Why Russell Martin should have substituted Saints standout player to secure a 2-0 win
- Ryan Manning gave an assist and was one of the standout players for Southampton.
- Why Russell Martin should have substituted Ryan Manning to secure a 2-0 win.
By Aakash Desai
Similar to the Arsenal away fixture, Southampton gave one of their best first-half performances in the eighth matchday despite facing another comeback defeat. While the attack is thriving under manager Russell Martin with each league match, the defence is yet to step-up their consistency throughout the game. Again Southampton took an encouraging 1-0 lead and even doubled it as well, going 2-0 within the half an hour mark.
Moreover, the Saints managed to maintain their two-goal advantage going into half-time and looked calm and composed in the beginning of the second half as they moved closer to securing a first Premier League win. However, fullback Yukinari Sugawara’s injury disrupted Southampton’s momentum and at that moment manager Russell Martin made a huge substitution mistake.
Why Russell Martin should have substituted Saints standout player to secure a 2-0 win
Leading 2-0 with around half an hour remaining in the match, a better tactical approach would have been to increase the defensive solidity further to avoid conceding any goal. This is due to the fact that the Saints have often conceded multiple goals when their opponents have scored the first goal, thus, manager Russell Martin should have considered implementing a more rock-solid defence.
Moreover, Southampton had versatile defender Kyle Walker-Peters in their starting lineup, and Martin should have switched Walker-Peters on the right-back position instead of bringing Ryan Fraser. On top of that, Martin should have substituted standout performer Ryan Manning as well, to bring a defensive fullback such as Charlie Taylor.
Although Manning created a lot of huge goalscoring chances for Southampton and even gave an assist on the opening goal, the former Swansea star isn't great while defending against quality forwards. Moreover, Martin should have brought on Charlie Taylor to replace Manning due to Taylor's impressive recovery pace and tackling ability.
Taylor is impressive in man-marking forwards as well, and could have led Southampton to form a more reliable and organised defence. However, Martin played Fraser instead at right-back and Abdul Fatawu Issahaku successfully dribbled the 30-year-old multiple times in the second-half.
Next. 3 Standout Southampton stars from the last-minute 3-2 defeat. 3 Standout Southampton stars from the last-minute 3-2 defeat. dark
Fraser picked up a red-card later, and these substitution decisions didn't work out well for the home side. Manager Russell Martin now needs to make better use of the substitutions during such key moments in the match, to avoid giving away their good momentum in the upcoming league fixtures.
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