Nine months after the firing of Mauricio Pellegrino, Southampton are still feeling the effects.
Whether Southampton fans want to hear it or not, they are blindly searching for a scapegoat to justify the team’s current league position. Mark Hughes is an easy target, Les Reed had a “kick me” sign on his back a he walked out the door, Chairman Gao Jisheng is apprently wearing it now, and no one is there to shield the players from intense criticism, regardless of a clear mentality of effort.
All of this adds up to a scarred fan base on the heels of a relegation battle in which they never expected to be in.
Mauricio Pellegrino was brought in to start the 2017-18 Premier League season as a fresh replacement for Claude Puel, who lasted just one year as the Southampton manager. Puel did lead the team to a League Cup final and an eighth place Premier League finish, but soured on Saints fans quickly with overly defensive tactics and a lack of home results.
In June 2017, in steps the former Alaves manager and Liverpool coach Pellegrino, who Les Reed promoted as the exciting, attacking-minded leader every Saints fan wanted. A manager focused on the “Southampton Way,” and was promised to introduce the new crop of developmental academy youth that we have grown to expect. Except the youth never made its way into the first team.
Josh Sims made seven inspiring appearances, but in the midst of a relegation battle was never given a significant chance to develop. Sam McQueen, who prospered under Puel, and at times looked like a first team regular, was buried behind depth at winger and captain Ryan Bertrand at left back. Matt Targett while recovering from early season injury was sent out on a loan, albeit successful while gaining promotion with Championship side Fulham. James Ward-Prowse, if you can even call him academy youth, continued to compete for playing time in a crowded midfield, but at least showed some developmental success. While arguably one of the top prospects, Jake Hesketh was left dominating play in the U23 side. Although maybe you can give Pellegrino one positive, as he gave a 17 year old Michael Obafemi his debut.
This list doesn’t even include Harrison Reed who was given thirty-nine opportunities in the Championship with Norwich City, but is buried behind center of the park depth at Southampton. As well as Sam Gallagher, who continues to prove a Championship scorer, with both Blackburn and Birmingham, but cannot even earn a spot on the first team bench with Mark Hughes.
Now where are they? Sims, Reed, and Hesketh all are having successful loan spells, although, we’ve lost McQueen to injury for the foreseeable future. Ward-Prowse is going to find it very hard to make a consistent impact behind Mario Lemina and Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg, and there has been recent talks at Bundesliga interest because of it. Matt Targett, who we fought to keep from Fulham for a 15 million euro price tag, is nowhere to be found. However, he should get a start next week with Bertrand suspended due to yellow card accumulation. Obefemi looks on the verge of a breakthrough, but it would be hard to convince even the most optimistic of Saints fans that he will be given significant playing time.
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The starting eleven during the 1-1 draw with Watford featured zero Southampton Academy youth. This is NOT the Southampton way, and Mauricio Pellegrino is the man to blame.
Logic states, Les reed appointed him, so he is at fault, but was that not the decision of a much larger group of Southampton board room constituents? Or maybe it was Reed’s years of wheeling and dealing top talent, that mind you, did not want to be here anymore, thus we shall not go over that long list of names. Or could it be he lost touch in finding proper replacements, which is very well possible, but when you consider the absolutely world class talent we saw come in and out of the door, that plan’s sustainability has run it course.
Then you think about the players we have now. Do you honestly believe the starting eleven and bench are not capable of winning Premier League games? Especially against the likes of Huddersfield, Brighton, Newcastle, Palace, Fulham, Cardiff, Bournemouth, and Watford. The overwhelmingly pessimism of the current state of a Southampton fan’s mind would say, well we have not gotten those results. So why should I believe we could?
Because if you watched the games this season against the bottom half of the table, and watched them closely, then took the final score away, you would understand the talent is there. What is lacking is confidence, experience, discipline, and belief. All psychological characteristics stemming from a season long relegation battle with an inept head coach, Pellegrino, who was without the cajones to make a change.
As fans, do not be naive enough to believe you aren’t contributing to the psychological duress. Last year was an endurance race from start to finish, and it weighed heavily on our hearts and minds, and it still sits there. The only way to overcome a season like that is a quick start, and that opportunity has passed. The atmosphere at St. Mary’s is reportedly supportive (for the first 45 minutes), but how is it really in the final fifteen minutes? Fans sit at home with a knot in their stomach, even with a 1-0 lead, now magnify these feelings x10 pitch side. Now, put yourself in a player’s boots. How do you think they feel, already lacking the psychological context needed to succeed, while their fans clench their buttholes in anticipation of the next heart-breaking equalizer?
It is stressful, for everyone, but they are professionals, and they should be able to handle it, right? Not if you haven’t had success in those moments. Outside of the Palace game this season, and the Swansea game last, when have these players experienced a grind it out victory? Well they should train and prepare for it then. How can you replicate the intensity of the scenarios in which we have lost games? Do you really think one could setup a training session centered around Simon Hooper’s comical performance at Staplewood? Impossible.
This is where it comes full circle and falls back on the weaknesses of Mauricio Pellegrino. Last season’s pitfalls, with a very similar team to 2018/19 are clearly carrying over.
The youth is non-existent because Hughes chose a season long plan to go with experience. A plan that would focus on building the players’ confidence, previously crushed by Pellegrino. Throwing youth into the scary state at St. Mary’s would be a questionable decision. Sure they could bring some dynamism, excitement, and maybe play without fear, but would they be able to make the right decisions in critical moments late in games? That is the argument the Southampton coaching staff likely wrestled with. So let’s ship them out, get them some experience, and see if they could be useful in the New Year. Well that plan was probably thrown into the dumpster fire that is the Southampton back office, with the team currently hovering below the relegation line.
Those that criticize Hughes for the current performances should understand he is working hard to erase Pellegrino’s mistakes, and need to look toward evidence of success. Nathan Redmond has been a completely different player under Hughes. He was literally going backwards last season, and now he is more direct and creative than ever. The would-be assist on Charlie Austin’s pseudo game-winner last week being all the evidence you need. Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg did not get a look until the end of the season, and is quickly becoming the leader of the Southampton side, and is probably not far from receiving the arm band on a permanent basis. Mario Lemina is far more consistent and week-to-week is probably our best player on the pitch; and although we have had no success against the top six, our games against the rest of the league have been admirable defensively, even with an unsustainable centre-back carousel.
The worst of Mauricio Pellegrino’s misdeeds is the lingering tastes of passiveness and in-decisiveness, which was easily identified by his substitution tactics, and left strewn across this club. The report that Claudio Ranieri has taken over at Fulham FC ahead of our away clash adds more fuel to this fire. Fans are now constantly looking and calling for change, because apparently forced decision-making works out well for us (i.e. Guido Carrillo). When methodical patience has been a game plan for success since our days in League 1, which clearly have paid off, yet spoiled our tastebuds to the point of expecting European Football.
The team that sits before us are not world beaters, and the top five this year look clear above the rest of the pack, but we do deserve better. Not in the play we see every week, but the results. The luck this year has turned completely against us, but fans should trust it will balance itself out. Mark Hughes has made changes to return to stability from the disarray Pellegrino created, leaving the first team in shambles. The youth is still there, gaining experience on loan, and we should only expect to see them when results change. Obefemi may be the exception in all of this, but an 18 year old in a relegation battle is not an inspiring idea.
The message here is for Southampton fans to remain faithful in the manager, the players that we have, and the decisions that are made. Expecting Hughes to completely turn around a team in less than a year is unrealistic, and to some extent he has, albeit not getting results. You should take solace in that a major change was made with the departure of Les Reed, and reports are we already have a replacement in our sights. Preaching patience may not be the popular opinion, but it is what has gotten us to be a consistent Premier League performer despite wholesale changes year after year, and this is incredibly difficult as we all wear our hearts on our kits’ sleeve. This is the first year in some time we have had almost an entire team carryover, and if there is trust in players, manager and club to erase the mistakes of a season ago (aka Pellegrino), we can finally regain that feeling we have been far too accustomed to since the days of Pottchetino and Koeman.