Southampton this weekend take a trip to Old Trafford. I think a lot of people are ignoring what Mauricio Pochettino’s side are doing this season, and I understand why: they haven’t been on television a lot, their games have almost all been low-scoring and forgettable, and on the surface they haven’t beaten anyone of note beyond Liverpool – and that’s just been packaged and dismissed as a ‘shock’, even though it wouldn’t have been close without Simon Mignolet’s performance for the home team. But they still beat West Brom at The Hawthorns and they still shut-out a very potent Swansea City side at St Mary’s. And, most revealingly, they’ve only conceded 2 goals all the season, which is fewer than any other Premier League club – and I don’t care who you’ve played, that’s impressive. Over the Summer, Southampton invested heavily in Victor Wanyama, Dani Osvaldo, and Dejan Lovren, but it’s not fair to attribute the side’s current form to that influx of talent alone. Yes, clearly Lovren has played at a very high level, but this team is currently littered with under-valued performers. Lovren’s cenre-back partner Jose Fonte has been excellent, Nathaniel Clyne and Adam Lallana should both have been in the recent England squad, and Morgan Schneiderlin’s is every bit the effective ball-winner that he was in 2012/13 – this team is the sum of its parts, it’s not being artificially elevated by high-priced individuals. That says an awful lot about the work that Pochettino is doing down on the south coast. Manchester United need to be very careful on Saturday, because there’s a unity and a discipline about Southampton which will make them very tough to establish any kind of offensive rhythm against. It’s a shame that this game isn’t on television, because Pochettino and his players deserve a bit more recognition that they’re currently getting. If you’re a gambler, it might be a good idea to keep this away from your accumulator.
Posted on: Wed, 16 Oct 2013 23:35:54 +0000
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