Can Southampton Qualify For A European Spot This Season?

The weekend before last saw Southampton march into the top four of the Premier League. While it surprised many, those that had been watching the Saints from the start this season, as well as the back end of last, would have been expecting their upsurge in the table.

Nigel Adkins was, perhaps unfairly, given the boot of Southampton's Italian chairman Nicola Cortese. However, his replacement has excelled in transforming the side.

Mauricio Pochettino was sacked from Espanyol in 2012 after they sat bottom of La Liga, but has gone about his plans on turning Saints into a silky-but-drilled side in the Premier League.

The Hampshire club have conceded just twice in the league this season - the least in the entire league - and have scored seven, seeing them joint on points with third place Chelsea.

The pressing style has worked wonders and has allowed them to shut out many opponents by frustrating them and  forcing them into mistakes.

A nice thing about Southampton is that they don't rely on just Rickie Lambert to score goals anymore. Although the lumpy forward is their leading scorer, Adam Lallana, Dejan Lovren, Pablo Osvaldo, Jose Fonte and Jay Rodriguez have all hit the back of the net also.

They are a physical threat, they have strength in depth and they are tough to penetrate. Although the Champions League may be a tad out of their reach, there is no reason as to why they can't clinch a Europa League spot.

Comments

[Andy]

Nice, confident piece, which I mainly agree with, although Rickie Lambert is anything but a 'lumpy' forward, and I'm going to use the tail of this article to make my one and only protest against the lazy journalistic assumptions made of Lambert. That description is exactly what he is not. He's actually a very skilful striker, with no pace to speak of, so he makes up for that by being a yard or two quicker in his head than most players. He has the first touch of a much smaller and capable footballer; the vision and passing ability of the former midfielder that he actually was at a particular point in his career; and a shot on him, particularly from the right foot, that is capable of being past a keeper before he even reacts, hence his superb penalty taking ability. He also reads the game well and unselfishly runs into spaces, pulling defenders all over the pitch. And he has the uncanny knack of the great striker, he's often in the right place at the right time. That's how good Lambert can be. Not 'lumpy' at all.

Nice article though.