After the woeful performance up at Blackburn Rovers, Southampton manager Russell Martin has launched a passionate defence of his tactics and of Jack Stephen's, but most Saints supporters at the game will not recognise the game he is describing.

The Daily Echo spoke to Russell Martin after the draw with Blackburn Rovers on Saturday and to be quite blunt, I am very worried about what our manager had to say about the game.

The Southampton manager admitted that he will not change his tactic of playing Jack Stephens, unless he feels that the role is not working, also bizarrely claiming that some of the best teams in the World play with four centre backs in the team.

The manager had this to say:

“I get asked about Jack’s position and why we are doing it. I spoke to a Sky Sports pundit who thought Jack was incredible on Monday and today. I think the same.

“I’ve watched some of the top teams in the world play with four centre-backs. It’s not a problem because those coaches are from abroad and have top players.

“For some reason when we do it, there is a big problem. Jack does it incredibly well. The understanding he and Flynn have is incredible.

“We didn’t do it at the start. We changed because it helped us a lot. We struggled to penetrate the middle of the field. When he went in there we did that.

“He really helps because he always arrives wanting the ball. I hope that by the end of the season, he will be appreciated for what he is, instead of looking at him as a centre-half who isn’t playing there."

He continued: "He is more than that. We are so fast in this country to pigeonhole players from the age of six or seven because of their size and profile and they end up playing there for life.

“He’s an incredible footballer and his mentality is fantastic. I don’t see it as a problem, nor is the formation or how we start the game.

“Some of the build-up today was brilliant. That’s down to how brave Jack and Flynn are. That is why the team looks the way it does and we have 70 per cent possession.

“We aren’t going to change but we will try to keep getting better and finding a solution for the problems we might face.

"If Jack stops working for us in there and the lads don’t get enough from it then we will look at the next bit.”

I am extremely worried about these comments, opinion is clearly divided here, on one hand we have the manager and on the other 2,500 Saints supporters who booed their side off the pitch at the end.

I did not see some of that "Brilliant build up play" what I did see was a side that had 69% possession, but rarely created any chance of note, we only had 7 attempts on goal, even Blackburn who sat back had 11 chances and their 3 on target was one more than we managed.

What I saw was a slow laboured midfield, Jack Stephen's included that was laboured and was too scared to actually try and attack in case they got caught out.

Martin wonders why the fans are critical of playing 4 centre backs when some of the World's top teams do it without criticism ? The answer is simple they are doing it with some of the World's top centre backs, we are not.

I'm sorry but the Manager appears to have watched a completely different game from the one I watched and the mood in the away end was not one that seemed to be agreeing with the manager.

The proof of the pudding is in the eating and the fact that Russell Martin feels the need to defend his tactics and indeed an individual player shows that he knows there is a problem.

Indeed the game at Blackburn was the 6th consecutive League game that Captain Jack has been in the side, that 6 game run has seen only two wins and 2 draws and only 8 points gained, that is not good enough for a side looking for promotion, it is almost relegation form.

If you delve deeper into this run, 4 of those games were against teams in the bottom 3rd of the table, Middlesbrough were 10th and only Ipswich were a side vying for promotion.

But it gets worse when you consider that as bad as that 6 game run was, one of the two wins, the game against Sunderland saw Stephens hauled off after the Mackem's had come back from 2-0 down, the two goals that gave us victory in the last 13 minutes came with Jack off the pitch and one of the subs that came on Joe Rothwell scoring two.

Just when we needed a goal on Saturday, guess who came off and who stayed on the pitch, clue it was not the man with an eye for a goal loanee Rothwell.

So what the hell is happening with Russell Martin, I have stayed firmly behind him even during the early days when we were struggling for a while, I have praised him for the way he had built up a way of playing and in doing so lead us to the very gates of automatic promotion.

Yet then he tore it all apart with sheer bloody mindedness, of a determination to play one player.

The victim here is Jack Stephen's, indeed he and his team mates know this is not working, no one is picking on Jack Stephens as an individual, we just know his limitations and that he has been shoehorned into the side when there are better players.

I know I am going to sound like a broken record, but the truth is literally everyone can see where we are going wrong, it is not the individual performance of Jack Stephens, it is the disruption that it has done to our system.

Russell Martin says he is not going to change, but we are going to get better and find a solution, that is quite easy, play square pegs in square holes, do not send out the wrong message to not only the fan base, but more importantly your own team, players like Will SmallBone, Shea Charles and Joe Rothwell, must be frustrated when they find themselves either on the bench or taken off when a central defender is sitting in the midfield.

Get back to the basics and get the ball moving forward quickly as we did earlier in the season when yes we did play possession football, but we knew when to get it forward or out wide quickly and get the opposition on the back foot.

Worryingly the manager has now made a rod for his own back, how can he now drop Jack Stephens ? He has to stick with him at any cost and that cost could well be promotion through the play offs.

Photo: Action Images

felly1 added 11:24 - Apr 8 Well I'm sticking with the manager and his choice in player selection. If he sticks with Stephens or brings Manning back in it's fine by me. Stephens was MOTM against Boro and arguably one of our better players against Ipswich. No one played well against Blackburn. Manning if everyone remembers is prone to more errors leading to goals. He's a decent enough player on the ball and offers more natural width compared to Stephens, so I guess RM has to decide if he prefers (Stephens) more leadership and physicality and midfield link up play, or width to support the winger ( Manning). Manning is ok.. ish

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SaintPaulVW added 11:29 - Apr 8 Just hoping he's doing his usual 'I'm not changing' routine to the media and then clearly goes and changes things. It's a results business and ATM we aren't getting the results.
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Centurion added 11:30 - Apr 8 Oh Dear. Shit or bust for RM as far as this season is concerned.
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IanSouthstander added 11:53 - Apr 8 Lets get this right. 2500 fans didn't boo the team off saturday. There were boos, for sure, but these were the minority of supporters.
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Kingsland34 added 11:57 - Apr 8 It is rumoured that a body of sane Saints supporters (yes there are some) in collaboration with members of the Jack Stephens Appreciation Society (yes there are some) are to lodge a hate complaint with Hampshire Constabulary against harmful comments in certain Forums. On the basis that such comments are leading to trauma, mental health issues and widespread disillusionment. The fact that the perpetrating journalist is obviously suffering from rampant long term PFFS (Post Fonte Fixation Syndrome) is not seen as sufficient mitigation against the charge. Also, within the charge is an accusation of radicalisation towards a fundamentalist defence is defence strategy that undermines the traditional Saints values of defence as an afterthought. So intense is this doctrine that it does not even accept a clean sheet. Unfortunately, the Constabulary are only ingrained with dealing with Skate extremism and are untrained in dealing with the subtleties of Red on Red tensions. It is expected that they will deal with the complaint by referring to the Hamza Useless manual of woke mishaps.

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ItchenNorth added 13:52 - Apr 8 One thing is for sure, nothing is going to change now, the season is nearly over. So what's the point in moaning and being negative, it won't help the team. The best thing we can do is back the team and manager starting on Tuesday as we need to enter the Playoffs on a good run of form. Players feed of the atmosphere and therefore all we can do is create this for them. Anything else is selfish and will be counter productive. You have to put aside what you think and back the team, whoever is on the pitch.

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InTimeAddedOn added 14:29 - Apr 8 Kingsland 34, whilst I am grateful that I don’t suffer from PFFS, what I have found since CaptaIn Jack has been shoehorned back into the side is that as I await the team news to be announced before every game I am suffering from bad bouts of PMT (Pre Match Tension). When I saw the team sheet for the Blackburn game the symptoms got so bad I thought I’d have a stiff drink to prepare myself only to find the one bottle of spirits in the drinks cabinet was JACK Daniels 😀⚽️😀

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LordDZLucan added 14:44 - Apr 8 If we converted more of the gilt edged chances that come our way nobody would be concerned about our defence and Jack Stephen’s role in it. If you don’t take your chances you don’t win games. You’ve only got to look at Liverpool yesterday!
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SaintNick added 14:48 - Apr 8 Up to Saturday we were still scoring goals, 2 at Ipswich yet we still lost, that has been the case even in the two games we have won, the opposition still got two, we are the 3rd highest scoring team in the League, we create enough chances, we just let too many in
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Colburn added 16:55 - Apr 8 Another misrepresentation of the truth. You are now starting to tell lies in a vain attempt to back up your pathetic argument. Some idiots booed at the end at Blackburn. Indeed the way you attack Stephens and then try to claim it’s not a personal dig is merely an insult to the intelligence and the reader. Maybe the manager and players are aware of your cowardly attacks and have just had enough of this childish behaviour and so Martin has felt the need to put you in your place. After all, this has been going on for months. Stop behaving like a little boy and get behind the team. This is the toughest year in championship history and one of the toughest in the world, yet we went 22 games unbeaten and played the entire season without our star signing! I think the job Martin has done is incredible and he always defends and talks up his players like any solid manager should. It is not he who has persistently bleated after we’ve won 4-2 or 5-3, but the ungrateful minority who just aren’t satisfied with anything, who lack understanding of the game and what goes on behind the scenes. Fans who keep having a go at the club captain who, incidentally in my opinion, did have a top game at Blackburn, so I don’t know what game you saw.. your own one by the looks of it. Stop misrepresenting the opinions of others, you don’t speak for anyone but yourself and to try to destroy Jack as you have in the last few months then claim you’re not having a go at him is bordering on hilarious as it’s so obvious to everyone what you’re doing each week with your transparently veiled abuse of our club captain. It really is about time you just shut up about Jack, it’s tiresome and unpleasant to say the least. Go and buy a brain

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WestSussexSaint added 17:53 - Apr 8 If we were winning he could play JS as a striker and no one would care. At this stage of the season it comes down to results and they have not been good enough recently.
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IanRC added 17:57 - Apr 8 I saw a central defender playing in midfield who couldn’t switch play fast enough. Martin is fantasist.
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IanRC added 23:34 - Apr 8 Sounds like Martin might be off to Brighton
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Peterx added 08:49 - Apr 9 To me we were terrible going forward because we didn't play Che up front to start and Stu was not available. Some of the football we have played under Martin has been the best to watch since Koeman days, but he does unfortunately seem to suffer overthinking and trying random solutions to problems that don't exist.
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