da realsbet： This article is part of Football FanCast’s The Chalkboard series, which provides a tactical insight into teams, players, managers, potential signings and more…
da fazobetai： When Ralph Hasenhuttl arrived at Southampton, he brought with him a recognisable, effective ethos that initially reaped some rewards.
The Austrian – previously coined as the Alpine Klopp for his intense style of play – kept the Saints in the Premier League with this tactic, in which his players maintained a high-energy approach throughout the 90 minutes and harried their opponents into conceding possession.
Now however, this particular ethos is fading.
The Athletic’s Southampton correspondent Carl Anka recently detailed how Hasenhuttl’s players are slowly opting not to press as intensely as they previously were.
Anka outlines how the south coast side’s pressing numbers were quite high at the start of the campaign in which they recorded their only two wins against Brighton and Sheffield United, although when they now need to press most, they are failing to do so.
But why? Why have they stopped? The following statistic shows that their pressing has them right up with the Premier League’s big hitters in terms of shots taken from harrying the opposition, so there aren’t many reasons to think of as to why they have decided to change their approach.
Southampton are joint-third for shots taken following a high press – Hasenhuttl’s side are tied on 14 along with Leicester, whereas only Chelsea and Manchester City have had more shots after a high press.
The only difference between those sides and the south coast outfit in this respect is the fact that they find themselves in the top four, whereas the Saints are 19th, while the Blues, the Foxes and the Citizens can boast better personnel in their squads in names such as Jamie Vardy, Tammy Abraham and Sergio Aguero, to name a few.
The main point here is that these type of players playing for top clubs are more likely to finish these chances, thus gaining more encouragement to carry on pressing as they are being positively rewarded for it – contrastingly, perhaps the fact that Southampton are the Premier League’s third-lowest scorers with 11 goals in 12 games suggests they are being discouraged.
What Hasenhuttl’s side must do now is get back to the high-pressing manner which they are certainly capable of, for it is surely a better approach to what they are currently doing, which is a difficult method to describe.