Southampton have already sacked Will Still after a nightmare start, appointed his assistant after a successful caretaker spell and crashed in form all over again, but their resources are starting to tell and the top six they were widely tipped for at the start is now just four points away. Alex Daniel is our oppo fan…

A very strange season for Southampton, how do you assess it overall?

It’s been a very peculiar season to say the very least. What started with some optimism after a last gasp winner against Wrexham on the opening day and a solid away point at Portman Road against Ipswich then quickly turned to worry as we couldn’t seem to any kind of consistent form going and before we knew it we were already looking for a new manager just a few months into the new season.

Southampton in the league so far…
Saints 2-1 Wrexham Manning 90, Stephens 90 – Windass pen 22
Ipswich 1-1 Saints Harwood-Bellis og 4 – Robinson 29
Saints 1-2 Stoke Harwood-Bellis 79 – Baker 59,m Thomas 75
Watford 2-2 Saints Baah 65, Irankunda 81 – Archer 10, Manning 78
Saints 0-0 Pompey
Hull 3-1 Saints Joseph 22, Lundstram 59, McBurnie 70 – Armstrong 90
Saints 1-1 Boro Armstrong 61 – Sene 77
Sheff Utd 1-2 Saints Campbell 28 – Stewart 51, 58
Derby 1-1 Saints Agyemang 40 – Armstrong 7
Saints 0-0 Swansea
Bristol City 3-1 Saints Mehmeti 33, Twine 57, 64 – Armstrong 30
Blackburn 2-1 Saints Alebiosu 76, Gudjohnsen 86 - Scienza
Saints 0-2 Preston Dobbin 38, Frokjaer-Jensen 90
QPR 1-2 Southampton Burrell 73 – Robinson 55, Scienza 69
Southampton 3-1 Sheff Wed Jander 9, Azaz 17, Armstrong 47 – Amass 25
Charlton 1-5 Southampton Jones 45 – Manning 14, AArmstrong 16, Jander 20, Azaz 22, 43
Southampton 3-0 Leicester Harwood-Bellis 18, 42, Azaz 23
Millwall 3-2 Southampton Azeez 72, Taylor 81, Crama 90 – Armstrong pen 55, Azaz 87
Southampton 3-1 Birmingham Azaz 6, Armstrong 24, 58 – Gray 54
Southampton 3-2 West Brom Scienza 12, Armstrong 17, 35 – Grant 62, Phillips 86
Norwich 2-1 Southampton Makama 48, 61 – Manning 57
Southampton 1-1 Coventry Wood 56 – Mason-Clark 44
Oxford 2-1 Southampton Goodrham 23, Mills 89 – Harwood-Bellis 29
Birmingham 1-1 Southampton Neumann 49 – Archer 71
Southampton 0-0 Millwall
Boro 4-0 Southampton Whittaker 54, 66, Silvera 61, Browne 76
Southampton 1-2 Hull Stewart 71 – Joseph 20, Hughes 34
Southampton 1-0 Sheff Utd Scienza 7
Pompey 1-1 Southampton Adams 77 – Scienza 57
Stoke 0-2 Southampton Azaz 10, Downes 52
Southampton 1-0 Watford Larin 70
Leicester 3-4 Southampton Mukasa 9, Daka 13, Fatawu 29 – Stewart 61, Stephens 82, Manning 86, Charles 90
Southampton 1-1 Charlton Stewart 48 – Carey 67

I guess his results as caretaker made it inevitable but what did you make of the appointment of Tonda Eckert?

Yeh, the performances under Eckert during his interim period definitely warranted him getting the role on a permanent basis. The club would have properly shot themselves in the foot had they have gone an appointed another manager and the form fell off a cliff. Ironically our form did drop just a few weeks after Eckert was given the role permanently and it’s only been since mid-January that we’ve started to go on a good run again.

And how's he done as permanent boss?

On the whole I’d say he’s done well, we did hit a large bump in the road between mid-December to mid-January where we seemed to morph back into the same looking side that started the season and ultimately cost Will Still his job. 99.9% sure that if the league started since he took the role on we’d be fifth in the league, not bad overall, but still some room for improvement.

A dip over Christmas but you're in hot form coming into this one, what sort of Saints side are we going to face?

Yeah as previously mentioned we had a dip in form over Christmas, with a lot of silly points dropped against sides who never really had to battle too hard to get a point or three against us. That all said, since the Sheffield United game last month we look like we’ve returned to the same kind of side that were playing free flowing attacking football that saw us score goals for fun.

I’ve never known a Southampton team who are so reliant on confidence, for the most part of this season any minor setback will see them crumble, on the flip side when everything is going for them they look like a side who should be challenging for the top two.

I do think the players will take a lot of confidence with them between now and May off the back of their performances away at Portsmouth and Leicester respectively. I don’t think many fans gave us a hope to get anything at Fratton Park (myself included), but I couldn’t fault the players, we dealt with Portsmouth’s long ball all day long, took control of the game and then put ourselves into the lead, only to be undone by a scrappy goal from a corner.

To come back from three goals down at Leicester showed they actually can do it when things are going against them as well. It wasn’t until the 61st minute Ross Stewart scored our first goal and we were still 3-1 down until the 82nd minute. I’m really hoping that result can be the catalyst for promotion come May.

What was done in January? What was left undone?

We sold our top goalscorer Adam Armstrong to Wolves, which I think could well come back to bite us on the neck, we replaced him with Cyle Larin, who has already scored two goals in three appearances. Although he is a completely different type of player to Armstrong, with Larin being more of an old school target man, which everyone will agree we have been screaming out for since the summer, but it perhaps shouldn’t have been as a direct replacement for Adam Armstrong.

Joe Aribo also departed the club heading to Leicester City on loan for the remainder of the season.

Perhaps most importantly James Bree returned to the club from his loan spell at Charlton Athletic and it’s fair to say he’s been a revelation for us at right back, since his return.

Even though we bought another striker in for Armstrong, I still think most fans would point towards us still needing another striker, as despite his impressive goals to games return, Ross Stewart’s injury record is not someone you can afford to rely on.

Summer Ins >>> Finn Azaz, 24, AM, Boro, £10m >>> Caspar Jander, 22, CM, Nuremberg, £10m >>> Tom Fellows, 22, RW, West Brom, £8m >>> Leo Scienza, 26, LW, Heidenheim, £7.5m >>> Damion Downs, 21, CF, Koln, £7m >>> Joshua Quarshie, 20, CB, Hoffenheim, £3m >>> Elias Jelert, 22, RB, Galatasaray, Loan >>> Mads Roerslev, 26, RB, Brentford, Undisclosed >>> George Long, 31, GK, Norwich, Loan

Winter Outs >>> Adam Armstrong, 28, CF, Wolves, £7m >>> Ronnie Edwards, 22, CB, QPR, £4.5m >>> Armel Bella-Kitchap, 24, CB, Hellas Verona, £4m >>> Damion Downs, 21, CF, Hamburg, Loan >>> Ryan Fraser, 31, LW, Western Sydney, Free >>> Gavin Bazunu, 23, GK, Stoke, Loan >>> Joe Aribo, 29, CM, Leicester, Loan >>> Juan Larios, 22, LB, Real Zaragoza, Loan

Where is the team strong and weak?

I’d say the team at time of writing is strongest in midfield and defence (famous last words for the latter), we reverted back to a back four against Sheffield United last month and with the exception of the first half against Leicester City we’ve looked a lot more solid defensively.

The midfield has also looked much improved in the last month as well, Flynn Downes has been performing back at a level we’re familiar with and saw week in, week out over the course of the 2023/24 Championship season.

Shea Charles has come back from an injury that saw him out since the tail end of October, which is a very welcome addition.

Kuryu Matsuki has looked like he’s started to find his feet with the pace, intensity and physicality of The Championship now and has even forced Tom Fellows out of the starting XI, most notably in the South Coast Derby against Portsmouth, he’s one I’d say to keep an eye on for the match (should he start).

For it all, only two points from the play-offs now. Revised expectations for the season?

Yeah, we’ve definitely had to revise our expectations for this season for sure. I think if you ask most Saints supporters before a ball was kicked in August, they’d have said a top two or a third place finish was the minimum requirement. Two extended periods of bad form have put those kinds of finishes way out of the question. So now it’s just a case of getting in the play-offs and hoping that we can repeat our exploits of 2024. If we were to finish within the top six I would go into the play-offs with some form of hope, as we still have a fair few players from the last time we played in the play-offs, but let’s cross that bridge when we come to it.

Links >>> Southampton Official Website >>> Southampton Echo – Local Press >>> Ugly Inside – Forum >>> Saints Marching – Blog >>> Saints Analysis – Blog >>> Football Martin – YouTube Channel >>> Saints Web – Message Board

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