After some time, Russell Martin will have considered benching this Southampton player.
Given that Southampton’s midweek game against Preston North End at St. Mary’s was postponed, their preparation for this weekend’s matchup with Sunderland must have been somewhat strange.
Due to the late cancellation, Russell Martin’s team was unable to build on their thrilling victory away at Birmingham City with a further three points. Now, the opponent that the Champions Championship promotion contenders must defeat is Sunderland.
With no Wednesday night match to gauge his chances, Martin had more time to consider his starting lineup. Surprisingly, he could bench this dependable midfielder to take on Mike Dodds’ struggling Black Cats.
Stuart Armstrong’s performance vs Birmingham in numbers
This season, the former Dundee United midfielder has been a mainstay under Martin, racking up an outstanding six assists and four goals from 35 appearances overall in the second division.
Nevertheless, given his lacklustre performance last weekend away at Birmingham, Stuart Armstrong’s permanent place in the Saints team may be in jeopardy, even if the £65k-per-week Scotsman is reliable for big chunks of the season.
Armstrong would throw the ball away in the middle of the park at St. Andrew’s 23 times in all, an expensive amount considering Tony Mowbray’s team continued finding ways to tie the thrilling 4-3 match.
| Armstrong’s numbers vs Birmingham | |
|---|---|
| Minutes played | 90 |
| Touches | 79 |
| Accurate passes | 48/61 |
| Accurate crosses | 2/11 |
| Shots on goal | 1 |
| Duels won | 3/6 |
| Possession lost | 23x |
| Stats by Sofascore | |
The following table shows that the Saints number 17 had such a bad game against Birmingham that Martin might think of surprising Sunderland by benching him entirely.
The manager now faces a selection conundrum as to who could step in and fill in for the seasoned Saints player while Martin is out of the lineup, which could benefit a number of different reserve players.
The athletes who might step in for Stuart Armstrong
For tomorrow’s match, Martin may start Joe Aribo or Joe Rothwell over Armstrong. Aribo scored the game’s winning goal late in the second half against Birmingham after replacing Will Smallbone on the bench.
Since moving on loan from AFC Bournemouth in January, Rothwell has also occasionally shown his best play for Southampton, scoring two goals in 11 games for his new short-term employers thus far.
One of those goals was a debut wonder goal in the Championship last month against Huddersfield Town, which helped Southampton defeat a tough Terriers team 5-3 on the day.
Armstrong has participated in some form in every second-tier match for his South Coast club this season, so Martin will know that using his entire roster away from the Scotsman might be effective against Sunderland. Armstrong has yet to miss a full Southampton game this season.
Given Southampton’s recent struggles, which have caused them to fall behind in the race for automatic promotion, it’s possible that other players should have more opportunities to shine in centre midfield rather than Armstrong being the starting lineup.
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