After a 1-1 draw midweek with Birmingham City, Southampton had the chance to visit Lincoln City’s Sincil Bank and make the start to the season look decent.
Unfortunately, Tonda Eckert’s side were poor against the Imps. The home side stuck to their game plan well and frustrated Southampton.
A scrappy first half ended with a screamer from left-back Welington, whose arrowed shot is already a goal-of-the-season contender. Lincoln then piled on the pressure in the final 20 minutes of the game, and lacklustre defending allowed them an equaliser.
We’ve taken five learnings from the game that left Southampton players feeling frustrated ahead of a midweek meeting with Swansea City.
New centre-back a lock
In his third Southampton game and third start in turn, Keven Schlotterbeck played brilliantly once again.
The German centre-half touched the ball more times than any other player on the pitch, played five passes into the final third, won all four of his ground duels and five out of his nine aerial duels against a direct Lincoln team.
The question for manager Tonda Eckert now is who partners him going forward. There are three capable options: Jack Stephens, Nathan Wood and new boy Zach Abbott. One of them needs to step up.
Welington proves himself
With James Ward-Prowse’s set-piece threat on the pitch, Southampton can now afford to rotate their left-backs Ryan Manning and Welington more.
Welington got his first nod of the season at Sincil Bank, and came up trumps with a screamer of a goal to give Southampton the lead in a difficult first half.
The Brazilian has proven himself worthy, as he always has done in scarce opportunities.
Tonda Eckert’s changes detrimental
Saints boss Eckert brought Sam Edozie and Divin Mubama on for Leo Scienza and Cyle Larin in attacking positions later on in the match. The pair struggled to hold up the ball and looked fairly lightweight.
The main change that shifted the balance was when Nathan Wood was substituted on for Kuryu Matsuki, putting Saints into a back five defensive structure.
The switch in formation stopped Southampton from pushing for a second goal and ended up with them surrendering any control they had over the game. Eckert has often been a good tactician, but Saturday was an exception.
Squad depth comes into question
As mentioned in the last learning point, Sam Edozie and Divin Mubama were both poor substitutes. The former asked to leave the club in a public Instagram post earlier in the week, and has already been brought back into the fold by Eckert.
Lewis Dobbin, who starred during pre-season for Southampton, was also very underwhelming. The 23-year-old deserves a chance to prove his worth and is yet to start in the Championship for the club, but needs to hit the ground running soon.
A star performer
Flynn Downes has been nothing short of exceptional so far this season. The 27-year-old spent extra time training in the summer with his own personal trainer, and the hard work is paying off.
Saints are usually good when Downes is good. They don’t often lose when he’s at the top of his game.
Downes spoke angrily about his team’s performance after the match, saying, “We can’t have that mindset of trying to protect it [the lead], because you saw what happened today.
“We knew how Lincoln were going to play. They were going to go long, make it physical and compete for first and second balls. That’s not us, and we knew we would get beaten if we got caught up in that.
“We’ve got to step up. The lads on the pitch and the boys coming on, all of us have got to step up. We haven’t got time for that.”
The defensive midfielder is a true leader and deserved the armband against Birmingham City in midweek. It will be interesting to see who gets it against Swansea City - and that’s down to who partners Keven Schlotterbeck in defence.
Add us as a preferred source on Google