While Southampton perhaps weren’t as strong defensively as they had been in previous seasons earlier on in the current campaign, it was finding the net at the other end of the pitch that had been one of their main issues and the reason they found themselves in a Premier League relegation battle.
The south coast outfit came into the top flight clashes against fellow strugglers Newcastle United and West Ham United knowing that they needed points to pull themselves out of the bottom three and close the gap on the teams above them, but they ultimately came up short on both occasions.
The clash against the Magpies proved to be Mauricio Pellegrino’s final match at the helm, and it what would have been labelled as a must-win – or at least must-not-lose – fixture by the supporters, they found themselves 1-0 behind with little more than 60 seconds on the clock, eventually going on to lose 3-0.
Mark Hughes came in to replace the Argentine boss and knew that he had seven matches to turn his side’s fortunes around and save them from dropping into the Championship, with a crucial match against a West Ham side that lost three successive Premier League matches by a three-goal margin proving to be his first top flight game in charge.
Similarly to the trip to St James’ Park and even though the hosts should have been a little short of confidence, Saints suffered another disastrous afternoon as they found themselves 3-0 behind at half-time – and that was how the encounter ended.
The south coast outfit have had a settled back five of Alex McCarthy, Cedric Soares, Wesley Hoedt, Jack Stephens and Ryan Bertrand, rated at £18m by Transfermarkt, for much of 2018, but it was clear following the debacle at the London Stadium that things needed to change.
Hughes made that change for the trip to Arsenal earlier this month, going with a three-man defence that included Maya Yoshida in addition to the aforementioned quintet, but it once again failed to do the trick as Southampton conceded three times, and Stephens saw red following an incident with Jack Wilshere.
The Welshman decided to stick with the same formation and brought in Jan Bednarek for his Premier League debut in place of the absent Stephens against Chelsea on Sunday, and while it worked from an attacking point of view as the Polish defender gave the hosts a 2-0 lead in the second half with a fine finish, he was also part of a backline that once again collapsed – and one which was berated by Saints fans on Twitter after the final whistle – when Olivier Giroud scored 20 minutes from time, with two more goals for the Blues following in the next nine minutes.
Southampton face Leicester City in another must-win game at the King Power Stadium on Thursday night, and it is clear that they need to sort their defensive issues out – otherwise they could potentially be relegated in the next couple of weeks.
Hughes doesn’t have too many options at centre-back right now, and that is why he should consider bringing the experienced Bertrand inside as a makeshift left-sided centre-back against the Foxes and potentially going forwards, too.
While the 28-year-old is a full-back by trade and brilliantly assisted Dusan Tadic for the south coast outfit’s opener against Chelsea last weekend, he has shown in the past that he can also make in impact at the heart of the defence as well.
The England international played three times there during the 2015/16 campaign, keeping clean sheets in the 1-0 wins against Manchester United and Swansea City away from home, while conceding just once in the 2-1 success against Stoke City at the Britannia Stadium.
Bertrand has the knowledge, experience and leadership qualities – given he has been wearing the captain’s armband in recent weeks – to make a difference in the middle, and he can help out the likes of Hoedt and Yoshida that have struggled both defensively and in terms of their mentality in the past few defeats.
Sam McQueen – who kept a clean sheet at Old Trafford when he played at left-back there on December 30 – is good enough to fill in at wing-back, and Bertrand’s presence in central areas could be the difference between Southampton strengthening their leaky backline or not, and perhaps could prove to be the catalyst to save them from the difficult predicament they currently find themselves in.
