James Ward Prowse has had a rather muted season by his own standards, however much of that has been dictated by the role he has had to play due to injuries to other players in his the squad, will that all change now with a new manager with a full squad to pick from.
James Ward Prowse has not been his usual self this season, but the truth of the matter is that he has had to play most of his games in a far deeper role and more to the point in a different role.
In the past Saints have had the likes of Steven Davis, Oriol Romeu and Pierre Emile Hojbjerg to play a deep holding role, that was set to continue with the signing of Romeo Lavia who was a revelation at the start of the season, so much so that Chelsea were said to have put in a £50 million bid for his services on the eve of the transfer window closing.
There has been talk on message boards about the club making a big mistake in letting Oriol Romeu leave, but there would have been none of that talk had Lavia not picked up a hamstring injury that kept him out for two months, as much as i liked Romeu, letting him leave was the right decision, Lavia's injury was an unfortunate coincidence.
However during that time Lavia's role has had to be taken up by James Ward Prowse, he has had to sit back and adapt his game, instead of looking to play the killer pass and get forward, he has had to sit back and hold the midfield, he has had to play like Steven Davis, winning the ball and then playing it short to fit in with the style of play being employed.
He could do that, no one should underestimate his ability to be a utility man, in the past he has dropped to right back and done the job, it would not surprise me if he dropped into the centre of defence at some stage.
In the last two months JWP has taken one for the team, sacrificed his own natural position to do a job elsewhere, now with Lavia back and ready to bloom, hopepfully so will Ward Prowse.
New manager Nathan Jones has been speaking about how he has been talking to his Captain and what he wants from him.
"I spoke about his role moving forward in terms of the leader he [Ward-Prowse] needs to be here and that I would like him to be here. The influence he can have and obviously the influence he can have on the team in terms of playing, not just off the pitch. He's buying into that. He's a great professional anyways, he's literally a stellar professional on all levels."
That is good to here and to be honest it was something Ralph Hasenhuttl did when he inherited JWP 4 years ago, at that point the midfielder was on the fringe of the first team and not an automatic choice and the Austrian got his career back on track.
He is hardly off track at the moment, just out of position, but he needs the guidance to turn himself into a leader of men, rather than a leader by example and hopefully Jones will start to help him become that.
First-team coach Alan Sheehan, who has joined Southampton in November to work alongside Nathan Jones and Chris Cohen has had experience of working under Jones as well as with him.
He was the Jones first signing for Luton in 2016 and captained them to promotion in 2020 to the Championship. Sheehan said in an interview for the Saints official website.
"I was coming up to 29/30 when I signed for him and possibly he just changed the way I saw the game really. He understood me as a player as well as every other individual within the squad and he gave me the license to run the dressing room at that time and make it a really challenging environment."
"He was very demanding of us but he was fair. He never asked us to do something that was impossible and we had unbelievable success at the football club getting two promotions from League Two to the Championship. The standards that he set and the autonomy now that he gives me as a coach are obviously wonderful."
So hopefully Nathan Jones can help James Ward Prowse refocus after a period when he has had to let his usual game suffer in order to do what is best for the team, if he does so then relegation will soon be banished from talk around Southampton Football Club.