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#2 Mark Hughes
Mark Hughes was brought in at Southampton last season with the immediate goal of saving the club from relegation, and he at least managed that, keeping them up by just a three-point margin. It wasn’t exactly impressive, though – Hughes only claimed 8 points in his 8 games, and ended up with a statistically worse record than the man he replaced, Mauricio Pellegrino.
If things were expected to be better at St. Mary’s this season, then that certainly hasn’t been the case. Southampton have picked up just 1 win thus far in 2018/19 and even more alarmingly, they’ve only scored 7 goals in their 11 games. Last season saw them criticised for a lack of goals and yet if they stay on their current course, they’ll score even less this time around.
It’s not like the Saints have a bad squad – the likes of Nathan Redmond, Alex McCarthy, Ryan Bertrand and James Ward-Prowse are all excellent players and the addition of Danny Ings has helped to add some firepower, but you have to look at the cold, hard facts and a glance at them tells a dark story – Southampton have scored just once in their last 6 league games.
Most recently, the Saints thoroughly capitulated against an admittedly impressive Manchester City side, eventually losing 6-1. While there’s no shame in losing to Pep Guardiola’s side, the spineless performance that Southampton put on suggests that there are major problems at the club. And Hughes is undoubtedly the most likely fall guy if things don’t improve soon.
