Southampton FC alarm bells are ringing around £40k-a-week man - struggles have not gone unnoticed | OneFootball

Just five matches into pre-season and Southampton fans have seen enough to call out their captain, Jack Stephens, on social media.

Southampton FC Club Captain, Jack Stephens, will need plenty of support from Saints' new manager Will Still if he is to come through a sticky period of pre-season howlers and hold on to his place in the side.

On the whole, Southampton have made a decent start under EFL Championship rookie, Still. The 32-year-old manager, who was born in Belgium to English parents, has overseen a complete transformation in the way that he is asking Southampton to play.

As the players adjust to the more direct style and higher press, it's fair to say that some are adapting better than others. In midfield, Shea Charles is becoming the archetypal box-to-box midfielder and in defence Joshua Quarshie is far in advance of where any Saints fan might have expected him to be at this stage of the season.

In attack, Cameron Archer is looking better than he ever did under Russell Martin, Ivan Juric, and Simon Rusk. With Jay Robinson beginning to demonstrate his creative ability and new signing Damion Downs hitting the back of the net on debut, there is plenty to be optimistic about as the first game of the Championship season fast approaches.

Southampton's senior players are finding it the most difficult to adapt

However, hangovers from a disastrous season are difficult things to shake off, and it's the senior players in the Southampton squad who are finding it the most difficult to put it all behind them. Ben Brereton Diaz has not really got going in an attacking sense, despite doing some sterling work in defence, particularly in the first half of Saints' warm-up defeat to Espanyol.

Alongside Brereton Diaz, Still has put his faith in Ryan Fraser and Adam Armstrong to turn their form around. There are signs that both are shaking off their relative nightmares, albeit slowly. Armstrong has hit the back of the net twice during pre-season but doesn't yet look the same player that helped Southampton to play-off glory in 2023-24.

Fraser is looking fit and hungry. Most of his best work is coming out of possession during defensive transitions where the Saints are being asked to win the ball back quickly. Going forward, Fraser is still looking rusty. He has snatched at a number of chances and gone missing for periods of games.

Of all the senior players, Jack Stephens must feel that he has not properly awoken from his personal nightmare season. The fans appear to have noticed Stephen's poor pre-season form and comments on social media have not been kind to the Club Captain and the man said to be taking home £40,000-a-week, according to capology.com and their estimates.

Jack Stephens' struggles continue during pre-season

In the opening warm-up match against Eastleigh, Stephens failed to track and close down Eastleigh's Aaron Blair quickly enough to prevent the cross that led to the home side's shock opener.

Worse was to come when the Saints captain was caught in possession in the first half of his side's third friendly of pre-season against French third-tier club, Valenciennes FC. Stephens dwelt on the ball for too long inside his own penalty area and had the ball stolen from him by the eventual goalscorer Sami Baghdadi.

CD Castellón presented Southampton with a sterner test than they might have expected in the first match of the Saints' Spanish training camp. Stephens looked flat-footed, positionally wayward, and sluggish as the Spanish Segunda División side created a series of shooting chances in the first-half of a 1-1 draw. Only some of the best goalkeeping of pre-season from Gavin Bazunu kept the home team at bay.

Stephens' personal nightmare continued in the last match of the Spanish camp, a 2-1 defeat at the hands of La Liga's RCD Espanyol in Barcelona. He might consider himself unlucky as he deflected an attempted interception directly into the path of Javi Puado, who slotted home for Espanyol's first.

However, the second goal was a gift from the captain. Stephens got on the wrong side of his man and was adjudged to have pulled him back inside the six-yard box. Although the penalty was soft, Stephen's defending was not great.

Stephens still has the manager's support despite his poor form

Despite a series of mistakes, Stephen's poor pre-season has not done any real damage to Southampton's hopes of being a force in the Championship next season.

His manager certainly isn't concerned.

“We just need to keep working with him and keep his confidence up. He's done a lot of good things today as well,” Still explained to reporters.

Although Stephens' form has not been great during pre-season, he is clearly Still's first choice central defender and captain. Constantly changing the defensive pairing has contributed to some miscommunication which has led to errors in practice matches. Perhaps mistakes are to be expected and the Southampton captain will learn from them.

If Stephens doesn't learn quickly, Still has a plethora of centre-backs to choose from. Ronnie Edwards and Quarshie have both looked very good in pre-season and will be keen to take advantage if their captain's form does not improve.