Russell Martin has admitted that he should have played with a striker at the Vitality Stadium, however he still doesn't think he made any tactical mistakes and seems to place the blame on his squad.
The Daily Echo has again been reporting from the press conference ahead of the Arsenal game, worryingly the quotes from Russell Martin, point to a manager that cannot see where he is going wrong.
First off through Martin admitted that he should have played with a striker:
"It's really easy with hindsight but I should have played with a nine, whether that's Ross, Paul Onuachu, Adam Armstrong or Cam," Martin told the Daily Echo.
But when asked if changes were counter-productive to the team's understanding, he responded:
"No, not really because we played that system a lot.
"We played it a fair bit last season at times. We build up like that. I think the formation would have changed as we got through the thirds.
"We just didn't spend long enough in their final third. We had like eight days or whatever to work on it in training so it's not like it was really alien to them.
"It's about assessing the opposition. You're damned if you do and damned if you don't. If it works, then everyone speaks about the changes you make.
"Maybe I am guilty of trying to find something to really hurt one opposition but I don't think it's a problem. The players know it.
"The occasion and the moment took over, really so it sort of negated any tactics. I maybe could have, after the second goal, maybe made a sub or two.
"That's my learning, but it's never a nice feeling to have to do that in the first half. Looking back, I should have, so I take responsibility for that.
"But in terms of being counterproductive in the shape and system and all that? No, they all played together enough. The concept doesn't change."
So the message is clear from Russell Martin, he has set out the tactics, the blame lies with his team for being unable to play the system that he demanded.
Even Echo reporter Alfie House is baffled, commenting
" I’m no tactico but I worry Russell Martin is trying so hard to find a winning formula that he’s betraying one of his own fundamentals.
"He says his sides are best when they have total understanding and feeling with teammates. Can they when it’s changing every week?"
Russell Martin is now clearly part of the problem than the solution, good managers recognise the strengths and weaknesses of their squad, both as individuals and a unit, they work round those when employing the tactics, they play to their strengths not their weaknesses.
When you are going through bad runs you don't start complicating matters by employing strange tactical changes, you get back to basics, straight forward tactics that the players can understand and are used to, not trying to invent weird and wonderful systems to baffle the opposition, when all that does is baffle your own players.
The Bournemouth coaching team has already said that when they saw the Saints line up it fired them up, they knew that Saints played a possession passing game along the back and into the midfield, but they could see that ultimately it would have no outlet, no one up front to try and hit, they knew all they had to do was sit back, watch Saints pass it amongst themselves and wait for the moment to pounce.
They did that with ease and their wasn't a Southampton supporter watching who was surprised by what was happening.
You would have thought that after the performance against Ipswich which had a lot of positives and came so near to victory, that Russell Martin would have built on that, but he didn't he tore it apart and the consequences was that what was left was torn apart again by Bournemouth.
You could see that the players themselves were not comfortable, they knew their manager had hung them out to dry with his tactics and team selection.
I have for the past year been an advocate of Russell Martin, whatever some might say, he inherited a squad that was in transition with people leaving and coming in the first month of the season and he took us to promotion, some might say that with the squad he had he should have done better, but football is a results game and he got the result he was appointed to do, get promotion.
I thought that he deserved his shot at the Premier League, but I also thought that we would see whether he had it in him to adapt his tactics, not throw them out the window, but adapt them.
At the moment the answer is that he doesn't seem to be able to do that, he has an arrogance that says, I am a great manager, we are only losing games because I have not got great players, so the blame is not with me.
All managers have to have this arrogance, but they also have to have the flexibility to adapt and change their way of doing things.
The founder of Sony, Akio Morita was famous for his quotes, this is one that is pertinent here.
"If you go through life convinced that your way is always best, all the new ideas in the world will pass you by."
Sadly I think Russell Martin will always think his way is always best !