Southampton were held to a scoreless draw at St Mary’s Stadium on Saturday after a resolute defensive showing from visitors Newcastle United.
Whilst possession was shared on the day, Newcastle failed to get an effort on target and although we only tested their keeper four times, we had a total of 22 efforts compared to their six.
Our Achilles Heel was again plain for all to see, although dominating the game in the way we did has to be considered a positive, amongst the disappointment of not actually taking the win.
The foundation for the positives were defensive as statistics website WhoScored named three defenders in their top five players from the day.
24-year-old Jack Stephens was the clear standout and he took their Star Man award with a rating of 8.26.
With Stephens taking top spot, Mario Lemina was in second with 7.72, Wesley Hoedt continued to impress with 7.71, Ryan Bertrand stepped up with 7.54 and Mohamed Elyounoussi completed the set with 7.49.
Cedric Soares was our last man with a 7+ rating scoring 7.01 for his own showing.
A telling commonality amongst all the top six was all bar Hoedt, had efforts at goal for us – just sadly one didn’t go in.