Southampton sack Ivan Juric: Was sacking of Russell Martin a mistake?

It was all the time going to be a battle to maintain Southampton within the Premier League, even earlier than their poor switch window.

The departure of technical director Jason Wilcox, a giant advocate of former Scotland worldwide Martin, to Manchester United final yr left the previous head coach with no essential ally and important assist.

Southampton returned to the Premier League with out sufficiently changing Wilcox, which left them with no key place and expertise.

There was frustration with the possession as chief government Phil Parsons – who joined from Dyson in July 2023 – had restricted expertise within the sport and the membership struggled to maneuver rapidly sufficient to get offers executed final summer time.

The goal for the season was to keep away from relegation and construct the workforce’s worth, one thing they’ve executed with the emergence of Tyler Dibling – even when their reported £100m valuation is unlikely to be achieved.

Martin had a patient-passing, possession-based model of play – one thing he had applied since changing into MK Dons supervisor in 2019 and continued at Swansea.

It was one thing that appealed to Southampton and why they have been so decided to take him from the Swans after relegation in 2023, a transfer that turned acrimonious when Swansea took Martin to courtroom.

“Each workforce we have had has appeared comparable however we have needed to discover a totally different method,” he mentioned after shedding to Wolves in November.

“At MK Dons we had two sturdy, highly effective centre-forwards so performed two strikers and located a technique to rating objectives. At Swansea we did not have any wingers so we needed to play defenders or midfielders.

“Final season we had a lot attacking energy for the Championship we scored a variety of objectives.

“Now the fellows are doing what we have been informed we could not when it comes to having a lot of the ball within the Premier League, however there needs to be the identical mentality there was final yr.

“Whichever model of play you’ve gotten, the sport is about beating your opponent and dominating your opponent, and we do not try this fairly sufficient but.”

The model criticisms got here because the Saints struggled and the poisonous ambiance at St Mary’s in the course of the ultimate weeks – together with as Tottenham scored 4 objectives in 25 minutes in Martin’s ultimate sport – made the state of affairs untenable.

Errors occurred too typically. The tone was set by goalkeeper Alex McCarthy’s error to reward Joelinton the winner in Newcastle’s 1-0 opening day victory in August – and it’s maybe naive to suppose Southampton would have survived this season.

However had Martin ridden out the storm – tough in a soccer tradition that calls for every thing yesterday – maybe he would have been the most effective particular person to mount a promotion problem.

It might have come right down to how psychologically scarred the squad and membership have been from relegation, and it’s a fanciful suggestion however the pedigree was there.