning displays in the final few games. He was therefore substituted off 23 times from August to May, which was the second-highest total behind Brighton’s Pascal Gross with 24.

9) Individuals within the Saints team came in for some criticism after some abject displays and lack of fight. The team was poor defensively and this was backed up by Fraser Forster, Cedric and Wesley Hoedt making two errors leading to goals each.

10) Ryan Bertrand played the most minutes in the league for Saints after clocking up 3,136 during the season. Dusan Tadic, despite his high number of substitutions, made the most league appearances with 36.