Is England and Southampton's Rickie Lambert suffering from second season syndrome?

Rickie Lambert (left)

Southampton’s Rickie Lambert has struggled for form of late as his scoring touch in the Premier League has been hard to find. Last term the 31-year-old scored 15 times for the Saints, however this campaign he has netted just twice in his team’s seven opening Premier League fixtures.

Saints manager Mauricio Pochettino has already told Lambert that he needs to start scoring again – he has not been meeting the ‘bread and butter’ role of a top striker, the ability to find the back of the net, and this needs to change quickly if he wishes to keep his place in starting eleven.

The Englishman’s lack of form could be due to a number of reasons. Some may suggest he is suffering from ‘second-season syndrome’, or perhaps he has been distracted by the prospects of leading Roy Hodgson’s Three Lions in the upcoming International fixtures.

Despite these worries, Lambert is still Southampton’s top performing striker – in terms of Performance Score he has a huge advantage over summer signing Pablo Osvaldo, who himself has just one goal to his name.

Southampton Highest Performance Scorers (In Attack)

His conversion rate however will be some cause for concern. With 19 chances squandered he has successfully taken just 9.5% of his opportunities on goal. Furthermore, he has had the most shots in the Premier League this campaign.

Saints fan will be eager to see their star man scoring again. Last season his form was influential for the club as they achieved a 14th place finish. This term they will be looking to break into the top-half of the table and throughout the course of the season his goals could prove vital.

This goal drought in open play is surely not permanent and can most likely be contributed to a lack of luck inside the penalty area, after all, he has a 57% shot accuracy this term. Furthermore, the hype surrounding his involvement for England is also a contributing factor.

It’s easy to forget that this is only Lambert’s second season playing in the Premier League. International duty will have provided a huge distraction, especially at such an ‘early’ stage of his top-flight career.

He will eventually grow accustomed to the expectations of maintaining a high standard of football at this level and the goals will soon flow, once again. Expect to see much more of the Englishman as we move towards Christmas.