PELL BACKING FLOP SHOTS
MAURICIO PELLEGRINO has jumped to the defence of Southampton’s misfiring forwards.
The Saints have failed to score in four of Pellegrino’s first five games in charge and have netted just one goal from open play this season.
Former boss Claude Puel suffered similar problems but Pellegrino (right) is backing Shane Long and Co to finally come good – starting at Crystal Palace today.
He said: “I have got the best strikers I can have at this moment.
“My job is to work with them and to try and improve them.
“To score a goal is the most difficult thing in modern football. “That is why people who score goals are worth £100m, £200m. Their value is really high. “We have created chances and deserved to score more goals than we have, but you have to convert these chances. “I see this game as an opportunity to convert more chances, to arrive in the final third and create more. “Sometimes it is about our bad position on the pitch and sometimes it is about anxiety going forward. “Sometimes we have to be more patient and sometimes we have to be quicker.”
Saints’ visit to Selhurst Park will be Roy Hodgson’s first game as Palace manager and Pellegrino admits that it will make the Eagles an unknown quantity.
The Argentinian, who has Virgil van Dijk in contention to make his first outing since January, added: “It does not matter who the manager is for us because we have got to prepare our game.
“That is difficult but we have been working very well this week.
“We know how Hodgson was playing in the past but when you get a new group of players everything changes.
“When I was playing at Liverpool he was at Fulham. He is a manager with a long history behind him and a lot of experience.”