Southampton were left frustrated as they shared the points with Hull City in what was a really boring game to watch.
It was a disappointing match, but Hull wanted it more and arguably had more to play for. They will feel a bit disappointed that they couldn’t get all three points, which would’ve massively helped them in their Premier League survival push.
Boo’s echoed around St Mary’s at the full time whistle as a game of not many chances drew to a close. Southampton were given a lifeline late on as Alfred N’Diaye pulled down Maya Yoshida to gift Saints a penalty. Dusan Tadic stepped up and Eldin Jakupovic matched him with a decent save to keep the game goalless.
It’s always going to be hard to write about a performance like Saturday’s draw with Hull; we were completely outplayed and on a different day probably could’ve lost.
As ever there were a couple of positives to take from yesterday’s match and here are five Saints players that were the best of a bad bunch on the day.
Manolo Gabbiadini
It was a frustrating game for Gabbiadini with the lack of service up to him and it didn’t help that he was up against a top quality centre back in Harry Maguire.
Gabbiadini had a flying start to his time on the south coast and it has dried up a little, but the service to him during this match was dreadful and I feel sorry for him.
Cedric Soares
Cedric has been one of the most underrated players this season and again proved his worth against Hull. He loves to get forward and again caused danger with numerous pacey overlapping runs on that right wing.
Claude Puel has transformed Cedric into a terrific defender and I hope we can keep hold of him in the summer.
Sofiane Boufal
Boufal hasn’t had the brightest start to his Southampton career but after impressing midweek against Chelsea, he got a second consecutive start.
Boufal has had his critics this season and I think the majority of it has come unfairly and he’s been used as a scapegoat as he’s our record signing.
An overall average game for Boufal, but he did shine in what was a very poor performance.
Jack Stephens
As we’ve seen a lot this season, Stephens copes well with agile, pacey strikers and isn’t so well drilled against the tall, physical strikers, so Saturday’s task against Oumar Niasse wasn’t too difficult.
It was a pretty calm day for the Southampton defence but when called upon Stephens was there and was my man of the match.
Nathan Redmond
Redmond has been a bit hit and miss this season. For the first half of the season he was really poor and didn’t look like a Premier League proven player, but during the second half he has really come into his own and is arguably our most creative player at times.
As I’ve previously said it was a disappointing day for the Southampton forwards, but Redmond stood out in what was a disastrous performance from the majority of the team.