If I had to pick ONE particular team to stand out and really have a campaign worth talking about, it’d be Southampton for me. That, to be honest would be overlooking a lot of VERY good sides. Leeds, like I mentioned in the last article could surprise everyone. Everton and Ancelotti have had a terrific summer with the signings suggesting that a change of shape and possibly fortunes could be on the cards for the Merseyside outfit. Newcastle have had a decent window and I can only see Wolves and Leicester City growing. However, even though Southampton haven’t spent crazy amounts of money and their squad looks nothing spectacular on paper, it really excites me. Here’s why.
Don’t we all remember the 9-1? While we were celebrating about having Vardy or Ayoze Perez in some of our FPL teams, there was a real gloom over St. Mary’s. What follows a 9-1? An immediate sacking? A string of bad results leading to a sacking? A blow so hard to recover from it provokes the possibility of relegation? Could be any of those. Instead, Southampton managed to finish the season two points off the top ten, seven points off an European spot and were one of the most exciting sides post-lockdown.
There’s something about Southampton which prompts this discussion. Since Klopp changed his pressing style to a more conservative one, cutting off passing alleys and looking to regroup instead of counter-pressing, we’ve been left with only two or three teams who press as high and as effectively. Leeds stand out for me. The rest aren’t organised enough with their press and its almost too easy to bypass it. Not only is it difficult to bypass Southampton’s press, it’s very difficult to stop them once they win the ball high up the pitch and counter quickly with numbers behind the ball. They’re good on the ball with the likes of Romeu, Ward-Prowse, Ings, Redmond and Che Adams. A very direct side which is visually VERY pleasing.
Ralph Hasenhuttl deserves a lot of credit for not only turning the season around but not going back on his philosophy. It would’ve been too easy after the Leicester drubbing. Adding to that, like I mentioned earlier, the summer business has been very effective.
When I say, watch out for Southampton, I don’t intend to establish them as title contenders or European contenders. However, I expect a strong top-half finish from the Saints. They’ve already shown what they can do by keeping both the Manchester sides at bay by beating the blue half at their backyard and nicking a 97th minute equalizer at Old Trafford.
A good side with plenty of good players, a manager I’m highly impressed by. Watch out for the Saints.
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