Southampton Statistics ‘Look Really Good’ Insists Will Still | OneFootball

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Southampton boss Will Still has claimed that his team need to create their own luck after a slow start to the Championship season and insists that the statistics are very much positive.

Still was appointed as Saints manager after their relegation from the Premier League last season, a season where they managed to accumulate a mere 12 points over the course of the campaign.

Early season expectations, including those of a former EFL star, were that Still would quickly have them in the promotion mix but that has not proven to be the case so far.

Still recounted the chances that have fallen their way so far, feeling that they should have probably been put away.

The Saints boss also noted that his team are faring well from a statistical viewpoint and rued the fact that is not being reflected in the results.

Still, asked about whether Southampton just need something in a game to go their way, said at a press conference: “I think that’s the story at the start of the season.

“We’ve got all the stats that look really good. We’ve got a load of possession and we’ve got a load of xG or whatever they call it.

“But it’s been frustrating in a way that Arma [Adam Armstrong] probably should have scored two or three goals.

“That’s frustrating for us, and it’s frustrating for him.

“We’ve conceded a few pens and a few dodgy goals and it’s just sort of on an edge of what way it goes.”

Still, though, feels it is futile exercise for Southampton to do anything other than seek to make their own luck and keep working to push through and meet expectations.

“We need to make sure that we lean into our favour and that we do everything that we can to get those lucky moments in a game or those 50-50 moments that can fall for us.

“But there’s only one way of doing that.

“You create your own luck, you create your own sort of fortune, and we need to do that, and we need to keep working on it.

“But it does feel like we’re not quite there yet and it’s not quite clicking.

“I think we can see that, we can feel it, and there’s no point hiding behind it or finding excuses.

“We just need to keep working and we’ve talked about it, we’ve said a few things, but as a whole we’ve had a meeting this week about who we are and where we are at, and we know there is an expectation.”

Still came to England with a respectable record in Ligue 1, especially catching the eye with Reims.

If the comments by Ryan Manning calling him a top manager are anything to go by, his side seem to have already brought into his philosophy.

Southampton and Still have plenty of time to turn their season around and push up the table over what will surely be a long and attritional Championship campaign.