 Monday, 17th Jun 2013 09:35 In our penultimate player review we take a look at the first signing of the summer in 2012, Jay Rodriguez from Burnley. Things looked promising for the summer transfer window when on June 10th Saints started their business early and announced the signing of Jay Rodriguez for what was then a club record fee of around £7 million pounds, being a striker it would be interesting how he would fit in alongside Rickie Lambert was the initial thoughts, but as the pre season programme progressed and it became clear that Saints now intended to revert to a formation that only had a lone striker, it struck some that Rodriguez hadnt been signed to play alongside Rickie but to replace him ! That view was strengthened when for the opening game of the season at Man City it was Rodriguez who started the game and Lambert who was sat on the bench, but as we now know with the benefit of hindsight, there was life in Rickie Lambert yet and luckily enough for Saints plenty of life in J Rod. Initially though he would struggle, his problem was he was a striker and whilst he was versatile and had the speed to play on the wing, truthfully he was not a winger, merely a forward with a bit of speed and although you might be able to get away with that in the Championship, in the Premier its an entirely different matter. So in his early days he like the team struggled, by the third game he was on the bench and some Saints fans questioned the wisdom of signing him. What they had forgotten though was two things, firstly he was being played out of position and even up front as a lone striker was new to him, secondly he had talent and that was evident in the Carling Cup where he scored his first two goals for the club in beating Sheffield Wednesday 2-0, yes one was from the penalty spot, but the first was a cracking goal and he showed that he was ready to give SRL a run for his money. But Lambert as mentioned was not ready to give up his shirt easily so Jay had to be content to either play out wide or be on the bench, his first League goal came for the club in the home defeat to Spurs when he fired home from a tight angle to bring Saints back into the game. But the final couple of months would see him mainly on the bench with Jason Puncheon and Adam Lallana being used as the wide men, but he returned to the team for the final game of the year at Stoke and got his second league goal of the season, with Lallana now injured and with that little bit more experience he was ready to show he had the quality to play in the division. In Mauricio Pochettinos first game he was back on the bench, but he returned for the visit to Old Traffod and scored after only 3 minutes, he followed that up a few days later by creating both goals in the 2-2 draw at Wigan and from now on there was no looking back. His purple patch came when he scored three times in a row coinciding with Saints winning three games in a row, his first against Liverpool might not have been goal of the season, but from an individual effort point of view it was when he got the ball in the centre circle and ran through the entire Liverpool midfield and defence to score, he followed that up with a goal against Chelsea and then a brave goal against Reading where he frightened the keeper with sheer determination, he was at last justifying his fee. He ended the season with 6 League goals from 24 starts, plus 11 as sub, not bad given he was being played out of position, second only to Rickie Lambert, he was second to Rickie in another stat as well, that of assists, he had 8 to his name compared to Rickie's 9, this is perhaps an overlooked area, but J Rod was capable of bringing others into play as well. So all in all a good season for Jay after a quiet start, as I say in fairness to him, he wasnt able to do the job Saints bought him for due to Lambert finding his own form in the Premier, but competition is good and Rodriguiez's arrival definately inspired Rickie. So what will happen this coming season, the second half of the season saw Rodriguez match Lambert for goals under Pochettino, he has age on his side and he also has pace, an area that Saints have struggled in, Rickie has had a good season, but eventually will get overtaken by Jay, the only question is when, perhaps it will be this coming season ? perhaps not, the benefit of having two players in direct competition can only be good for Saints. Saints fans though should be aware this is a squad game, there will be games that Jay will be preferred to Rickie up front, those who have been to away games will know that its easy for Rickie to be isolated up front due to his lack of mobility, in the tougher games away it may be Lambert on the bench and Rodriguez in the lone role up front, this worked at Chelsea away where Rodriguez worked tirelessly up front in the first half as Saints were overun, leaving Rickie to come on in the second with fresh legs against tired ones and with good results, as i say its a squad game nowadays, there will be tactical decicions to be made. All in all though an 8/10 for Jay Rodriguez, we had glimpses of his great potential even though he was out of position and his work rate meant that he rarely had bad games, he now has that vital Premier experience under his belt and could well crank it up another notch in this coming season. 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