With the 2016/17 season finally over, I have looked over the results and performances over the course of the campaign and identified three areas in which Southampton could strengthen to improve for 2017/18.
Southampton finished the recent season in the Premier League in eighth position, accumulating 46 points, scoring 41 times and conceding 48 times along the away. They finished on a negative goal difference for only the second time since returning to the top flight.
For the first time in since 2010, Southampton failed to make any progress in a final league position. Despite this, they did reach their first major cup final since 2003 and returned to Wembley for the second time in seven years, with their previous visit being a 4-1 win over Carlisle United in the final of the JPT in 2010.
Saints were desperately unlucky to lose the EFL cup final 3-2 to Manchester United back in February as they were the better side over the 90 minutes and had the opening goal ruled out for offside, when in fact, Manolo Gabbiadini was onside.
So, here are three areas that I think Saints should improve this summer.
Centre Back
The first area that I believe Saints need to strengthen for the upcoming 2017/18 season is at centre back. The current list of Southampton first team centre backs that featured over the course of the last season are: Virgil van Dijk, Maya Yoshida, Jack Stephens and Florin Gardos.
This is an area in which Saints need to strengthen desperately especially with star centre back and captain Van Dijk heavily linked with a move away from St Mary’s in the summer.
Florin Gardos has only recently recovered from a long term injury and isn’t high in the rankings. Whereas, Stephens and Yoshida have been strung together as a partnership not through choice but have fared and played really well together. However, there isn’t much depth in this department for Saints.
Here are three players I think we should sign or enquire for in this position:
Harry Maguire
Harry Maguire has been excellent for Hull City over the course of the 16/17 season and flourished under Marco Silva. Maguire is young and English and shows great composure on and off the ball, as well as being a hard tackler and disciplined positionally. Maguire wouldn’t be out of Saints’ price range and would be strong addition to the squad.
Kurt Zouma
This is more of an ambitious one. However, Zouma since suffering a leg break in the 2015/16 season has found himself lower down the pecking order at Chelsea and is finding game time limited at Stamford Bridge. Signing a player of this quality would be real statement of intent by the Saints board as an aim to strengthen the first team squad to keep the progression of the club going.
Striker
Despite signing Manolo Gabbiadini in January for £14 million, Saints have a real gap in quality in their strike force. Charlie Austin and Gabbiadini compared to Shane Long and Jay Rodriguez shows the gulf. One of Saints’ biggest problems in the just-gone season is the failure to score goals and kill games off, with no player reaching double digits for goals. Should the worst come and both Gabbiadini and Austin become injured or suspended around a similar time, then it would leave Saints with Jay Rodriguez and Shane Long who both have struggled to reach heights they have previously reached.
Here are two players in this position I’d be keen on:
Johnathan Kodjia
Jonathan Kodjia has been a shining light in another underwhelming season for Aston Villa, scoring 19 times in 36 appearances. Kodjia is a natural finisher and can score a whole range of goals. He would be perfect to add to Saints’ under-performing fire power.
Willian Jose
Willian Jose is a proven goal scorer and netted 13 times this season for Sociedad. He’s a very well rounded technical striker and wouldn’t be out of the club’s price range. He would be a nifty little striker to have in reserve.
Attacking Midfielder
Now, with a lack of scoring goals this season becoming clear for everyone to see, it’s only fair that we question the creativity in midfield as well as the strikers and the tactics. Realistically, we only have two players that can play as number tens; Dusan Tadic and Sofiane Boufal. It’s even arguable that both players are better suited to wide roles.
Here are two attacking midfielders Saints should consider pursuing:
Hakim Ziyech
Ziyech was on display in the Europa League final and has also been in fine form for Ajax all season. Saints have previously been linked with Ziyech before and understandably so; he is a silky and technical playmaker that would suit us very well.
Gylfi Sigurdsson
Sigurdsson has been one of the major reasons Swansea have stayed in the Premier League. The Icelandic international scored 9 times in the season just gone and has put in some fantastic performances. Sigurdsson has previously been linked with Saints and would be a fine addition to the squad as they aim to find a way back into the Europa League next season.
