Perraud quickly reminds Southampton FC of essential importance

With Tino Livramento sidelined by an ACL tear, Romain Perraud recovering from a broken foot and no new full-back brought into the club, the Saints manager was left trying to fill a fairly large hole on the one side of his defence.

In Kyle Walker-Peters, Hasenhuttl has a full-back who could flourish on either flank but not even the Englishman can play both roles at the same time. With little else at his disposal, Hasenhuttl had to get creative. His first attempted solution saw Saints shift to a back five with Moussa Djenepo at left-wing-back and when that didn’t work, the Austrian reverted to a four and kept Djenepo in the team as the left-back.

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It worked. Mostly. But it was not a sustainable long-term solution. Thankfully, now with Perraud back fit, Hasenhuttl no longer has to get creative and the left-back is quickly showing why he will be so crucial to Southampton’s season.

It’s not been the easiest first year in England for Perraud. After arriving from Brest last summer for a fee in the region of £11m, Perraud started five of his new side’s first nine games but the emergence of Livramento and Walker-Peters’ shift to left-back saw consistent minutes disappear as autumn turned to winter.

The first of Livramento’s knee issues saw Perraud return to the side through January but once again he was displaced when the Chelsea academy graduate returned to the side. It seemed certain his time would come in earnest when Livramento was stretchered off at Brighton in April but circumstance halted Perraud yet again as he missed out on the conclusion to the campaign with a broken foot that derailed his pre-season and led to muscular issues upon his comeback in August.

Perraud in action against Villarreal in pre-season. Image: PA (Image: Perraud in action against Villarreal in pre-season. Image: PA)

Now though, Perraud seems truly and finally on his way back and even in limited spurts, he’s already shown just how much Saints have missed him.

It’s important to point out that Djenepo performed admirably in his stead. The Malian winger was asked to operate in a thoroughly difficult role, particularly for someone who plays with the freedom and lack of attacking restraint that has been central to his game over the last few years.

But Djenepo seemed to jump at the opportunity to impress - regardless of where on the pitch that would be - and despite the occasional lapse in concentration, he did himself a world of good. However, sacrifices had to occur in order to make it work.

Somewhat surprisingly though, those sacrifices largely came on the attacking side of the ball rather than defensive. It appears that in order to combat the potential lack of discipline and defensive-first tendencies of Djenepo, Hasenhuttl instructed him to solely focus on his primary job of defending and ignore the other aspects of the modern full-back role. That saw him at times almost banned from crossing the halfway line.

The clearest example of this was in Saints’ 2-1 victory at Leicester City. Up until James Maddison’s 54th minute opener, just five of Djenepo’s 31 touches (16%) came in Saints’ attacking half. Meanwhile, 13 of Walker-Peters’ 24 touches (54%) in the same time span came in his side’s attacking half. 

Djenepo got higher up the pitch as Saints chased the game in the final half an hour but the difference in his and Walker-Peters’ roles can be seen clearly in the touch maps below from the first 54 minutes at the King Power.

Djenepo (left) and Walker-Peters (right) heat maps vs Leicester through 54 mins. Images: WhoScored (Image: Djenepo (left) and Walker-Peters (right) heat maps vs Leicester through 54 mins. Images: WhoScored)

The same trend can be seen in the previous game - the 2-2 draw with Leeds United. As visualised in their heat maps below, Djenepo’s primary position was in Saints’ defensive half whereas Walker-Peters spent far more of his time beyond the halfway line.

Djenepo (left) and Walker-Peters (right) heat maps vs Leeds. Image by: WhoScored (Image: Djenepo (left) and Walker-Peters (right) heat maps vs Leeds. Image by: WhoScored)

In the first half of that 2-2 draw - until Rodrigo’s first goal moments after the break - 10 of Djenepo’s 25 touches (40%) came in his side’s attacking half compared to 20 of 29 (69%) for Walker-Peters.

The same was the case against Manchester United. For the first 55 minutes - until Bruno Fernandes gave the visitors the lead - 12 of Djenepo’s 29 touches (41%) came in his team’s attacking half while 22 of Walker-Peters’ 35 touches (63%) came in those forward positions.

The game plan changed once Saints were trailing but in all of these cases, the initial idea was clear. Walker-Peters would bomb forward and help out in attack while Djenepo was reserved to stay back and make sure Saints didn’t over-commit.

Defensively, Saints were solid-ish - at least by this team’s standards - but they lacked balance and attacking oomph.

Last season, with a combination of Walker-Peters and Perraud at left-back, 42% of their attacks came down the left flank - joint-most in the division. But this season it’s been flipped with 42% of their attacks coming down the right side. While the common denominator here is obviously the marauding Walker-Peters, we see this trend shift rather dramatically once Perraud comes into the side.

On a game-by-game basis, we can compare the recent defeat to Wolves and the draw with Leeds. As seen in the graphs below, Saints’ attacking threat came from a far more balanced position of both flanks at Wolves compared to the right-side dominance against Leeds.

Saints attacks by area of the pitch vs Wolves. Image: Wyscout (Image: Saints attacks by area of the pitch vs Wolves. Image: Wyscout)

Saints attacks by area on the pitch vs Leicester. Image: Wyscout (Image: Saints attacks by area on the pitch vs Leicester. Image: Wyscout)

Djenepo has averaged 2.36 crosses per game this season while Perraud averages 3.75 crosses per game in a Saints shirt. Additionally, in 420 minutes of Premier League football this season, Perraud has managed six touches in his attacking box compared to five already from Perraud in just 150 minutes.

The importance of Perraud’s energy and attacking threat has been obvious thus far. The passage of play below comes from Southampton’s 2-1 victory against Chelsea, Perraud creating Adam Armstrong’s eventual winning goal.

As Saints attack through the middle of the pitch and Ibrahima Diallo plays a short pass to James Ward-Prowse, Perraud can be seen on the left flank calling for the ball.

Perraud calls for the ball as Ward-Prowse receives it. Image: Wyscout (Image: Perraud calls for the ball as Ward-Prowse receives it. Image: Wyscout)

Ward-Prowse obliges and feeds his full-back who in turn finds Armstrong waiting in the box to finish and put Saints ahead at the end of a remarkable first half at St Mary’s.

Perraud gets the ball in the box before laying it back to Armstrong. Image: Wyscout (Image: Perraud gets the ball in the box before laying it back to Armstrong. Image: Wyscout)

Similar passages were seen at Molineux with Perraud often one of the furthest forward Saints players.

Below, the Frenchman can once again be seen calling for Ward-Prowse to pass him the ball, high on the left side, level with Joe Aribo.

Perraud calls for the ball high and wide on the left flank. Image: Wyscout (Image: Perraud calls for the ball high and wide on the left flank. Image: Wyscout)

On this occasion, Perraud looks to find Che Adams’ near-post run after receiving the ball but a fairly tame cross is cut out by the Wolves defence.

Perraud crosses in the direction of Adams at the near post. Image: Wyscout (Image: Perraud crosses in the direction of Adams at the near post. Image: Wyscout)

An extremely encouraging sign since Perraud’s return has been his budding relationship with Adam Armstrong. Operating as a left-winger rather than a typical striker for much of this season, Armstrong was frequently left isolated in the first few games of the season as Djenepo hung back.

Armstrong’s isolation was clear at Leicester. The passing web below shows just how lonely Armstrong was at times. The arrows display the direction of the passes and the thickness of the lines represents how frequently that pass was played. As is clear, there was far more action on the right side than left with Armstrong (9) barely involved compared to many of his teammates.

Saints' passing web vs Leicester. Armstrong (9). Image: Wyscout (Image: Saints' passing web vs Leicester. Armstrong (9). Image: Wyscout)

The striker’s 28 touches were second-least amongst his fellow Saints starters, behind only Sekou Mara while only seven of those 28 came in the final third.

Perraud’s attacking threat and license to get forward has helped immensely with this issue. In the above two examples, Armstrong was allowed to drift inside with Perraud providing the attacking width, but the opposite has also been seen.

In the example below against Chelsea, Armstrong has the ball on the left flank with defenders around him and nowhere to go. That is until Perraud makes a darting run up the pitch into the space beyond.

Perraud makes a driving run from deep to support Armstrong. Image: Wyscout (Image: Perraud darts into the box to support Armstrong. Image: Wyscout)

Armstrong finds his teammate and Perraud drives into the box before crossing for Moi Elyounoussi at the back-post. It’s a perfect delivery and Elyounoussi meets it with a diving header but Chelsea defender Marc Cucurella somehow manages to block it.

Perraud breaks into the box and crosses perfectly for Elyounoussi at the back post. Image: Wyscout (Image: Perraud breaks into the box and crosses perfectly for Elyounoussi at the back post. Image: Wyscout)

Against Wolves, the same was seen as Saints chased an equaliser on the stroke of half-time.

Armstrong carries the ball down the side of the box but has multiple Wolves defenders limiting his options. He does, however, have Perraud making a late run into the box.

Perraud makes a late run into the box to support Armstrong. Image: Wyscout (Image: Perraud makes a late run into the box to support Armstrong. Image: Wyscout)

Armstrong plays it back to Perraud who chips a cross in the direction of Adams but his cushioned header is cleared away.

Perraud crosses for Adams but his header is hacked away. Image: Wyscout (Image: Perraud crosses for Adams but his header is hacked away. Image: Wyscout)

Perraud has only managed 75 minutes in each of his two starts this season and Hasenhuttl is right to take a cautious approach with the left-back. While the signing of Ainsley Maitland-Niles provides cover should Perraud suffer a further setback this season, it has already been clear just how much the Frenchman brings to this team.

Perraud’s signing was somewhat overshadowed by the revelatory nature of Livramento’s debut campaign, but his continued emergence deserves to be recognised.

With Livramento unlikely to return until after the World Cup at the earliest, Perraud has never been more important to Saints. He should continue to prove just that in the coming weeks - provided he stays fit.

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