Is Southampton FC captain Ward-Prowse set to smash goals record?

“More goals from open play.”

Well, on Saturday at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, Ward-Prowse got off to the best possible start in terms of his new season resolution, controlling a smart volley past Hugo Lloris to give his side the lead after 12 minutes.

READ MORE: How moonlighting for Havant & Waterlooville helped Ward-Prowse reach Saints heights

The less that’s said about the rest of the game, the better. But Ward-Prowse’s revolutionised role in Saints' new system and around their new personnel could be set to help the talisman explode - even more than ever before.

Ward-Prowse notched a personal best ten Premier League goals last season but six of them came from dead-ball situations (four free-kicks and two penalties). The ‘but’ in that sentence is quite harsh as we can’t criticise the midfielder for his set-piece prowess. Clearly, his free-kick aptitude is no fluke but a real and reliable weapon.

That being said, Ward-Prowse himself admitted that he didn’t want to “rely” on dead-ball situations and instead strike with greater regularity from open play.

One game, one goal is a pretty decent start to fulfilling that.

Images: James Ward-Prowse celebrates his goal against Tottenham #saintsfc pic.twitter.com/6UTvXjNthq

— SaintsExtra (@SaintsExtra) August 6, 2022

Amidst a rather worrying start to the brand new Premier League season, Saints fans didn't have to dig too deep for one major positive in the form of Romeo Lavia’s impressive debut. At just 18 years old, Lavia looked completely comfortable at the base of Saints’ midfield, offering a composed presence on the ball and a tenacious chaser off of it.

It’s reflective of the trust this team already has in the young Belgian that Ward-Prowse’s opening day role had changed significantly from last season.

Over the past few campaigns, Saints have largely utilised Ralph Hasenhuttl’s trademark 4-2-2-2 system with Ward-Prowse a regular in the midfield two alongside Oriol Romeu. And while Romeu is thought of as a defensive midfielder having learnt his trade from Sergio Busquets in Barcelona’s La Masia academy, the actual evidence on the pitch says otherwise.

In reality, the two midfielders either played on the same level or even more commonly, Ward-Prowse operated from a deeper position while Romeu pushed forward to help his side press.

READ MORE: How to collapse like Saints in three quick and easy steps...

Even when Romeu played a slightly more defensive position, it was largely without much restraint, either given the license to roam all over the pitch or his natural tendencies taking him there. 

There’s every reason to believe this was intentional with Romeu allowed the freedom to go wherever he wants. Take this quote from Hasenhuttl in July when speaking about the possibilities within his new 3-5-2 system.

“I think as a lonely six, it’s always a little bit difficult because he (Romeu) is not such a holding midfielder. I know he’s not the quickest in this position but he knows how to score goals in this area.”

Romeu might have defensive strengths, but he's not a holding midfielder - or at least. his manager doesn't believe he is.

Take this map of his touches in last season’s 2-1 defeat to Crystal Palace at St Mary’s for example:

Romeu's touch map vs Crystal Palace. Image by: WhoScored

That’s the result of an all-action all over the place midfielder rather than a true ‘six’. With Romeu’s lack of defensive discipline or lack of instruction to stick to the defensive side of the game, Ward-Prowse often played a deeper role next to the Spaniard helping clean up and start attacks by receiving the ball from his defenders.

There were countless examples from last season but just to give you an idea, here’s a passage of play from the final day defeat to Leicester. The Foxes have the ball with Youri Tielemans and Romeu pushes up to help press while Ward-Prowse is so deep that he’s not even in the picture yet.

As the play develops and Leicester get the ball in Saints’ half with James Maddison, Ward-Prowse can be seen just in front of his defence, significantly deeper than Romeu.

That’s not to say this happened every single moment of every game, the duo did regularly switch around but Romeu certainly wasn’t the set ‘defensive’ midfielder of the two.

Now though, with Romeo Lavia in the team, there is a clear number six to do the disciplined dirty work allowing Ward-Prowse’s attacking role to expand. While it was Lavia’s passing and ridiculously composed touches on the ball that grabbed the eye, his intense dedication to his positioning was perhaps even more crucial.

Set up in the pre-season trialled 3-5-2 system, Lavia operated as the deepest midfielder in the trio with Ward-Prowse on the right and Romeu on the left.

With Jan Bednarek dropping deep to take up the job of sweeper, Lavia could frequently be spotted in between the two wide centre-backs - Mohammed Salisu and either Yan Valery or Jack Stephens. 

This was seen both in and out of possession. Let’s start by looking at the midfield shape with Saints on the ball.

In the example below, Adam Armstrong has it out wide with much of the Saints team in Spurs’ half. As the highlighted triangle shows, Lavia is sitting deep while Romeu advances on the left and Ward-Prowse on the right.

The same trends could be seen off the ball as well. Below is one example of how Saints’ set up from a Spurs goal-kick, Lavia notably deeper than Romeu and Ward-Prowse on roughly the same level of the pitch.

Ward-Prowse’s more advanced role can be easily visualised by his touch-map below. 

Ward-Prowse's touch map vs Spurs. Image by: WhoScored

The vast majority of Ward-Prowse’s touches came in Spurs’ half with most arriving in or near the final third. This is a major contrast to his role last season. 

In the final ten games of the 2021/22 Premier League campaign, Ward-Prowse averaged 64.9 touches per game with 43.1% of those touches coming in his own defensive half of the pitch. Against Spurs, Ward-Prowse touched the ball 52 times with just seven of those (13.5%) coming in his own defensive half. It’s only one game but that is quite a considerable difference.

Meanwhile, he managed six touches in the box against Spurs after only racking up five total touches in the box through the entirety of the final ten games of last season.

Below is Ward-Prows's touch map for the 4-1 defeat to Leicester. While he still was heavily involved in Saints' attacking half, he hardly touched the ball in the final third - something he did with much more regularity at Spurs on Saturday.

Ward-Prowse's touch map vs Leicester. Image by: WhoScored

Taking a look at Lavia’s touch map from his maiden Premier League appearance, the impact he had on his fellow midfielders is clear with 42% of his on-the-ball involvement occurring in his own half; those actions coming far more centrally than Ward-Prowse’s right-hand attacking dominance.

It actually quite closely resembles Ward-Prowse's touches vs Leicester, again just showing Lavia's sizable impact in the build-up and defensive sides of the game.

Romeo Lavia's touch map vs Spurs. Image by: WhoScored

In action, this gave Ward-Prowse the freedom to make runs into and around the box without the fear of leaving his team defensively exposed. Making a run is a risk/reward decision. At times, the movement won’t be spotted making the player partially redundant and out of position should a counter-attack strike. But Ward-Prowse doesn’t have to worry and can take greater risks with the protection offered by Lavia.

Below is one example from the first half in North London. Joe Aribo wins the ball high up the pitch and as soon as he does, Ward-Prowse breaks to the edge of the box. 

The pass eventually does arrive but Ward-Prowse opts to dummy it for the on-running Adam Armstrong and Spurs are able to intercept and clear.

Of course, having players in the team like Aribo and Lavia - with the latter's passing range particularly impressive - will help make Ward-Prowse's runs as effective as possible.

Here is a great example of that in the first half on Saturday. As soon as Lavia receives the ball in front of the Saints defence, Ward-Prowse takes off,  arm outstretched to signal where he wants the pass played.

The pass arrives rather perfectly, landing on Ward-Prowse's foot as he enters the box...

A loose touch forces the Saints skipper wide before his attempted cross is deflected away for a corner but the wider point is about the increased threat Ward-Prowse can provide from his new position.

Granted, not everything Saints did against Spurs worked and it’s entirely possible that we will see Ward-Prowse in a deeper role alongside Lavia from time to time. But the aim seems simple and clear - to get Southampton's most dangerous goal-threat in more positions to...score goals.

It will take something quite special for Ward-Prowse to beat his tally of ten league goals from last season. Of course, though, we know he’s capable of something quite special. And now with the perfect partner supporting him in Lavia, there is no ceiling to what the Saints captain could achieve.

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