Southampton podcaster Steve Grant has outlined how the Saints have failed to improve upon the issues of last season during their loss to Everton this weekend.
Ralph Hasenhuttl’s side took a first-half lead at Goodison Park through new signing Adam Armstrong, before three goals after the break sent Southampton back to the south coast without a point to show for their efforts.
Grant – who runs the number one independent Southampton website Saints Web – claimed that this performance was very similar to what the fans witnessed on a number of occasions last season.
While speaking on the Total Saints podcast, Grant said: “It’s also kind of very Groundhog Day, isn’t it? This is exactly the sort of stuff we were discussing last season.
“In that, we would have a decent first half, the opposition would realise that they’ve kind of underperformed, the manager would identify something, make a slight adjustment – even if it’s just an adjustment in the tempo that they play out.
“And you could already see at the start of the second half that that opposition is already pushing us back and causing us problems. And we don’t seem to have any idea of how to react to this situation.”
TIF Thoughts on Southampton’s form…
First-team names such as Danny Ings, Jannik Vestergaard, and Ryan Bertrand have all left the club this summer, and so it would be reasonable to expect something new from the team this season.
This should have been even more the case with new signings Tino Livramento, Adam Armstrong, and Romain Perraud all making their debuts in the game at Goodison Park.
Southampton have had a bad habit of losing points from winning positions over recent seasons, and following this opening-day performance, their fans may be worried this campaign could offer more of the same.
And with the visit of Manchester United to come this weekend, things may get worse before it gets better.