How does a side that had twice the possession of the other, as well as a similar amount of attempts on goal, lose 3-1 ? Very simple, they keep making mistakes when trying to play their way out of trouble when it isn't on.

In the very first paragraphs of my preview, I suggested that the only thing that most Southampton fans agreed on was that Russell Martin needed to make changes to his side, pragmatics will point out there was a change, Aaron Ramsdale was straight into the side after his arrival from Arsenal, but the outfield 10 was exactly the same as the opening two games in the Premier League.

So what we got was the same results, a large amount of possession completely ruined by individual errors where we tried to play in tight situations when there was nothing on.

Saints started badly in this game, but they rode their luck a little and when the luck ran out Aaron Ramsdale made a few key saves, but they grew into the game and you felt that as half time approached that we had weathered the storm and could get something out of this game.

But then came yet another piece of catastrophic defending when trying to play our way out of trouble, the warning sign was there just 60 seconds earlier when we gave the ball away cheaply, but we got away with that, but we didn't learn the lesson from that and paid the price just 2 minutes before half time.

We could have equalised shortly afterwards, but whereas the Brentford forwards were full of confidence you could see ours was shot and we fluffed them.

At half time at least Russell Martin could see he had got things wrong, off went Smallbone & Armstrong going off and Matteus Fernandes & Cameron Archer coming on.

At this stage we started to move the ball around with a lot more fluidity and speed than the pedestrian pace of the first half.

Again for a while we looked ok, indeed on 56 minutes we brought on Tyler Dibling and you thought perhaps we could get something out of it, but on 65 minutes came yet another blunder in possession and again Brentford were quick to capitalise and doubled their score.

Four minutes later and we fell for a sucker punch, it was clear where the long throw was going, we failed to deal with it and it was flicked on, in truth Aaron Ramsdale did well to keep out the header, but it was changed into the net from close range by the onrushing Brentford man.

With 20 minutes left, things were not looking good for Saints, but somehow the score remained the same.

Perhaps the best goal of the game was in injury time when Tyler Dibling played a sublime ball to Adam Lallana who showed his class with a cushioned header to Yuri Suguwara who smashed the ball home.

But it was too little too late and you had the feeling that this was yet another game where we were architects of our own downfall.

I have said this on many occasions over the years, If you do the same things you get the same results !

This was very much the case, Russell Martin kept the same starting outfield 10 and we saw a soft goal conceded that was of our own making, I was going to say that yet again it was one where we still tried to play tippy tappy football when under pressure, but having seen it again on TV, that wasn't the case in the first two goals, it was about the fact that our central defenders, Jan Bednarek, Taylor-Harwood Bellis and Jack Stephens, are not good enough with their feet and like the goal against Newcastle, the first two goals were because we could not play simple balls or perhaps more damning make the decision to go long when it is needed.

That is worrying, I think that our decision making is flawed, I think our defenders are scared to play long under pressure as they feel that if they do they will be dropped.

I am not one of those who thinks that the manager should be sacked, but I am worried going forward that he will stick to his guns even when it is obvious that it is not working.

The issue is not playing possession football, the issue is firstly team selection and secondly the degree to which it is played, most teams play this type of game now, but they temper it to the ability of their squad, they know there is times when you have to go long.

On Saturday, like the other two games it is hard to see what our formation is, we are trying to play this hybrid where Jack Stephens is this floating player between defence and midfield, but he is not good enough to do this and the opposition level is way above last season and they can read the game and pick it off easier.

Read the stats and you would think it is us that should have won 3-1, 64% possession, 18 attempts on goal, only 2 less than the home side and 6 on target, this time only 1 less than Brentford, so how did we lose this game ?

Change is needed, Taylor Harwood Bellis & Jan Bednarek are both good central defenders, but they are not a good pairing, especially when you add Jack Stephens, they are all neither fish or fowl, there is no outstanding ball player and no genuine big strong and fast defender, none of them are true leaders of men at this level.

Personally I think we can easily rectify this, bring in both Charlie Taylor for his experience and Armel Bella-Kotchap who is big strong and fast and then decide who is best to slot in out of Bednarek & Harwood-Bellis.

In midfield have a holding pairing of Downes & Ugochukwu with Fernandes in front of them, up front play Archer & Brereton Diaz and possibly Tyler Dibling.

Some will ask why possibly ? the simple answer is whether he is ready for 90 minutes yet, over the year I have seen many youngsters make great starts, but as games go by and they don't score, the fans perception changes from promising youngster to yet another who can't score goals, I don't see Dibling as the latter, but he could see his confidence shattered if he is not used at the right times.

A very disappointing day at the office, one that we have to put down to the manager, he did the same things and he got the same results !

All Photos Via Reuters

Colburn added 20:39 - Sep 2 Arsenal lost their first 3 games 2 years ago and ended up 2nd.. On a serious note, I feel sorry for the players because of how hamstrung they have been with the set up. I don’t mind playing out from the back or vertical ticka tacka but we have to have an outlet up the middle. These first 3 games, Armstrong and Diaz have had little service but have been out wide, isolated. Smallbone and Aribo have no outlet through the middle as a result so we have no focal point to our attack and effectively no plan of attack. In the same way with no centre forward to aim for the keeper can’t play the occasional longer pass over the top to keep the oppo guessing. So Martin has to go back to 4-3-3 and I like the idea of shifting Sugar in to midfield so he can cover for the marauding KWP at right back too. Bring in Taylor at left back and Fernandes on the other side of Downes. Then I think whoever plays as the front 3 will have more service and impact. Dibling Archer and Cornet would work for me. I do feel for Smallbone and Arma because of how Martin has set us up so far.

2

SanMarco added 11:23 - Sep 3 Extreme playing out from the back is last year's news. No other teams do it. Possession-based football is fine but good teams play most of it further up the pitch. RM is trying to do something that will not work at this level. I would argue that we got promoted despite of it last year rather than because of it. RM must see it is not working so why in the hell not change.? Pick the best players and tell the defenders to hoof it when there are no better options.

1

Blogs 31 bloggers

Norwich City Polls