da winzada777： Mauricio Pellegrino faces a make-or-break fixture on Sunday when his Southampton side play hosts to Everton at St Mary’s.
da blaze casino： The Argentine is coming under increasing pressure from the Saints supporters – who produced a social media campaign for him to go this week – with performances on the pitch deemed simply not good enough.
The south coast outfit certainly had a favourable start to the campaign with many winnable fixtures and they faced just two of the so-called top six clubs – Manchester United and Liverpool – in their opening 12 Premier League matches. However they were 14th in the standings ahead of the weekend.
The aim at the start of the campaign would have been for the south coast outfit to finish in the top 10 for the fifth consecutive season, but that already looks to be in danger at this early stage of the term. Southampton have already failed to beat any of the three newly-promoted clubs or lowly Swansea City, while they suffered shock home defeats against Watford and Burnley.
In fact their only three wins – against West Ham United, Crystal Palace and West Bromwich Albion – were perhaps a little fortunate, with a last-gasp penalty needed to beat 10 men in the former and a wonder-goal from Sofiane Boufal to see off the latter.
The last two matches against Burnley and Liverpool have highlighted even more everything that is wrong with Southampton and Pellegrino right now.
In another largely dull St Mary’s encounter where the hosts failed to create many clear-cut chances, with around 30 minutes left to play the Argentine boss replaced Manolo Gabbiadini with Charlie Austin. At the same time, Clarets boss Sean Dyche brought on two strikers having played the match with one up top prior to that moment, and it was substitute Sam Vokes that popped up with the winning goal.
Two weeks later and with their standout player this term – Mario Lemina – still missing, Saints faced a tough-looking trip to Anfield to face a Liverpool side who had all of their attacking players back and in contention.
For some reason, Pellegrino decided to play with an attack-minded trio – Boufal, Dusan Tadic and Nathan Redmond – in behind Shane Long, even though Steven Davis has appeared far from comfortable in a deeper midfield role. Saints were pulled apart in a 3-0 loss and failed to register a single shot on target, and it was hardly a glowing endorsement of their qualities ahead of what looks set to be a testing period up until 2018.
While their start has been disappointing, Southampton face five – Manchester City, Arsenal, Chelsea, Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester United – of the current top six teams before the New Year, and if they fail to pick up many points across those games they may well find themselves in or around the bottom three.
That is why the clash against an Everton team – who were humiliated 5-1 at home by Atalanta in the Europa League on Thursday night – this weekend really is must-win for Pellegrino, and a defeat should certainly spell the end for the Argentine.
If Saints fail to pick up the three points against the Toffees then the club need to act, and if they want an experienced manager that will ensure they stay out of trouble this season then they should consider appointing Sam Allardyce.
The 63-year-old has never suffered relegation to the Championship during his time in charge of Bolton Wanderers, Blackburn Rovers, Newcastle United, West Ham United and Crystal Palace previously, and he would be considered a safe pair of hands.
While some of the St Mary’s faithful may not be accustomed to or admire Big Sam’s style of play, remaining in the Premier League must be a priority now and it really doesn’t look like it will happen under Pellegrino as he is consistently failing to learn from the mistakes he is making.
Additionally, it’s not as though the football witnessed over the course of the last 15 months has been particularly inspiring either, and perhaps it is time for an experienced head to take charge and manage the group of under-performing players.
The Southampton fans and board will certainly have more confidence in Allardyce to get the results that they both want and need until the New Year and beyond. Pellegrino is simply out of his depth.
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