The key reason why Russell Martin didn't bring Premier League winner after half-time

Young talented players have been given a lot of playing time at Southampton this season, which they have justified as well becoming one of the regular starters for Russell Martin’s side. Still experienced players often perform well in key moments, with one of them being Yukinari Sugawara's injury early in the second half. At that moment, the Saints needed a good balance between quality and experience in their lineup to secure the three points from the match.

While Martin didn't brought quality defensive fullback Charlie Taylor in place of Ryan Manning, the promotion-winning manager left one of the most calm and composed Southampton players as an unused substitute throughout the second half. The player is Premier League winner Adam Lallana, who alongside Aaron Ramsdale and Kyle Walker-Peters, possesses the most English top flight experience in the Saints squad.

The key reason why Russell Martin didn't bring Premier League winner after half-time

Martin previously admitted his mistake on not starting Lallana against Bournemouth, however, the 36-year-old hasn't played in both consecutive matches against Arsenal and Leicester City. While not starting Lallana is considerable given the impressive rise of Mateus Fernandes and Joe Aribo, but preferring to bring Smallbone over Lallana in a situation when the Saints needed to make calm and composed passes has left many home fans surprised.

However, Russell Martin later revealed the key reason to leave the 36-year-old as a substitute option, saying,

"We were down to ten men and we were not going to have a lot of the ball. That's not Adam's strength.

Adam's strength is to really dominate the ball. If we still had 11 men he would have come on today 100% and helped us create or control the game but he didn't."

- Russell Martin

Martin highlighted Ryan Fraser's red-card after Yukinari Sugawara's injury that led him to bring a defensive midfield option and thus, Martin didn't played Lallana in the midfield. Although Lallana possesses a wide range of passing ability, the returning Southampton star isn't more reliable while defending.

Further Lallana doesn't possess a good recovery pace to quickly win ball possession inside the Southampton half. However, with Smallbone highly likely to be unavailable for the Manchester City fixture, Lallana can get more playing time either as a starting midfielder or as a second-half substitute.