Our new correspondent Matt takes a look at three big questions that will have been answered by the end of October
The 28th October 2017. It’s ten games into the 2017-18 Premier League season, and Saints have just faced off against newly-promoted Brighton & Hove Albion at the Amex Stadium.
It’s at this point in any premier league season that we begin to see a team’s true colours. Was that opening day win a sign of things to come, or a one-off in a season spent hovering perilously above the drop-zone (don’t tell me you’ve forgotten those late-90s seasons…)?
As is now the norm, for Saints, this will be a more revealing start to the season than most. Another summer of change, another unknown quantity (Hi, MaPo), another turbulent transfer saga.
So, after 10 games, what will we know? Here’s 3 burning questions that we will (probably) have already had an answer for come that day at the Amex.
1. Where are the goals going to come from?
Anyone who has followed the meteoric rise of Southampton over the past 5 years will know that it was achieved by scoring goals. Lots of goals. But last season, the heady days of a sub-3-minute Mane hat-trick felt like a distant memory.
By game 10, we should have a pretty good idea of who our most potent threat is up front. Pellegrino faces a challenge in that he has Austin and Gabbiadini, both potent finishers who hit a rich vein of form at different times last season. He favours a 4-2-3-1, so it will be interesting to see which of the two fill that number 10 role, if at all. Arguably a midfield trio of Redmond, Boufal and Tadic is potent enough, and so you feel it will be one of the two, not both, starting regularly.
2. How are you feeling, Virgil?
The moral ins and outs of VVD’s summer of discontent are for a different blog - I don’t want to go into it here. However, by the 28th October, we should know whether or not VVD has his head in the game, or whether he’s still dreaming of Jurgen’s open arms. At time of writing (3rd Aug), the club are still standing firm, with VVD reiterating his desire to leave and the club likewise reiterating theirs for him to stay.
It would seem he has two options: play, and play 100% for the team, or don’t. By game 10 we will find out which one he’s chosen. I know which one I’m hoping for…
3. How good is Mauricio Pellegrino?
The similarities between Pellegrino’s appointment and Pochettino’s are too close not to be excited by. It’s all too familiar: little-known Argentine manager from the depths of La Liga (i.e. not the top 3), favouring a 4-2-3-1 and a high press, arrives on the south coast with big ambition but no reputation… Oh, the possibilities…
…and then a 0-4 thrashing at the hands of FC Augsburg happens. At St. Mary’s, no less.
It’s a different mood to the one after the Saint Etienne match just under a week ago, so what are the positives here?
The play is more attacking than Puel’s, with more emphasis on the wide areas (step forward, Matt Targett), the high press is back although taking a while to fully click, and the ball is moving around quicker, all of which we missed last season.
Defensively, however, our weaknesses remain all too clear (seriously, 0-4!?). In my book, Maya Yoshida is still a top Championship defender, no more, and Jack Stephens has performed admirably without setting the world alight. If VVD does not return, a new centre back is absolutely vital, even if we have to spend £30m to get him.
What I’m also yet to see is the kind of incisive passing that defined the Koeman era. Saints have the players in the likes of Romeu, Ward-Prowse and Tadic to play a midfield-splitting through ball, but they need to be given the dynamic shape of a 4-2-3-1 and the team’s old work ethic to do it.
No ideal so far, but let’s leave the real evaluation for 10 games in. Let’s hope that trip back from Brighton is a happy one.
Matt Tilling
@tposmatt