It was telling — possibly even disturbing — that praise for Samuel Edozie was lavished under such strained circumstances.

“It’s a shame we are relying on a teenager to light the place up,” said Nathan Jones, in the backwash of Southampton’s 3-1 defeat by Brighton & Hove Albion on Boxing Day. 

Edozie, 19, was handed his first Premier League start and proved the only bright spark in an otherwise dim afternoon.

Despite the crisis Southampton were seemingly engulfed in, Edozie appeared unshackled. Having been schooled in Manchester City’s academy and under the Pep Guardiola tutelage of wingers holding their position, staying wide and recognising nuanced triggers to then cut inside, Edozie carried a direct threat throughout. He won the penalty which James Ward-Prowse converted on a rebound for Southampton’s consolation goal.

Advertisement

Yet, as has been a recurrent theme throughout Southampton’s season, the hope of youth has been obscured by the broader disarray. It has not been fair or easy on the youngsters.

Edozie has had to wait for his chance, limited to substitute appearances when Southampton are trailing and resigned to attempting to conjure a rabbit out of a hat. The problem being that the rabbit is mostly stilted and trapped in the magician’s bowler.

All of which meant that when Edozie would come on, the game had already taken shape, with the opposition dropping deeper and largely negating the winger’s natural attributes, such as his runs in-behind and one-v-one ability.

Illustrated in the Carabao Cup tie against Lincoln City on December 20, Edozie’s introduction has usually prompted a tactical change to a back -four shape.

Here, the ball is played back to defender Duje Caleta-Car. As Lincoln push out, Edozie identifies the trigger to run in behind. Note how all of his team-mates in attack are facing play and have their backs to goal.

Edozie’s movement goes unrewarded, with Caleta-Car sticking a hand up to apologise for not playing the pass.

Southampton’s lack of one-v-one ambition is the culmination of four years of Ralph Hasenhuttl, whose attacking patterns were highly mechanical and positionally disciplined.  The squad was heavily predicated on what players could do out of possession rather than what they could provide with the ball.

It did not allow for invention or off-the-cuff moments. It did, though, keep Southampton in the league and punching above their weight. Sofiane Boufal was discarded and Moussa Djenepo now cuts a very different, less direct player to what he was.

Edozie is arguably the only archetypal winger in Southampton’s squad, comfortable in holding width and driving at his full-back.

At Craven Cottage on Saturday, Jones used Edozie for the first time in a back-three system, operating off the left in a 3-4-2-1.

Advertisement

In Southampton’s sixth change of shape inside five days, Edozie embodied Jones’ functional set-up, tasked with tracking the runs of Fulham right-back Kenny Tete before injecting pace on the counter.

His brightest moment came on the half-hour mark, squaring Tete up before driving inside and playing a one-two with striker and Southampton’s leader of their kick-and-rush-football, Che Adams. Edozie’s shot was tame, but showed what he could do if afforded greater license.

As Southampton’s average positioning from the first half shows, Edozie (No 23) was having to largely play from deep and was unable to get into any one-v-one positions out wide.

Unlike recent times, Southampton appeared relatively unperturbed and switched to a 4-2-3-1 formation at the break. As one of eight players to see their positional remit altered, Edozie was tasked with staying glued to the left-hand touchline. Centre-back Mohammed Salisu was now moonlighting at left-back, meaning if Southampton were going to be productive down the left, it was improbable that it would come through attacking overlaps from the Ghanian.

Following Ward-Prowse’s exquisite free kick, the tables began to turn and it was Edozie who started to run beyond Tete.

Edozie would sprint off the back of the right-back, stretching play and enabling Southampton’s cluster of No 10s — Mohamed Elyounoussi, Joe Aribo and Stuart Armstrong — more space in between the lines. He had one shot smothered by Bernd Leno before picking the pockets of Daniel James to initiate a good counter-attacking opportunity.

Irrespective of the support behind him, Southampton began to circumvent attacks towards Edozie.

Where Southampton attacked from in the second half

<c/enter>

And in a refreshing change from Southampton’s overtly one-paced attack, Edozie’s first instinct was either to cut inside and drive towards the box or combine with team-mates in the final third — and his pass map shows a clear willingness to pass forward when it was possible.

Left-back Romain Perraud came on in his place and, in retrospect, was the catalyst for Fulham regaining the initiative. Perraud is naturally defensively minded and did not offer the same incision.

Advertisement

This was shown soon after, when Armstrong’s through ball was played into the path of the Frenchman, who did not have the legs to drive into Fulham’s box. Jones later described it as a “great opportunity”.

Southampton ultimately got ground down, trapped in their half and caved in once more. Fulham’s second from Joao Palhinha came via another corner. This time it was from not winning the first contact or tracking his back-post run.

In the contrasting cases of Edozie and Southampton, footballing naivety can be a good and a bad thing.

(Top photo: Steve Bardens/Getty Images)