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Southampton At Tottenham Hotspur The Verdict

Yet another opening day of woe for Saints against Spurs in North London, yet it could easily have been avoidable if we had signed a leader and organiser in the back line, there was little to be praiseworthy about.

I was hacked off about the result at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, but even more hacked off about the manner of it and the fact that I have to now sound like a broken record again and pointing out what seems to be painfully obvious, but not to those in charge of the transfer strategy.

That is a complete lack of leadership and organisation in the defence.

Ralph Hasenhuttl seems determined to play 3 at the back with 2 wingbacks, it didn't work, not because we haven't got the players to play it, but because we have no one who can organise it all on the pitch.

Some would say that Jan Bednarek who is now 26 and a player with 132 Premier League appearances to his name should now be that leader, but he just doesn't seem to be the type, nothing wrong with that, there have been many great players who have not been leaders of men, however this system cannot work unless we get someone in the centre of that back three to steady the ship and organise.

Early doors Spurs were looking to get at us, what was clear on the left was that Moussa Djenepo needed someone to keep him focused, he was playing an alien position and here was also a player who has barely played in 18 months, having started just 5 games last year.

Djenepo came in for a bit of stick from some fans, but it wasn't just his fault, he should have been talked through the game and it wasn't his fault when Spurs pushed their men forward and double teamed him.

Going forward though he looked ok and he made a great run and pull back for James Ward Prowse to open the scoring after 12 minutes and you hoped that this might settle us.

At this stage this is when you need a leader of men, calm the side down, regroup and keep us focused, we didn't have that, we just carried on playing as we did before the goal, chasing shadows and leaving men unmarked.

That perhaps showed as the lead lasted just 9 minutes, Spurs got room and our left and put in a great cross, Kyle Walker Peters is not used to playing as a wing back either and he allowed his man to get in front of him and head home giving Gavin Bazunu no chance.

Again time for leadership, but we were still running around like headless chickens and it was no surprise when Eric Dier headed home completely unmarked on 31 minutes.

It was now going to be a long day, but we dug in, there was plenty of spirit, just no leadership and we got into half time just a goal down.

For the first 15 minutes of the second half we were still in the game, then came a goal that really should not have happened, a harmless cross was going out for a goal kick, no Spurs players anywhere near it, we had 3 or 4 close, you would have thought that one of them would have called to Salisu to let the ball run or even to put his foot on it, but with no shout and he himself clearly unaware of who was around he smashed the ball into his own net.

This epitomises what we lack, there was no talking no organisation, 2 minutes later and the game was over when a fourth was added, the only real question is how the hell did we manage to keep the score at that level for the remaining half hour.

So this was a bad day at the office, not the first one on the opening day of the season and it is still not a terminal blow, although some Saints fans seem to think we are relegated already.

According to Ralph there is transfer business to be done, talk of a goalscorer coming in, but our problem is not scoring goals it is letting them in, our most crucial element in our defending is luck, if we have good luck we can keep a score down, if we don't then we concede.

I can accept it when sides are better than us and rip us to pieces, but when we gift goals and the reason is clear it is hard to take, especially since it has been going on now since January 2017 when Fonte left and Van Dijk got injured.

So apologies for having to write the same things I have been saying for 5 years now, but it has to end.

Bizarrely in the Southampton B set up, Saints recognised the very problem I am talking about, last year they signed Ollie Lancashire to mentor the B team, they wanted someone to sit in the back for and talk the youngsters through the games.

They knew the value of having an old head around to help the players to develop and gain experience, they do that with 18 year olds in the B team so why do they not do it in a back line in the Premier League that is only a couple of years or so older than the B team players.

Some will say we have the experience out there already, they are right we have JWP, Oriol Romeu and Stuart Armstrong, but they are not leaders of men, they lead by example and there is a big difference.


They must be frustrated as they work hard to win balls in the midfield and keep the side going only for time and time again teams to score goals through our own poor defending.

This team is quite capable of a good mid table finish, but unless we change things it will be another season of boom and bust and 15th.

The talk of scoring goals is all well and good, but that is not our problem, the issue is stopping goals, it is a lot easier to bring in a good experienced central defender and stop leaking 15-20 unnecessary goals a season than it is to find a striker who will score you 20 goals.

Saturday was no surprise, I have a lot of faith in Ralph Hasenhutt, but surely he and indeed those who advise him can see this problem.

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