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Southampton have always had an esteemed love affair with a certain type of player.
If you delve through the history books deep enough, you’ll find every club no matter how big or small, have had a particular romance with a particular breed of player. Manchester United with wingers, Liverpool with centre-forwards.
For Southampton, they pine for a visionary. An attacking midfielder, who has a hint of ease in their play. The elegance of a racehorse yet the invention of an artist; they are a player that always appears to teeter on the edge, on the periphery of the game.
But if that man comes alive, they capture a distinctive ability to orchestrate a crowd within the second.
Of course, the standout example is Matthew Le Tissier. The club legend that is adored on every street of Southampton. A player of immense ability provided a sprinkle of magic near on every time he set foot on The Dell’s turf.
Despite his well-documented lack of fitness or work-rate, Southampton supporters never seemed to mind. It did not matter if he did nothing for 89 minutes, there was always one minute more.
The love affair continued a decade later, when Adam Lallana burst through the ranks. From an early age, Lallana could play with either foot, tangling the legs of opponents through his trademark cruyff turns.
While neither player were what you would call your typical leader, both ended up captain of the club. They led with the ball at their feet and were the talisman of their sides.
To a lesser extent, Dusan Tadic replicated something similar. Despite an up-and-down relationship with the fans, the Serbian had the ability to change the game to his pace. During his last moments at the club, Tadic highlighted the trait all infamous Southampton number ten’s/attacking midfielders had.
He dragged the team through a relegation dogfight and steered them to safety, before heading to Ajax – where he would become captain and go on to be voted the 20th best player in the world at the Ballon d’Or awards.
Following the sale of Tadic for a measly £11 million, Southampton failed to bring in a ready-made replacement. A player of guile and an eye for a defence-splitting pass was replaced by the workaholic, if not lacking in quality, Stuart Armstrong.
They also added inverted winger Mohamed Elyounoussi, whose since been shipped out to Scotland on loan. The issue Ralph Hasenhuttl and his men face is that, Sofiane Boufal aside, they do not have a player to produce a ‘wow’ moment.
Instead, the Austrian is left with a mostly industrious squad, and could only wish for a player of the technical ability supporters once revered.
Hasenhuttl contends with energy and quick transitions as a source of goals, rather than utilising a player to be effective in-between the lines.
While the south-coast outfit are jam-packed full of pace and power in Nathan Redmond, Moussa Djenepo, Che Adams and Danny Ings, they cry out for a teammate who can link play and become the provider. So often, these players are seen isolated and starved of service.
Despite the defence being the obvious worry, Southampton as a footballing side, have been free-falling in recent years. Under Claude Puel, they were labelled ‘boring’ but were never accused of lacking technical ability.
Now, their style replicates a game of rugby, where the defence aims a long ball over the top and hopes the pace of the front-line can reach it.
Sideways, backwards, hit the channel.
Because of the attack’s disconnection with the rest of the team, Saints resort to going backwards in their play, where time and time again, they create their own problems. Only Sheffield United (six) have conceded more when it comes to errors leading to goals this season.
The biggest issue facing this Southampton side is that they have to be at their maximum to win a game. Relying heavily on a high-octane brand of football, where they attempt to suffocate opposition and pounce of inaccurate passes, everything has to work in their favour.
If they aren’t at their best or the other team negates the press, Saints run out of ideas rather quickly.
This was most recently seen on Saturday, where Southampton were outwitted and frankly outclassed by West Ham. The direct approach of the Hammers increased the pressure on the Saints defence while bypassing the press – unquestionably Ralph Hasenhuttl’s men best attribute.
“When (West Ham) played long we couldn’t press.” Hasenhuttl admitted. “When they did play short once, we had success.”
If Southampton had the tenacity of a side that worked for each other, week-in, week-out, you could forgive them for missing an attacking midfielder. But as proven so many times, you simply do not know what side is going to turn up each week.
Perhaps for the first season in a long time, when a Southampton side lack application, they haven’t got the individual talent to bail them out. And that well may prove to be the final nail in Southampton’s Premier League coffin.
