Southampton were dealt another blow in pursuit of an automatic promotion place on Friday afternoon.
The Saints returned to action after the international break with the visit of Middlesbrough to St Mary’s.
Initially, things started well for Russell Martin‘s side. The hosts went ahead inside the opening quarter of an hour, when Adam Armstrong pounced on a poor clearance to fire home from inside the Middlesbrough area.
However, Southampton were unable to extend their lead further. That allowed ‘Boro to snatch a draw and deny the Saints three points, when Emmanuel Latte Lath headed home in the final minute of normal time.
As a result, Martin’s side remain 4th in the Championship table. They are though, nine points adrift of 2nd place Leeds United.
That makes this a frustrating situation for them, and one player who rather disappointed with his performance for Southampton on Friday was Che Adams.
A tough day for Che Adams
Retaining his spot in the starting lineup on Friday, things did not exactly go well for Adams against Middlesbrough.
The Southampton striker missed some big chances to strengthen his side’s lead in the match, while very nearly gifting the visitors an equaliser as well.
That is something that did not go unnoticed. Writing about how Adams did in that game, The Daily Echo said:
“Nightmare afternoon for the striker. Finn Azaz hit the post after he lost possession coming short. He then had a goal ruled out for offside, missed a one-on-one and then fired wide at an open goal from six yards within 180 seconds. Subbed off soon after.”
As a result, the 27-year-old was given a rating of just 3/10 for his latest performance for Southampton.
Indeed, according to SofaScore, Adams did indeed miss two big chances, racking up an Expected Goals tally of 0.92.
That highlights how wasteful he was in front of goal in such a big game for the Saints. Elsewhere, he won one of the two duels he was involved in, while losing possession seven times during the match.
Meanwhile, he had a pass success rate of 80%, albeit only from a tally of 15 passes, 12 of which found another Southampton man.
This therefore, is an afternoon that the striker will surely want to forget.
Not what Southampton needed from Che Adams
This was not the sort of performance that the Saints will have been wanting from Adams in such a key game.
A win here could have done wonders for their hopes of forcing their way into the top two spots.
If Adams had taken his opportunities, then Southampton would have been out of sight in this game, and Latte Lath’s goal would likely have had little impact on the result.
As a result, you imagine the striker will be desperate to put this one behind him as quickly as possible.
Indeed, given the speculation around his future that re-emerged this week, it would be interesting to know if that played a part in this performance, or if this will have any effect on that.
Even so, Adams still has a job to do for Southampton regardless of that. The pressure is now on him to show he can still make that impact, in he aftermath of Friday’s performance.