Russell Martin defends ‘brave’ Southampton star amid fan criticism during Hull defeat
Southampton suffered their second defeat in their last three games as they fell to a 2-1 defeat at home to Hull City on Tuesday night.
Russell Martin made three changes to the team that had beat West Brom 2-0 in their previous game, with Ryan Manning, Sam Edozie and Joe Rothwell all coming in to the side.
Southampton were second best in the first half and Martin got his tactics wrong as an in-form Hull side went 2-0 up at half-time. On loan midfielder Joe Rothwell endured a particularly tough night and was one of three players to come off at half time.
Rothwell was not the only player whose performance left fans disgruntled, though, with Martin unhappy with fans’ reaction to his goalkeeper’s performance.
Martin defends Gavin Bazunu from criticism
Gavin Bazunu has been impressive recently and made a couple of brilliant saves to keep a clean sheet in the West Brom victory.
However, against Hull, the Ireland international stopper endured the wrath of a frustrated St Mary’s crowd as he was deemed to take too long on the ball at times. Bazunu also did not cover himself in glory with either of Hull’s goals and made two errors leading to shots in the defeat which saw Southampton drop to fourth in the Championship.
Martin was less than impressed at fans vocalising their frustrations with the man celebrating his 22nd birthday, saying post-match: “There was a lot of moans at Gavin (Bazunu) when he did stuff with the ball but it’s not on him and he was outstanding when he actually had people to pass to.”
The Southampton boss went on to say that he thought “Bazunu was brave in the second half” and did praise fans for their support after half-time, saying: “I really understand the frustration around the whole place but the crowd were amazing in the second half and really stuck with us”.
Bazunu has started all of the Saints’ 33 league games this season and has kept ten clean sheets, conceding 40 goals. At 22, he is very young to be a first choice goalkeeper and is susceptible to mistakes, but his ability on the ball makes him a real asset for Martin and his possession-based approach.
Bazunu’s position is as close to guaranteed starter as you are likely to see, with Alex McCarthy effectively out of the picture and Joe Lumley very much the cup goalkeeper. Therefore, Bazunu will be in goal once again against Millwall on Saturday and will hope for a better performance in front of the Southampton faithful.
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