Almost a year after his initial appointment to the job as Southampton’s new manager, Ronald Koeman has had what could be called a successful first campaign with the club. But how does he compare with the Saints’ Premier League managers of the past?
In total there have been 15 men in charge of the squad in their 16 years of Premier League football. Some of these only had brief stints at the club during some tumultuous managerial times.
From the Premier League’s inaugural year to their relegation from the top flight in 2005, the South Coast side were coached by Ian Branfoot, Alan Ball, David Merrington, Graeme Souness, Dave Jones, Glenn Hoddle, Stuart Gray, Gordon Strachan, Steve Wigley, Paul Sturrock and Harry Redknapp.
Since their promotion in 2012 the club was briefly under the charge of Nigel Adkins before Argentinian Mauricio Pochettino was brought in to replace him. After just over a season at St. Mary’s, Pochettino moved to EPL rivals Tottenham Hotspur and Koeman was signed as manager in June of last year.
Since his appointment, Koeman boasts a 47.2% win percentage, this is the greatest record for a Southampton manager in the EPL, the next closest being Glen Hoddle with 40.8% and Koeman’s predecessor Pochettino with 35.2% in third.
The Dutchman has seen his side net 48 goals this season, although this is still a ways off the most impressive total. The current side’s goals per game sits at 1.33 compared to 1.45 from Alan Ball’s 1994-95 squad and 1.42 from Pochettino’s last season.
The most dramatic improvement since the change in manager last year has been in the Saint’s defensive performances. For much of the season, the St. Mary’s side had the lowest number of goals conceded in the league and now sit only behind leaders Chelsea, conceding just 0.83 goals per game. However, Southampton were on track to have the league’s best defensive record if not for recent poor form having seen eight goals conceded in the past four games, over a quarter of their season’s total goals against.
The team has conceded 12 goals at St. Mary’s at 0.67 a game and just 18 on the road for a league best 1.00 per game.
No Saints team before have even come close to this defensive record, the next smallest goals against being the 2003-04 side that conceded 45 at 1.18 per game.
Combining these two statistics we find that the 2014-15 side has a goal difference of +18. This again is far and away the best record with the South Coast side only able to register a positive goal difference on one other occasion, being Pochettino’s +8.
On the 25th of April 2015, Southampton drew 2-2 with Tottenham at home taking their points total to 57, surpassing last season’s record setting 56 points. Koeman has accrued an average of 1.58 points per game since being appointed manager, again a stat that cannot be matched by any of his predecessors, Glenn Hoddle coming closest with 1.44 per game in his year and a half stint at the turn of the century.
[interaction id=”5554218fe091946473b315d0″]
It seems clear that by performance Ronald Koeman is the greatest Southampton manager in the Premier League, statistics showing that he has continued on and bettered the work done by his Argentinian predecessor. Koeman went above and beyond expectations with many fearing that he would be facing a relegation battle with all the high profile departures from last season’s squad. It seems fans need not be worried about losing their man either, with Koeman recently stating that even if Catalan giants, and former employers during his playing career, Barcelona were to come knocking he would turn them down in favour of staying with the South Coast club.
With two matches of the season remaining, supporters will be hopeful that despite the side’s recent slip in form, Koeman can lead Southampton to better the club’s Premier League record high finishing position of eighth. The possibility of Europa League football still remains also, with the side trailing sixth positioned Tottenham by only a single point with the Spurs similarly suffering from poor performances in recent times.
What are your thoughts? Let us know by dropping a comment below via our Facebook comment box. Make sure you follow us on Twitter @Outside90 and like us on Facebook.
