Saints need to utilise the talents of Shane Long a little more with the Irish striker's scoring record of late.

Shane Long proved himself to be a vital part of Saints armoury last season, it wasn't just his goals or even his assists, but his ability to close down goalkeepers and defenders and create opportunities.
So when Sadio Mane scored the fastest ever Premier League hat trick against Aston Villa, he took the plaudits, but perhaps it was Long who was man of the match, setting up Mane and chipping in with two goals one of which was the goal of the match, perhaps the season.

So when he started this season with two headed goals, against Vitesse and then Newcastle in the Premier League, both coming off the bench, he might have thought that he would get a lot of opportunities this season.

But that hasn't proved to be the case, even before his injury sustained on International duty his chances were extremely limited, yet his goals per minute ratio makes him the deadliest striker in the Southampton camp this season.

I can understand why he might not make the starting XI, but off the bench as he has proved there is no better.

The problem for Long has been the fact that there has been more attacking options for Ronald Koeman than last season and also that some of those options have started the season in fine form, the return of Jay Rodriguez meant that in effect Long was in direct competition with him and neither player's cause was helped by the fact that both Sadio Mane and Dusan Tadic, the two players head of them in the pecking order were in so fine form.

Now though with Rodriguez out for two month's the manager will have no option but to use Long more and as he showed at Manchester City he has an eye for goal, that took his total for the season to 5 in all competitions, only Pelle with 9 and Sadio Mane with 7 have scored more.

Long though has scored his in only 4 starts plus another 6 off the bench, a ratio of 1 every 2 games. In contrast Pelle has scored his 9 in 18 games all starts, again 1 in 2 and Mane has 16 starts plus 2 off the bench for his 6 goals so a 1 in 3 game ratio.

But if we take minutes on the pitch 494 roughly speaking, then Long is scoring every 99 minutes, a fantastic ratio, almost a goal a game.

There are some that undervalue Shane Long's contribution to the side, they are blinded by his transfer fee, they think it was too much, but in truth we paid the going rate for a striker of his quality but we did not sign his just for goals it is the all round contribution.

He will never be as refined as Pelle or take on players with the flying style of Mane, but he has a work rate that is needed in some games and that work rate creates situations that don't show up in the stats, as when he closes down defenders and forces corners that result in goals, or when he blocks clearances that get Saints possession and turn into goals.

Shane Long is in great form this season for both Club and country, we need to be using him more in the coming weeks and reaping the benefit

Photo: Action Images

Dikki_Gutz added 13:34 - Nov 29 The problem is with the manager. When you choose the wrong team then go behind you're always going to be chasing the game. The problems are compounded when he gets his subs wrong and then blames the players for a bad performance which then demotivates them for the next game. Koeman need to put a different record on instead of having a great lump up the front falling down and turning his wrists up every ten seconds and also playing with 10 men every time he chooses JWP as a starter.

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codge added 15:39 - Nov 29 Well wrote article Nick, totally agree long is worth everything we paid for hom. Always gives 100 percent, wish l could say the same about all the rest of the team.
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rebelsaint57 added 15:54 - Nov 29 Shane Long was never a natural goalscorer and never will be but by god he makes up for it in other ways , its no surprise that he has always been a fans favourite at all the clubs he has played for
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SaintBrock added 17:24 - Nov 30 Shane Long is exciting to watch and was always a threat when at other clubs. Few players have that buzz factor every time they get on the ball, he always looks likely to score whereas Tadic flatters to deceive and really scores despite all the tricks and flash. He missed another sitter on Saturday when it was harder to miss. Mane is a hit and miss type of player whose misses more often than he hits right now.

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