Southampton were humiliated by Leicester on Claude Puel’s return to the South Coast.
Mauricio Pellegrino named four changes to the side that had been rather impressive against Arsenal, including dropping the man of the match Pierre Hojbjerg and replacing him with Steven Davis. The other changes were Jack Stephens, James Ward-Prowse and Nathan Redmond out for Cedric Soares, Mario Lemina and Sofiane Boufal.
Claude Puel made three changes to the side that beat Newcastle. Christian Fuchs, Andy King and Shinji Okazaki came in for Marc Albrighton, Vicente Iborra and Demarai Gray.
Leicester took the lead after 10 minutes through the Algerian Riyad Mahrez, who picked the ball up just in the Southampton half and as he kept advancing, players stood off him and Lemina’s slip opened up the space that he needed to release a shot beyond the stretching arms of Fraser Forster.
Saints had their first sight of goal after half-an-hour. Charlie Austin’s distance shot was straight at Kasper Schmeichel and the Dane made a comfortable save.
Forster produced a quick, reflex save from a Leicester counter-attack from a Saints corner as Mahrez squared the ball to Jamie Vardy, but his shot was well-saved by the Englishman.
It was in vain, however, as the Foxes doubled their lead from the subsequent corner. Mahrez drilled the ball to a somehow unmarked Fuchs on the edge of the box. The Austrian’s volley pinballed between a trio of Saints players and fell to Okazaki who was at the right place at the right time to put the ball into the back of the net.
Minutes later, Leicester made it three. A deep Leicester free kick, swung in by Mahrez, found Harry Maguire who showed great strength to square the ball across goal. Okazaki missed the ball but it sold Forster who dived too early and the ball was met at the far post by Andy King who had the simplest of tasks to put the ball into the empty net.
The Saints players were booed into the dressing rooms at the half time whistle and it was thoroughly deserved as they were poor and bar one or two players. No character or effort was shown.
Saints showed a bit of hope and pulled one back on the hour mark as Ryan Bertrand’s corner was met by Maya Yoshida at the back post and his header somehow made it through into the net.
In a game like this, Saints would’ve needed Austin to be on the form he has shown and he wasted a glorious chance to make it 3-2. Substitute Nathan Redmond found Bertrand with his overlapping run and the low cross was met by Austin who had an fairly open goal, but his shot was straight at Schmeichel.
3-2 and it is a different game, but minutes later, Cedric attempted a cross-field ball which was pathetic and intercepted by Mahrez, who then found Vardy in behind and his cross was intelligently met by Okazaki, whose run outsmarted his compatriot Yoshida and he finished it beautifully to make it 4-1.
Fans were pouring out of the stands quicker than gravy will be poured out of jugs during Christmas. They’d had enough and had seen it before. The tactics were negative, with players passing backwards. Team selection itself was questionable.
Personally, I don’t think Pellegrino will last the entire season, but Saints will next travel to London to face Chelsea at Stamford Bridge on Saturday.
