After breaking his 15 game Premier League scoring duck will Graziano Pelle now fire the goals that will take Saints into Europe ?
In football there is a saying with strikers that is known as "Sauce Bottle" it likes scoring goals to trying to get tomato sauce out of a bottle, anyone familiar with doing this will know that in the decent brands it is sometimes not an easy thing to do, you have the bottle upturned but nothing comes out, you bang on the bottom of the bottle and still nothing happens, you keep banging and eventually the sauce starts to come out and when it does it pours out.
This is like a striker in a goal scoring drought, he keeps banging on the bottle metaphorically speaking, but nothing happens, but he knows that if he keeps banging ie keeps trying to take chances, eventually that goal will come and when it does suddenly the goals start to flow again.
So will this be the affect for Graziano Pelle ? now he has broken that Premier League hoodoo will he start to hit the target with the regularity he was before the turn of the year.
During this drought there were some supporters who lost faith in Pelle, they subjected him to some vile abuse, but to be fair to the Italian striker, he never hid, he kept trying to take the chances when they came his way and he kept doing the things he was being asked to do within the team structure, at no time did he panic, he didnt start trying to score from all angles or distances as is tempting when things arent going right, he still knew what chances he should attempt and which ones a team mate was better positioned.
That meant that in the main he was playing well, of course there were some games that he wasn't to par and perhaps should have scored, but during that run there wasn't one of his team mates who could claim anything other for themselves, but for some reason Pelle took more stick than others.
Hopefully now that is behind him and Saints fans should realise that even after this run there are few players who have scored more Premier league goals than Pelle and that perhaps says something about his contribution to the team and how much he contributed to our league position with not only his goals but his overall play.
As it stands in the Premier league goal scoring charts going into this weekend Pelle has 9 goals, to put that in perspective only 6 players have more than 12 goals, behind that half dozen there are 3 players on 12 goals, 2 on 11 goals and 4 who have hit 10, I will do the maths for you, there are only 16 players who have scored more goals than Pelle in the Premier this season despite his goal drought and 9 of them play for teams currently in the top four.
Look at the players who have scored similar totals to Pelle, Danny Ings who the same people who shout abuse at Pelle usually put forward as his replacement has exactly the same total, Romelu Lukaku who cost Everton £28 million has scored one less with 8.
Sometimes you have to put things in perspective, usually most seasons 14 -15 goals will get you in the Premier League top ten scorers.
So it is feasible that Pelle could push himself to withing a goal or two of that target before the season is out if the Sauce Bottle theory takes affect.
The moral is that in the final games however Pelle plays or whether he scores or not, its time to back him and indeed all his team mates, sometimes i feel that some would rather see the team fail if it means that Pelle fails, I remember at the recent home game against Burnley a so called supporter a couple of rows behind screamed incessant abuse at Pelle from the early stages of the game, from about the 20th minute he was screaming for Koeman to "get him off", when I and other supporters had "words" with him apart from the stock answer that he is entitled to his opinion, which is true his only explanation was that he "Hates Pelle"
That struck home to me how some of our support seem to take against certain players to an almost hysterical level, what had Pelle done to make that person hate him ? had he had an affair with his wife ? had he let his dog poo on his lawn ? had he pushed in front of him in queue for the chip shop ? I doubt any of them but why would someone hate one of our own players.
Like any supporter I have players i rate and players I dont rate, but I dont hate any of them as players unless they do something to warrant that, all Pelle has done for Southampton Football Club is try to play well, score goals and in doing so we stand as I write sixth in the Premier League as high as we have ever stood in the top flight at this stage of the season in 30 years.
So I recap, we are six games away from perhaps our joint second highest league finish ever, thats in 130 years of our history, football is a team game so the whole team need supporting, if a supporter told Ronald Koeman that although he supported the team he was not willing to support Pelle because he hated him Im sure Koeman would give him short shrift and tell him to stay away from the game.
This last few paragraphs are perhaps aimed at a minority of Saints fans, but is a very vocal minority at times, 95% of our supporters have been superb this season, our away support has been nothing short of magnificent, in fact the best I have ever seen as i approach the 40th anniversary of my first ever away game.
So lets keep that support going and great things may happen.