Saints supporters who judge Graziano Pelle on whether he is scoring or not are not taking into account his changing role within the side.
There are some Saints supporters who are starting to get on the back of Graziano Pelle, in their eyes his lack of goals since Xmas is a sign that he is a flash in the pan and not much of a player.
However they could not be further from the truth and Pelle is an even more crucial part of the way Saints play than he was in the first half of the season.
In that first half, Saints played differently from the way they do now, back then it was very much about using wide men and Pelle was in the vanguard of the side, his job was more of a traditional centre forward to get on the end of crosses and score goals, this he did very well, however there was one drawback in the fact that Saints did not really have any genuine wingers, Mane was struggling in that position and Dusan Tadic although playing well and creating could not be described as a flying winger, likewise Shane Long, he is adaptable but again not really a true winger.
Ronald Koeman was aware of this and as we struggled in December he started to revamp the side using Mane in a more free role and looking to use Pelle a lot deeper than before.
This worked and worked well, rather than bombing into the box and getting on the end of crosses Pelle's role now is more about linking up play and bringing others into the action rather than just coring goals.
A good example of the way Saints look to play now was illustrated by the first goal at Newcastle, the ball was played to Pelle who came to meet it and chested it down to the central midfield, from there it was a quick through ball to utilise the pace of Elia who ra through and scored.
Now Pelle would not register an assist on this, but he was pivotal in that goal being scored, his job now is about winning the ball deep and laying it off and he is playing this role well.
The problem is that some supporters only view his form by whether he is scoring goals or not and although it would be nice if he had notched a goal or two in many respects this is no longer his primary job in the team.
Of course we do need to change from time to time and if there has been a problem in recent weeks its been that we havent been able to change, but this is more down to what we have available than any other reason, with Shane Long injured and Mane away in the African Cup Of Nations we have been short on options.
Hopefully with Mane back and Long well on the road to recovery this will change because there is undoubtably a need for Pelle to change his role from provider to scorer as was shown against West Ham and Swansea were both of those teams sat deep and didnt give us any room to use our pace, on these occasions we need a little more guile, the return of Long and perhaps the arrival of Djuricic will hopefully provide that.
The style of Saints has evolved over the course of the season and we are a lot more about playing to a system now rather than attack as the first form of defence as we were earlier in the season, this has worked well in the last two months since we changed our style and in many respects reminds me of the side who finished second in 83/84 in we are a lot more tight and clinical these days.
So the message is simple, Graziano Pelle is still playing well, don't judge him on goals scored but on what he brings to the team overall, he is vital to our style of play.