Southampton had to settle for a draw away at play-off hopefuls for the second time in four days on Wednesday night as they drew 1-1 with Coventry City.
The Saints went behind on 50 minutes, with Ryan Manning dispossessed in a dangerous area and allowing Coventry to penetrate the backline at speed before Haji Wright fired past a helpless Gavin Bazunu in goal.
Having once again started in the 4-4-2 diamond shape that Russell Martin has preferred in recent weeks, Southampton struggled to find a breakthrough, but the Saints changed to a 4-3-3 after 60 minutes; Ryan Fraser and Sam Edozie coming on for Che Adams and Shea Charles.
This decision bore fruit just seven minutes later, as young winger Edozie equalised in the 67th minute from a Fraser cross that was glanced on to him by Adam Armstrong.
The draw at the CBS Arena extends Southampton’s run to 13 games unbeaten, the problem being that another draw sees them lose more ground on the relentless top two of Leicester City and Ipswich Town.
Are Russell Martin’s Southampton creating enough?
It was no surprise to see Southampton dominate the ball on Wednesday night, despite being without their midfield metronome Flynn Downes through illness for the second game in a row.
When the Saints line-up was announced an hour before kick-off it was easy to predict that Southampton would have control of the middle of the pitch given they had effectively lined up with four players who like to play in central areas in Stuart Armstrong, Will Smallbone, Joe Aribo and Charles. The glaring issue with this quartet was the lack of pace and lack of creativity.
The statistics show that it was the same old story for Southampton. Martin’s side had 72% of the ball, made 765 passes and had nine corners, but only managed three shots on target in the entire game and failed to register an opportunity that would be classified as a ‘big chance’.
This is an ongoing issue for the St Mary’s side, whose hopes of automatic promotion seemingly rely on them finding a way to score more goals and turn dominant draws into wins on a regular basis. The Saints have only scored more than one goal in a game in one of their last five, the other being the 2-0 home win over Cardiff City.
When the margins are so fine in every game it always gives the opposition hope. It is Martin’s job to find a way to make his side more creative and then more ruthless when those opportunities come.
Martin accepts Southampton must score more
Speaking after the draw with Coventry, Martin was quick to downplay that the result was a negative one, saying: “”I am annoyed that we don’t win but not one bit is it a slip-up. It’s been an amazing run we’ve been on.”
Whilst the unbeaten run has been impressive, Martin highlighted the main difference between his Southampton and the current top two, explaining that: “The top two score more goals than us and that’s the one thing they have over us. We don’t put games to bed so that is the next step for us. When we do, I am sure we will end up closer than we are.”
Whist Martin’s style of football does tend to give Southampton control over games, it does all too often seem to lack efficiency when converting possession into tangible chances.
One factor at play is that record signing Kamaldeen Sulemana and summer striker signing Ross Stewart are both sidelined and will be until the new year and Martin would be within his rights to point to that as part of the reason his side are struggling to put teams to the sword.
Adam Armstrong is the only regular goalscorer in the side, with 12 goals and six assists to his name, and the over-reliance on the ex-Blackburn Rovers forward is a concern.
With Stewart due to return and the club having spent £10 million to secure his services in the summer, it seems unlikely that the Southampton board will look to sign another striker in January; even with Che Adams looking likely to leave. Instead, it may be wise for Martin and co. to be on the lookout for a creative midfield player who can open up defences and create chances for the likes of Armstrong and Stewart on a regular basis.
Southampton have the chance to take their unbeaten run to 14 games at home to Blackburn on Saturday, with Martin and his players keen to claim a big win after consecutive draws.