Escape From Alcatraz Gives Saints A Psychological Lift Off The Bottom Monday, 6th Mar 2023 09:39 It's been a topsy turvy few weeks for Southampton Football Club, but a superb strike from Charly Alcatraz has suddenly brought hope to a supporter base that a few weeks ago could see no light at the end of the tunnel. I have always maintained that our issues this season have not been about the quality of the squad, but peripheral issues such as a big injury list running into the World Cup break and of course the failure to sign a striker. The appointment of Ruben Selles brought hope, but the defeat at Leeds was a setback, the Grimsby loss was poor, but it should be noted that the manager put out a second string and kept his first choice troops fit for the visit of Leicester on Saturday and that has now paid dividends after a great strike from Charly Alcatraz gave Saints a much needed 3 win and made it 6 points out of 9 for Selles.
Suddenly after not winning at home in the Premier League for over 6 months, we had a win and following on from the 3 points at Chelsea a run of sorts underway. Perhaps the most striking fact about Saturday though was not those who were on the pitch, but those that did not get on it, Moussa Djenepo, Mohammed Salisu, Romain Perraud & Tall Paul Onuachu, sat out the whole game on the bench. Not even in the matchday squad though were, Lyanco, Duje Caleta-Car, James Bree, Juan Larios, Joe Aribo, Mislav Orsic, Sam Edozie & Ibrahima Diallo.
In short throw in Cabalerro or McCarthy in goal and I would say that we would have put out sides earlier in the season that would have contained most of those players. That shows how the club is progressing, yes there is no doubt that some of the younger signings are not yet quite ready, but we now have a squad and it wasn't that long ago we were relying on players such as Dan N'Lundulu etc to fill in the gaps. The win over Leicester was crucial, especially coming in a weekend when only Wolves of those in the relegation battle managed a win. Some though could not take any joy from the win, they preferred to talk about the fact that Leicester missed a few chances, that the usual scapegoats were terrible and that on another day we would have been beaten 4-0.
So what ! the fact of the matter is that we were bottom of the table for a reason , yes there were reasons, but ultimately the core of the problem was that too many players were making mistakes and not playing to their potential which in turn brought a lack of confidence. That means that we were never going to just become Manchester City or Real Madrid overnight, we have to scrape some wins and then build on that. That we have done under Ruben Selles and we now do have a chance to build up some momentum and pull ourselves clear. It won't be easy and going to Old Trafford next up is not the ideal game to follow a win, but stranger things have happened. But after a long time these is some hope, our rivals will be looking over their shoulders and know that we are not the side that we were back in November, we have new players in , we have brought in players that can score and hopefully that will start to reap the benefits.
We are within 3 points of the 4 teams above us, only 5 points behind Nottingham Forest and 6 points behind Wolves & Crystal Palace, we did not get cast adrift on Saturday, we made up ground and made sure that the relegation battle is still potentially 9 teams. As mentioned things are not suddenly going to see us playing like World beaters, but it will hopefully see us play with a little more confidence with each game and that can get us out of trouble. Things have changed at St Mary's and our rivals know that and in some cases little has changed, despite the bad run we never got cast adrift, that in itself hints that in the first part of the season we played well until we got the injury issues. We now have a psychological advantage over those around us, we just need to keep plugging away and picking up points as we have done in the last fortnight or so under Ruben Selles.
As it stands now we need to average around 1.30 points a game, that would give us 17 points and 38 points come the end of the season should be enough. That means in simple terms 4 points every 3 games, we have to judge not on individual results, but in tranches of 3, if we keep getting at least 4 points every 3 games we will start to pull ourselves clear. We have done it in the past and we can do it again, in 1993/94 after 21 games we had just 14 points, yet we survived, two years later when we suffered perhaps our closest shave of the 1990's we had only 20 points from 21 games and stayed up on the final day knowing right up to the final whistle that a goal from Manchester City or Wimbledon at the Dell will send us down.
Back in 1998/99 when it was the Great Escape season after 21 games we had 17 points, we pulled ourselves through by sheer guts and a crowd that stayed behind us all the way. In 2004/05 after 21 games we again had just 14 points, what we didn't have though was a manager who gave two F***'s in Harry Redknapp and the supporters did not beleive that we could get out of it and that manifested itself on the final day when we lost to Manchester United without a whimper. So history tells us we are far from dead and buried, we have got out of far worse positions and with squads that do not have the depth that we have now. All we need to do now is get behind our team and drive it onwards and upwards, it will not be a straight line upwards, it will have ups and down, but in the last 3 games we have put in performances and gained the points that show we do have the quality to get out of trouble, we are coming up on the rails and in a relegation fight that is often a good place to be.
The World Cup break has meant that a week into March it feels like we are heading into the final straight, but the truth is there is still a long way to go, in those past seasons the 21st game would have been played in the first weeks of January, there would have still been the best part of 3 1/2 months to go. That is almost the case now, the final game is 28th May, there is still just under 3 months of football to be played in, things are not getting close just yet. Photo: Action Images Please report offensive, libellous or inappropriate posts by using the links provided.
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