Southampton's inability to keep a clean sheet cost them again as they went down 2-1 away at Oxford United on Boxing day.
The Saints have failed to shut the opposition out for six games in a row and Head Coach, Tonda Eckert has become obsessed with making that his priority.
Eckert told the official Southampton FC website that “we need to work towards clean sheets.“ His philosophy is that it's perfectly legitimate to win a game with a scrappy goal, as long as you don't concede.
Eckert's pragmatic philosophy is built on rocky foundations
Eckert has been refreshingly honest about it. He would “prefer to win an ugly game rather than lose a beautiful one,” a line that could have been lifted straight from the footballing gospel according to pragmatists everywhere.
In Eckert's mind, this is not a rejection of attacking football. Far from it. It is a recognition that promotion seasons are not built solely on four-goal thrillers. Sometimes, one goal has to be enough.
That thinking is increasingly shaping the Saints’ structure. The shift towards a back three is not about fashion or novelty. It is about control. It's about numbers behind the ball and 'between the sticks' as the manager describes it. It's about reducing chaos and managing moments.
Sadly, it's not working.
Eckert's stubborn policy of playing with three at the back, no matter what the circumstances are, has created a team that find it difficult to get the ball forward and retain possession with any fluency.
The three at the back play too deeply and too centrally, inviting pressure down the wings behind Ryan Manning and Tom Fellows. The obvious reality is that only Taylor Harwood-Bellis, of the three that started at Oxford, is actually good enough to warrant playing in this system.
Defensive errors against Oxford were completely avoidable
In the first 20 minutes against Oxford, Southampton found plenty of room in the centre of midfield and created some clear cut chances for Azaz, Scienza, and Flynn Downes. But the shots from Azaz and Downes ended up in the stadium car park, while Scienza took too long to pull the trigger and saw his effort deflected onto the outside of the near post.
While Oxford's first goal came against the run of play, it was entirely predictable. After Tom Fellows had given the ball away needlessly near the half-way line, Oxford transitioned well and forced a corner. That corner was never fully cleared and nobody had tracked the corner taker, Tyler Goodrham.
When the ball fell to Goodrham on the edge of the box, he struck the ball well, but he was under very little pressure from Caspar Jander who turned his back on the ball as it was hit. Taylor Harwood-Bellis stuck out a tentative leg and the ball may have flicked off his foot as Bazunu flung himself to his right. The Keeper managed to get a glove on the ball but not enough to keep it out.
Oxford's winner was a combination of Saints not defending properly from their own attacking corner and some fortunate ricochets as the home side burst forward. Between them, Nathan Wood and Cameron Archer, made a complete mess of their challenges on Siriki Dembélé and Stanley Mills respectively, allowing Mills to slide the ball past a poorly positioned Bazunu in the Saints goal.
Eckert must dispense with his three at the back obsession
While the system of playing three at the back did not contribute directly to the goals Southampton conceded at Oxford, it stifled their momentum going forward. Both Fellows and Manning might have benefited in possession if there was an overlapping full-back or an extra man in midfield to pass to.
Something needs to change quickly if Southampton hope to get anything from the away match at Birmingham City on Monday evening. Chris Davies had the measure of Tonda Eckert tactically in the match at St Mary's a few weeks ago, despite Southampton coming out on top.
In that match, Birmingham put in 48 crosses from wide areas and were unlucky not to have created more chances than the one that Furuhashi sliced over from a couple of yards out.
At Oxford yesterday, Saints did not keep the ball well enough in attacking transitions and their finishing was woeful. “Today is completely on us every single time we got in their half we didn't manage to conclude and finish the actions,“ admitted Eckert after the match.
The 3-4-3 system hindered rather than helped their attacking play and the less said about the substitutions the better. Only Jay Robinson and Harwood-Bellis came out of that farce with any credit.
The sooner Tonda ditches his three at the back fallacy and dispenses with his obsession of having defensive numbers in the box and between the sticks, the better.