Long serving Saints stalwart Maya Yoshida has urge that his team mates bring no negativity into the dressing room at St Mary's for the game against Huddersfield and that equally applies to the supporters as well.
Yoshida has spoken out about the need to the Saints squad to be positive and avoid negativity if they are to beat Huddersfield on Saturday.
When asked what Saints need to do to turn this around, the Japanese defender said:
"Don’t bring any negativity, stay positive and help each other before we start pointing at each other — that’s the way."
It’s a difficult situation which we haven’t had in the last couple of years,"
"It’s like life, life isn’t always a good time. At this time we need to show our character and we have to stand up."
Yoshida is absolutely right in what he says although the worrying question is as to why Yoshida has mentioned negativity and whether this is a veiled dig at certain individuals in the squad.
Certainly all the squad could learn a lesson from Yoshida, I might not always be complimentary about his performances, but there can be no doubting either his service to Southampton Football Club or his commitment.
But although he did not mention the supporters, his comments could equally be aimed at them on Saturday, whilst it cannot be denied that the majority of the supporters have remained behind the team and abuse has been minimal, the atmosphere at St Mary's against Leicester was toxic and you could almost feel the crowd waiting for failure once the second goal went in and the third leading to a big walk out at half time, that was not condusive to any form of comeback n the second half.
In retrospect you can understand why so many walked out, it was a form of protest, but now having made that protest against the Foxes and shown the board their disatisfaction, the Saints supporters need to heed Yoshida and come to St Mary's in a positive mood with no negativity.
That means looking forward and not back, we cannot change the result against Leicester, but we can help influence the one against Huddersfield, the fans need to create a positive atmosphere, even if we go behind, stay behind the team and encourage them.
I am sick to death of the number of people who utter nothing in support of the team during games apart from shouting "For F*cks sake Saints" at various moments.
That phrase seems to have become the default method of support for far too many supporters of late and this needs to change if we are to move forward.
So on Saturday we need to be exactly what Yoshida wants of his team mates, Positive with a capital P, if we are to expect the players to be exactly that and get a result, then we need to be behind them and with them from the opening whistle to the last.