Russell Martin names five strikers on Southampton bench vs AFC Bournemouth.

Russell Martin names five strikers on Southampton bench vs AFC Bournemouth.

At the Vitality Stadium on Monday evening, Southampton gave an extremely subpar performance and lost badly to AFC Bournemouth.

There was optimism that Russell Martin might build on Southampton’s much-improved performance against Bournemouth, as the team secured their first Premier League point of the season. Southampton’s victory came against Ipswich Town.

But it was not to be as, in minute 18, a swiftly taken free-kick by Evanilson put Southampton behind.

Prior to that, Southampton had been the superior team, but from the goal to the half, they put on a terrible show that saw Antoine Semenyo and Dango Ouattara make it 3-0.

Martin saw his side improve in the second-half and a Taylor Harwood-Bellis goal shortly after half-time gave the Saints some hope of a comeback but they created very little after that as they lost 3-1.

Against AFC Bournemouth, Russell Martin starts five forwards on the Southampton bench.

When Martin deployed his team in a 4-4-2 shape against Bournemouth without a designated striker, he truly caught them off guard.

Many people believed that Martin would play in the 4-3-3 formation that he has used in the last two league games, with Maxwel Cornet playing up front.

In reality, though, Mateus Fernandes and Tyler Dibling, two attacking midfielders, operated as forwards, dropping deep to get on the ball, while Cornet played on the right side of a four-man midfield.

Though surprised by the initial move, Bournemouth soon discovered Southampton had no out ball or focal point, which gave them the opportunity to push even higher than usual.

The fact that Martin started five strikers on the Saints bench added to the absurdity of this strategy. Dibling and Fernandes both struggled and appeared much more at ease when they moved back to their natural places in the second half.

Ross Stewart and Ben Brereton Diaz were the first two to enter the game at halftime as Martin frantically sought an improvement. Cameron Archer was the third player to enter the action after that.

Martin explains Southampton bench against Bournemouth

As well as the three forwards who came on, Adam Armstrong and, surprisingly, Paul Onuachu were also named on the Southampton bench.

The other four substitutes were a back-up goalkeeper in Alex McCarthy, a full-back in Kyle Walker-Peters and two midfielders in Adam Lallana and Joe Aribo.

Martin was questioned about his very aggressive bench after the game, which was made even more strange by the fact that it had five strikers even though none of them had been on the pitch at the start of the match.

In response, the manager of Southampton said, “We wanted an aggressive bench.” We must triumph and score more goals. We still need to score more goals. That was, after all, very self-explanatory.

Whilst Martin’s forthright statement does go some way to explaining his decision, it makes it all the more puzzling that he did not start with an attacking side considering he felt it was so necessary to have this on the bench.

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