Ryan Manning exclusive: Southampton defender on tactical tweaks which can secure Premier League survival

Rock bottom of the Premier League, and already five points from safety, there is little positivity around Southampton and the heat is already on manager Russell Martin.

Playing style, defensive fragility and, ultimately, results have ramped up the pressure only 12 games into the return of Premier League football on the south coast, where the closest memory of last season’s Championship play-off final win the trophy sitting in the club’s training ground reception.

Martin’s possession football has won him admirers to date, taking him from MK Dons, to Swansea, to Southampton and now the Premier League in five seasons.

But like many before him, he is quickly finding out how difficult it is to stick to those philosophies in the most strenuous league in world football.

It is not his first sticky patch across that half decade. Ryan Manning, who followed his gaffer from south Wales to St Mary’s in the summer 2023, has witnessed the highs and lows of his management before.

He was there for, and started most of, Southampton’s 25-game unbeaten streak last season but likewise a run of three wins from 21 the previous season at Swansea.

Friday 29th November 7:30pm


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The Irishman knows Martin’s style can need fine tuning and has been there to see it pay off before.

“We lost four on the spin before that 25-game run too,” Manning reminds Sky Sports. “There were sticky times last season where we were sort of grinding stuff out. Momentum is massive.

“Obviously, to go 25 unbeaten in the Premier League would be a tough ask! But when results aren’t going your way, it can be difficult.

“There’s so many positive things to take from the performances that if we can get a bit of momentum going, I think we can really start climbing the table.

“We need to continue what we’re doing in those situations and go for two, three more, kill the game off. But again, it’s the Premier League, it’s difficult, every team has their threats and it’s so difficult to hold on to results.

“But I think we can sort of take a bit of positivity out of the fact that we’ve been ahead in a lot of them games and if we can start converting them into points on the board, I think we can start to change the look of the table.”

Southampton have led five games this season – as many as Newcastle and West Ham. There is promise here – the issue is that only one of those matches has been won.

They have been their own worst enemy at times. Martin’s style demands precision and in the unforgiving world of the Premier League Southampton have dropped 11 points from winning positions, most of them avoidable.

Eight goals and 20 shots have been conceded from errors. In most circumstances, blowing a 2-1 lead to lose to Liverpool at the weekend would be seen as a plucky defeat. But it follows a trend which has seen them concede an average of two goals a game, second-worst only to Wolves.

At the other end, Southampton have had more touches in the final third than seven teams, and only 38 fewer than Brighton, who they face on Friday Night Football. Despite that, they are they only team in the top flight yet to reach 10 goals.

Martin is not a man for changing his style. That was what attracted Southampton’s hierarchy to him, like Swansea before them, and what has drawn praise from Pep Guardiola and Mikel Arteta this season.

There are signs he is open to at least adapting. Southampton’s first goal on Sunday came from a 30-yard Tyler Dibling run. Their second moved them from full-back to the edge of the opposition box in two passes before Mateus Fernandes finished off.

But what will stick in the mind is the defensive calamity for Liverpool’s opener, as Saints tried – and failed – to play their way out against Liverpool’s high press. Most frustratingly for Martin, that was a moment he would have rather they just cleared their lines.

“It’s about realising the state of games and picking our moments a little bit better and where we decide whether to play out or playing quickly or slow the game down,” says Manning. “It’s a bit of game management at the moment that’s letting us down.

“At times it’s easy from the outside to look in and see things and think the chance came from a long ball and ask why don’t we do that every time.

“But I think there’s a lot of our play that comes from playing out from the back that leads to chances which wouldn’t be there unless we had built up.

“That’s about dragging teams into different shapes and different positions that they wouldn’t normally be in.

“We are consistent in what we believe in and we practise the same things every day. Every training session is designed to make us better on a match day and at the end of the season, I feel like things will click and we’ll be out of the bottom three by then.

“I think we’ll be looking back and saying that it was just a tough period that we went through. It only takes one or two results to go your way and all of a sudden the picture changes a lot.”

Manning himself has endured a frustrating wait to return to the Premier League after he was plucked from the Irish second tier by QPR, then in the top flight, in January 2015, only for the Rs to be relegated four months later.

Getting back to the top was never at the forefront of his mind, he insists, but it never stopped being an aspiration. It finally began to feel a likely prospect when the call came from his recently departed Swansea boss to join him on the south coast 18 months ago.

Manning was seen as a trusted lieutenant and started 30 Championship games en route to Southampton’s promotion, but Martin’s loyalty to the wing-back was not unconditional.

The arrival of Premier League veteran Charlie Taylor and the retention of loanee Ryan Fraser saw him out of the squad for the first six games of the season, before a dreadful team performance at Bournemouth invited a change of tack.

Cue a change to a back five to try to limit the damage at Arsenal on October 5. And a surprise return for Manning, who shook off five months of rust to keep Bukayo Saka quiet for an hour. Enough to be described as “brilliant” by his manager.

Southampton even went 1-0 up at the Emirates in one of their best performances of the season before the insatiable winger finally grabbed two assists and a goal – the latter of which came after Manning had been substituted.

“The Arsenal game was straight in at the deep end,” he laughs. “It was one of those where the whistle went, I just had to knuckle down and enjoy the challenge.

“You’re trying to enjoy it as much as you can, but obviously against someone like Saka, it comes with a bit of stress. I had Kyle [Walker-Peters] at centre-back alongside me, and we helped each other out.

“That said, in the Premier League you’re never going to face a winger where it’s an easy day at the office.

“It was obviously difficult not featuring at the start of the season, but that’s the Premier League. Every pre-season you’re coming back fighting for your position, you’re never guaranteed anything. For me, it was just realising that challenge was there and going on to embrace it.”

That sounds like a buzzword but Manning knuckled down to earn his chance. He threw himself into proving himself, even happily playing 90 minutes the U21s a fortnight before that Arsenal game when many would be less than enthused.

After that Arsenal game, he started four of the subsequent five games before sitting out the Liverpool defeat – and has proven one of the Saints’ best creative outlets in a season lacking attacking output.

Even so, his desire and work-rate to lengthen his Premier League return will not be enough to keep Southampton up on its own. The style has to click, results have to improve. But there are positive signs amid the doom and gloom at the bottom of the Premier League.

Momentum is a strange thing in football. So is that elusive winning formula. A little bit more of each, and that five-point gap to safety could shrink rather quickly.

Watch Brighton vs Southampton from 7pm on Sky Sports Premier League on Friday, kick-off 8pm.