The footballing cliché of a Jekyll and Hyde performance is rather fitting for Southampton at the best of times; four games into the season, though, it is already symbolic of a clearer trend.
The first half has underwhelmed: defeats to Burnley and Liverpool provided little reason for optimism. But the second half was reinvigorating: a win at Brighton and a draw against Manchester United pleased the St Mary’s faithful.
Starting slowly has been an issue for Southampton over the course of many years now. In fact, the last time the team won their opening game of the season came in 2013, as Rickie Lambert’s stoppage-time penalty secured a 1-0 win against West Brom at The Hawthorns.
But although it took Saints until their third outing of the 2019/20 campaign to get off the mark, a familiar pattern has followed.
Two second-half goals from Moussa Djenepo and Nathan Redmond secured all three points at Brighton, who had been reduced to 10 men on the half-hour mark.
The scoreline appeared convincing; the Seagulls had been beaten with consummate ease as a handsome two-goal deficit separated the sides. However, the first half was anything but straightforward for Southampton, as they struggled to create openings.
Against Burnley, Saints probed but failed to carve out opportunities. Ralph Hasenhuttl saw his men come close before the interval against Liverpool the week after but only got on the scoresheet in the second half.
The two goals against Brighton arrived after the break, and most recently, it took until the second half for Southampton to hit the net against Manchester United.
As such, with the international break now halfway through, Southampton are one of only two teams – Sheffield United are the other – who have not yet scored in the first half of a Premier League fixture.
For a team that is built upon the foundations of intense pressing, with chance creation generally coming via forcing opponents into mistakes high up the pitch, it is perhaps a surprise to note just how slowly Saints have started.
Chances have hardly been scarce; the likes of Che Adams and Maya Yoshida were notably guilty of fluffing their lines against Burnley and Liverpool respectively. But discovering the cutting edge that has eluded the team for the fourth straight season now is proving problematic.
Hasenhuttl has experimented with different attacking setups: Adams, Danny Ings, Sofiane Boufal and Nathan Redmond have all operated in the forward berths. However, it has been a challenge to press ahead and capitalise on early sightings of goal, with wastefulness costing Saints in some of their fixtures already.
The slow-starting nature of Southampton’s season thus far has acted paradoxically to their pre-season showings. In each game, a first-half goal was scored, and these largely came as a consequence of the forward players profiting from intense, intelligent pressing early on.
In the 25 games that Hasenhuttl was in charge for last season, 12 goals were scored in the first half by Saints, but there did appear to have been a propensity for improved performances to occur after the manager had rallied his troops at half time.
Naturally, games can open up with scorelines finely poised heading into the second halves; more risks are taken, teams push higher or drop deeper depending on the desired result, and pressure builds.
However, Southampton’s high-octane approach must be maximised in the opening exchanges. The style demands a great deal of physical exertion, and the team mustn’t rest on their laurels and depend on second-half goals to secure points.
Against Sheffield United – the only other team in the division to have drawn a blank in the first half of each of their four matches this term – next weekend, Hasenhuttl will hope to see his men start quickly and put Chris Wilder’s side under the cosh at Bramall Lane.
