The Saints Are Coming – Southampton’s Dream Run

The year was 1976; the venue, Wembley; the opposition was Manchester United; and the Occasion, FA Cup Final; the Outcome: 1-0 to Southampton, courtesy Bobby Stokes and an entire city erupted in joy. Southampton F.C. had accomplished what was considered nigh impossible: a second division club beating the giants of English Football. Since then, there haven’t been many high points in the club’s career having been relegated from the Premier League in 2005 after 27 successive seasons at the top flight and then been further relegated to League One in 2009, finally returning to the Premier League in 2012 under Nigel Adkin’s stewardship. Southampton started the 2013/14 season under a new manager who joined them in January 2013, Mauricio Pochettino, who secured them a 14th place at the end of last season.

But this season is different.

The start to their current season is poles apart from where they were at this point in the last season. Having stayed undefeated in the last eight league matches with 22 points from 11 matches, the Saints are sitting pretty at third place above stalwarts such as Manchester United and Chelsea. In contrast, last season at this time, Southampton were languishing near the bottom of the table having played eleven matches with only five points to their name and an unmentionable goal difference of -14.

So what has changed this season?

Well, for one, the players have adapted to Mauricio Pochettino’s managing style and have only lost six of the last 27 matches under him. The high, pressing game stylized and introduced by Pochettino suits his current team and puts the opposition under great stress; case in point: In the match against Manchester United, Pochettino had five men chasing down the ball in front of United’s penalty area where they earned a positive draw. This tactic worked at Anfield as well where they beat Liverpool 1-0 on their home turf, the only team to do so till now in this season.

Another major change (for the better) has been facilitated by the arrival of hulking Croatian defender Dejan Lovren from Lyon. Lovren has managed to plug Southampton’s leaky defence and along with Jose Fonte has forged an almost impenetrable centre-back partnership for the Saints. To sweeten the deal, the two have scored two goals between them and added an assist to their names as well. Lovren, with his superior aerial skills, intuitive positioning and hefty clearances has become a player to watch out for in the EPL this season.

To complement the brilliant work done by the Saints’ defense, the English trio of Jay Rodriguez, Adam Lallana and Rickie Lambert have been in sublime form individually and are communicating almost telepathically with each other on the field. In fact, they have impressed Roy Hodgson so much that Rodriguez and Lallana have gotten international calls for England’s friendlies against Chile and Germany. The trio has contributed ten goals in eleven matches for the Saints including an inspired solo performance by Lallana in Southampton’s 4-1 victory against Hull City recently. Some are calling Lallana a ‘complete’ midfielder taking into consideration his valuable assistance in defence as well as his attacking style of play up front. Having produced absolute gems from their youth set-up in the past (Theo Walcott, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Welshman Gareth Bale) who all left Southampton, Pochettino will be wary of big clubs sniffing around St. Mary’s looking to poach young talent in the near future.

So yes, there are certain key factors that have contributed to Southampton’s dream run so far this season. They have been consistently outworking the opposition and striving hard to maintain possession. Their team is tightly knit with every member pitching in equally. Their manager likes to take risks, has his tactics written in stone and loves to drive his players hard (so much so that Nathaniel Clyne, right back, says that he has never felt fitter).
Things seem to be going rather well for the Saints. But, they have their task cut out for them. The next four matches are extremely crucial for Southampton and their results will determine how the rest of the season goes for Pochettino and his men. Over the coming few weeks, Southampton travel to the Emirates stadium to take on Arsenal followed by a visit to Stamford Bridge to face Chelsea and then to round it up, they host Aston Villa and Manchester City at the St. Mary’s Stadium. Another point of view that must be analyzed is their performance against teams in the bottom half of the table. Having already dropped points against Sunderland, West Ham United and Norwich City, Southampton risk losing precious ground unless they pick up their game against teams they should find relatively easier to beat. If they manage to take home points against Wenger’s and Mourinho’s men, then they will be serious contenders for a Champion’s League spot at the end of the season.
It is also worthwhile to mention here that Southampton have no dearth of cash from their current owners, Liebherr, a German construction company and will be looking to spend once the January transfer window opens up and at the same time fend off interested parties eyeing their talented crop of players.

Irrespective of how well they have done so far, it still remains almost counter-intuitive to imagine them maintain steam and keep up with the top four teams in the English Premier League but miracles do happen and Southampton will do everything in their power to prove the critics wrong and ensure that the Saints keep marching on.