Southampton have had just 24 yellow cards in 15 Premier League games played so far, with Mohammed Salisu leading the way with 4, but does this relatively low figure highlight why Saints sit in the bottom 3.
The good news on this stat is that when Premier League football returns on Boxing Day, Saints will have no players missing through suspension, the rule is that if a player hits the 5 card mark in the first 19 games of the season then he will receive a 1 game ban.
Mohammed Salisu is the only player nearing that figure with 4 to his name and so he will be available for the game against Brighton, but will be walking a tightrope in the subsequent 4 games after the restart.
Next up is a plethora of 7 players on 2 cards who should get through, then 6 on a single caution who would need to get booked in every game to get suspended.
But does this relatively low figure highlight why Saints have not fared well in these first 15 games, have we not been nasty enough, have we not got our foot in when it has been needed in the build up to conceding goals ?
It perhaps suggests that we have lacked that passion, indeed aggression needed to win tackles and in doing so prevent situations building that lead to goals.
If you look at the list, of those on 2 bookings, it is interesting to note Kyle Walker Peters, Maitland-Niles, Romeo Lavia Stuart Armstrong & Lynaco are there, the latter four have not started many League games this season and KWP has missed the last few, it seems that these players are the ones that get stuck in for the cause.
Does that highlight something about where we are going wrong ? I would say it does, the fact that we have not had a single red card also suggests that we have played too nice.
I am not suggesting that we suddenly turn into the Ale House Brawler team as Saints were once described by Bill Shankly or even the physical sides that Ian Branfoot put out, but we need that aggression back in our game, the willingness to work hard and not give the opposition time on the ball, when teams do that, they tend to get more yellow cards as they make more tackles and by definition will mistime a few in doing so and pick up the odd booking here and there, but we just haven't been doing that.
Nathan Jones has promised his teams will play with that aggression & passion, so it bodes well for the remainder of the season and hopefully we will see his sides go out there with flare but also with that motivation that has been lacking.