Derby County 3-0 Southampton: Pre-season analysis
Southampton continued their preparations for the 2018/19 campaign with a 3-0 defeat against Derby County this afternoon.
The Rams were impressive in the first half and limited the threat going forward from Southampton. Frank Lampard’s side found space rather easily in behind Saints’ wing-backs and went into the break the better side.
It was a second-half full of ruthlessness from the Championship side as they capitalised on Southampton’s defensive woes to run away with a 3-0 victory.
Tom Lawrence took two goals well to hand Derby a comfortable advantage before Mason Bennett netted a third, capping a comfortable pre-season runout for the Rams.
Friendlies are there for developing fitness and taking steps towards the upcoming season, dusting off the cobwebs. It was a game, however, that made for pretty horrendous viewing for Saints fans.
So, have a look at what we feel can be taken from the friendly encounter with Derby.
Southampton lined up in the typical five at the back system, as we have seen throughout pre-season. Matt Targett operated at left wing-back with Ryan Bertrand tucked inside. James Ward-Prowse continued at right wing-back and Stuart Armstrong and Mario Lemina continued in the middle.
However, unlike in the previous friendlies against Jiangsu Suning and Schalke, Mark Hughes chose to make use of the option of two senior wingers and deployed a front three, with Mohamed Elyounoussi and Nathan Redmond flanking Charlie Austin. The wide players dropped to make a four-man midfield when Derby enjoyed longer spells of possession, forming a 5-4-1.
Southampton tried to play vertical passes out from the back in the early stages when they could but struggled, with Derby’s coordinated press proving to be inescapable for the visitors’ defensive players. The Rams were impressive throughout and played with energy, intensity and purpose.
A feature of the first-half for Saints was the fluidity between Elyounoussi and Redmond. The wide pair frequently switched wings to try and help the team achieve a balance of technical quality and natural pace from side to side. Both players looked lively on the day but neither could quite muster up any quality in front of goal, as their performances fizzled out.
It was a rather disjointed first-half display from Saints, with the likes of Mario Lemina often being caught out as flat-footed and spatially unaware. The positioning of Jack Stephens and Wesley Hoedt proved to be of concern, also, with miscommunication and spacing issues prevalent once again.
Ward-Prowse and Targett looked to find advanced areas up the pitch, with the former being utilised as an outball by the central players, and the pair aimed to whip low crosses across the face of goal. There was a lack of anticipation from Saints’ attacking players, though, and most of the team’s possession high up the pitch amounted to nothing.
Although it was a competent display in attacking scenarios from Ward-Prowse, he again struggled with the defensive duties of a wing-back. He was unable to deal with pacey wide players and was often caught out.
As has been a common feature of pre-season so far for Saints, Armstrong had the tendency to drift into the half-spaces from central areas to try and fashion crossing positions. In doing so, he has been able to occupy the ball in dangerous areas and put his vision to good use. Sadly, though, Saints’ attackers were not alert and runs in behind Derby’s full-backs were seldom made.
The second-half, in truth, was rather catastrophic. Jannik Vestergaard and Steven Davis were introduced in place of Matt Targett and Mohamed Elyounoussi at the break, but the team completely fell apart and became devoid of ideas.
One can only hope that this pre-season outing did indeed help to refine Saints’ general fitness and match sharpness, as they were chasing shadows for much of the game.
The introduction of Vestergaard saw Saints revert to a back four, with Stephens operating on the right, Vestergaard and Hoedt in the middle and Bertrand out to his familiar role of left-back.
The system itself, however, ended up being indecipherable, with a number of players out of position. It seemed to be something of a 4-4-1-1 / 4-3-3 hybrid with Steven Davis advancing from the midfield. Either way, it didn’t work.
Saints started brightly but began to tail off, as they were overrun centrally and struggled to keep Derby’s creative talents at bay. Mason Mount and Tom Lawrence had particularly impressive games.
The deficiencies in spacing proved to be costly for Saints in the second-half as Armstrong and Lemina failed to prevent a through ball being played through to Lawrence. Vestergaard completely misjudged the weight of the pass and was left on his backside, as Lawrence slotted coolly past the onrushing Alex McCarthy.
It was perhaps a frustrating debut for Vestergaard, as he looked reasonably solid and composed aside from the glaring error. Nevertheless, he turned in a more respectable display than his accompanying centre-back, Wesley Hoedt.
Lawrence found space between substitute Oriol Romeu and Saints’ defensive line before bursting away from the sluggish Spaniard. For whatever reason, Hoedt was nearly in the midfield line and he decided to dive in, attempting to steal the ball from Lawrence. His attempt, however, was pathetic and the Derby forward finished in style from outside the box. Pre-season or not, that was schoolboy defending.
The third goal was similarly poor for Saints, as a huge gap between the defence was picked apart by Derby, leaving Florian Jozefzoon with a clear chance. The new Rams attacker’s effort was well saved by McCarthy, but Hoedt didn’t fancy tracking Bennett, who tapped into an empty net.
Very few positives can be taken from the second-half, but only reiterations of what we already know were depicted. Harrison Reed coped reasonably well on the right of defence when he was introduced but Saints’ defensive frailties remain clearer than ever.
Pre-season matches shouldn’t be over-analysed, but Mark Hughes will be hoping for improvement when his side take on Dijon in France next week.