Team Focus: Southampton's Lack of Goals - The Lambert & Osvaldo Dilemma
When Mauricio Pochettino was appointed Southampton boss back in January, feelings of Nigel Adkins' mistreatment aside, fans were optimistic that the Argentine could bring a style of football that is both attractive and successful to St Mary's. A 14th-placed and lacklustre finish to last season meant that fans were really just waiting to get started on a new season, and given the relatively star-studded arrivals of Victor Wanyama, Dejan Lovren and Pablo Osvaldo over the summer, there was reason to be hopeful. The defensive duo have, as hoped, shored up what was a worryingly leaky defence, but record-signing Osvaldo's arrival has had something of an undesirable effect on the team's goalscoring.
Pochettino's main issue in terms of team selection has been up front. Defensively, his team have been incredibly solid and statistically at least, they have have been one of the best in Europe. While only 3 Premier League teams have allowed their opponents more shots this season than Saints (9.8 per game), only Tottenham, Inter and Roma (1) have conceded more goals this season than Southampton (2) of all 98 teams across the top 5 European leagues. Their 3 highest rated players this season are ever-present centre-backs Lovren (7.89) and Jose Fonte (7.58), who have 3 Man of the Match awards between them in just 5 matches, followed by right-back Nathaniel Clyne (7.50). Their busiest and most effective players this season have been their defenders. Even the majority of their goals have come from the defence.
You have to look down to 6th in Southampton's squad to find an attacking player in Adam Lallana (6.92), and way down to 10th to find striker Rickie Lambert, who was Southampton's second best player in 2012/13 behind Morgan Schneiderlin. He has, however, made a distinctly unremarkable start to the new campaign and his 6.72 rating reflects that.
The joint highest-scoring Englishman in the Premier League last season with 15 goals (along with Frank Lampard), Lambert earned himself successive call-ups to the England squad but despite scoring twice in 3 appearances at international level, he has been unable to replicate his form of last season for his club, his only goal coming from the penalty spot in the win at West Brom.
Part of the problem for Saints has, ironically, been the arrival of Osvaldo, who has impressed sufficiently to work his way into Pochettino's starting eleven, but his presence has caused problems for the side when on the attack. The manager has tried to incorporate his record signing and his leading goalscorer into the same team, but the result has been a lack of coherence to Southampton's attacks. Rarely have the two looked on the same wavelength, and that neither of them has a goal from open play or a single assist speaks volumes about their displays.
Osvaldo has been utilised in behind Lambert in a 4-2-3-1 lineup or alongside him in a 4-4-2. The two are very similar players, though, in that whilst the main focus of their games is scoring goals, they like to drop deep and collect possession, involving themselves in build up play in the lines between the opposition midfield and defence. But if both of your strikers are doing that job there will consequently be a gap further up the pitch. In the three matches they have started together, the average position of their touches has been extremely close together, as shows in the above image. They occupy almost identical areas and resultantly do jobs that aren't complimentary, something that all good strike partnerships are.
Those areas are deeper than a typical centre-forward, and they are thus too far from goal. Southampton have attempted 12 through balls this season, and the two supposedly most attack-minded players in their team are responsible for 10 of them (Lambert 6, Osvaldo 4). Of course, if both of your centre-forwards are dropping deep enough to play another player in on goal so regularly, there is a problem up front.
Saints are the only side in the Premier League yet to score from open play this season, with Lambert's penalty and Lovren and Fonte both scoring headers from set-pieces. Their defensive record is so good that the fact that they are the joint-lowest scoring side in the division can be disregarded temporarily, but 3 goals every 5 games is not sustainable for the duration of the season.
7th in the league with 8 points already, only 4 points off the top of the table and 1 ahead of the likes of Manchester Untied, Pochettino will undoubtedly be delighted with the start to the season his side have made. But in the likes of Lambert and Osvaldo, Gastón Ramírez and Luke Shaw, Saints have exciting, attacking players, and a healthy mix of youth and experience as well as a sturdy defence. That should make for a plentiful goal supply and a successful season, so it should just be a matter of time before Lambert and Osvaldo start firing, but for the time being, Pochettino has a dilemma on his hands as to how to fit both star men into a functional and effective Saints starting lineup.
Can Lambert and Osvaldo strike up a working partnership? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below
