Southampton beat Bristol City 4-1 at St Mary's. Cyle Larin scored twice, Finn Azaz added a goal and two assists, and the win lifted Tonda Eckert's side up to seventh on 10 points.
Goalkeeper and Defenders
Daniel Peretz — 7.5. Five saves. Bristol City tested him inside two minutes. By the half hour he had already made four stops. Only a freakish goal beat him, Tolaj poking in a shot going wide from six yards. A pass tally of 66 at 78.8 per cent looks fine until you reach the long balls, where just three of 17 found a red shirt.
James Bree — 7. Sound at right-back. Six clearances, two tackles, one interception. Pass accuracy came in at 88.9 per cent from 36 attempts, both crosses picking out a team-mate. Look at his heat map: a narrow strip hugging the right touchline, nearly all of it inside his own half. Southampton clearly did plenty of defending on that flank.
Keven Schlotterbeck — 9. His block after 12 minutes was the pick of the afternoon. Ballard's shot was heading in. The centre back flung himself across it on his own goal line, an intervention WhoScored logged as a clearance off the line. Two more efforts came back off him. Add four interceptions, six clearances, two tackles, plus a team-high 95 touches at 89.6 per cent accuracy from 77 passes.
Nathan Wood — 7. Seven clearances, more than any other Southampton player managed. Two tackles as well. Passing held up at 93.9 per cent from 66 attempts. He had a couple of efforts himself, heading one over the bar at 65 minutes from a set piece. Tolaj should have punished the back four just after the break. His header went wide with the goal begging.
Ryan Manning — 7. Busy down the left. His return reads two key passes, two accurate crosses from two attempts, four clearances, a pair of interceptions. Bristol City fouled him three times.
Midfielders
Flynn Downes — 7. Forty-five minutes, no more. Tidy work while he was out there: 26 passes at 92.3 per cent, two interceptions, one tackle. Those 29 touches came almost entirely in his own half, sitting in front of the back four. Eckert pulled him at the break.
James Ward-Prowse — 7. Eighty-one touches, 66 passes, 92.4 per cent accuracy. Long balls: three of five found their target. Both shots were blocked. One block led to a goal anyway, because Tanner's deflection at 61 minutes dropped straight to Larin. Ground covered, too: the heat map spreads across both halves rather than settling in one zone.
Attacking Players
Kuryu Matsuki — 8. What a shift. Scored Southampton's third on 82 minutes, swept low with his left foot. Both shots hit the target. Three tackles plus four clearances is no ordinary defensive shift for a wide attacker, which the heat map confirms with dark patches deep in his own half. Three fouls conceded were the one blot. Lucky to escape a booking.
Finn Azaz — 10. The best player on the pitch by a distance. One goal, two assists. He teed up Larin's opener on 38 minutes, slid Matsuki in on 82, then swept home Mubama's pass three minutes later. Plenty has been written about whether he turns up in the bigger games. Here is another answer. Add two key passes, one dribble, 42 touches. Interestingly, the heat map drifts well left of centre rather than sitting in the hole, which is where space kept opening up.
Léo Scienza — 6. Quiet by his standards. There were two key passes and 90.5 per cent accuracy from 21 passes, yet no shots at all. Just 32 touches in 68 minutes. He held the width on the left, rarely coming inside. Fellows came on for him after 69 minutes.
Cyle Larin — 8. Fourteen touches. Two goals. The first flew in off his left foot from outside the box, Azaz doing the hard work to release him. Pure poaching for the second, a tap-in from six yards after Ward-Prowse's shot came back off a defender. Larin now has seven goals in seven Championship games. There were three shots in total, two on target, and three touches that got away from him.
Substitutes - Player Ratings
Cameron Bragg — 7. On at half-time for Downes. Plenty of the ball came his way: 49 touches, 44 passes, 95.5 per cent accuracy. Bristol City fouled him four times. Safe on the ball rather than incisive with it.
Tom Fellows — 6. Twenty minutes, 13 touches. Neither of his two crosses found a team-mate. Little impact.
Divin Mubama — 7. A lovely cameo. On at 78 minutes, he set up Azaz seven minutes later with a pass that created a clear chance. Six passes, all accurate, plus a dribble.
Welington — 6. A couple of minutes plus stoppage time. Five passes, every one accurate.
Lewis Dobbin — 6. Same late cameo: seven touches, seven accurate passes, no time to show more.
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