Simon Rusk broke his silence on Charlie Taylor's miserable Southampton situation which has constantly plagued his starting ambitions.
The Premier League campaign has slammed shut and honestly, it ended better than what many Southampton fans had expected. The Saints had to fend off Paul Merson's humiliating predictions and they succeeded in doing so, with a 2-1 result.
Now, the Gunners were thinning on their defensive options and so were Southampton, so this was almost an even matchup. Still, in terms of quality, Simon Rusk knew that the Saints were a mismatch and thus had to rely on makeshifts to strengthen the back five.
Here, Charlie Taylor earned a rare starting nod but played like his usual dominating self on the left. And he was rightfully the big reason why Southampton managed to frustrate Arsenal across both halves, before bowing down in the last minute.
Simon Rusk breaks silence on Charlie Taylor's misery
So, isn't it disappointing that Taylor was left isolated from the starting lineup for nearly the entire 2025? Indeed, it is, and that's why Simon Rusk has presented the brutal Taylor truth for the fans to know.
In his own words, Rusk lamented Taylor's situation to the Daily Echo: "Sometimes it just happens, doesn't it, that people fall out of favour, get injuries at the wrong time. Other players step in."
Talking about the entire left flank, Southampton never felt like fixating to a particular choice. Initially, Kyle Walker-Peters couldn't adapt against pacey attackers, then, Welington also struggled with physicality.
Ryan Manning helped strike a good balance between man marking and going forward but the results didn't always justified those efforts. And Taylor was left to rot on the bench by both Martin and Juric out of preference to other fullbacks and secondly, due to a poor injury record.
With the next Championship season still three months away, let's hope Southampton resolves this left back puzzle in the best way possible.