Saints Blogs

Patience: Southampton ace will bag first pro goal after backing from boss – Opinion

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It seems like Che Adams just can’t buy a goal in the early stages of his Southampton career, yet the signs are there.

The former Championship star rattled the post with an audacious volley as well as force Dean Henderson into making a marvellous save in Southampton’s 1-0 win away to Sheffield United.

A goal against his former club would have been a fitting way to open his professional account for the Saints, but Adams will yet again have to wait for his first strike for the Premier League side.

But despite going goalless in the opening five games of the season, Ralph Hasenhuttl isn’t giving up on his summer signing.

The Austrian manager admitted after the game that Adams was unlucky not to bag his first goal for Southampton against the Blades, with Hasenhuttl saying to The Southern Daily Echo: “He’s a little bit unlucky and this luck he must work for for his first goal. Everybody looks at him and thinks he is working so hard and the moment will come and we will help him.”

Luck may be the real reason as to why Adams is yet to score for Southampton, though, as unquantifiable as it sounds.

As xG numbers from Understat show, the 23-year-old attacker after five Premier League games has an xG of 2.46, the highest in the Southampton squad yet a considerably smaller figure than teammate Moussa Djenepo with an xG of 0.50, who has scored twice already this season.

There is no questioning Adams’ ability to stick the ball in the back of the net based on his incredible numbers with Birmingham City last season where the youngster scored 22 goals in 46 games as stats from Transfermarkt show, and as we saw this weekend, the attacker is getting closer and closer to his first goal in a professional game for Southampton.

Indeed, luck may well be the reason Adams is yet to open his account in the English top-flight, but as long as Hasenhuttl is backing his number 10, that all-important goal will come soon rather than later.

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