Is Russell Martin the best choice to lead Southampton ahead, as one person said, “Should have been expecting this”? The conclusion so far at Southampton is that Russell Martin has slightly flattered to deceive
This article is part of Football League World’s ‘The Verdict‘ series, which provides personal opinions from the FLW writers regarding the latest breaking news, teams, players, managers, potential signings and more…
What was seen as a dream start to life at Southampton for Russell Martin has quickly become a nightmare in the space of just four weeks.
His appointment to the south coast club from Swansea City in the summer looked good business. His teams in Wales rivalled Vincent Kompany’s Burnley for possession stats last season, and whilst the board didn’t give him much to spend, he almost recorded a play-off place – with clubs higher up the leagues looking at nabbing him.
Southampton were the club that took him from South Wales, but despite beating Plymouth, QPR and Sheffield Wednesday in their opening few games, it’s been a horror show ever since. The club have conceded the most goals in the Championship this season, and it appears that they haven’t fixed their defensive issues with three games lost in a row – which has piled the pressure on Martin to quickly turn their form around.
Is Russell Martin the right man to take Southampton forward?
We asked some of our FLW writers for their thoughts on whether Martin is the right candidate to take Southampton forward despite his horror run of form.
Will Lancaster
It’s tough on Martin because whilst Southampton are expected to challenge near the top of the table, their summer exodus came much later than Leicester City and Leeds United’s, which forced the club into action late on in the window.
Tino Livramento, James Ward-Prowse, Romeo Lavia and Nathan Tella all left at some point following the first game of the Championship season, which led to a late flurry of loan signings in the window.
Of course, Flynn Downes, Ryan Fraser, Mason Holgate, and Taylor Harwood-Bellis are all Championship quality and they’ve had outstanding experiences in the second tier before – but the quality of those leaving is undoubtedly greater than those coming in.
Not only that, but an entire pre-season spent by the exiting crop of stars will have helped in the opening few games, and so now the Saints are going through a rebuild process once again whilst the season is underway. These should be noted and given as evidence in support of Martin.
But regardless of a rebuild, you simply cannot concede nine goals in two games against Sunderland and Leicester, who are expected to be top six candidates.
It’s not good enough, and it’s blindingly obvious that Martin needs to shape his defence and approach differently if he’s to stay in a job. But I do have faith that he’s the man to take Southampton forward; they’ve got the talent up front and out wide, it’s just addressing naivety that is the issue.
Ned Holmes
Early doubters and a difficult teething period should be nothing new for anyone that has followed Russell Martin’s coaching career so far. This slow start lies at the door of the Southampton chiefs, they should have been expecting this.
Things haven’t started particularly well for him at St Mary’s and the same issues that we’ve seen elsewhere – defensive fragility and a lack of cutting in the edge in the final third – have reared their head but the Saints hierarchy must’ve known that appointing Martin wasn’t a quick fix.
It was always going to take time and as such, he deserves some patience to continue to bed his ideas. His unique style of play takes time to click but as we saw in the second half of last season at Swansea City, it can be very effective when it does.
Lots of their transfer business was done late in the window, which will have slowed the process down, and there are obvious concerns to take from the last two games but pulling the trigger now would be harsh.
I’m not convinced he was the right appointment and will take them back to the Premier League but they need to back him now and give him the chance to fulfil their faith in him.
