Southampton improved defensively in their last two Premier League matches and managed to get 0-0 draws in both of those – but has this come at a cost?
The weekend’s result against Newcastle also saw Mark Hughes’ side reach a run of five consecutive league games without scoring. This looks to be their main problem now and will clearly be the difference between winning, losing or drawing games for the rest of the season.
Improvements in defence have been a positive though. The partnership of Wesley Hoedt and Jack Stephens has looked accomplished as summer signing Jannik Vestergaard drops out, and their pace in comparison to the big Dane has seen Saints push higher collectively up the pitch.
This has seemingly provided the solution to the leaking of goals that came in previous games. Comprehensive defeats to Liverpool, Chelsea and Wolves highlighted a problem, whilst leads were surrendered against Leicester and Brighton.
The key now is to also find a way to add goals to this way of playing. According to the Telegraph, Saints are ranked behind only Manchester City, Chelsea, Spurs and Liverpool in terms of the number of shots they have taken after accumulating 124 so far.
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However, they sit 19th out of 20 teams – ahead of only Huddersfield – in terms of shot conversion. They have converted just 4.84% of those efforts on goal after netting six goals in their opening 10 games.
The addition of Danny Ings in the summer looked to have boosted the side’s potency in front of goal and he has four goals in all competitions so far, but there hasn’t been enough contribution from other players.
Charlie Austin has just one goal in the Carabao Cup so far, whilst Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg and Ryan Bertrand are the only other two players to net this campaign.
Nathan Redmond and Mohamed Elyounoussi are also yet to really contribute despite their hard work on the flanks, so it will be the task of Hughes and his side to get more players involved and improve their chances of scoring.
The team seem almost desperate to break their duck in front of goal and this is causing them to make rash decisions; something which was very evident in the 0-0 draw with Newcastle at the weekend.
Elyounoussi was guilty of not picking his head up and squaring to Austin for a tap-in, whilst Manolo Gabbiadini produced a comical moment with a badly sliced shot from all of 30 yards.
With the Carabao Cup tie against Leicester City postponed after the terrible helicopter crash at the King Power Stadium, the next chance that Saints will get to sort their goalscoring woes is a tough test; a trip to the Etihad to face Manchester City this Sunday.