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Southampton vs Leicester: Prem League – Key Players

By Ryan Borowski

SOUTHAMPTON, ENGLAND - OCTOBER 25: Angus Gunn of Southampton reacts during the Premier League match between Southampton FC and Leicester City at St Mary's Stadium on October 25, 2019 in Southampton, United Kingdom. (Photo by Naomi Baker/Getty Images)
SOUTHAMPTON, ENGLAND - OCTOBER 25: Angus Gunn of Southampton reacts during the Premier League match between Southampton FC and Leicester City at St Mary's Stadium on October 25, 2019 in Southampton, United Kingdom. (Photo by Naomi Baker/Getty Images) /
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With Southampton suffering a historic defeat at home to the hands of the Foxes it is time we take a look at a few players need to grow from this.

Friday, is a day we all want forget and it pains me to write about it. But if you do not reflect and learn from your failures you will be doomed to repeat them. Hopefully this is a turning point for the club and things only get better from here.

With that said let us take a look at three players who need to do some reflecting and turn in better performances.

Angus Gunn 

Gunn finds himself on the wrong side of history allowing the ball to get past him 9 times over the course of the match and if this can be a breaking point for the youngster. He cannot hang his head on this he needs to realize he still has a lot of room for improvement and cannot get comfortable with his place in the team.

I would have to believe Alex McCarthy will be in net for the cup match on Tuesday and depending on his form in that game he may get the call in the league match during the weekend. If Gunn is dropped he needs to use this as motivation to get better and improve as a player.

Getting handed the starting spot at such an early time in his Southampton career, a little complacency may have set in and his performances slowly started getting worse and worse. Nothing gets worse than this and Gunn will have to earn the trust of everyone again.

SOUTHAMPTON, ENGLAND – OCTOBER 25: James Ward-Prowse of Southampton looks on during the Premier League match between Southampton FC and Leicester City at St Mary’s Stadium on October 25, 2019 in Southampton, United Kingdom. (Photo by Naomi Baker/Getty Images)
SOUTHAMPTON, ENGLAND – OCTOBER 25: James Ward-Prowse of Southampton looks on during the Premier League match between Southampton FC and Leicester City at St Mary’s Stadium on October 25, 2019 in Southampton, United Kingdom. (Photo by Naomi Baker/Getty Images) /

James Ward-Prowse 

The academy product has been a shell of the player we saw when Hasenhuttl first came into the club. He has been absent in both the attack and the defense and leaves many fans asking, “Was Ward-Prowse out there tonight?”

I do not know what he needs to hear or what needs to happen to get him back to the form we saw last year but it needs to happen soon or he will not see the pitch for a while. Stuart Armstrong, seems like he is a much better fit for the Austrian’s style of play and may very well find himself in the starting line-up soon.

Ward-Prowse may also have a bit of complacency when it comes to his spot in the team so dropping him from the squad may be the wakeup call, he needs to know that he still has to fight for his spot.

Nathan Redmond 

Redmond, has continued to be one of the bright spots this season but the man cannot score and a lot of that has to do with how stagnant the attack is. Nobody is making runs or coming in for support and it leaves Nathan Redmond to run around with his head cut off trying to beat 3 or 4 defenders on his own to try and create his own chance.

I would have to believe there will be a lot of closed-door meetings and talks about what to change a Redmond is going to have to say something out the lack of support he and Ings receive from everyone else when going forward.

Something obviously has to change and I think we see a lot of changes to the squad against City.