Saints go into the game against West Ham United determined not to make it 7 consecutive Premier League home games without scoring a goal.

Personally I don't consider that Saints have gone 6 straight home games ithout scoring as something that should be burdened on Mauricio Pellegrino, last season the supporters were placing the blame on the team not scoring firmly at the door of Claude Puel and demanding that he be sacked, that having taken place it is no use continually harping on about what happened last season, that is in the past and should be forgotten.

All that matter is now and the fact was that although Saints failed to score against Swansea, the performance was totally different to the final 5 home games under Puel last season, there was a freshness and vibrancy in Saturday's performance that was largely missing four months ago.

Mauricio Pellegrino needs to be judged on what he does this season and this was his first game in charge.

The game against Swansea was pretty much par for the course for a Saints opening day game, we haven't won a Premier League opening day game at home ever, indeed our last top flight home win on the opening day came in 1988, in fact since then we have only won 1 first day game in Southampton once, that was against Leeds in the Championship in 2011 and add to that 2 away, Coventry in 1999 and West Brom in 2013 that makes only 3 opening day wins in 29 attempts.

So a slow start for Saints has become almost traditional whatever division we are in.

But having said all this it was clear on Saturday that the lack of goals was playing on the players minds in the Swansea game, we created a plethora of chances yet we snatched at too many of them, we were almost too desperate to score and the longer the game went on you could see it was weighing heavily.

It is now at the stage where we need a goal from anywhere, it doesn't matter how it goes in, it just needs to go in, usually we say these things about strikers, they all have droughts and sometimes something just goes for them and suddenly they are scoring for fun again, our problem at the moment is it is not one individual striker it is the whole team.

It can be likened to trying to get tomato ketchup from a sauce bottle, you keep banging on the bottom of the bottle and nothing comes out, but if you keep banging then eventually something comes out and that is usually followed by a deluge, we just have to keep banging away and it wil come.

The good news is that we have the players in the squad who can all score goals and they score them from different positions, Manolo Gabbiadini is a fox in the box, he can get into positions and stab the ball home, Charlie Austin is a more physical player but has the same eye for a goal, Dusan Tadic is good for a few during the season and Sofiane Boufal can pull out the spectacular from time to time, add to them Nathan Redmond and Shane Long and we do not have a shortage of players who can score goals, we just have a problem we need to solve.

Once we score that first goal I'm sure that more will come, this problem is not a throwback to last season, we are set up in a totally different way under Pellegrino, we are set up to attack and in the final days of Puel that was not the case, we were set up to sit back and protect a weak central defence, the Frenchman had to stop the goals against us column spiralling and did so, but that came at the expense of keeping men behind the ball and not going forward, its different under Pellegrino.

So all we are saying is give us a goal ! but we need to be behind the team and encourage them to score, almost suck the ball into the net, what we don't need to do is increase the pressure on them by getting on their backs !

Photo: Action Images

steve73 added 11:00 - Aug 16 Stats like that shouldn't rollover from one season to next. A clean slate. We played well but Swansea got what they came for. I think we'll put 3 or 4 past West Ham.
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SaintPaulVW added 11:14 - Aug 16 Definitely had a far better style going forward on Saturday. Just need that bit of composure. Still concerns me slightly that Gabbiadini and Austen were too involved in the link up play. To my mind they are there to convert chances not look to provide assists. WH will be a bit more of a threat going forwards so it's vital that we convert what we get. Looking forward to it.

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sambat added 11:17 - Aug 16 My money is on Yoshi breaking the drought....
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SonicBoom added 11:36 - Aug 16 Hmm well you encourage us to forget last season Nick, then say that it's obvious it was weighing on the players so they obviously haven't forgotten it either. Ignoring the facts doesn't make them go away. I also don't agree that our lack of goals was blamed solely on Puel. I personally wanted him out for more reasons than just the lack of goals in the last 5 home games. In fact there was a lack of home games all season. The one thing I didn't blame Puel for was lack of finishing. If you make stacks of chances in a game, then the manager can do no more. The lack of goals was down to finishing and I expect Puel was as frustrated as the rest of us, and he knew that he would eventually carry the can for it. I would like to see Austin start. To me he's the best finisher we have. Gabbi started his time here well, but stopped scoring after a few games and hasn't managed one since then.

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Jesus_02 added 11:37 - Aug 16 I would have liked to have seem Sam Gallagher thrown on TBH. It just seems like that sort of situation where any amount of crafted ability isn't going to help maybe a bit of youthful enthusiasm (and probably a touch of luck) will instigate the inevitable deluge.
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A1079 added 12:44 - Aug 16 As usual, Sonicboom shows a balanced understanding of the issue. Few of us blamed Puel for the lack of scoring, it was wider than that - style of football, failure to play players that had the previous game played well, etc, etc. As regards history - you are right, last year, is last year and no fan would judge our new manager based on last year or the first few results whatever they may be. As it happens, I personally enjoyed Saturdays game against Swansea. The football was easier on the eye, there was creation and we won the ball back when we lost it. But, the failure to score is an issue and whether Gabbiadini and Austin are being used as they should be, I do not know, but I still think and have all along, that in a striker position we are short of quality and I still think it is an area that we need further recruitment of. All strikers have lean spells, so when they do, you need an alternative - I am not sure we have one. I would not rely on Austin - it doesn't take much for him to be injured and out for a while. Failure to score goals could be our undoing if we do not overcome it as it means you are relying on the defence and keeper to go a whole game without making an error - we could have lost on Saturday to one moment when Abraham was left free. The talk and criticism would have then been levelled at the defence when in fact it is our failure up front that is proving or could prove costly. It is bewildering to me why scoring goals has become such an issue. It is almost alien to our SFC. I am not a coach though, so I cannot profess to know what to do to overcome it, but we need to.

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aceofthebase added 13:28 - Aug 16 If we don't score against WH just who do we blame. It's very interesting that bloggers are distancing themselves from blaming Puel for the lack of goals. Take a note how slow we are at building up attacks, very little has changed apart from the long aaaaaahs. Those early minutes against Swansea should give us a clue as how to score but pretty football outside the box is not the answer.

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helpineedsomebody added 14:09 - Aug 16 this week on westhams training pitch training consists of 2 dummies wondering out of position & westhams players putting forward passess through them & around them then you will all see why we need 2 high class centre halfs watch the game on saturday & see if im right if im wrong i will say sorry
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TimSaint added 14:14 - Aug 16 Yes last season is last season, but every fan and player is well aware of this unwanted stat and because of this, it affects play and the players. I'm sure the bubble will burst, but until it does, it will be very frustrating for all. Last season, I thought the goals away to Boro would change things at home, or perhaps those penalty chances that we subsequently missed. We are currently playing the same players, but expecting different results. Yes the style of play has changed this season, but until we mix it up a bit more and perhaps offer something a little different personnel wise, I can't help but think that we will continue to add to those awful stats of last season which included 2nd lowest home scorers, Most crosses into the box in league, Worst shots on target from shots taken ratio, worst conversion rate of chances created etc It is up to the manager to change this, so lets hope this starts on Saturday !!

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SanMarco added 14:43 - Aug 16 I expect if we lose 4-3 we will be nostalgic for the 0-0s. I have a feeling you are remembering Wet Spam's equalizer last season helpineedsomebody. That defence splitting pass that rolled at 2mph......
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REEDYREEDOREEDZ added 16:17 - Aug 16 Dusan Tadic needs to up his game when it comes to finishing! I had to laugh at the new 'Expected Goals' stat. http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/40699431 Last season he missed more easy chances than anyone else in the league! And he missed another one on Saturday against Swansea. No wonder he's called 'the assists king' cos he can't frickin score!
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redandwhitedee added 17:19 - Aug 16 Redmond will score 15 this season.
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luffy22 added 21:41 - Aug 16 Redmond won’t get 15, he’s not good enough,3 in the league and 2 in the cups perhaps. Assists 5 is my bet. But on a more positive note we need to get the bloke who sold t-shits outside the dell in the good old days back, I still have my ‘I was there when Franny scored’ t-shirt somewhere. It’s needs to say ‘I was there when Southampton scored’ LOL, he will make a fortune! Might have to wait a few weeks yet though before he makes a sale.

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