Sunday saw Southampton kick off the Premier League action with an impressive 3-0 win over reigning champions Leicester City.
It was a match largely decided by tactical systems, as the Foxes struggled to cope with their second major formation change in the space of two games and the diamond midfield Claudio Ranieri had implemented for their trip to St. Mary’s.
[ad_pod id=’now-tv’ align=’centre’]
Indeed, the absence of wingers – and the consequential confusion over when the central midfielders should close down wide or tuck in – allowed Southampton’s full-backs to run riot against the Foxes, as shown below by BBC Sport’s heat maps from the first half…
Whilst both impressed upon taking full advantage of what Ranieri later admitted was an error of judgement on his part (below), Euro 2016 winner Cedric Soares particularly stood out on the right-hand side, making telling contributions both defensively and offensively.
“I tried to change the system to help my players find the solution but it’s much better to maintain the normal way. I think it’s better to give them something we know. There are no excuses. Southampton were the better team and deserved to win. But I take responsibility for our shape.”
As our infographic shows, the Portuguese not only completed five tackles and three interceptions, but also whipped in five crosses and produced three key passes – one of those was the assist for James Ward-Prowse’s impressive opener; a short layoff from the right channel that allowed the English midfielder to open up his body and curl into the opposite side of the net.
Some have questioned the 25-year-old’s performance levels since returning from his summer heroics with Portugal, but he was arguably the Man of the Match as Southampton demolished the Premier League champions.
[ad_pod id=’Shoot-Xmas-Survey’ align=’left’]
[ad_pod id=’playwire’ align=’center’]