It is hard to pinpoint exactly how Southampton can better themselves through the potential purchases of the January transfer window, as so many questions and perspectives can be posed, but here are some general thoughts toward their current situation.
Southampton Pre-Transfer Window Considerations
The January transfer window will be utterly crucial for Southampton. The club rose up the rungs in superb fashion last season, and really showcased their talents as absolute underdogs in many of the division’s tough fixtures, but they have not been so flush this campaign. Despite Ronald Koeman employing largely the same tactics, the team just haven’t been as watertight. Granted, they didn’t top the league last spell, but they did make their mark well, and, this time around, they just aren’t progressing quite as remarkably.
Perhaps it is the old problem of teams that succeed during one season not managing to emulate that again, but Southampton have all of the required strength to throw opposing teams off balance, yet just aren’t doing so. Thus, the transfer window of January 2016 will be very important for the Dutchman and his fellows; if they are going to make sales and try to mix things up somewhat, they must procure a player (or players) to keep them afloat upfront.
Whoscored.com have categorised the strengths and weaknesses of Southampton, and their main areas needing improvement are rather vital cogs in the all-important wheel of, ultimately, scoring. Their finishing ability has been branded weak, as has avoiding the offside flag and protecting their lead on the match. The latter has been especially prevalent in games.
For instance, their recent 4-0 win against Arsenal was a great triumph and achievement, displaying that these men can really regroup and give the opposition a royal dressing-down when needs be, and they can protect a lead. However, their latest fixture, against West Ham, resulted in a 2-1 loss to the south coasters. Although Carl Jenkinson knocked in an early own goal, gifting Saints a head start, this was snuffled away later in the game, therefore, exemplifying their capacity to forfeit a lead with some measure of ease.
How can they oust this issue, though? Well, that’s a hard question to answer indeed. Perhaps this wouldn’t be down to one stopgap player, but rather a better dynamic between the midfielders and defenders, who, chiefly, control who breaks the wall of defence through to Saints’ goalmouth. But, perhaps one better defender or centre-mid would be a good call? After all, defending counter-attacks was listed as an extremely weak point of the structure by Whoscored.com.
Major chess pieces such as Dušan Tadić, Graziano Pellè and Sadio Mané have been putting in the hard yards, though, so Saints should fight tooth and nail to sensibly retain these players. However, there are rumours that Manchester United might have been interested in Mané, which, despite his failure to net a goal, would be a huge blow to the mainframe of the squad.
On the other hand, Steven Davis has been sensational in certain moments of clarity for the team, and was hailed “underrated” following his performance against Arsenal. So, if Davis can continue to nail goals and evolve into a really, truly formidable force, then Southampton could find new hope within its current formation.
The fact that a few decent questions can be raised without there necessarily being one solid response indicates that Southampton might have a case of trial and error on their hands. However, what does remain clear is that they must make some calculated decisions during the transfer window; else they could face even more strife in the next few months of the current season.
