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Episode 183: Adaptability and versatility...
44 Plays9 hours ago
Southampton –Greg is back with a look at what he thinks the most important changes are as we run through our pre-pre-season games..
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Transcript
00:00:09
Global Sports Podcast Network
Hello and welcome back to the Daily Southampton, part of the Global Sports Podcast Network. My name is Greg Elliott, flying solo today due to some scheduling issues caused by myself.
00:00:20
Global Sports Podcast Network
But no problem. I, as always, have plenty to talk about. And I want to build upon our episode yesterday where we, on Sunday, sorry, where we reviewed the West Ham match and talk a bit about Simon Rusk and how the simplicity that he's brought back to being a manager of football is refreshing and exactly what we needed.
00:00:43
Global Sports Podcast Network
Now, I talk a lot on the show about how philosophies in football ruin football, and maybe that's oversimplifying it a bit. I think that you definitely need to have a style of football that you want to play that you can use as your base and build upon.
00:01:02
Global Sports Podcast Network
I just don't think you can perpetually have a system that you're going to stick to 100% the time and expect it to work. Because whenever you play that singular way, managers are going to come out and counter it and find you out and find out how to play against you. And we've seen that a bit with Pep and Pep Guardiola and Man City this season.
00:01:27
Global Sports Podcast Network
You know, especially... through their, know, they' still had the star power this season, they've still had the players, sure they've been hit with some injuries, but I think people have just figured them out a bit they know they know where the attacks are going to come from, they know where their some of their vulnerabilities are, they've been able to press back and push on and get results against them.
00:01:50
Global Sports Podcast Network
And that's, I think, why we've seen Russ come back and be a bit more successful, because he's not pushing this heavy metal football.
00:02:00
Global Sports Podcast Network
He's not pushing this possession-based football from Russell Martin. And do we see bits of both of those philosophies in his style? Yeah, because that's the team that's...
00:02:12
Global Sports Podcast Network
been training those ways this season. We still see, you know, liking to knock the ball around at the back a bit. That's fine. You know, it's the sticking to that 100% of the time and not having a plan that isn't that, that's upsetting.
00:02:31
Global Sports Podcast Network
I watched an interview today with Sir Alex Ferguson. And, you know, he was arguably... maybe not even arguably, the the greatest football manager of all time.
00:02:45
Global Sports Podcast Network
And he was saying how important it was to him that if you're a goal behind in the 80th minute, that you're not just sitting back and leaving your four defenders and your four midfielders and your two attackers in their positions doing their thing.
00:03:05
Global Sports Podcast Network
He wants to push the attackers into the box and push the big defenders up into the box. Just stick players in the box and give them something, you know, to try and whip the ball in at and try and create something and try and attack because then the opposition reacts to that also. And then they're out of position and you've got more of a chance of creating something.
00:03:25
Global Sports Podcast Network
And that is something that we have really struggled with this season. How many times have we come onto the podcast and said that there's just no urgency, there's no upping the pace. They just stick to that same plan, knock the ball around a bit, try and build up the play.
00:03:44
Global Sports Podcast Network
That is not always going to work. Even if you take the argument well, the players weren't good enough for the system. and all of that, I think the fact that Man City have had as bad of a season as they had, I mean, comparatively, right? Because where we are in the table compared to even on their bad year where they are in the table.
00:04:07
Global Sports Podcast Network
But it's beatable. And if you stick to the same thing, that's going to happen regardless of how good the players are. You need to be able to switch up.
00:04:18
Global Sports Podcast Network
You need the versatility. And that is what I think... is the most important thing we should be looking for in a manager as we build it forward. We want to be able to change and adapt as the game goes on.
00:04:30
Global Sports Podcast Network
Because not only to put ourselves in a situation where we could be that team attacking in the 80th minute to put defenders up in the box and cause mayhem and get that late goal,
00:04:41
Global Sports Podcast Network
Also, because if it happened the other way, that's why we're so susceptible to late finishes. You know, Ipswich was one example that jumps out of the brain of one late goal that we conceded. And it's been a story all season.
00:04:57
Global Sports Podcast Network
We're not good enough late in the game because we can't adapt. We're still stuck. And I know that there's a lot to do with fitness as well. which is another frustrating thing as a fan to look at.
00:05:10
Global Sports Podcast Network
You look at these players on hundreds of thousands of pounds, not being able to play for a full 90 minutes. It's frustrating. And I get the intensity in the Premier League is completely different, but that is a frustration point.
00:05:25
Global Sports Podcast Network
But that versatility is so important. And, you know, I know that now we're generations of Man United teams away from Alex Ferguson. And yet, on Thursday night, what we saw was one of the most ridiculous games of football I've ever watched, where Harry Maguire, of all people, gets himself up in the box and is creating mayhem and frees himself up for a header.
00:05:47
Global Sports Podcast Network
And... That's just not a response you could ever see this Southampton team having to any sort of setback or or anything.
00:05:58
Global Sports Podcast Network
There's none of that push. There's none of that ability to change. It's always the same. And that's why our substitutions have been so bad. I will come back and add to that point further.
00:06:11
Global Sports Podcast Network
But it's definitely time for a break. An a immense word from our partners at Bionique.
00:06:56
Global Sports Podcast Network
Okay, and I back. So yeah, someone we wanted to touch on our substitutions and why that has been a problem. And there's several reasons. Now, obviously, we've talked at length about the depth of our squad and the quality. and And but honestly, there is some of that. We we as a team are not a strong squad with depth.
00:07:22
Global Sports Podcast Network
We have a big bloated squad of lots of players who maybe good in spells, is probably the fairest way of putting it, but are not quite there. They're definitely not all there fitness-wise. We've been with swathes of injuries, and that's not to mention suspensions of key players such as Jack Stevens or Flynn Downs. and you know Stevens is an easy scapegoat sometimes, but it and it's clear that he is an important player to play.
00:07:51
Global Sports Podcast Network
all of the managers we've had this season and the way they play. So for him to have been out with suspension so much was obviously costly. And while there is an element of that, of that strength and that depth being the problem, actually it's the rigidity of the system that has mostly caused the problems. It is the inability to adjust or adapt to the game that,
00:08:16
Global Sports Podcast Network
Because when you're thinking, especially the way Russell Martin wanted to play football, you're thinking, I need to pass a move and make this pass and make this run. the The most common move we saw was one of the central defenders running in from the middle of the field to pick up the short pass from the goalkeeper, who was then dragging...
00:08:43
Global Sports Podcast Network
the The plan being to drag one of their midfielders out with him so he could immediately ping the ball off to a centre-back who can then utilise that space to pass it forward through the lines and get there.
00:08:55
Global Sports Podcast Network
But the problem is, once you do that two or three times in a game, the other team adjusts to it. They adapt, they know that that's the space you're trying to get to, they block it off and then the ball...
00:09:07
Global Sports Podcast Network
In that situation, Ping's off to the centre-back. He doesn't have that forward pass option. He either makes that pass and it gets intercepted and leads to a mistake and a goal, or it gets recycled and we do the same thing and rinse and repeat.
00:09:18
Global Sports Podcast Network
We don't adapt. There's no other options. That's still the first thing in their head. Oh, get it back to the goalkeeper. Make this run. Bing, bing, bing, bing. It's just the same thing.
00:09:31
Global Sports Podcast Network
And we've talked a lot about Russell Martin's style of football. want to harp on it too much and how it was very much Einstein's definition of insanity, just doing the same thing over and over again and it never working. But we saw similar with Juric.
00:09:44
Global Sports Podcast Network
You know, we saw this man-for-man style for a while, which was interesting, and it's sort of worked in some cases. But then, as soon as one substitution changed things...
00:09:59
Global Sports Podcast Network
we weren't able to adapt. It was completely different. Everything went out the window. We made mistakes. The players weren't good enough. Conceited goals. Head's dropped. It's just game over. And it's just this inability to change up from those systems, right? Because you...
00:10:14
Global Sports Podcast Network
You can see a system where all of those things work some of the time in football, right? A man marking system will work against some oppositions some of the time. Sometimes that's going to be the best play.
00:10:26
Global Sports Podcast Network
Passing out from the back is a really solid philosophy a really solid thought path of how you want to approach a game of football maybe some of the time.
00:10:40
Global Sports Podcast Network
But actually, it's almost like they're playing checkers when actually football the game of chess, right? Because
00:10:52
Global Sports Podcast Network
when I was at chess club at school, I was not a very good chess player and I still am not a very good chess player. But I knew how to do checkmate in four moves.
00:11:03
Global Sports Podcast Network
Once that strategy was removed from me and was countered, I had nothing else left. like I had no real deep strategical thoughts in my brain. had four-move checkmate, and if that didn't work, I was lost at sea.
00:11:17
Global Sports Podcast Network
And that is the perfect analogy for what has happened to Saints this season. and If that style worked, great, we were there. Once that didn't work, we didn't have anything else left in the bank to try.
00:11:32
Global Sports Podcast Network
We would not like, oh, let's pass it around at the back and see if we can break their lines. Oh, that hasn't worked. Let's pass it around at the back and see if we can break their lines again. that hasn't worked. There's no like, you oh, let's ping the ball out this once and see. There's no mixing it up. And then we saw a lot with Juric of that, of the, oh, ping the ball up.
00:11:53
Global Sports Podcast Network
It's like, oh. Paul's not having a great game. Everything is bouncing off him in a way that's heading straight to a defender. Can we change it up? No, we're stuck in this system and that is all we've got. Can we bring on quality?
00:12:06
Global Sports Podcast Network
Arguably, we bring on the likes of Cameron Archer. Do we change our game to adapt to that player's strengths? No, we just try and do the same thing and then wonder why it doesn't work. It's...
00:12:18
Global Sports Podcast Network
It's being stuck in those ways that has got us in trouble this season. And that's why I think it's the most important thing for me looking for next season and looking to the manager is the fundamentals and the basics. If you want to root that in a philosophy, that's fine.
00:12:35
Global Sports Podcast Network
But we need to be able to adapt to a situation and and look at a game tactically and play that game of chess. strategically against the other manager. Now, sometimes that looks like four-move checkmate, right? That looks like, oh, we've successfully passed the ball around the back, kept clean sheet, broke the line three times, scored three goals, bish, bash, bosh, job done.
00:12:58
Global Sports Podcast Network
Four-move checkmate. Sometimes you need to change it up completely, look completely different, do something different. Sometimes that's running in behind. Sometimes that's playing that ball over the top for the hold-up play for a ping-off.
00:13:11
Global Sports Podcast Network
If there was a right answer to how to play football, football would be a very boring game. And Sky and people who watch football wouldn't pay all of the money that they pay to watch football.
00:13:22
Global Sports Podcast Network
It is a simple game in its essence. And we break it down into its simplest forms on this show many occasions. You kick the ball at the goal. If it goes in, you win.
00:13:35
Global Sports Podcast Network
But there are more layers of complexity to it than that. And... because of those layers of complexity, there is no one single answer that is going solve that problem for every game, solve that problem for every opposition, even solve that problem for every part of every game. That solution needs to be malleable and needs to be able to change.
00:13:59
Global Sports Podcast Network
I'm going to go further with that and talk about what i want to see next season and if those managers really exist anymore and if that's going to come back into fashion. But first, a message from our partners at Zencastr.
00:14:15
Global Sports Podcast Network
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00:14:32
Global Sports Podcast Network
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00:14:38
Global Sports Podcast Network
Okay, so I'm back. And, How does this apply to next season is the the next question I want to answer, right? Because obviously, versatility and tactical management are going to be key.
00:14:49
Global Sports Podcast Network
Are any of the names on the list about that style? I certainly am not qualified enough to know. I know that Zach is going to be trying to run a series of our potential candidates, and maybe he will be able to touch on those values and how important they are to managers a bit more.
00:15:09
Global Sports Podcast Network
I guess a better question on a more broad scale is, do that type of manager exist anymore? And the answer is yes, to some degree. Lots of managers get caught up in this pepism, and we've talked about on this show, right, about this philosophy.
00:15:22
Global Sports Podcast Network
and And aren't as good aren' as good at doing it, and that is why so many teams struggle. That's why we see the revolving door of managers so much. And players, you know,
00:15:35
Global Sports Podcast Network
what what mentality can you achieve trying the same thing again? Or if you change managers, like we've talked about the drastic change and shift in the way the players have been asked to play between the start of the season and the middle of the season.
00:15:50
Global Sports Podcast Network
And it's it's needed this taking it back to basics and back to the fundamentals for trust us to even look like a team that can play football because
00:15:59
Global Sports Podcast Network
Once a player is set in those ways, that is going to become the muscle memory and you need to prevent that from happening. You need to breed in this versatility, breed in this adaptivity. It's where focusing on players with football intelligence becomes so key and so important.
00:16:16
Global Sports Podcast Network
Do we have some of those players? Absolutely we do. I think that Taylor Harbour, Bellis and Flynn Downs are both examples of that. And that's arguably why they worked so well in Russell Mott's system, because they have the ability to make these passes and and play that style and think that style first. But actually, their read of the game to get themselves into those positions is very good. And that's why they were so successful at it.
00:16:43
Global Sports Podcast Network
And so... under a manager that's going to breed that football intelligence and that versatility into a team. Hopefully that can be the basis of what we can build to go on and be a successful first full championship team and then hopefully a reasonably successful Premier League team.
00:17:01
Global Sports Podcast Network
No, mean, to be fair, success at that point is staying in the league. so is it achievable? 100% and we're seeing that because, or we're starting to feel that because of the success that Rusk is having going back to basics and fundamentals. Is fundamentals in enough?
00:17:23
Global Sports Podcast Network
is going back to basics and going back to the fundamentals enough? no, but that's why they're the fundamentals, right? They are the foundation that you build the rest of your plan on.
00:17:34
Global Sports Podcast Network
It's the sort of thing that if Adam Lallana had enough legs to run, he would be very good at because his intelligence, so you can see on the football pitch that he is so aware and so intelligent of his surroundings and the things that are happening.
00:17:49
Global Sports Podcast Network
And so if he had the legs to run and do the things that he could see happening, then he'd be fantastic. And that's why I think as an assistant coach, he's going to be doing so much valuable work building that intelligence with players.
00:18:04
Global Sports Podcast Network
it's why you see players like Tyler Diblin have banded with so much potential because he has a bit of that about him. He has the intelligence to see a bit of the game in that way and pick up the ball and take on two or three players and the confidence to do it.
00:18:22
Global Sports Podcast Network
You know, he's not a finished product, he's not the finished article. He has things that he needs to work on, you know, shooting and that final product. And sometimes releasing the ball earlier are the two things for me that stand out as things that he needs to improve on.
00:18:38
Global Sports Podcast Network
But I think that we should see that next season. I think that that 100 million price tag is nothing more than a statement saying, not for sale.
00:18:48
Global Sports Podcast Network
but I don't think anyone in their right mind is paying that for a an 18-year-old who isn't even the top scorer in the worst Premier League team in history, or joint worst Premier League team in history currently.
00:19:02
Global Sports Podcast Network
it's It's going to be such an interesting summer. And it starts with that recruitment of the manager. And whoever comes in, I'm sure that they'll bring all of their staff and whoever with them, because that is the way it seems to work these days. But I hope that we see...
00:19:18
Global Sports Podcast Network
Adam Lallana utilized for where his strengths are going to be in breeding that football intelligence. I hope that we see a manager brought in who has that tactical awareness, that chess level of thinking towards the game.
00:19:34
Global Sports Podcast Network
And hopefully we can just go on and do good things.
00:19:40
Global Sports Podcast Network
that's all we can hope for. Next season is definitely going to be a better season than this season. we're going to be in a league where we should win games.
00:19:50
Global Sports Podcast Network
It's a much more enjoyable league in general. Anyway, we talked about the, at the weekend, how, you know, all of the teams could still go up or down.
00:20:01
Global Sports Podcast Network
There was no teams confirmed. Although one thing that has come out since then, is the Portsmouth's win today confirms that they are also definitely in the championship next season. So we've got a confirmed South coast derby.
00:20:13
Global Sports Podcast Network
That's another positive too.
00:20:16
Global Sports Podcast Network
I just don't want it to be a waste. I hope that we can instill these foundations, build upon them, build a versatile team who can adapt situations.
00:20:29
Global Sports Podcast Network
Part of that adaptation comes... with mentality. We need a mentality shift because that is something we've really struggled with this season. Whether that comes in the form of some sort of sports psychology or just, you know, general approach to the game.
00:20:45
Global Sports Podcast Network
I don't know. I don't have the answer to that. If I had the answer to that, I'd be being paid the big bucks to do it for them rather than sat here talking to you. But... that is They're the key areas we need to focus on.
00:20:57
Global Sports Podcast Network
And, you know, the obvious things. We need someone who can kick the ball in the goal, but doesn't everybody. We need that versatility. We need to be adaptable. We need to be fit enough to play the whole game and be adaptable.
00:21:09
Global Sports Podcast Network
We need a squad that can change shapes and styles. It's... We just need to go back to... need to turn back time and go back to it.
00:21:23
Global Sports Podcast Network
you know You know, back in the day, it was a 4-4-2 and there was these battles, but it was never as simple as that because... you move the players around the pitch, you have an answer for what the team puts in front of you.
00:21:36
Global Sports Podcast Network
And I know in the championship, we're going to say, oh, well, we shouldt we should be taking our game to them. We should be the bigger team and making them adapt to us. But that's just never going to be good enough. We need to adapt as well.
00:21:49
Global Sports Podcast Network
We need to be targeting certain areas of weakness. We need to be targeting certain areas to build upon in strength. You know, at the example we go back to frequently is the naivety we had earlier on in the season where I thought Russell Martin had doubled up on Saka as like part of Carsten's key attack. He just put two players on him.
00:22:11
Global Sports Podcast Network
It just happened that that was just how we wanted to shoehorn his team together on that day. But that's the sort of versatility we want to look for. I want to see us, well, you know, we're playing a...
00:22:24
Global Sports Podcast Network
a big team, but you know, we've got, if we're playing Liverpool or someone in the cup, just stick two men on Salah. Like, there's... We want to be able to adapt to those situations. And if we can adapt, then that's our strength.
00:22:40
Global Sports Podcast Network
Because if the opposition doesn't know what's coming, in then they're going to struggle to adapt to us. We need that. That, to me, is my philosophy on football and how we can best go about improving the championship.
00:22:54
Global Sports Podcast Network
And I hope that the club aligns with that. But I am very excited to see how that plays out. That is just about all I've got time for today. Thank you very much for listening to me talk about my philosophy on football and how I think we can improve where it's gone this season.
00:23:11
Global Sports Podcast Network
Hopefully, next season will be so much better and I cannot wait to to share it with you all and be here for the ride. We will be back tomorrow with some wildcard content.
00:23:24
Global Sports Podcast Network
Until then, have a wonderful rest of your day and we'll see you soon.