Nathan Jones: Why do Southampton fans feel time is already up for manager? | Football News

The chants have grown increasingly more condemnatory. They have graduated from prolonged choruses of boos, to “you don’t know what you’re doing”, to “get out of our club.” A decree issued directly at manager Nathan Jones.

Fans have made their concerns known as unease and impatience amplifies with every defeat. The cloud over St Mary’s is growing ever darker – and appears close to bursting point.

Southampton have lost six of their last seven Premier League games, keeping one clean sheet in their last 27 – albeit not all of the matches in that dismal run were overseen by Jones.

The outlook on the south coast is, nonetheless, gloomy. 15 points from 21 played – an average of 0.7 per game. Supporters’ ire is not likely to thaw any time soon, with many already turning their back on a manager who has only been in the role two-and-a-half miserable months.

Part of the issue, from a fan perspective, is broken promises. Jones has backed himself into a corner. He came in wanting to address defensive stability – with specific focus on clean sheets and eradicating mistakes from set-pieces. Neither have materialised.

Jones has managed 12 games in all competitions since his appointment – Saints have conceded from five set-pieces (four corners and one free-kick) during that time. In fact most metrics, from which Jones was initially identified and measured by at former club Luton, are not transpiring in Hampshire.

When compared with Ralph Hasenhuttl’s first 15 games of this season, for example, Saints have regressed in almost all categories. They score less, concede more and offer up more of the ball to their opponents – particularly at home, where they have won fewer points than any other side in England’s top four tiers.

In reality, it means the football is as uninspiring as the results. Jones, untried at untested at top-flight level before now, was an unpopular appointment back in November – deemed to be far less ‘fashionable’ than Aston Villa’s recruitment of Unai Emery or Julen Lopetegui at Wolves. But early misgivings have agitated and alienated the fanbase even further.

Tactical tinkering, including ever-changing shapes, formations, styles and personnel has compounded the problem. Across the season, 55 changes have been made to Southampton’s starting XI – only Chelsea and Liverpool rank higher. Saints have also used a total of 31 different players – only Chelsea have fielded more (32).

Jones, to his credit, has remained defiant and bullish throughout. He believes he is the man for the job and can turn the tide on the south coast – but surely only three points against Wolves on Saturday can hand the under-fire boss a life raft. We are in win or walk territory.

What began as the optimistic dawning of a new era under new owners (Sport Republic) willing to invest in rebuilding the playing squad (spending a further £56m in the January window), has quickly turned into a rescue mission with very few contingencies. It’s no surprise disgruntled fans are voicing contempt – question is, is anyone listening?

Blame game exposes frailties

Along with chaotic performances and underwhelming results, another reason for Southampton supporters’ unhappiness with Jones lies in various bizarre public pronouncements.

Since his appointment, Jones has been quick to point to personal successes at Luton, speaking highly of his own credentials while detaching himself somewhat from Southampton’s downfall – instead highlighting perceived errors made by previous regimes.

His post-match address after last weekend’s Brentford defeat was case in point. “I’ve been very successful playing a fluent style”, he said, adding: “statistically, there weren’t many better than me around Europe”.

Jones described his players as “that team” in west London, and pointed out “the same things have been happening for a year – they’ve been losing games in the Premier League”.

The finger of blame was indeed pointed at numerous culprits, which appeared to absolve himself of responsibility – although the 49-year-old has since backtracked, claiming the comments were intended as a full admission of responsibility and he “lives and dies by his own decisions”.

Still, the emotional rant did very little to win sympathisers among the fanbase, while also raising alarm bells amid Southampton’s new-look hierarchy – who have since gone on record to publicly back their first managerial appointment since taking over at St Mary’s 12 months ago.

Jones said he has made “compromises” because of “personnel”, “the way that people want to play” and “fans”.

Criticising so many key factions of the club is risky, with reports emerging this week Jones’ bosses were suitably unimpressed by the knee-jerk reaction. By contrast, captain James Ward-Prowse apologised to travelling fans for another abject display.

Unsurprisingly, supporters took exception to Jones’ comments. Speaking to Sky Sports News ahead of Tuesday’s fans’ forum, one supporter described the atmosphere as “toxic”, while another said: “within weeks, 100 per cent of the fanbase turned against him [Jones].”

“It’s the Premier League that matters to Saints fans and a lot of them are not convinced at all by Nathan Jones. Plenty want him gone,” Sky Sports News reporter Jeremy Langdon summarised earlier this week.

Rasmus Ankersen, CEO of the club’s owners Sport Republic, did give public backing to Jones at a Q&A event with fans.

He said: “It’s no secret that if you keep losing games you cannot do that forever, at some point you hit the point where it’s enough.

“I appreciate you’re looking at it from the outside and have certain reference points and we are on the inside we have a lot more reference points.

“We see what goes on every day, we see the quality of the work carried out, relationship with the players.

“As long as we think the work being carried out by Nathan and team and players at the training ground every day is high quality then we have something to believe in that this is going to get better and we can turn it around.

“Another thing worth taking into consideration is we’ve just been through a transfer window where we’ve invested a significant amount of money trying to address some of these weaknesses the team has especially in creating chances and converting some of the chance we create.

“Nathan has been part of selecting these players and selling the project to them and I think it’s fair he gets the chance to show what he can do with the weapons that he now has.”

Jones adamant playing style has been ‘compromised’ – but what is it?

Jones was head-hunted by Ankersen, Sport Republic’s CEO, largely because of the laudable work he undertook at Luton, which perhaps explains why he was so keen to emphasise his time at Kenilworth Road after Saints’ recent Brentford thumping.

After that game, Jones bemoaned his inability to replicate the style of football that proved successful for him at Luton, saying of Southampton: “I look at that team and I don’t see myself,” adding: “I’ve compromised.”

So, let’s compare.

During his two full seasons in charge – 2020/21 and 2021/22 – Jones’ Luton were hardly prolific, ranking 20th for goals scored, but they were good at getting the ball forward quickly, coming in seventh for long passes attempted and ninth for completed crosses, while only five sides completed fewer passes.

The Hatters were also strong from attacking set-pieces, placing eighth for assists from such situations.

Since he took charge, Jones’ Southampton produce similar statistics, ranking 16th for goals scored, second for long passes attempted, sixth for crosses completed and fourth for assists from set-pieces – with only three sides completing fewer passes.

However, there are a number of areas where Jones has failed to implement his so-called playing principles – and they go some way to explaining Saints’ downward trend.

Jones’ Luton were a skilled pressing side, rated in the top three in the Championship across the past two completed seasons for possessions won in the attacking third, while they ranked 14th for goals conceded.

Southampton’s pressing is nowhere near as coherent or effective – they are in the bottom half among top-flight sides for attacking-third possession wins – and are joint bottom for goals conceded. They have also conceded a league-high 13 goals from crosses.

What’s more, only 38 per cent of the long passes Southampton have attempted actually reached their intended target.

In short, Luton under Jones got the ball forward quickly and accurately, pressed high and defended solidly. They did not need to score hatfuls of goals because they were breached far less frequently. Southampton are simply failing to match up.

The Jones playbook, which relies on being defensively sound and robust, is undone every time Saints concede first – across 21 league games, they have only scored the first goal four times, and none of those have occurred during games managed by the Welshman.

Bold claims distort truth

One of the most eye-catching claims Jones made following the damaging defeat at Brentford was “there weren’t many better than me around Europe in terms of aggression, clean sheets, defending the box, balls in the box, xG [expected goals]” during his second spell at Luton.

Jones added his side “were pound-for-pound the best because we were spending next to nothing and producing so much”.

Putting Jones’ words under the microscope, it’s clear Luton did keep an impressive number of clean sheets, recording a shutout in 37.5 per cent of their matches – but such impressive numbers do not correspond at the top end of the pitch.

Across the Championship between 2020-21 and 2021-22 – Jones’ two full seasons in charge after returning to the club – they ranked fourth for clean sheets. Fair enough.

Luton also ranked fairly high for passes into the box under Jones, recording 30.47 per game.

For context in European circles, behind Bayern Munich, Manchester City and Liverpool, Monaco yielded the highest number (33.01), while the lowest was fellow Ligue 1 side Lorient (21.34).

Jones’ claim about Luton’s xG is where the real downfall lies. The Hatters’ figure of 1.26 per game ranks averagely among European sides – mid-table, if you will. It’s certainly way behind leaders Bayern, who top the charts with 2.45.

Jones’ claims were exaggerative, but do, however, carry some weight considering relative budgets.

According to Transfermarkt, the largest fee Luton spent on a player during Jones’ second spell was £1.8m (Carlton Morris), while they signed seven players for free.

During that time – with one of the lowest budgets in the second tier – Jones took Luton to successive top-half finishes – including a play-off semi-final.

But now the arena has changed. Jones has stepped up from the middleweight to heavyweight division and the pressure is showing. Cracks have appeared.

When asked if he thinks he can keep Southampton in the Premier League during his pre-Wolves press conference he replied: “I genuinely think I can.”

The ‘how’ remains to be seen.