Why Russell Martin's assessment of Leicester City can lead Southampton to a convincing win

Recently, Premier League analyst Paul Merson predicted Leicester City to take a 2-1 win over Southampton. Merson highlighted that Leicester City's tactical flexibility and their brilliant squad depth in the attack can be one of the huge factors towards their second consecutive league win in the eighth matchday. Without a doubt, Merson's analysis of the two teams is correct, but Southampton can take advantage of Leicester City's tactical setup as well.

This is due to the fact that manager Russell Martin talked about Leicester City's tactical changes as compared to their previous season, saying,

"I think they’ve got some brilliant traits still from last season when they were asked to play in a really clear way by Enzo. They’re excellent in terms of their organisation without the ball and making it really difficult for you, and being such a threat on the counter-attack with the players they have."

- Russell Martin

Why Russell Martin's assessment of Leicester City can lead Southampton to a convincing win

While Martin praised Leicester City's brilliant possession based approach under former manager Enzo Maresca, the promotion-winning manager also revealed Leicester City's counter-attack style of football under Steve Cooper. Although the visitors are a good team going forward, their defence hasn't been reliable this season.

Steve Cooper's side rely mostly on laying long through-balls instead of starting a build up play as they often make defensive mistakes and misplaced passes despite having multiple players around the edge of the box. This was evident against Arsenal, where Mikel Arteta's side scored a lot of goals by bringing the ball near the box.

Moreover, Leicester City defender Conor Coady attempted a mistimed clearance against Crystal Palace in the last-minute of the match, and gave away an important penalty. Crystal Palace scored to take a 2-2 draw, which displays that Steve Cooper's side have their defensive shortcomings while defending inside the final third. Thus, Southampton should start Cameron Archer on the left-wing and Tyler Dibling on the right flank, in order to create more goalscoring chances going forward.

On top of that, Onuachu's physicality can be a significant advantage for Russell Martin's side to attempt multiple headers on goal. Although keeping a clean-sheet against Leicester City's in-form front three is a huge task, the Saints can have a better chance of winning the match if they aim to score multiple goals in this match.