On the opening night of the 2023/24 EFL Championship campaign, newly relegated side Southampton sailed to a 2-1 victory against the newly promoted Sheffield Wednesday. With both teams showcasing new managers and a great sense of hope for the season ahead, an exciting narrative was scripted from the start – the 3 points leaving whoever won top of the table (for a few hours at least).
credit: @saints_.designs
The travel to Hillsborough is never an easy one, but over 3000 Saints fans made the 8 hour round journey to witness the south coast side’s first opening day win since 2013. Despite having many interested, Southampton have to be applauded for their (so far) success in keeping hold of key players – a standout obviously being captain James Ward Prowse.
The lineup was largely what fans expected after pre season, many familiar faces keeping hold of their spots, with the only ‘surprising’ absence being that of Tino Livramento, who looks set to sign for Newcastle in the coming days. Center back Jack Stephens and midfielders Will Smallbone and Nathan Tella all made their returns to Southampton this summer after various loan spells, and all 3 of them made an appearance in the staring eleven. The only true new face was that of debutant Ryan Manning who has followed Gaffer Russell Martin across from Swansea.
From the moment the whistle blew for kickoff, Southampton took over possession and control of the game, dictators of the pace, shape and style. The ethics and principles of Russell Martin’s ‘possession play’ game style were evident and hugely successful, the concise passing offering Wednesday no opportunity to relax nor ability to push the saints back. An early yet spectacular goal from Nathan Tella (or was it Adam Armstrong?) in the 8th minute left saints fans excited for the night ahead.
Despite setting a championship record for the most passes completed in 45 minutes of play (477 – more passes than they completed in any league game last season), the second goal never came. Going into half time, Southampton were completely in control, and Wednesday had some serious thinking to do.
From the get go of minute 45, Wednesday had woken up. They were pressing with intensity and took a hold of the ball. The inevitable equaliser came from Lee Gregory in the 54th minute after the saints failed to successfully defend a set piece. Heads dropped but not for long, as the team in red and white found their feet and took over once again. Substitutes Stuart Armstrong and Che Adams injected some pace back into the press that had been lacking as legs tired and a very physically demanding game progressed.
In the 87th minute Che Adams, a former Championship star, scored the winner and the away fans erupted. Chants of “we’re top of the league” echoed around and the sorrows of last season felt forgotten. The football being played was unrecognisable. Southampton were clinical, technically and tactically clever, composed, patient, and happy with the ball at their feet. Passing accuracy sat at an impressive 94% compared to last season’s average 77%, they maintained 80% possession and only 2% of passes made were long range (compared to the average last season of 14%).
What felt last season like a team of isolated individuals has seemed to have connected into what I hope will develop into a well oiled machine. The team performance as a whole was incredibly positive, but also the performance of individuals was very exciting. A standout for me was Will Smallbone – the young midfielder returning from a solid loan spell at Stoke City last season. Playing in the traditional number 6 role, noone on field attempted more passes (142) and despite this he maintained 96% passing accuracy. He created so many passageways that allowed forward play to develop, as well as supporting the high back line when necessary.
Other than poor defence that led to the Wednesday goal, the lack of mistakes from Southampton was the most noticeable difference. Attitudes felt ammended and there was a new sense of passion and fight that has been missing for a long time. The performance had gaps, and I personally still feel a need and demand for a creative midfielder/out ball or a forward with presence, but all the indicators thus far are for one positive season. Whether we can attend to our goalscoring issue quickly enough will decide whether we can truly fight for promotion – but what is football without hope.
Here’s to a much better campaign than last,
We march on.
Poppy Deabill (@pdeabill_football)