What a difference a few days makes in the fast-paced world of football. One minute we are beating Chelsea in one of our best performances of the past couple of seasons and then we are losing to Wolverhampton Wanderers. Matt Watts give his view !
Coming off the back of an excellent 2-1 home win against Chelsea, there was every hope Saints would carry the momentum into Saturday’s trip to Wolverhampton Wanderers.
Unfortunately, as it so often the case with the inconsistency we see from Ralph Hasenhuttl’s side, that didn’t happen and we trudged home from Molineux suffering a 1-0 defeat.
My interpretation of the game was somewhat different to the Saints boss, whose disappointment at not taking something from the trip superseded any acknowledgment his selections could have altered the outcome.
I find it somewhat frustrating when he does this. No-one can argue that the club delivered a really positive transfer window with some shrewd and exciting business having secured a brilliant result against the Blues.
As I had pointed out in Watt View last week https://www.fansnetwork.co.uk/football/southampton/news/58407/watt-view-future-b prior to transfer deadline day, the future is bright but a deadly finisher would no doubt accelerate the pace of change.
We didn’t secure that proven goalscorer but the future remains extremely bright. I don’t want to dwell on the absence of a new striker as, like I also explained last week, we have decent attacking options in the squad and we have also made quality signings. Credit to all at the club for making that happen.
The key, however, is making sure we use them.
What was disappointing for me yet again was the absence of Stuart Armstrong and Sekou Mara from the starting line-up. This was something I mentioned in my previous column and Armstrong’s introduction on 56 minutes in particular made a significant difference to the shape and impact of the team.
Stuart offers more strength, direction and threat than his namesake Adam, although no-one disputes the former Blackburn man’s effort levels. Moi Elyounoussi, who has offered glimpses of his talent in spells so far, is also inconsistent and that was evident at Molineux.
Hasenhuttl left it until 83 minutes to bring Frenchman Mara into the fold which was far too late for me. He did bring ex-Manchester City youngster Samuel Edozie on 10 minutes earlier and he showed just why he is so highly rated, displaying pace, trickery and ability in abundance. Hugely exciting prospect - could we have seen him earlier?
Unfortunately, Joe Aribo - a fantastic signing and someone who will be key to success this season and into the future - made way for Edozie on 73 minutes. I can’t help but feel Stuart Armstrong and Mara either side of Aribo with Che Adams up top from the off would have changed the structure of the game for Saints.
Equally, having seen his first appearance, Edozie would have posed more of an attacking threat than Elyounoussi. Either way, he or Mara could have started to take the momentum from Tuesday’s win into the game - particularly when Hasenhuttl talks so regularly about the impact of the workload of the team and the need to freshen things up.
Instead, it was a case of Saints being fairly ineffective in the opening 45 minutes despite much of the play and finding themselves 1-0 down to a poor goal conceded from a failed attack. It could have been different and it should have been after Tuesday’s performance and against what was a fairly weak Wolves team.
In Hasenhuttl’s defence, the one issue he was unable to address was that of the absence of Romeo Lavia with a hamstring injury. The 18-year-old has been a revelation so far this season, topped off by his stunning strike against Chelsea. Having seen Oriol Romeu leave for La Liga outfit Girona, missing both of them was a problem.
When asked if he was disappointed with the first half, Hasenhuttl said: "No, I haven't seen too many chances from the opponent, and we have had some good moments where we entered the box and maybe the last pass wasn't there. But no, absolutely ok.
"We tried everything in the second half to turn things around after conceding the goal in the end of the first half, in the one situation where it was not so good and they killed us in this moment.
"This is the one criticism I can have of my team that we had this one moment where we did not pay attention. The rest was exactly what we tried to do, we spin the wheels, we create chances and went all in with the young lads, good impact from those, they were brave and we forced them to make mistakes.”
He added: "When you see the workload we put on the pitch in every game, it is not surprising that we use all five subs today. It was necessary and the good thing is we can do this now and we have these players on the bench who can help us."
I personally don’t agree with his assessment of the first half - there is no doubt the second half was better after the introduction of the substitutes and, while the opposition’s opportunities were limited, Saints gained no advantage and actually found themselves behind.
The second point I take issue with is the comment around trying everything in the second half to turn things round. If the right and most effective team was selected from the start against Wolves, we could have seen the benefit of going ahead against an average side who had not won a game prior to this fixture and who looked vulnerable.
The comments around the use of substitutes in light of the workload of the team each game also doesn’t make sense to me given he could have started players who didn’t start or even play a part on Tuesday, for instance Stuart Armstrong or Mara.
It concerns me to see the manager focus on the use of substitutes to help the team as it suggests his thinking is more on how the game will play out as opposed to taking the game to teams regardless of their level.
As was clear from Saturday, it ultimately didn’t help as Saints fell to defeat with the players who could make the greatest difference reduced to 30 mins or less.
I hope to see Stuart Armstrong, Mara and Edozie receiving more game time and opportunities to start games with the run of fixtures up next in Brentford, Aston Villa and Everton.
In previous weeks I have said logical decisions and an ability to adapt are needed and it was decisive and logical action which led to the first win of the season against Leicester. That wasn’t the case for me on Saturday and the result tells the story. A missed opportunity.