Southampton fans have been reminded of the club's consistent tactical brilliance which often gets underlooked under the constant league defeat patterns.
The central theme of football holds the art of goalscoring in high regard, and there's no two ways around this idea. Yet, when it comes to tactics, fan opinions don't remain aligned no matter whether the club in question are usual winners Manchester City or constant strugglers like Southampton who find it difficult to string an unbeaten run in a span of ten days.
The reason being that winning silverware demands some eye-sore football at times, which rarely sits well among neutral fans and rivals. The same is partially true for relegation races too, where Southampton fans regularly point fingers at their manager's footballing ideologies for doing the full-time results more harm than good.
All things considered, a majority of the Saints wouldn't raise eyebrows if they were ranked bottom-table on the tactical scale. The reality, well, it's different as far as the AI is concerned.
As quoted by the Football League World, the AI couldn't stop raving Southampton's sporting uniqueness saying: "With a focus on player development and structured attacking play, they remain one of England’s most stylistically distinct teams."
Saints have hit the jackpot by backing foreign playstyles
Firstly, this verdict shouldn't be taken with a pinch of salt as Southampton often lie closer to the Championship sides than the top-flight elites but their manager hirings have always been out-of-the-box. As a matter of fact, they had shifted to foreign playstyles and brought proven managers from abroad until their downward slump began at the beginning of the decade.
Needless to say, that's how most Big Six clubs operate, and apart from St. Mary's favourite Mauricio Pochettino, there's hardly been an instance of their bosses coaching other English clubs down the road.
Again, it only strengthens the AI's claims about Southampton's appreciation of an unpredictable gaffer who can catch their opponents off-guard. Apart from that, the Saints too take pride in knowing that Barcelona's legend Xavi has also enjoyed Matt Le Tissier's genius and that might be a reason why he has been fairly successful in his coaching tenure, so far.
Ultimately, Southampton might be dull performers in player recruiting but they ensure that the roster doesn't suffer from tactical jumps every time a manager walks out the door.