Southampton vs Sheffield United: Analysis of Saints’ comprehensive win
By Marc Walker
Saints bypass potential issue with ease
In their recent loss against Manchester United, Saints came unstuck when they came up against the central midfield three of Fred, Scott McTominay and Donny Van De Beek.
Usual avenues of attack through the centre – utilising James Ward-Prowse, Oriol Romeu, Stuart Armstrong and Moussa Djenepo were cut off and Saints struggled to create after a while.
Sheffield United often use three players centrally but would have seen this as a potential way to stop Saints at source. However, it did not work out this way.
Key to this was crisp and accurate passing from Saints and also the occasional direct pass from the likes of Jannik Vestergaard to bypass the midfield areas.
The hosts often had five players occupying each visiting defender to increase the chances of winning those duels and second balls when passes were played forward – their movement and fluidity throughout the 90 minutes was superb to watch and a key factor in Saints’ rise up the table recently.