Southampton’s form has faltered at a crucial stage of the season.
Russell Martin has seen his side go three games without a win, with the 3-2 defeat against Ipswich Town sandwiched between draws with Middlesbrough and Blackburn Rovers particularly tough to take.
Barring a miracle, Southampton will have to settle for a second shot at promotion via the play-offs. The Saints have seven games remaining and travel to both Leicester City and Leeds United before the end of the season, but the 12 points they need to make up to secure a second placed finish looks unachievable.
The Saints face Coventry City on Tuesday night, a team that could also end the season in the play-offs as they currently sit in seventh, before welcoming Watford to St Mary’s own Saturday.
Coincidentally, Southampton faced their next two opponents in consecutive games in the reverse fixtures, drawing 1-1 against both in December. Given the side’s current form, it is unlikely the Southampton faithful would be satisfied if neither of these games yields a win.
Russel Martin must fix form ahead of play-offs
It is somewhat baffling that a side can go 22 league games unbeaten and find themselves fourth in the table with little chance of improving that position, yet that is exactly where Southampton find themselves.
The Saints’ form has nosedived since the last of those 22 games – a 5-3 win over Huddersfield Town – as they have lost five of their last ten in all competitions, conceding 19 goals in the process.
A number of fans are pointing to the experimental tactic of playing Jack Stephens in a hybrid left-back role which sees him step into midfield in possession as an unnecessary over-complication when the side was so successful playing a conventional back four.
This is a tactic that appears to be used in order to shoehorn the captain into the side following his return from the injury that kept him out of the bulk of the first half of the season. The fact Southampton’s poor run of form has coincided with this tactic has raised question marks over Martin’s insistence on continuing with this idea.
Ultimately, Martin has seven games in which to establish the best combination of players to give them the best chance of securing promotion via the play-offs.
The 38-year-old manager will likely have to find a balance between rotating players to keep them fresh for those crucial games whilst trying to gather some momentum with performances and results.
Martin speaks on ‘big issue’ Southampton currently have
For perhaps the first time this season, Martin spoke of his frustration at his team’s performance in the wake of the 0-0 draw with Blackburn, citing the clean sheet as the only positive.
The ex-Swansea City boss spoke very openly about what he feels his players are not doing currently that they were before. As he bluntly put it: “At the minute, as a group, we don’t run enough. It’s really simple.”
Martin was pushed to elaborate on this answer, as he was asked in his pre-Coventry press conference if this was down to tiredness, but he responded by saying: “No, it’s not. It’s my fault if I can’t convince them to run enough. But if we don’t run enough, there’s a big problem.”
Whilst he has shouldered some of the blame for this issue with his answer, Martin clearly is not happy with this creeping into Southampton’s players’ performances.
However, he did not attribute this to a lack of desire from his players, instead insisting: “I don’t think it’s a lack of desire. We need to show real desire. We ran hard on Saturday, we fought hard. That’s why we kept the clean sheet away from home. That’s why we had 70 per cent of the ball.”
Martin added: “You can’t do that if you’re not willing to run. But I’m talking about in the last moments when you have to run and not get the ball, knowing that you’re freeing someone else up.
“And that, at the moment, is not quite where it was. I think if we have an easy option to take, to come to feet rather than run behind, we take it at the moment. And it’s not us.”
This answer implies that Martin does not see this as a lack of effort but more so a mentality issue with his players not prepared to take risks in games.
This is something Martin and his players desperately need to address, particularly for the play-offs where they will be punished if they are not at their best.