Southampton’s season has deteriorated from European hopefuls to midtable mediocrity – so, where has it all gone wrong?

A season which started so brightly for Southampton, sitting first in the Premier League in November, has slowly deteriorated into a mediocre one.

A shining light for the Saints was a trip to Wembley and a potential FA Cup final; but unfortunately for the Saints they were beaten 1-0 by Leicester City on Sunday.

The problem in the FA Cup semi-final was the same which has haunted Ralph Hasenhuttl all season, a lack of goals. In the match against the Foxes, Southampton didn’t look threatening whatsoever – which is emphasised by the fact they didn’t register a single shot on target throughout. 

While sitting in first place, Southampton were being tipped for the European spots after playing some exciting football early in the season. However, this didn’t last long and the Saints slipped further down the table to their current position of 14th. With a squad of such talented players like Danny Ings, James Ward-Prowse and Stuart Armstrong, you’d expect to see a far better output of goals than what has been witnessed down on the south coast. 

Injuries have unfortunately plagued this Saints side, with talisman Ings suffering a couple of knee injuries which sidelined him for a few key games. Also, Oriol Romeu has been missing since February through a knee injury. The Spaniard won’t feature until next season and is a big loss in Southampton’s midfield engine room. 

Although it’s been an extremely average season for the club, most Saints fans still back their Hasenhuttl and believe he can get the best out of this group of players.

The botched European Super League looked set to provide them an easy opportunity to rise up the Premier League table but now they must reassess in the summer to improve on this season.

By Harry Yeadon