When a team goes through a bad run it needs its senior players to stand strong and lead by example and that is not happening at present.
Many supporters have taken the simplistic view of why Saints form has dipped of late citing that Schneiderlin & Clyne were replaced by players who were of a far lesser quality.
This is far from the truth, although the likes of Clasie, Soares & Romeu plus Juanmi have taken time to adapt to the rigours of the Premier League, the reality is that when we have needed our longer serving players to step up to the plate in the last few games that has not been the case.
The issues why we have been conceding goals and therefore dropping points are less about whether Schneiderlin would have anchored the midfield and more about individual error and lapses in concentration in the final third as was emphasised on Saturday where both goals should have been prevented.
But this is not a recent phenomenon, it has been happening all season right from the opening game at Newcastle, indeed its hard to think of many goals we have conceded that have not been down to individual error.
In our run of 5 Premier League games without a win we have conceded 8 goals, out of those 5 perhaps 6 could have and should have been defended better and prevented and that is the crux of the problem.
But it is not our new signings who are letting us down, put bluntly it is those who have been here several seasons.
When a team goes through a bad patch it needs its senior pros to lead by example, be a tower of strength and put in a 9/10 display, but it is not happening.
One problem is that we perhaps have too little Premier League experience in the squad at present, against Spurs Soares, Van Dijk are all in their first season in this division, then you have Mane, Tadic & Pelle all only in their second season.
But that left a spine of the side of Jose Fonte, Ryan Bertrand, Victor Wanyama & Steven Davis all with the experience required to stand up tall and be counted.
In fairness to Seven Davis he did what he always does and put in a consistent display, but so far this season the other three are shadows of their former selves at present.
The key figures here are Fonte and Wanyama, they are the core of the side, put it isn't happening for them at present and it needs to.
That is why I think Ronald Koeman is starting to lose patience a little, his senior men should be out there leading the team on the pitch for him, these two are the biggest characters, yet they are not doing it for him.
In the case of Fonte I think he is going through his worst period of form for Saints in a long time, all players do this, it is not a slur on him, he is finding the harder he tries the worse it gets, but he has the quality to play through it and he needs to.
Wanyama is a different case, the antics of August are bubbling under the surface and his behaviour back then means that the supporters will question his loyalty and commitment when he has games as he did on Saturday and indeed over the past few weeks.
It isn't hard to find Saints supporters who will claim that he is trying to engineer a January move, although displays like that n't get him too many admirers.
But Ronald Koeman has already indicated that he feels that some players have had their chance and now it might be tme for some of the fringe players to show their mettle, he does have a point, but the reality is we need a leader out tere on the pitch and if he isn't in the squad at the moment then perhaps we need to look in January.