Mark Hughes has a herculean task of rescuing the Saints from facing a drop. After a horrific start to the season under Mauricio Pellegrino, Southampton find themselves scrambling for points. They now sit 18th in the league with 27 points in 31 games.
However not all is lost for the south coast faithful as they are still in with a chance to avoid relegation provided the Southampton stars can step it up a notch.
And the board is keeping a positive outlook and are planning big for the summer provided they stay up. According to reports, the Saints are interested in bringing Barcelona man Paco Alcacer to the south coast after his failure to break into a strong Barcelona team.
Paco Alcacer’s rise to fame
The Spanish forward’s breakthrough season came at Valencia in the 2015-16 season. He notched up 13 goals and 6 assists in the league thus attracting interest from clubs all around. Despite Valencia managing a low finish in that campaign, Alcacer was a shining star.
Not only was he their leading goal-scorer in all competitions, he was also Nuno Espirito Santo’s (the then Valencia manager) first choice captain at a tender age of 22.
Man to solve Southampton’s forward crisis?
The Southampton forwards have been shockingly disappointing in the current season. Manolo Gabbiadini had a bright start to his Southampton career but soon faded away, while Charlie Austin has made a difference but often finds himself in the treatment room. That leaves us with Shane Long who is having a dreadful time in front of goal for the Saints having scored just once in the league.
It remains to be seen how well Guido Carrillo fits in this Southampton line-up. However, Paco Alcacer seems to be a great option for the Saints to address their problems in front of goal.
The Spaniard has got the pace and the quality to deal with the challenges the Premier League holds and could be the right man for the job.
In a move to clear the deadwood, it is understood that the Saints will be offloading struggling striker Manolo Gabbiadini with a number of Serie A clubs apparently lining up for his signature. He has appeared in 11 matches for Southampton this season which is coincidentally similar to the number of games he was a part of after joining the team in January last year.
But before any of this materialises, Mark Hughes has to work his magic on the talented set of individuals so that they can fight as a team because this group of players certainly do not deserve to go down at this stage.