Southampton defeated a ten-man Birmingham City team on Saturday, but it took them a long time.
The final goal of a dramatic match at St Andrews was scored by Joe Aribo, who came off the bench. His goal in the 96th minute gave Southampton a much-needed 4-3 victory.
Russell Martin’s team scored two goals through former Birmingham striker Che Adams and loanee David Brooks, while Adam Armstrong broke a four-game goalless streak.
Many would have assumed the match was won when Birmingham was reduced to ten men with Southampton leading 3-2. This was not the case, though, as the Blues equalised in the 77th minute.
Aribo’s bravery saved the Saints’ blushes, but this only brought attention to a serious issue that Southampton needs to solve or else their chances of promotion would disappear.
Southampton needs to strengthen their defence.
In front of their home supporters, Birmingham is a tough team to play against and is currently in decent form.
But Southampton cannot afford to give up goals at their current rate if they are to maintain their promotion ambitions. Even though they prevailed on Saturday, beating your opponents every week by three or four goals is not sustainable.
Southampton allowed just 13 goals in their record-breaking run of 22 straight league victories until their 22nd game without a loss. Martin’s team has conceded a whopping 16 goals in seven games across all competitions since defeating Rotherham United 2-0 in the opening week of February.
Given that Southampton seemed to have solved the issue—having given up 19 goals in the first eight league games before the winning streak—this is cause for serious concern. Southampton seems to be playing more like themselves, as evidenced by their flimsy defensive play and mistakes that they weren’t making a few weeks ago.
The Saints’ chances of getting promoted could be harmed even if they keep winning high-scoring matches against their rivals because they have a goal differential that is one less than Ipswich Town and much worse than both Leicester City and Leeds United.
Leicester leads the league after 35 games with a goal differential of 40, followed by Leeds on 37, Ipswich on 25, and Southampton on 34. There isn’t an unending run of games for Southampton to close that gap with 11 Championship games remaining.
Russell Martin is eager to deal with defensive concerns
Although Martin prefers to see his team play a beautiful, possession-oriented style of football, defensive resiliency does not have to suffer in order to adhere to his optimistic philosophy.
Speaking following the thrilling victory over Birmingham, the Southampton manager, who is acutely aware of the team’s defensive shortcomings, stated: “Let’s get the negative out of the way, we concede three rubbish goals so we have to stop that.”
“We used to be among the meanest when it came to passing up opportunities, but lately, we’ve been passing up too many.”
Martin and his coaching staff are aware of the consequences of the situation, and if they can return to the strong team they were a month ago, their chances of getting promoted will rise dramatically.
Regarding the goals his team has been giving up lately, Martin stated: “We will definitely address that.” It comes down to a variety of factors; it’s not a tactical issue because we’re not being split apart; rather, it’s garbage goals.
“It was a free kick and a penalty against Millwall, and it’s a major error early in the game and a good counterattack today.
“The second objective is absurd, even though I adore them both. They have two players in the box and are down to 10 men for the third goal.
Kyle Walker-Peters, who has been Southampton’s finest player this season, was missing from the game on Saturday due to injury, which made him a significant absence. The right-back had started every league minute of the season before the Birmingham game, so his absence meant a defensive reorganisation. Taylor Harwood-Bellis moved to a hybrid right-back/centre-back position, Jack Stephens partnered with Jan Bednarek in central defence, and Ryan Manning played left-back.
Walker-Peters’ absence from the game cannot be solely blamed for the three goals given up against Birmingham, since the team’s defensive shortcomings have been evident when he is in the lineup. When Southampton was playing their best defence between the end of September and the beginning of February, they had a very stable back four, so perhaps the larger problem of frequent changes to the back four is proving difficult.
Until the conclusion of the season, Martin’s best option might be to stick with his first-choice back four and hope that they can play well together rather than making drastic defensive adjustments to address the issues.
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