Ronald Koeman’s education came courtesy of some of the great philosophers of Dutch football. He played for Rinus Michels and Johan Cruyff. He served on Louis van Gaal’s coaching staff at Barcelona. Yet his explanation for Southampton’s slide relied rather less on total football than on common sense.
“It is simple,” he said, betraying a hint of exasperation. “Football is not that difficult but you can make it difficult.” Koeman is a purist, a man who had already drawn a contrast between his side’s measured buildup and Burnley’s rather more direct style, but his analysis was unashamedly pragmatic. Matches are decided by what happens at either end of the pitch, not in between. Southampton have lost four consecutive games but could have claimed a point in each of the last three. They did not and their manager reached for obvious answers.
“We had enough chances to score but we didn’t,” Koeman said. “Too many goals in the last few games are from our own mistakes. If you look back to the start of the season we didn’t make those kind of mistakes.”
Southampton were almost flawless during a 10-game run that included eight victories and seven clean sheets. The subsequent five matches have yielded a solitary point. In three of them Southampton have been chasing the game after avoidable errors: Fraser Forster gifted Aston Villa’s Gabriel Agbonlahor a goal with an ill-advised charge out of his penalty area, José Fonte picked out Manchester United’s Robin van Persie with an underhit back-pass and, on Saturday, Nathaniel Clyne was robbed by Danny Ings, allowing Ashley Barnes to score the decider.
Koeman complained that, at the other end, “we are showing less quality in an attacking way and less sharpness in the box”. His three premier attackers have become less productive.
Dusan Tadic missed a penalty at Turf Moor, the first Southampton player to fail from 12 yards in the top flight since Jim Magilton in 1997. The Serb, Graziano Pellè and Sadio Mané have struck once between them since October. They seemed inspired imports during Southampton’s superlative start to the campaign. A lengthier assessment may reveal precisely how proficient each is.
“We know we are all good players and we are a good team,” said James Ward-Prowse, who made his comeback as a substitute after 12 weeks out. If his ankle injury scarcely proved a problem during an autumn of continuity in selection, another midfielder’s absence has come at a greater cost. Since Morgan Schneiderlin was hurt against Manchester City, Southampton have conceded seven goals and scored just one. Their fortunes turned when his hamstring failed him.
Now Southampton are on their worst losing run since their troubled start to the 2012-13 season. “Every team goes through a blip in the season where they struggle a little bit,” Ward-Prowse said.
He could afford to be phlegmatic. It is only four months since some were tipping Southampton for relegation and only four years since they were in the third tier. Now they face League One opposition again in Tuesday’s Capital One Cup quarter-final against Sheffield United.
“It will be a massive occasion,” said Ward-Prowse. “It is good to be involved.” Pellè will not be. The top scorer will lose his status as an ever-present while he serves a suspension after collecting a caution for barging George Boyd. It was, once again, an avoidable error.
Burnley have a similar focus on preventing them. With fewer resources and inferior ability they cannot afford blunders if they are to survive in the Premier League. “We have to be on every detail of the game,” the manager, Sean Dyche, said. His goalkeeper was, Tom Heaton’s pre-match examination of Tadic’s penalty-taking bringing a reward. “Every game this season the analyst has given me a sheet and video to look through,” Heaton said. “Tadic was on the sheet.”
His save enabled Heaton to keep a fifth clean sheet of the campaign, two more than Burnley mustered in the whole of their previous Premier League campaign. “Staying in the league is going to be success for us,” Heaton said.
“If we can keep that defensive framework and keep the ball out of our net, then we’ll have a great chance.” As Heaton pointed out, Burnley defend from the front. Their methods rely more on total commitment than total football.
Man of the match Danny Ings (Burnley)
