Southampton manager Ronald Koeman has publicly backed Graziano Pelle and talked of hos vital he is to the way that the team play.

Graziano Pelle is in the midst of a goal drought that cannot be denied and that has led to some supporters getting on his back a little, however that is not looking at the big picture and now Saints boss Ronald Koeman has come out in support of his striker.

Pelle has not scored in the Premier League since netting in the 3-0 win against Everton on December 20th, but the lack of goals is not down to the strikers form but in the way that Pelle's role in the team has evolved both through natural progression as the team starts to gel, but also due to the fact that injury, suspension and International calls has forced the managers hand in the style he has had to play at times.

Ronald Koeman certainly feels that Pelle's game is not just about scoring goals.

"Graziano is important to the way we play because he is always the target man," the Saints boss told reporters.

"He is not a typical number nine who at the end of the season has scored goals and nothing else. He is doing well but every striker looks to score.

"We are creating good chances but are struggling to score. I am not worried because we have good quality attacking players in our squad and it will change."

That is very much the way I see it, whereas earlier in the season Pelle's role was more about getting on the end of balls into the box, his role is now a lot more deeper and about winning the ball, laying it off to others who can play in the likes of Mane, Elia or Long ie those with pace.

This is well and good and i take the points of those who say that hasn't worked in recent games and they are right, but as mentioned for many of the games in the past two months Koeman has not had many option other than to play this way, against Everton and the game after it at Palace we were starting to click and had variety and were almost scoring for fun with options everywhere.

But since then we have been missing too many players at the wrong times and this has impacted on Koeman's options to change things.

Now however we have all our striking options back and indeed we also have all our midfield options available for selection, Koeman can now mix and match and change things and hoefully this will see Saints get back in the scoring groove again.

Yes Pelle needs a gaol, but as Koeman says his game is much more about scoring himself its about bringing others into the game, the Dutch manager has not let us down so far, we have to trust his judgement and let him be the one to decide if Pelle is contributing to the level we need or not.

One thing is for sure it will not help Pelle or indeed any player in our squad to get verbal abuse. we have an important few months coming up, if we want to achieve things then we need everyone to be kicking in the same direction and all the supporters to be behind "All" the players.

Photo: Action Images

stmichael added 09:44 - Feb 27 He is not playing well. Target man or not he is out of form. He is a big guy and Skirtle cannot have had an easier game all season. He has to battle and win his headers (or at least some of them) and when he gets a chance he has no composure. The manager is publicly backing his player and so he should but the public are not daft and Pelle is going through a goal drought BECAUSE he is not playing well. I think he will come through it and he has shown enough this season to believe that but recently he has been playing because we have no one else.

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Jesus_02 added 10:04 - Feb 27 I can understand what Koeman is saying, and it is very difficult to disentangle who is at fault when a team stops clicking, and it is a team game. When we were flying we were creating bucket loads of chances AND the midfield were contributing well to the goal tally. I want to be kind to Pelle but in all honesty there have been occasions where you have to say he should have really stuck it in the net. Top Premier League strikers do not need bucket loads of chances.

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bricum added 10:35 - Feb 27 It is all very well asking supporters to "get behind the players" but no-one should seriously expect any true supporter to get behind someone who is so out of form. Regardless of what the manager says Pelle is here to help (in whatever form) the team score goals - something which is not happening at the moment!
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Sanguin added 10:50 - Feb 27 I think the fans are still remarkably behind Pelle, we might groan when he fails to make the most of a decent chance, but we’ll be chanting his name trying to pump him up thirty seconds later. I think the key player to come back will be Bertrand, we’ve looked a lot less threatening down the left without him and with such a long rest under his belt he should be in top form for the rest of the season.

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redwight added 11:23 - Feb 27 So the role of a 'true supporter' is to get on his back is it Bricum? And how precisely is that going to make things better? You cannot have meant that surely?
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lemmsy added 12:04 - Feb 27 Top pl strikers do not need bucket loads of chances but it has to be taken into account that pelle cost £ 9 mill not £30 mill . All players & teams go thru dips in form although saints have still Performed well enough but haven't had the rub.anyone attending the home games would agree we should have had 7 points instead of 1 from the last three. As for getting behind the players , always. Keep the moaning for full time & the pub

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HoveSaint added 16:38 - Feb 27 His strike rate is good (how many times has he hit the woodwork!) and he holds the ball well, it will just take a breaker like Millwall in the LC to get him back on "form" and start to convert some chances. The same can be said for Ward-Prowse, tons of opps but converted little, yet when he will score (and he will) the confidence comes flooding back and there is a run of goals. Nothing new and its regardless of it you cost £30m or 20p, being able to prove to yourself that you can do it makes all the difference, such as Ozil, Torres and countless others

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Zambucco added 18:21 - Feb 27 Is a striker not scoring goals, similar to a goalie not stopping goals? We could all say "well he's not stopping many goals, but his distribution is world class" I truly like Pelle and think he will start to score again, but when? How long is he going to be doing a midfielder's job? Okay he can hold the ball, but his distribution is woeful (said in the style of Alan Hansen) Give him a break on the bench and let others have a free reign at scorin ggoals. Bring him off the bench for the last 25 minutes.

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SaintGeorge added 13:45 - Feb 28 What? So Pellè is vital to not creating any chances and resolutely not scoring any goals at all? Strange logic
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SO50SFC added 17:09 - Feb 28 Agree we should not be getting on players backs but he had another shocker today vs WBA. Anyone else missing JRod right now? Pelle needs a rest. If this was November, he'd have bagged a brace today and we'd be 3 points richer. Palace is now a huge game.
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