Jones Saint done himself any favours

NATHAN JONES made a rod for his own back with his bizarre post-match interviews following Southampton’s dismal defeat at Brentford.

I am always pleased when young British coaches are given a chance to work in the Premier League, and although Jones wasn’t an obvious choice when Saints appointed him as Ralph Hasenhuttl’s successor at St Mary’s, it was an interesting punt.

And I am not going to follow my 606 sidekick Chris Sutton’s call for Jones to be sacked.

But the Southampton manager’s claims about being one of the best coaches in Europe in certain aspects of the game with Luton in the Championship last season don’t really stack up.

Here’s what Jones (right) said: “Statistically, there weren’t many better than me around Europe in terms of aggression, clean sheets, defending the box, balls in the box, xG, all those sort of things.

“Pound-for-pound there wasn’t anyone else in the country competing like we did in terms of points-perpound.”

Yes, Jones gave Luton a good run for their money, but many of the stats don’t support his claims.

Compared with 177 teams in Europe’s top seven leagues last season, Luton’s 1.28 xG (expected goals) per game was ranked 92nd, 1.23 xG against was 42nd, penalty area entries (29.31 per game) was 56th, duels contested (112.19) was 23rd and 0.36 clean sheets per game was 26th.

I fear the worst for Southampton – I think they are going down.

If that happens, Jones will probably regret his admission that he “compromised” his style to accommodate Premier League players instead of being true to himself and the methods which made him so popular at Kenilworth Road.