Five Things We Learned From Southampton Away
Monday, 28th Sep 2015 07:15 by Planet Swans (follow us on Twitter @swansnews)

As we slipped to a third defeat in our four game winless streak at Southampton on Saturday, we start preparations for the visit of Tottenham to the Liberty on Sunday afternoon but what five things did we learn in defeat this time?

1. Sometimes the diamond does not work

Hindisght is a wonderful thing and I am not sure that the diamond needs to be written off because sometimes it works perfectly (reference Manchester United at home) but on Saturday it didn't. We lacked a width and Southampton were good enough to expose that on a regular basis. The better news is that Garry recognised it and changed it at half time not that it made any difference in he end

2. Where has the width gone

Andre Ayew is not a wide player. One of the things that makes us look good is the way that we can attack on the flanks but with Montero on the bench we did not have any natural width and that exposed Kyle Naughton in particular as Ayew was drifting infield too often. We really need to play Montero and Barrow for their width and speed.

3. We cannot shoehorn in every midfielder in the club

It feels at times if we are trying to always play our full midfield talent. Ki, Cork, Shelvey, Sigurdsson and Britton are all great players but it is becoming more evident that they cannot play together. If we take the fact above that Ayew is not a wide man then it is time to shake things up a little and use them as options against each other and off the bench/

4. Gomis wasn't to blame at half time

There is no doubt that Gomis had a bad game in the first 45 minutes but he was starved of support during the first period and it felt tough to haul him off at half time. A striker can only score goals if you feed him the chances to do so and he got none of that on Saturday. Eder for me is disappointing at the moment and Gomis has more goals in him and for that reason I would have left him on.

5. Good teams don't become bad overnight

There was a predictable over reaction on here and social media at the weekend to defeat. We haven't become a bad team overnight and we would not be "doomed for relegation" as some have you to believe. Performances against Watford and Southampton were disappointing but we gained a good point against Everton and can do the same next Sunday against Spurs. We will come out of this patch and we will not be in the relegation fight. No chance.

Photo: Action Images

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