"Really worrying signs" - Claim made on Will Still's Southampton FC future | OneFootball

Southampton manager Will Still is under pressure at St. Mary's

This article is part of Football League World's 'Terrace Talk' series, which provides personal opinions from our FLW Fan Pundits regarding the latest breaking news, teams, players, managers, potential signings and more…

Southampton have made a poor start to the 2025/26 campaign.

After suffering a dismal relegation from the Premier League last term, in which they picked up just two victories throughout 38 games, the Saints arrived back in the Championship determined to get back to winning ways.

However, that hasn’t been the case. The South Coast outfit have won just one of their first six matches, drawing three and losing the other two to find themselves sitting a lowly 19th in the table.

A recent 3-1 defeat at the hands of Hull City was a major cause for concern, marking the fifth straight league game Southampton had gone without winning.

Naturally, this poor run of form has led to increased pressure on their manager.

Will Still was appointed as the man to take over at St. Mary’s after success in French football with Lens and Reims. The 32-year-old gained quite a large reputation during his time on the continent, which led to excitement from Southampton supporters about what was achievable this season.

However, there already appears to be immense pressure on his shoulders after just six league matches.

Given their poor run of form, Football League World’s Southampton fan pundit, Martin Sanders, can understand why some of the Saints’ followers are starting to doubt Still, but believes that there is still plenty of time for the young coach to prove himself.

Southampton supporters told to give Will Still more time

“We’ve played six league games,” stated Martin. “Ipswich haven’t had a great start. You look at Sheffield United, they haven’t got a point on the board yet.

“It's so early in the season. There are some really worrying signs at the moment. He's got a really tough job on his hands and everyone just needs to remember we only won two league games last year and we were terrible.

“We let in a huge amount of goals and picked up 12 points. He’s never going to come in and be a miracle worker or just turn it around overnight. It was never going to happen like that.

“Some of the fans are turning on him already. But to judge a manager. The one thing I've learned over the years is that football can change very, very quickly.

“You're one result away from turning things around. If we beat Boro, we can kick on. It just needs time. There are worrying signs because we didn't turn up in the biggest game of our season. In the biggest game of the season, the South Coast Derby, we didn't show up.

“If we'd won that, it would have been very different.”

Will Still must start getting Southampton to perform sooner rather than later

As Martin alluded to, there is still plenty of football left to play this season and lots of time for Still to perfect his system at St. Mary’s.

That said, Southampton supporters will want to see some shoots of promise they can cling on to. Something that tells them Still is the right man to lead them forward, back towards the Premier League.

Along with results, the Saints’ performances haven’t been up to scratch, which will arguably worry fans more than just where they currently lie in the league table, especially given the number of talented operators that are currently contracted to the club.

Still has all the tools he needs to be successful in the Championship, and he will likely enjoy quite a bit more time to get things right.