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Southampton V Leicester City The Verdict Wednesday, 26th Nov 2025 10:09 It was 4 in a row for Tonda Eckert & his Saints side, another polished performance that pushed us up to 11th but more importantly to the fringes of the play off spots, posing the question how a team and it's players who were so poor just 3 weeks or so ago can be so different now. On the first of November Will Still was presiding over a Southampton side that was disintegrating in front of the supporters eyes, not only were established players a shadow of their former selves, but the new signings were underperforming and there were some who were questioning our player recruitment. Out went Still and in came Tonda Eckert and many complained that he would be appointed as yet another cheap option and that we would be fighting against relegation and not for promotion. Three weeks later and few are saying that, Eckert has turned this side into something unrecognisable from that under Still, almost overnight we turned a corner. The reality is that Tonda Eckert simply saw what was going wrong, scattergun selections, players being played out of position and tactics that baffled both the fans and players. He could see that it wasn't playing 3 at the back with wing backs that was the problem, it was who was playing in it.
The likes of Tom Fellows, Finn Azaz, Joshua Quarshie & Caspar Jander were seen as poor signings from the summer, even Leo Scienza to a lesser degree although his goal at Blackburn had shown promise, Ryan Manning, Nathan Wood & Taylor Harwood-Bellis were being slated for their own poor performances and with injuries to key players, the future looked bleak. But in came Tonda Eckert who didn't do anything fancy, he just kept it simple, played to the strength of the players he had, not trying to make the players play to the tactics if you see what I mean. Message boards were full of those claiming that we lacked a centre forward, that Adam Armstrong could not play through the centre, Eckert didn't see it that way, he adapted the way that the centre forward was utilised, he was not there to get on the end of crosses, he dropped Armstrong deeper, getting the ball and holding it up and laying it off to bring in not just Azaz & Scienza into play, but Tom Fellows & Ryan Manning out wide.
Either way, it was simple and football players like things simple. Overnight there was a new spirit in the camp, you could see that at QPR, but the most pleasing thing in that game was how when we were under the cosh in the closing stages we stood firm, some saw that as evidence that we were a poor side and getting dominated by QPR a so called inferior team in many peoples eyes, but I saw it as evidence that Eckert had brought something to the table in the way he had turned round the spirit in the camp, next step was confidence and that would come. Each game has seen us improve, but more importantly the real thing that Eckert has brought is organisation, at Charlton we won the game in the first half, then stayed disciplined in the second to make sure that the game stayed won, that was the case against against Leicester.
In the preview I said I expected to see only one change for this game, Flynn Downes for Cameron Bragg, that change happened, but there was a surprise, out went Jack Stephens & in came Joshua Quarshie, in fairness I thought that Jack has done Ok in the games he has played under Eckert, I thought he played well at Charlton, but Eckert saw something different, perhaps it was a lack of pace in the back 3 against a speedy Leicester attack, but he saw that something needed tweaking and he made the change and it worked. From the start we continued where we left off against Charlton, a pin point free kick from Ryan Manning was headed home by Taylor Harwood-Bellis although TV replays seemed to show he was offside, but with no linesman's flags & no VAR the goal stood.
Leicester could have drawn level moments later when Gavin Bazunu made a superb save to keep the ball out and the scores level from what was Leicester only meaningful shot on target. Minutes after that the lead was doubled, a superb move that saw Adam Armstrong drop deep get the ball and play a great pass out to Scienza who was motoring down the left, his pass found Finn Azaz who scored for the 3rd consecutive game and his 4th goal in that period, in his previous 10 appearances he had failed to score, now he has 4 goals in just 3 games and he is showing why he is one of the best performers in the Championship over the past few seasons, why the change ? ask Tonda Eckert. When Leicester had a man sent off for a second yellow card, the game looked all but over, but again this is where a manager earns his corn, we kept things tight and when just before half time Ryan Manning once again put in a pin point cross, this time from a corner it was Harwood-Bellis that once again met it and put us 3-0 up.
We of course dominated the second half as expected with Leicester a man down, but it was about having the game won and keeping it won, we wanted an assured performance with 3 points, we also wanted no injuries and we got that as well, the substitutions were not scattergun, they were measured and in the lain like for like, Wellington for Manning on the left, Joe Aribo for Finn Azaz to bring a little more bite in the centre to make sure that Leicester did not convert periods of possession into chances and goals. All in all like the win against Charlton the strategy is simple, when you have a game won, don't do anything to lose it. But the best thing is that we are playing a brand of football that is great to watch, we have taken the best elements of possession football and ditched the bad bits, we get the ball, keep it for 2 or 3 passes and then look to get it forward fast, it is great to watch and although it is of course not in the Premier League, it is probably the best performances with everything taken into consideration since Ralph Hasenhuttl's early years, so the best part of 5 years. It was a pity that last night there were less than 26,000 there to watch it.
So with four wins in a row Tonda Eckert has gone from complete outsider to odds on favourite, of course it is only four games and there will be those that say it is like a honeymoon period, things will get back to normal after a few more games when the initial impact of the change has subsided, but I would say that there is something that is different from the initial impact made by Ruben Selles 3 years ago, when effectively nothing changed other than the manager. This time Eckert has changed the tactics, changed certain players and it has been his input that has changed things rather than just a change in manager. I have always said that this was a good squad at Championship level, possibly the best squad in terms of quality & quantity, others disagreed and suggested that our summer signings were not up to it and our recruitment policy poor. This is a key moment for Johannes Spors, he has seen the fruits of his labour from 8 months of revamping things behind the scenes, the recruitment is now paying off and now he has to make the biggest choice, that of manager.
In fairness to Spors perhaps the easy decision would have been to just go with the flow, appoint a manager with experience and pander to popular opinion, however he perhaps saw something that we didn't, something in Eckert that we are seeing now, a calm confident demeanour and a footballing brain. Has Eckert done enough to merit the job, if not what else does he have to do, win 5 games in a row, win 10 games in a row ? Spors playing the waiting game has proved wise, he has not jumped in with both feet either way and has now bought himself some time, if Eckert had drawn the first two games we may now have had a different man in charge, but he didn't and these 4 wins have bought us time and that is good. Now we go to Millwall and look for a 5th win in a row that could see us actually land in the play off places, although I think it would be unlikely this weekend, but we are on an upward trajectory and that is down to Tonda Eckert, there are still questions as to whether he is the best man for the job, is 4 games enough to judge, being the main one. But with every win he is a step nearer the job, but if he is appointed he will need some experience beside him as his assistant and not just those that where with him in the U21 squad, appointing that man, someone who is compatible with Eckert himself and who he can work with, is perhaps a more difficult choice than the one that Spors has to make now , ie when he makes the final decision on Eckert himself.. All Photos Via Reuters Please report offensive, libellous or inappropriate posts by using the links provided.
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