All Southampton fans know how close the club skirted relegation from the Premier League in the season of 2017/18 but one recent investigation implies it shouldn’t have been as butt clenching as it became.
ESPN have created a Luck Index in association with the University of Bath to review and analyse decisions that went against Premier League sides last term, and where mistakes were made, how that would affect the final table.
Despite Southampton making Liverpool’s recruitment policy easy in recent years, they were found to have missed out on 12 points across the year but predictably Manchester United were the luckiest side across the season. Fergie Time seems alive and well.
For Southampton, I’m not looking that far into the results but it means either Mark Hughes did slightly better than we thought he did, or more likely, Mauricio Pellegrino wasn’t quite as bad as it appeared – despite being a top bloke.
Their investigation into wrong results implies that we should’ve finished two places higher in the top-flight with an additional four points and jumping above Huddersfield and being level on points with Brighton in the real table would’ve been far more palatable.
With that said, they claim Brighton should’ve finished in ninth place with an additional six points – but either way it would’ve been less squeaky for Saints fans.
Hindsight is a beautiful thing though and taking a look back at wrong decisions on the pitch is not new, and that’s why we now live in a world of football that’s trying to find its own way through video technology and means of helping referee’s to not be so…well…useless.
Football might not have the answers yet, but at least they are asking the right questions.
