The evolution of Southampton FC under Ronald Koeman
“We planned last Wednesday as a day off after the Tuesday and Jose Fonte said to me: 'Boss, we would like to come to train tomorrow’.
I said, ‘but you have a day off - I've planned a lot of things with my wife!' But we changed it.
I never had that - a team, a squad say 'no day off' and that means a lot for me and about the ambition of the players.”
These were the words of Ronald Koeman, when asked about the incident that had left the newly appointed manager gob-smacked. The St.Mary’s has been in high spirits ever since the arrival of Koeman and there can seldom be a better example to prove the same as the Saints turned down their day-off after an extremely hard fought victory over Arsenal in the Capital One Cup tie.
The Saints have also produced quite a few noteworthy results this season, which include their 4-0 win over Newcastle United, a 1-3 victory against an in-form West Ham United at the Boleyn Ground and the most recent being Sunderland’s 8-0 massacre. Owing to their exquisite run of form, Southampton have been able to pull off some magnificent results which puts them third in the Premier League table with Chelsea and Manchester City being the only teams ahead of the Saints.
The scintillating start has also handed Koeman the ‘Premier League Manager of the month’ award for September and the Dutch international seems to have become a real fan-favourite at the St.Mary’s stadium.
Squad Changes
With the departure of key players such as Lallana, Lambert, Shaw, Lovren and Chambers to the top-flight teams, the summer of 2014 had not begun in great fashion for the Saints. In all honesty, a great deal wasn’t expected of Koeman and his signings to replace the outgoing stars but in hindsight the rebuilding process has been carried out to perfection. In the modern era, good business is of high significance and given a team with budget constraints, it’s all the more important for them to perform efficiently in the transfer market. The Saints have proven this right by bringing in quality replacements (in the form of Pelle, Tadic and Bertrand) for each of their sale and have shown that their dependence on key players is largely limited. Without a shadow of a doubt, the performance of the team has largely been a result of shrewd business in the summer.
New arrivals such as Ryan Bertrand (loan), Dusan Tadic and Graziano Pelle have been revelations for the Saints and have done exceedingly well in replacing Shaw, Lallana and Lambert. Tadic shares the first place alongwith Cesc Fabregas in the assists table with 7 to his tally while Pelle is also climbing up the top scorers list with 6 goals and placed third, only behind Diego Costa and Sergio Aguero.Moreover, statistical reports suggest that Tadic and Pelle have already outperformed the current Liverpool duo (Lallana & Lambert), in a comparison which took the performance of Lallana and Lambert during the 2013-14 season into account.
Tactical transformation
Southampton have transformed from their traditional 4-2-3-1 under Pochettino into a 4-3-3 with a lone defensive midfielder deployed right in front of the back-four. Koeman has to be given his share of credit to have kept the precious midfield engine of the Saints (Schneiderlin, Davis, Wanyama, Ward-Prowse and Cork) and to make use of them for an attractive style of football wherein the ball is being moved much quicker than it was under Pochettino.
The mid-three have also been rotated sufficiently well with Wanyama playing the defensive role, Davis deployed either on the flank or as an attacking midfielder and Schneiderlin playing more of a box-to-box role with more freedom as compared to the previous campaign. The win over West Ham is an example of how Koeman has deployed his midfielders as once the Saints had taken the lead from 1-0 to 1-2; Jack Cork was introduced to replace Ward-Prowse, who held the ball well with his passing game, leading to a comfortable 1-3 win.
All the central midfielders have thus far been able to keep the ball effortlessly well with a pass accuracy between 87% and 87.5% and yet the passing has been very quick, crisp and meaningful on the attack. Moreover, Koeman’s side have been really solid at the back, conceding the fewest goals (5) in the Premier League and much of the credit goes to the organized back-four and the immensely strong middle-muddle. Also, Southampton have won more tackles per game (24) than any other team in the Premier League for which the midfield duo (Schneiderlin and Wanyama) has been the predominant reason and thus Koeman is more than a happy camper with the way the Saints have gelled in.
It is evident that the onus of creating chances has moved drastically from the central area (37%) and the right flank (14%) in 2013-14 to the left flank (23%) and inside the 18-yard box (27%) in 2014-15. This shows nothing but the difference in the on-field impact created by Lallana who was deployed centrally or on the right as compared to Tadic who is deployed largely on the left and Pelle- a typical no.9 inside the box.
Conclusion
Despite the exquisite start by Southampton, it’s early days yet and the Saints haven’t really been put into test in the Premier League. The only real challenges they have faced are Arsenal, Tottenham and Liverpool, out of which Southampton had succumbed to defeat on two of those occasions. Thus, there isn’t enough evidence yet that the Saints could do away with the big-guns of the league and will have to face several uphill tasks during the course of the long season. Thus it isn’t realistic that they would remain Champions League spot contenders by the end of the season. But in truth, they do have the confidence, quality and determination desired to give the biggies a run for their money and really fight it out at the top. Moreover we are talking about football, is there a question of realism?