Following the dismissal of Claude Puel in the summer, Southampton’s board aimed to recruit a manager whose ideas would inspire the squad. A manager whose playing style would excite the supporters. A manager whose approach revolved around high-pressing, intense, attacking football.
Instead, they appointed Mauricio Pellegrino.
The former Liverpool defender performed admirably at Alaves – a club with low expectations and a shoestring budget. He took them to 9th place in La Liga by parking the bus and hitting teams on the counter and he also helped them to a Copa Del Rey final. Fair enough.
Pellegrino did really well at Alaves. But he achieved success based on a defensive style of play, with impetus placed on organisation and structure. He hasn’t even managed to get that across to the squad here.
Vice-chairman Les Reed said, and I quote, upon Pellegrino’s arrival:
Mauricio believes with the quality we have we can play exciting, attacking football, taking the game to our opponents by playing a high-intensity game. He will continue to develop and introduce young players whilst building on the core of experience that we have in the squad.
Let’s pick these quotes apart. Pellegrino has no experience of playing an “exciting, attacking” style. At Alaves, he was defensive largely down to a lack of resources. At Valencia, Estudiantes and Independiente, his approach focused largely on possession.
I think I’ve seen us “take the game” to our opponents with a “high-intensity game” on three occasions this season. Against Swansea on the opening day, we performed very well. Until Arnautovic got sent off against us in the win over West Ham, we played with intensity. Against Everton more recently, we dominated and played with the necessary urgency. That’s three games out of a possible 20 this season.
“He will continue to develop and introduce young players”. No, he won’t. He hasn’t. Jake Hesketh is supremely talented and has been fit for some time now. He’s been totally overlooked, yet we have struggled to pick apart teams and have struggled to play killer passes. Hesketh literally specialises in this. No young player has been “introduced” this season.
Pellegrino made use of some young players at Alaves, Theo Hernandez and Marcos Llorente, solely because they were the two most impressive players at his disposal. They were loanees from Atletico Madrid and Real Madrid respectively.
So, although Pellegrino has totally failed to live up to these promises, questions simply must be asked of Reed for appointing a manager with no track record or experience of playing the way he is being asked to.
Does that excuse Pellegrino for under-performing so drastically? Absolutely not. It’s difficult to identify one manager in the Premier League who is worse than him with regards to team selection and in-game management. The players are quite clearly not playing for him, too. There is no drive or urgency to follow instructions. We have seen discontent towards Pellegrino from the likes of Sofiane Boufal and Wesley Hoedt this season – two players who Saints have paid a combined total of just over £30 million for, yet are continually rotated by the manager. They should both be starting week-in, week-out.
Pellegrino’s first interview as Saints boss was impressive. One can only presume that it is through his well-spoken nature that he was able to convince Reed to appoint him. He spoke about many interesting concepts, but one specific one was synergy.
By definition, synergy is the cooperation of two or more products to produce a greater effect than the sum of their separate effects. Speaking in footballing terms, this relates to players forming relationships, understanding each other’s game and building connections through regular game time.
Pellegrino has totally gone back on that, though, and has contradicted himself. Every single game, he seems to ring the changes. Saints are now 10 games without a clean sheet. Why? Partially because of individual errors, but mostly because Pellegrino consistently rotates his back four. There is no chemistry between the players because the manager is eliminating any chance of them forming relationships.
Southampton, at the halfway stage, have secured as many points (19) as they have played games. They’ve won four games all season. Four. They have scored 18 goals all season, working out as just under a goal a game. Saints, who have prided themselves on having an impressive defensive unit since coming back up, have shipped 25 goals this season.
Many have stated that the quality of the squad is more to blame than the manager. Quite frankly, I think that’s ridiculous. I firmly believe that Saints have at least the 8th best squad in the league, yet currently find themselves in 13th place. Attacking reinforcements have been necessary for a while now, and yes that falls down to the board’s poor decision-making of late. However, there is absolutely no argument to be made that Pellegrino has a poor squad at his disposal.
Charlie Austin, who is now inevitably injured, is a capable finisher who was overlooked for large sections of the campaign so far. Manolo Gabbiadini is an extremely clever attacker with sublime movement, perhaps too intelligent for Pellegrino to build his team around.
Sofiane Boufal is another with all the talent in the world. For as frustrating as he can be, he has so much quality and simply needs to be coached. Not by Pellegrino, though. Nathan Redmond and Dusan Tadic are horrendously inconsistent and have been sub-par for some time now, but they are also being restricted and held in a straitjacket by the cautious approach of Pellegrino.
Perhaps it is because of the general quality of the squad, mainly found in the defensive and midfield third, admittedly, that Pellegrino is struggling. He’s never worked with a squad of this quality in a role that isn’t temporary. Perhaps he is as clueless as he looks, and he doesn’t know how to get the best from it. One thing is for certain – he hasn’t got a clue about what his best starting line-up is.
The harsh reality of it is that Saints have got this appointment horribly wrong, and Mauricio Pellegrino is not a good enough manager for the Premier League. He is obviously an intelligent man with experience in the game, but he is proving to be a terrible fit for Saints. He has taken Southampton Football Club backwards in the six months he has been here.
Pellegrino fails to accept blame. He fails to acknowledge insufficiency. Saints are always “unlucky” in his eyes. This is wrong, though, we’re not always unlucky. We’re always awful. We always sit deep after taking the lead and we always settle for mediocrity under this manager.
Saints’ majority stakeholder Gao Jisheng has been in attendance for several of the club’s recent outings. What must he think of his shiny new £210 million investment? There’s only one way this club is going at the moment, but he can halt the plummet.
The first step for Saints is to sack Mauricio Pellegrino. He has overstayed his time at the club already and has shown absolutely no signs of getting his methods across to the players. And if he is, well, that’s all the more worrying given how dire the team are playing.
It’s growing tiresome, calling for a manager’s head. But what other choice do Saints have at this stage? As has been alluded to, the club is only going in one direction, and Pellegrino’s tactical incompetence is contributing to the downward spiral at St Mary’s.
Time is up for Mauricio Pellegrino. He has to leave Southampton otherwise Championship football awaits.
