Nathan Redmond has spoken about how if the team keep creating chances they will start to win games after statistics emerged that they are one of the Premier Leagues top creators but lowest scorers.
Saints are the third lowest scorers in the Premier league with only 6 goals from their opening 9 games after a reasonable tally in the opening 5 has now seen the last four games pass without a goal registered, however only the Man City, Liverpool, Chelsea and Spurs have had more shots on goal and Saints 125 attempts is only 1 behind Liverpool and Spurs so the chances are there they just aren't being taken.
This was again the case at Bournemouth where Saints had several good attempts to break the goalless run not least Manolo Gabbiadni's last second header that went just over, indeed in the previous game at home to Chelsea Saints had several good chances, some saved well by the keeper and others where the target wasn't hit.
Of those 25 chances 40 have been on target and we have hit the woodwork 3 times and we have created 10 big chances so why aren't we scoring.
Part of it is confidence. the longer a run without goals goes on both individually and as a team it becomes a millstone round the neck, the harder you try the more it doesn't go in, then suddenly it clicks and the goals flow.
Those who claimed last season that we were not attacking or didn't entertain can't level that accusation this season and Danny Ings has made a difference not only has he had the most shots with 25 but the most goals with 3, he needs others chipping in though.
The problem is that we have not had a settled attack, Charlie Austin, Manolo Gabbiadini and Shane Long all have their good points despite what some would tell you, but they aren't contributing goals and that has to change.
On Saturday Gabbiadini's header initially looked like a bad miss, but the Italian was put off by the keeper who flapped and missed, likewise Charlie Austin when he was through, the keeper closed hm down quickly and forced him wide in the first half, perhaps the best chance fell to Stuart Armstrong, Shane Long did very well to get up and nod the ball down into Armstrong's path, from six yards he looked odds on to score, but his balance was all wrong and he snatched at it when he really should have scored. That is the story of our season.
Nathan Redmond has not got the credit he deserves, there are still those who slag him off as a matter of routine, but haven't really looked at what he has contributed to the cause.
He has had 16 of those 125 shots and although he hasn't scored he has hit the woodwork, but it is really his work outside the area running at defences that has show much improvement, he seems to have lost the fear that he had last season when the crowd were on his back every game, he has tried to wipe the slate clean and so should some of our supporters and base him on this season not last.
His work in the final minute at Bournemouth when he took on his man cut back and then put in a great cross that teased the keeper off his line was typical, you can't ask more from a winger than a cross like that, sadly he is not seeing them put away.
Redmond has spoken of how if we keep creating chances then the goals will come.
"I’m just trying to create as many chances for the team as I can to ensure that we try and win some games. The more chances that we create, the more chances we have of scoring.
"My job as a winger is to try and participate in as many goals as I can. If that’s through goals or assists, then that’s my job.”
Redmond has created 12 chances for the team this season, 2 of them as in Gabbiadini's header classed as big ones but is yet to register an assist, but he sees it as a team effort not just individual, but he recognises that he had to put in the work to convince both the manager and the fans that he was worth a place.
He now seems to have convinced Mark Hughes who has started him in every Premier league game, now it's just the fans who need convincing.
"I said last year that I wouldn’t care if I scored another goal as long as we stayed up, retaining our Premier League status was more than enough for me,” Redmond added.
"But I’ve had a summer away working on a few things like my body and I’ve come back feeling more refreshed.
"I’ve stopped caring about things that don’t necessarily need caring about too much.”
"I was left out of the squad a lot last year and I think there were one or two games I wasn’t in the squad when the gaffer came in.
"I think he realised I wasn’t in a great moment. But I had a conversation with him just before I came back - after he was appointed - and I’ve been continuously talking to him every day to get a feel of what he wants from me.
"It’s been a positive start to the season for me but at the end of the day there is a lot of work that needs to be done as it’s the team that matters.”
Redmond is right, Saints do have a lot of work to do, however it is not as much as some would have you believe, at the back on Saturday things were tightened up against a Bournemouth side who themselves are one of the Premier Leagues top scorers this season due to their home goals tally and restricted the hosts to just one real chance the Ake header.
Up front we worked hard and created four good chances, if we can keep doing the right things as we did against The Cherries then the season will start to improve.
On Saturday against Newcastle the team need to take renewed confidence into this game, but so do the Saints supporters, some need to see what a good result it was at the Vitality Stadium and that we need to and can build on it.