In the first half of the season Joe Aribo looked like he was going to have a great season for Southampton after signing from Glasgow Rangers for an initial fee of £6 million, but under Nathan Jones he seems to be totally out of favour.

Saints fans liked the look of Joe Aribo when he first arrived, he buzzed around and scored 2 goals in his opening 8 Premier League games, but then the form of the team started to drop and Aribo's contributions were a little less.

For Ralph Hasenhuttl's last game against Newcastle he was a 64th minute sub, coming on with the score at 3-0 and the game over.

Under Nathan Jones he has been mainly on the bench, getting only 8 minutes in the new managers first game up at Anfield and since then his game time has been limited with his only start in the Premier League under Jones in 6 games coming at Fulham.

For the last two Premier League games he has been an unused sub, despite the fact that we were chasing a 1-0 deficit against Villa and needed to get an equaliser, Aribo remained on the bench and saw the likes of full back Romain Perraud used as a wingback rather than someone more suited to creating and scoring chances as himself.

Last night against Newcastle he might have hoped to get a chance, but he found himself not even in the matchday squad, with the arrival of Orsic and Charly Alcatraz he seems to have dropped well down the pecking order, so much so that there isn't room for him on the bench now with other attacking options such as Edozie, Elyounoussi,, Djenepo etc all jumping ahead of him.

In fairness when he has played he has not looked the player he was in the first few months of the season, so what has gone wrong.

Whilst it is easy to pinpoint that he does not seem to suit what Nathan Jones wants in his squad, indeed Jones himself has said that Arbo is a "victim of circumstance" more than anything else, his form had dropped as mentioned in the later days of Ralph.

But you do have to ask the question why with experience needed in what is going to be a tough few months, why he has not been utilised much under Jones.

Our issues are all about "End Product" or rather the lack of it and Aribo has shown in the past that he has it, whereas others on the bench last night against Newcastle or in the starting line up for that matter have produced less this season than Aribo in the Prmeier League.

Rumours abound that Aribo could be making a quick exit from the club in this transfer window, either permanently or out on loan, the latter would be silly, truth is you never know when you might need him,

But you get the feeling that Nathan Jones has already made his mind up about Aribo and the player himself is well aware of that and is demotivated knowing his chances will be limited.

So is Aribo's Southampton career going to be over almost before it has truly started or will he go on to show the manager he is wrong and perhaps play a key role in the coming months.

Photo: Action Images

ItchenNorth added 14:30 - Jan 25 Good on the ball, but too light weight in any physical battle. At times he's not looked interested in wining the ball (back) and he is a passenger when he needs to protect the full back / wing back. Opposition players just run past him. I like him, but he needs to really step up to Premier League levels.
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AmericanSaint added 14:40 - Jan 25 Agree Itchen, he seem too passive. He can hold the ball well but once he loses it, he gives up quickly and is not defensive minded at all. To me, the PL is too fast for him and he becomes a bystander in the game too many times.
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A1079 added 14:43 - Jan 25 Interesting article. I appreciate that this is not necessarily a barometer but I work (albeit remote) with 2 people from Glasgow who are Rangers season ticket holders. When he was leaving for Saints they said Rangers fans were bitterly disappointed because they felt his skill, ability etc would often make him a game changer in big games. However, they did also say that he could sometimes pick and choose when he wanted to play well or be involved and could sometimes disappear in matches but overall they felt that we had done well to acquire him. I realise that there is a bit of a gulf between the Scottish Premier League and ours but I was expecting Aribo to make an impact and initially I thought he would but quite why he hasn't and why he is not being picked is somewhat strange - my Rangers colleagues cannot believe how he has disappeared off the radar. The question I suppose is, is he a player that is not as good as we hoped and cannot cut it at this level (though we have a number of those and some seem to get picked every game virtually - Diallo comes to mind) or is he a player that has a lot of talent and we have not given a fair chance or providing the right coaching and motivation? I would like to see more of him before deciding on his fate - whereas Diallo (though he was not too bad last night for the most part - but nothing special) I would have dropped long ago.

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Boris1977 added 15:34 - Jan 25 He'd probably have flourished in a team playing with confidence but like others in the squad the issues with the management (odd selections) and board (odd recruitment) have impacted negatively. Stuart Armstrong is a great example of a seemingly great attacking midfielder before he was Ralphed. The singularly improvement that Jones has over Ralph is that lose by the odd goal now rather more and as we are unlikely to sign a striker we are a team heading for relegation. Not looking forward to Saturday. Can see us getting knocked out in a dull match but nothing we can do but support the club for 90 minutes and manage the disappointment.

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halftimeorange added 16:34 - Jan 25 My view is that NJ wants players who run and run and overlooks the natural skill level as he perceives that as something we can't accommodate in our position. That's why we see Diallo, Edosie and Adam Armstrong (for example) regularly sprinting hither and thither but, with little end product. We don't have an MLT or, for that matter, a Lallana and, if we did, I doubt either, just like Joe would get in the team. In this respect, NJ might be right - better to have huff, puff and hope for 90 minutes than flashy silky skills and hope every so often.

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SaintPaulVW added 11:42 - Jan 26 He looked great earlier in the season with the ball at his feet. Interesting comments from the Rangers fans relayed by A1079. I suspect it's a case of play NJ's way or you don't play. That possibly applies to Stu A too. If so, hopefully both Joe and Stu will adapt as they are both exciting players to watch.
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AmericanSaint added 00:53 - Jan 27 To Dell1964 - why dont you provide an opinion instead of always marking a negative on others. You never provide your words of wisdom, but just sit there as a keyboard warrior clicking "down" on most people's posts.
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TeamCortese added 08:57 - Jan 27 Being frank, Joe Aribo's sudden loss of minutes is symptomatic of NJ's management style and more specifically his lacking in understanding football. The truth is we don't have the necessarily quality on the pitch to win matches at this level. It's not enough to be physically fit to win at the highest level. YOU HAVE TO BE ABLE TO PLAY FOOTBALL! Otherwise what is the point of watching the sport as a spectator. The late great Pele once said, "The English try to outrun the ball, The Brazilians play with it". Ultimately, if football was all about athleticism then we'd all have better chances on becoming professionals. No one in their right mind would compare to David Batty to Dennis Bergkamp simply because the former was not as effective as the latter. Dennis Bergkamp never struck me as someone who ran more than David Batty and unlike Le God he played at the highest level. The same could be said for other great players like Zidane, Ronaldinho, Messi, etc. The great managers ensured players played to their strengths and people knew their roles. I definitely don't get that vibe from NJ. With our team (attacking wise) Aribo, Armstrong, and to a lesser degree Djenepo are our most creative outlets. How I wish we have a manager that actually understands football. Only Poch and Koeman really knew what I'm talking about at the highest level.

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underweststand added 11:36 - Jan 27 Some may complain that he didn't get a chance, or perhaps didn't take the chances when he got them. He's had 14 starts and 8 sub. apps. and managed one goal, but has made no major contributions to brag about since then. Either he doesn't fit the GJ formation and simply doesn't put in a shift, OR ...he was (yet another) chance signing who just isn't upto the Prem. standard. A loan away at a lower level might revive him, or a cheap sale away somewhere PDQ....and maybe even a move back to Scotland ?

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TeamCortese added 23:10 - Jan 27 underweststand: you're chatting nonsense about him not being up to the level. Only JWP and Che have scored more goals than him (with more appearances). He was Ranger's most creative player and helped them reach the Europa League Final in which he scored. He's also represented Nigeria and scored against opposition like Brazil. How you've come to the conclusion that he's not good enough beggars belief especially when you see players like Moi getting the nod ahead of him. That's why this article exist in the first place! You don't become a bad player overnight. We also have to contextualise this is his first season playing in the EPL. Listen, this is going to be a tough relegation battle. We need all the quality we can get at the moment.

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