Southampton 0 Swansea City 0: New manager but same old problems for goal-shy Saints

Tom Prentki St Mary's 12 August 2017 • 5:00pm

It is 545 minutes since Southampton last scored a goal at St Mary’s. In that time, a manager has been sacked, another appointed and their captain has submitted a transfer request.

Saints didn’t miss Virgil van Dijk against Swansea, with Maya Yoshida and Jack Stephens dealing impressively with the threat offered by Tammy Abraham in his first appearance for Swansea. Officially, Van Dijk was ruled out with a virus, but the Dutchman has played no part in Southampton’s pre-season fixtures. “Right now, it’s something that I can’t manage,” said Southampton’s new manager Mauricio Pellegrino. “Hopefully we are waiting for him to come and train with the team and be part of it.”

In the absence of their own talismanic creator, Gylfi Sigurdsson, Swansea struggled to create chances and Abraham was often an isolated figure.

Swansea manager Paul Clement voiced his frustration at the uncertainty caused by Sigurdsson’s protracted transfer to Everton and feels that situations such as his and Van Dijk’s are not good for “fans, teammates, coaches, the viewers all round the world. What would be a better situation would be if the window closed before the start of the season,” he said.

Pellegrino agreed. “It’s a pity because the people deserve to see the best players on the pitch,” he said.

“If that [the transfer to Everton] does go through, then we can start acting on potential targets,” said Clement of his transfer plans. “Nothing’s going to be certain until the situation with Sigurdsson’s certain. There’s a difference in opinion on the valuation of the player, but I don’t think it’s far off.”

Southampton created more than enough chances to have won the game comfortably. Manolo Gabbiadini flicked Ryan Bertrand’s corner against the stanchion in the second minute, while Dusan Tadic somehow contrived to put Bertrand’s pull-back wide of a post from close range.

Southampton manager Mauricio Pellegrino could not inspire his new side to a win

Further chances came and went for James Ward-Prowse, Nathan Redmond and Maya Yoshida before half-time, and the pattern was much the same after the break.

“I thought we deserved to win,” said Clement before adding, “that’s a joke.”

“It was a really difficult afternoon for us. We suffered a lot. I know they’ll be desperately disappointed and probably be scratching their heads thinking how have we not won that game.”

Southampton (4-2-3-1): Forster 6; Soares 7. Yoshida 7, Stephens 7, Bertrand 8 (McQueen 86); Romeu 7, Davis 7; Ward-Prowse 6 (Boufal 71), Tadic 6, Redmond 7; Gabbiadini 6 (Austin 69).

Subs: Taylor, Long, Lemina, Bednarek.

Booked: Redmond, Romeu

Swansea (4-1-2-1-2): Fabianski 7; Naughton 5, Mawson 7, Fernandez 7, Olsson 6; Britton 7 (Fulton 74); Carroll 6, Fer 6; Routledge 7 (McBurnie 86); Abraham 7 (Bartley 81), Ayew 6.

Subs: Nordfeldt, Narsingh, Rangel, Mesa.

Booked: Fulton

Referee: Mr M Jones (Cheshire)