Southampton FC outcast's situation labelled "bizarre" as summer transfer claim made | OneFootball

Southampton have a "massive squad", and this means that players are missing out. FLW's Saints fan pundit feels that one player should been loaned out.

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 had a tough start to the season, with only two wins from their opening 10 games leaving them languishing in 16th place in the Championship table.

The Saints have only won once since the opening weekend of the season, and they're already nine points off the automatic promotion places at this early stage of the campaign.

With such indifferent form, head coach Will Still has shuffled his pack somewhat, but one player who has barely featured for them this season has been Kuryu Matsuki.

The Japanese midfielder has only made two substitute appearances for the Saints so far in the league, and even though he scored a brilliant goal against Norwich City in the EFL Cup in August, he's continued to be overlooked by Still as Southampton seek to correct their indifferent run of form.

"It's a bizarre one" - Kurya Matsuki's lack of game-time causes Southampton fan perplexment

With all of this mind, Football League World have spoken to our Southampton fan pundit Martin Sanders to find out what he thinks of Matsuki's current position, and Martin is perplexed as anybody else, pointing out that the midfielder is not the only Southampton player currently in this limbo.

"With the size of the squad, you'd have thought he'd have got a loan," Sanders told FLW.

"I'm really surprised he's still there. He's not getting any game time, is he? He's another one, isn't he. Aribo, Edozie and Matsuki, none of them got a club (in the transfer window)."

In the case of Matsuki, Martin is surprised that the player has been crowded out of the Southampton first-team squad, though he does acknowledge that squad size probably has a big role to play in this state of affairs.

"It's a bizarre one, to be fair," Martin added.

"He scored that brilliant goal, didn't he, but we've not seen anything of him since. It would have been best to loan him out if he's not in your plans. The squad's massive and the manager keeps alluding to this massive squad.

"We've got to start winning games and quickly, with aspirations of promotion, so it's a big couple of weeks."

Kuryu Matsuki may have been a victim of circumstance at Southampton so far this season

There's a case to be made that Kurya Matsuki has been a victim of circumstance at St Mary's.

The 22-year-old was signed for Southampton from FC Tokyo in the summer of 2024, but instead of going into the Saints' first-team squad he was sent out on loan to the club's parent side - Turkish outfit Göztepe.

Matsuki had a productive season in Turkey, making 28 League appearances as his team finished in eighth place in the Super Lig, missing out on a play-off for European football by just four points. He returned to St Mary's in the summer, and will have had just cause to believe that he could push his way towards the Southampton first-team.

But this hasn't happened. He made two appearances from the bench for them earlier in the season, and when he played for Southampton at Norwich in the EFL Cup, he scored a brilliant goal from thirty yards to seal a comfortable 3-0 win.

But the Saints were very active towards the end of the transfer window, signing players in his position like Finn Azaz and Leo Scienza - most likely as a reaction to their tepid start to the season in the league - and the Japanese player hasn't featured since.

He's still young, so there is plenty of time to continue to grow as a player, but considering the quality of the goal that he scored at Norwich, it is surprising that Will Still hasn't taken a chance on Matsuki since, all the more so because he wasn't sent out on loan, which may have given him the opportunity to get more game time in and further finesse both his skills and his experience.

Whatever Southampton are trying at the moment isn't working. Their goalless draw at home to Swansea City on Saturday marked their fourth consecutive home game without a win, and it remains the case that the only win they have beaten in the League since the opening weekend of the season was 2-1 win to bottom of the table Sheffield United at the end of September.

And our fan pundit was correct to point out that Southampton need to start pulling their act together, because the gap between them and the top of the table is continuing to grow, and it won't be long before it's completely insurmountable should the Saints form not start to pick up quickly. If Still cannot turn this around, the head coach may even find that his time with the club turns out to be somewhat short.