When a coach’s first idea about a result is a complaint about an arbitration decision, it usually indicates that it is under immense pressure, that something is happening seriously internally, or both.
Therefore, it is not an intelligent signal for Southampton that Chief Ivan Jurić made the decision to first punish the officer 2-1 of the Saints against Crystal Palace.
The Croatian coach convinced his goalkeeper, Aaron Ramsdale, who fouled Eagles forward Jean-Philippe Mateta when he was trying to get a corner that he headed into the net through Trevoh Chalobah.
However, the referee disagreed, and his video assistant backed up his decision to award the goal.
“I thought that it’s really difficult for the goalkeeper doing his job if somebody is pushing him, and for me it’s clearly a foul,” Jurić complained in the aftermath.
Overall, the manager attempted to focus on the positives.
“I think we started very well. I think the first half was tough. I think we played much better second half, dominated in the middle. I think the team is competing. We are really bad in set pieces the last two games, and this is what’s the biggest problem is.
“I think in the first half they play the long ball to Mateta and then they try to win the second ball and they do it better than us in the first half, and in the second half we become better in that situation because the game that would win the second ball.
Jurić’s challenge is that his Southampton appearance is plagued by the same challenges that affected former Russell Martin starter two games in his mandate. They play well but also end up losing.
“It is my suggestion that we are competing, that we are a serious team, that we are doing lots of things good,” was the new boss’s assessment.
“Now we have a few days to work to be better. What I want to change, it’s really that it’s missing a little bit to get results.
“Like against West Ham, like today, we have to get better in moments, like the urgency to win, to have more urgency to win in the crucial moments of the game.
“It was not easy to prepare this game in practically one day because one day of rest, one day you prepare. Now we’ll have a few days more to prepare it better.”
On this question, Jurić is right. He hasn’t quite arrived in England, however, the busy holiday schedule leaves him little time on the education floor to paint with the players.
With more time, you can simply things on the southern coast.
But the brutal reality is that currently, Southampton is on course to be the worst team in Premier League history.
Southampton’s fate is worse than Derby’s in the 2007-08 season, when the Rams controlled 11 points, the lowest on record in the competition.
Winning a solitary game, the East Midlanders had a goal difference of -69.
The concern indicator for Southampton is that at the same level of this notoriously poor campaign, Derby had seven problems on the board, one more than those who recently have.
County’s functionality is much worse than the Hampshire team, they scored many more goals.
But all signs point to relegation being close to certainty.
When examining the records stretching back 122 years, only five teams have had six points or fewer at this stage in an English top-flight season and went on to be relegated.
If you prefer a more fashionable assessment of Southampton’s dire situation, the corporate OPTA statistics supercomputer offers a 0. 7% chance of survival.
However, Southampton’s nightmare season isn’t just bad news for soccer fans on the English south coast.
Their failure to compete comes after a year in the championship in which the club is one of the leading teams.
This poses a problem for the more expansive game in England because it is not an isolated example.
The teams that explode the lower leagues compete on the most sensible flight.
As I pointed out, when the saints ascended, their prompt return to the Premier League was another example of incessant erosion of the festival in the championship.
The monetary disparity between the Premier League and the lower division has made it almost easy to promote teams that have not played in the top flight in the last three years and are therefore eligible for the unique parachute versions that relegated teams receive.
Southampton returned to the top department along with Leicester City, who also returned the first attempt, and beat Leeds United, who also asked for a quick return, the final qualification to get there.
This year, Leeds is among the most sensible groups in the division, closely followed by Burnley and Sheffield United, who, as you will have guessed, are looking for fast returns.
The excellence of those two groups is all about the festival because, like Southampton, the pair looked extraordinarily under-par in previous Premier League campaigns.
If this disease is corrected, the festival in the oldest and most supported football pyramid in the world is in danger of disappearing completely. This would be bad news for everyone interested in English football.
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