The Saints were overturned comfortably by Liverpool last night and now have a serious fight on their hands if they are to maintain their Premier League status.
Southampton’s season went from bad to worse after they suffered a 2-0 loss at the hands of Liverpool last night, which saw them drop from 14th to 18th place in the table.
The loss saw Huddersfield leapfrog them into 17th, while the Saints fall back into the drop zone after climbing out of it just last week.
Things are as tight as ever at the foot of the table with Southampton now one point behind Crystal Palace, Swansea and Huddersfield Town. With only five league wins so far this term, the Saints have left themselves with much work to do ahead of the final 11 games of the season.
Last year, under Claude Puel, Southampton finished the season eighth having reached a domestic cup final, too. The team finished strongly and will be praying for the same strong finish to help claw their way out of the relegation spots.
With Pellegrino in charge now, however, BBC pundit and newly appointed England women’s coach Phil Neville voiced his concern over Southampton’s season, fearing they could help make up the trio of teams to face the drop.
When asked whether he thought Southampton were ‘too nice’, Neville agreed, citing Newcastle United’s recent spirited performances as the exact type of team effort the Saints require to make best use of their talented players.
Speaking to BBC’s Match of the Day 2 programme on Sunday 11 February, 2018, Neville said: “They actually have to play a bit like Newcastle, you know, get in people’s faces, make tackles. Play a little bit more direct at times.
“At the moment they are drifting into the bottom three, and I’m concerned about Southampton.
“They’ve got good players on paper, they’ve got good individuals, they struggle to score goals, and they struggle really to have that ruthlessness that we’ve seen from Huddersfield and Newcastle.”
Pellegrino’s Saints win-rate (23%) has been abysmal compared to Puel’s (38%), with the latter seizing his shot at redemption with Leicester City this season likely to frustrate Southampton fans.
Having dismissed Puel after a pretty impressive season by Southampton standards last season, you can only fear for Pellegrino come the end of this campaign.
In defence of Southampton, they have done terrifically well in terms of recruitment, considering that they have lost nearly all their star performers to bigger clubs in the league. However, their fortune in terms of new signings coming good may be dwindling slightly with this current crop.
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