Southampton put in a worryingly poor performance on Monday night as they were well beaten by AFC Bournemouth at the Vitality Stadium.
After a much-improved performance against Ipswich Town saw Southampton pick up their first Premier League point of the season there was hope that Russell Martin could build on this against Bournemouth.
However, it was not to be as Southampton fell behind following an Evanilson strike after a quickly taken free-kick on 18 minutes.
Southampton had been the better team up until that point but between the goal and half-time it was a woeful display that saw Dango Ouattara and Antoine Semenyo make it 3-0.
Martin saw his side improve in the second-half and a Taylor Harwood-Bellis goal shortly after half-time gave the Saints some hope of a comeback but they created very little after that as they lost 3-1.
Russell Martin names five strikers on Southampton bench vs AFC Bournemouth
Martin sprung a real surprise against Bournemouth as he set his side up in a 4-4-2 formation without a recognised striker.
When the lineups were announced many assumed Maxwel Cornet would be playing up front with Martin playing the 4-3-3 shape he has deployed in the last two league matches.
However, Cornet actually played on the right of a midfield four, with attacking midfielders Mateus Fernandes and Tyler Dibling operating as strikers who dropped deep to get on the ball.
Whilst the initial change seemed to catch Bournemouth off guard, the Cherries soon realised this left Southampton with no focal point or out ball and allowed them to press even higher than they usually would.
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Dibling and Fernandes both struggled and looked far more comfortable when they returned to more natural positions in the second-half, but what made this approach all the more bizarre was the fact Martin named five strikers on the Saints bench.
Two of those came on at half-time as Martin desperately looked for improvement with Ross Stewart and Ben Brereton Diaz coming on, before a third entered the fray in the shape of Cameron Archer later on.
Martin explains Southampton bench against Bournemouth
As well as the three forwards who came on, Adam Armstrong and, surprisingly, Paul Onuachu were also named on the Southampton bench.
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The other four substitutes were a back-up goalkeeper in Alex McCarthy, a full-back in Kyle Walker-Peters and two midfielders in Adam Lallana and Joe Aribo.
An incredibly attacking bench made all the more strange by the fact there were five strikers on it but none on the pitch to start the match, Martin was asked post match what the thinking was behind this decision.
The Southampton manager responded: “We wanted an aggressive bench. We need to win, we need to score more goals. We haven’t scored enough goals. I mean, that was pretty self-explanatory.”
Whilst Martin’s blunt answer does go some way to explaining his decision, it makes it all the more strange that he did not start with an aggressive side given he felt it was so important to have this on the bench.