After failing to win their first two league games of the campaign, one could argue that Southampton are missing the creative spark of Dusan Tadic.
Meanwhile the Serbian is thriving upon his return to the Netherlands, with four goals and three assists so far in all competitions from just seven games played. These are impressive numbers so early in the season.
I personally made my feelings regarding Tadic very clear – despite his end-of-season improvements I still felt it was the right time for him to move on. His inconsistencies in the last two seasons cost the Saints as many points as he won them, and ultimately it was time for some fresh creative talent.
However going into this weekend’s game against a really solid Leicester side, it’s totally possible the Foxes could keep a clean sheet at which point Southampton would have just one goal from three games played, and not one from open play.
The Saints therefore need to prove this weekend that they aren’t missing the creative spark Tadic could bring, and prove they can move on after his four-year spell on the south coast.
Although they could’ve perhaps done with more reinforcement, Southampton replaced Tadic and Sofiane Boufal with Stuart Armstrong and Mohamed Elyounoussi – at least in terms of bodies.
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Armstrong has shown himself to be a willing runner with good desire and intelligence – however he doesn’t possess an incredible technical ability so to expect the seven to ten assists we could get from Tadic is too much.
Many saw the arrival of Elyounoussi – a winger who scored 11 goals set up a further 15 last season – as the Serbian’s like-for-like replacement. However, despite the fact that 4-4-2 has shown itself to be more effective than 3-5-2, the Saints only have two natural wingers and James Ward-Prowse capable of playing out wide.
Therefore it’s unclear where exactly Southampton will get their creative spark from this campaign – it seems unlike that both Armstrong and Moi will start unless Mark Hughes reverts to the 4-2-3-1 formation Saints fans have become accustomed to. Whilst that seems the most obvious option, it would leave the club without much room to rotate up front.
Nonetheless, Tadic still had plenty of fans at the time of his sale and following his efforts in the Champions League, it’s hard not to miss that at St. Mary’s.
However both the club and their supporters need to prove that they can move on from Tadic into a new era of creative Southampton players. All that remains is for Hughes to get the best out of them.