The popularist view regarding Saints lack of goals at the moment is that we lack strikers, this is not the root of the problem, we have the strikers we just don't create chances for them.

The disenchanted masses leaving St Mary's on Saturday were moaning about Saints failure to buy a striker in the summer or indeed the summer before that when many of them had been complaining that we had sold Mane and Pelle, two players who were perhaps given more stick than most of their team mates by the very same supporters ranting that they had been sold.

But the issue is deeper than just buying a striker, n Saturday against Watford you could have borrowed just about any Premier League forward you would care to name and he would have struggled to get a chance on target let alone a goal.

The real issue is creating not finishing, in the previous game against Huddersfield we created a few chances late on, but they fell to the wrong men, the problem is creating chances for our strikers, if we do then we will start scoring again.

Look at Manolo Gabbiadini a man who is capable of 15 Premier League goals or more, he has barely had a sight of goal all season, certainly not in the last two games, likewise Charlie Austin a man who has scored 15 in a Premier League season, he is not seeing the ball in the positions he needs to either.

Shane Long is a man who got 10 goals two seasons ago, only one less than either Mane or Pelle and in less games than either, he has created a few chances as he did against Huddersfield, but he has not been on the end of enough.

The strike force we have is more than capable of scoring goals if they get the chances, but the problem is they are not getting those chances.

On Saturday Mauricio Pellegrino took a brave decision, he left out Mario Lemina, the reason he did this was that he felt that against Watford he did not need two holding midfielders, that one would be sufficient and that he could replace Lemina with a more attacking player.

For that he must be applauded, but the truth is it did not work, in fact it upset the rythym of the team meaning we looked disjointed and could not find any real attacking momentum, dropping Lemina wasn't a mistake as such, indeed Watford rarely caused us any problems when they attacked and it would have been a 0-0 draw if their two speculative long range efforts hadn't flown in, but thats how it goes when your luck is out.

Pellegrino is not short of creative players either, Redmond and Tadic can both create and score and the two full backs are capable of getting forward, but on Saturday we did not have the balance right, but that does not mean we never will.

The manager has to get back to the basics, he needs to set the side out in a way that they know how to play, when Puel did it last season we got goals and we got results, but too often he tried to be too clever and that got the fans on his back.

His replacement needs to look back to last season and learn from it, start off with a solid back four, the solid holding two and then make sure you have room to get people down the line to get the ball in the box to create chances.

So far this season Gabbiadini has become too isolated, we cant get the ball to him in the right positions and no one is backing him up to keep the ball in the danger areas, we have to consider how we can sort this out, in some games this could mean a second striker ie Charlie Austin, indeed if we are playing a lone striker up front then perhaps Austin is a better bet than Gabbiadini, he has more physical presence.

But one fact that can't be changed is that we cannot do anything else till January other than use the players we have at the moment, we have to rely on the manager to deal with the situation and overcome it, the same people who were moaning about Pellegrino on Saturday were the same ones who were moaning about Koeman two years ago when our start was identical from the first four games, ie 1 win, 2 draws and a defeat, the only difference then was it took us 4 games to win and then we scored 3 against Norwich.

Koeman got more leeway because he had done so well the previous season, we have to give Pellegrino that leeway now.

That means backing him and not deciding after only four games that he is not the man for the job, that happened to Claude Puel and it did not help our season one iota.

I want Saints to succeed, I am not blind to the results, however we need to look at the root cause of why we are not scoring and not just blame it on our failure to sign another striker in the summer.

Hopefully Mauricio Pellegrino can get to the bottom of it and get us back to the form that this squad is capable of.

Photo: Action Images

pete_boggs added 10:50 - Sep 11 Why has Reed left us with a short squad again. If I had a quid for every time I've said we don't have enough quality AM's I'd be well off. If we are 15+ by December Reed will do his usual knee jerk reaction to complaints and get in a inferior over-priced out of contract AM when it's too late.
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Number_58 added 10:58 - Sep 11 Ah, so our lack of goals isn't down to Yoshida and Stephens after all then...
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SalisburySaint added 11:07 - Sep 11 Your headline is spot on we are simply not making the opportunites we need to on Saturday the back fine was fine but the rest were really poor, he needs to sort out who he wants in midfield and stick with it, Lemina and Romeu are shoein's for me (cannt understand why lemina was left on bench, it was obvious to most at game he should have come on at half time, not just Tadic), then work out which 4 out of Gabbadini, Long, Austin, Redmond, Tadic, JWP, Davis, Boufal are best suited to try and score some goals

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helpineedsomebody added 11:21 - Sep 11 ASK REED/ BLACK/ MP ITS THERE PLAYING SYSTEM it would be very interesting to see what the GPS read outs are compared to koemans team stats dont lie. and has the new owner cracked the whip allreidy they all may have to do as they are told now .
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LordDZLucan added 11:28 - Sep 11 No, the real issue is that the team that Pellegrino put out on Saturday lacked physicality, pace and height. You can't play Boufal, Redmond, Davis and Ward-Prowse all at the same time in the same team. Now I would agree that there aren't too many players in reserve that have the attributes I've mentioned but as minimum we need to start Long, Austin & Lemina against Palace. Also, add in van Dijk in a couple of weeks time and we might have a team that is a bit more competitive.

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dovif added 12:18 - Sep 11 Van dijk is not going to score 2 or 3 for us. The problem is we have the worst midfield in the league and it is not close. We need to bring in 2 or 3 midfielder and strikers to have a competitive side
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aceofthebase added 12:28 - Sep 11 Lacking physicality, pace and height has been an ongoing problem for two years. Surely all management can see this. A couple of burly opposition midfield or attacking players just brush our players aside or stamp out any of our attacks. It seems that omitting Lemina was a huge mistake or bad gamble by our manager. We cannot expect Gabbi to play on his own upfield, that is not his game unless we have some decent wingers, halfbacks or, whatever you call them these days, to place the ball at his feet. If we tackle(sic) our weak midfield the forwards will start scoring goals plus of course our manager must be far more entertaining to satisfy the anti-Puel mob. Remember they believe a jokey personna by the manager means goals.

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dirk_doone added 12:42 - Sep 11 Are you saying Les Reed doesn't know what he's talking about??? If so, i tend to agree with you. so perhaps that's where our real problem lies. Les Reed: 'Southampton have best pool of midfielders in Premier League' Southampton executive director of football Les Reed has claimed that the club boasts the best array of midfield options in the Premier League. The Saints have sold the likes of Victor Wanyama, Sadio Mane and Graziano Pelle already this summer, but have brought in midfield replacements in the shape of Nathan Redmond and Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg. "We now have the perfect blend of positional strength, experience and dynamic youth in our midfield slots. There will be healthy competition, but also the required depth and robustness for our challenge in the Europa League. I believe as a group we probably have a choice from the best pool of midfield options in the Premier League." Les Reed.

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Wembley76 added 12:52 - Sep 11 Tactically, the team need to get MORE players AHEAD OF THE BALL when we are on the front foot & around the final third of the park. There is an 'inherent' lack of 'gambling' when in and around the opposition penalty box by any of our players who should be 'bustin' a gut' to support our lone striker.
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redandwhitedee added 12:59 - Sep 11 we had something like 29 shots in the Swansea game and you think the problem is more about creation than scoring ??
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dirk_doone added 13:03 - Sep 11 Yet, surprisingly, our goal drought seems to coincide with the period since Les sold our 2 top goal scorers, Mane and Pelle, in the same summer and replaced them both with Nathan Redmond. Before that, we were scoring goals for fun.
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WanderingSaint added 13:05 - Sep 11 But we created loads of chances last season but didn't score, and you along with most wanted Puel sacked. You're just reaping your reward now.
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bstokesaint added 13:09 - Sep 11 We missed a trick by not signing a creative midfielder (who could unlock defences) in the window. Manolo is wasted on us. And I don't have the faith in our other strikers either. Had we bought someone like Benteke or Hernandez I'd feel we had more chance of scoring something from nothing. And at least with someone like Benteke you'd feel we'd replaced Pelle adequately and possessed a threat with set pieces. You can't really argue with JWP's ability to put in a cross. His shooting directly at goal is generally pretty poor (he's no Le Tiss or Lambo), but his crossing is decent enough. However who in a Saints' shirt, apart from maybe Yoshida or VVD is going to get on the end of one of those? I saw a stat earlier to say we have had 11 shots on goal this season, of which two were pens. That's appalling. How can we expect to win anything with that stat? I'll back Pellegrino, as I did with Puel (who incidentally I think would be doing much better now in his second season), but he really needs to earn his crust now. He is supposed to be a master of formations, so now is the time more than ever he needs to adopt one that works. We're stuck with the personnel we have until January so it'll be interesting to see how he does this. Personally, I'm at a loss to fathom it out.

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landerwal added 13:09 - Sep 11 Against Watford we barely won the ball in the air which is the root of the problem that has been with us since Pelle left. The defence is fine, the strikers are fine. The midfield lacks (bar Romeau) any kind of strength. We need a centre forward who can win headers, hold the ball up, pass it well and score goals. Step forward Mr Van Digk. . We don't now need you in defence so get back in our good books by getting Saints scoring again. Even if you move on it will at least show we need a centre forward who wins the ball in the air, can hold it up for the midfielders to run on to etc etc.

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bstokesaint added 13:10 - Sep 11 To clarify that's 11 shots on target.
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saintstowin added 13:15 - Sep 11 My son's first three Saints games, 1-3 WHU, 0-0 Hull, and that match on Saturday. He's hanging in there ofcourse but it's such a terrible spectacle at the moment. As to the problem/solution. We've all seen worse Saints teams but I've not seen such a gap between the lone striker and midfield in a long time, and this seems to be the case with whoever plays in midfield. It was more than annoying not to leave Gabbi on with Long, nothing else was working so why not try this. Towards the end of the 1st half Gabbi came back to the edge of our box just to chest the ball he was so uninvolved. Our attacking midfielders are all very similar including none of them doing much without the ball, such as Wembley 76's point about being ahead of it. They want it to feet and through current lack of confidence don't do much when they receive it. The lack of goals is now over a decent enough amount of games to call it a worrying pattern which requires some tactical adaptation, that's for sure.

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SaintPaulVW added 13:41 - Sep 11 It's been fairly apparent that the attacking side of our game has been all at sea for the last year. Unless we have a striker in absolute peak form we struggle to get goals. I agree that this is down to the lack of link up between midfield and attack. To my mind this is down to several reasons, Strikers dropping too deep, midfielders shooting on sight and a failure of recruitment in that players just have not adapted to the premier league as quick as was hoped (JWP, Clasie, Hjobjerg and Boufal spring to mind) This has never been down to a poor central defensive pairing diluting our attacking efforts and it is surprising it wasn't addressed in the transfer window. Unfortunately we are where we are now. Mo Pe needs to earn his money now. Fingers crossed he can get it sorted.

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halftimeorange added 14:19 - Sep 11 I see that Palace have disposed of De Boer. No surprise there but, if their players rise to the occasion next weekend in order to impress Roy Hodgson, and we get turned over with a sound beating from a currently rampant Man U also on the cards, I could see Pellegrino following shortly thereafter. These days any manager can't afford to flirt with relegation and won't be given much leeway to improve results. It might not be Pellegrino's fault that he has a squad not of his own making (any more than it was Puell's) but, the manager is paid to get results that keeps the players, fans and board happy. There is absolutely no sign of that at Saints at the moment so he won't be given too long.

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BoondockSaint added 14:27 - Sep 11 Nick, didn't you hear the warning? "The Brown Acid is Bad!" The Swansea game? Remember? 28 shots? Only 2 on target? Neither goes in? Then yesterday 9 shots, only 1 on target-in added time!!?? I never think we are going to score when we get corners or free kicks-and this is going back to last year. This is training ground stuff and who is the common denominator? Eric Black, who brings the same, couldn't -care-less , I'm-not-getting-fired-no-matter-how-bad -the-team-performs, loser mentality to the training ground as Les Reed brings to the front office. Agree with posters mentioning our lack of muscle. This has been another issue besides not buying proper scorers (Gabbiadini excepted). Our middle is as small and weak as Arsenal's always is. No one is afraid off coming through our middle and opposition just brush our little players aside. The Saints are getting sand kicked in their faces every week. Either bring in some size or get those pencil necks into the gym!

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steve73 added 14:44 - Sep 11 Not being able to create chances is a far bigger problem than just having a misfiring striker. Far too early to judge the manager but we can judge the players, most have been here a while. I thought the idea of all the selling was to reinvest and make us stronger but we look far weaker than we did 2 years ago. Not all signings are going to be successful, obviously, but just hoping our attacking midfield options were going to come good was a bit naive. Redmond has never been good enough, Tadic only does it in bursts and Boufal is....enigmatic. JWP, I'm still waiting and hoping on him. Davis has been my favourite player of recent years but not a game changer, not to mention his advancing years. Just playing with 2 up wont guarantee goals either. I don't have a solution but I don't really think there is one with this lot, not until January anyway. When I find myself hoping that Long gets a start it says it all. Harsh on the player but if he's our best option then we don't have a lot. Palace already feeling like a massive game!

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SanMarco added 15:07 - Sep 11 Neil Young and now Woodstock Boondock - are you a hippy? I think (Swansea game notwithstanding) that Nick is right in his conclusion that it is chance creation that is our major problem. His refusal to accept that Mane and Pelle were useful players and have not been adequately replaced shows that he had diagnosed the problem but not the solution. Those players weren't always great, and indeed Pelle was effective rather than an all time great, but they were a big part of what made us good, when we were good under Koeman. Imagine if Mane's purple patch in the last 9 games had been repeated last season - we may well have caught Everton... The club clearly feels/desperately hopes that JWP, Redmond, Boufal and Tadic are somehow going to get us moving forward with authority and speed, as we did at our best under Koeman. I believe they may well be wrong in this hope. If so then MP has to come up with a workable solution to use what he has at his disposal. I would like to see more of Long as an attacking midfielder and less of Tadic and JWP as they are not contributing. I have a horrible feeling that Boufal is turning into another Gaston, Osvaldo type 'marquee' failure (these often seem to be signings to placate the fans). Redmond will continue to divide opinion but he hasn't nearly enough yet. I believe that Austin and Gabbi CAN be trusted to knock them in - we need to provide them with the chances - that would also be helped by the full-backs getting their acts together.....

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OhBlox added 15:57 - Sep 11 I agree with LordDZLucan, not for the first time we were outmuscled by Watford and we completely lost the midfield battle which is predominately what starved Gabbi of service when he was the lone striker, mostly being forced to feed off long ball scraps without any support. Taking off JWP and replacing him with Tadic at half time seemed like the biggest missed opportunity for me, I would have expected the change to be to introduce Lemina to bolster the midfield. In addition if MP is going to switch from 1 to 2 up front then I would like to see Long introduced to stretch the game and support Gabbi for at least a period of time before swapping out Gabbi.

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LondonSaint added 15:58 - Sep 11 I don't agree. I think the general consensus is that our is midfield is our biggest weakness - too slow to move the ball, not creative enough, not adventurous enough, too lightweight, not enough different options (stockpiling too many similar players), and very little attempt to change it through personnel changes or tactics. I actually think most of those things can be addressed in the short-term by strong leadership and good coaching. Increase confidence, encourage more risk-taking in positions and play, and move the ball faster to create more unpredictable situations that our forwards are good enough to put away.

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LondonSaint added 16:00 - Sep 11 ^^ I don't agree that there is a populist opinion about our forwards/signing a striker. I happen to agree with what you say about our midfield :)
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skiptonsaint added 16:24 - Sep 11 Feel we have to give Boufal a run now. At least we can then make a proper decision on signing a attacking midfielder in jan if we can find one with possible money from Boufal or Tadic back in the Pot or at least on loan freeing up a space. But who could we get in Jan that would honestly improve us ? It will cost us a fair chunk I suspect
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