da pinup bet： This article is part of Football FanCast’s The Chalkboard series, which provides a tactical insight into teams, players, managers, potential signings and more…
da wazamba： Right. Where do we start with dissecting the embarrassment that was Friday evening’s defeat to Leicester?
Without question, it’s a tough subject to boil down to one particular factor, as a number of things went wrong.
A man sent off after 12 minutes. A whole shed-load of terrible individual performances, and an unwanted record to boot – the Foxes’ win equalled the record for the largest ever Premier League victory, set by Manchester United back in 1995.
However, scratch beneath the surface of the season as a whole so far, and you’ll discover that things shouldn’t really be going this badly.
Thanks to Understat, we can get our hands on some alternative tables showcasing where the Saints should be sitting in the table based on xG (expected goals) as well as xPTS (expected points).
On the basis of xG, the south coast side should be sitting ninth in the Premier League with 14.10 goals to their name.
In reality, Southampton are the third-lowest scorers in England’s top-flight with nine goals in ten games.
In terms of xPTS, Ralph Hasenhuttl’s side should actually have 13.14 points to their name, and should be sat 12th in the Premier League.
However, the actual Premier League table has them languishing in 18th place with just eight points from ten games – three points off the bottom of the table.
If anything, these somewhat complimentary numbers reflect well on Hasenhuttl and poorly on his players.
The former RB Leipzig boss is clearly not doing everything well at St Mary’s – hence the 9-0 loss – but he is doing enough to give his team a chance.
The Austrian can’t walk onto the field and stick the ball in the net himself, nor can he get his side the points that the xPTS table states that they should have.
Hasenhuttl can of course do a better job, but there’s only so much he can do about the players’ poor execution. He’s holding up his end of the bargain – it’s the players who aren’t pulling their weight.