Southampton have had a pretty topsy-turvy season by all accounts but still, they remain in with a shot of a top-two finish.
Russell Martin has come under fire, at times, but he’s implemented a clear style of play which, when it works, is beautiful to watch.
The former Swansea City boss clearly has Southampton heading in the right direction and they’re in action tonight against Preston North End, hoping for a third straight win to move three points behind Leeds United.
A promising statistic has just emerged and it only amplifies how attack-minded Martin’s style of play is.
Southampton top of two important Championship statistics
It has come to light, that no side in the Championship have scored more goals from open play than Southampton this season, as per WhoScored.
That will please Martin as it reflects well on his system and brand of football, which is geared towards creating opportunities.
Further, the South Coasters also top the charts in shots per game, getting off an average of 15.6, again evincing how often they are able to get into goalscoring positions.
That data really does make for good reading as quite clearly, if Southampton were a little more clinical, they’d perhaps be sitting in the automatic promotion spots.
Their attacking output has never really been the issue, it’s defensively where they have come up stuck, shipping 54 goals, which is the most of the four teams gunning for a top-two finish.
Southampton just need to tighten up at the back
It’s become pretty obvious that the South Coasters are missing something at the back, whether that be leadership, cohesion or even concentration.
They’ve shot themselves in the foot on a number of occasions this season and undone all their great attacking endeavour by conceding sloppy goals.
If they can just tighten up defensively and find the right balance, then they’ll be a real force heading into their final five games and a potential play-off campaign.
James Bree‘s inclusion in recent weeks looks like it’s helped, as it’s allowed Kyle Walker-Peters to move to left-back, which has been a problem area all season.
Martin may have found his winning formula with the former Luton Town defender in his side, so at least for now, he should keep his back four unchanged, whenever possible.