Relegation of Southampton: “We must avoid that record”, says Capo Ivan Juric

Southampton’s season has been disturbed from the beginning.

They lost eight of their nine opening games in this term, and after 23 games they only had a victory for their name.

After replacing Russell Martin in December, Juric supervised six consecutive defeats and has only one victory in his 14 championship matches at the helm.

The saints were nine points at the drift of security when it entered, but 22 points now separate them from the wolves, which won 2-1 to the third Ipswich fund on Saturday.

They had five points from Martin’s top spell this season, one under the temporary boss Simon Rusk and four so far during Juric’s mandate.

Southampton is only the third team to lose 25 of their first 31 games of a top campaign, after Sunderland in 2005-06 and Sheffield United in 2020-21 (both also 25).

They granted the most league goals (74) and are the lowest markers in the first four English football divisions (23 goals in 31 games).

No team has ever had fewer points in the Premier League after 31 games (10), although Sunderland in 2005-06 and derby in 2007-08 also had the same count.

The saints have the same amount of points after 31 games (10) as the County derby in 2007-08, with Rams continued to reach 11. The derby campaign remains the worst in the history of the Premier League, even if it is a record that Southampton could still beat.

“We have to avoid that record, do our best. It can’t happen,” added Juric.

Goalkeeper Aaron Ramsdale echoed to those thoughts while he said: “We want to get as much points as possible until the end of the season. Nobody wants that record and we will do what we can – but we will do what we can to get more points on the scoreboard”.

This is the third relegation that Ramsdale suffered during his career, having gone down with Bournemouth in 2019-2020 and Sheffield United in 2020-21.

“Some (players) are experiencing a relegation for the first time, so there will be many emotions from them in the next few days,” he added.

“The guys who were here before, we have to try to collect young people. This group has done incredible things last season. Nobody will want to skip the ship with seven games to go. We are tight and we just have to pull each other.”

Even the captain of the saints Jan Bednarek was honest about the situation of his team.

“We cannot change the past, the only thing we can do in the last seven games is having fun being in the Premier League,” he said.

“We have to improve as players and as a club. We hope to build something exceptional. The best thing is that we can learn, we can work hard and we can improve.”