Manolo Gabbiadini was left out of the Southampton side that took on Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park on Saturday.
Matt Le Tissier told Soccer Saturday on Sky Sports (broadcast 16th September 2017 from 12:00 pm) before Southampton’s clash with Crystal Palace that he thought that Manolo Gabbiadini’s omission from the Saints’ starting lineup was a strange decision.
The Saints had struggled to rectify the main problem that plagued their season last term, and that had been finding the back of the net.
Going into the trip at Selhurst Park, Mauricio Pellegrino’s men had scored just three goals all season in all competitions, and had failed to score four of the five games they had played.
But Pellegrino left Gabbiadini – who got off to a blistering start following his £14 million move (via BBC Sport) back in January and scored one of their three goals in the win over West Ham – on the bench for the game against the Eagles, and Le Tissier expressed his surprise at the decision.
“The scoring of goals has been a massive problem at the football club for a little while now. It is something that needs to change,” he told Soccer Saturday on Sky Sports ahead of the game.
“I know that he brought Shane Long in today, and he’s started Gabbiadini on the bench which I find is a little bit strange because he’s our biggest goal threat and it’s not that he’s missing chances, the team aren’t creating chances. There’s not been too many of them for him to feast on.”
It is a surprise that the Italian did not start the game as they were coming up against a Palace side that, despite changing manager, was still bottom of the Premier League table and had failed to find the back of the net all season.
And by replacing Gabbiadini with Shane Long, it could be argued that Pellegrino was perhaps hinting that the former was a primary reason why the team were not scoring goals rather than the form of those playing behind him.
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