Southampton Find New Adam Lallana
Friday, 20th Mar 2026 08:58
According to one media report Saints have now unearthed the new Adam Lallana and he could be the man to fire them not only into the play offs, but to the Premier League.
Adam Lallana was a great player for Southampton FC, in his first spell as a player at the club he made 235 League appearances, scoring 48 goals and provided assists in just as many.
But as Saints stormed to two successive promotions and consolidated their place back in the Premier League, Lallana was not the man making headlines, the headlining act was Rickie Lambert, but it was Lallana running him a close second who was the man who made the side tick, as the fans sang he "Played on the left, he played on the right and he made Messi look Shite"
In 2011/12 as Saints returned to the Premier League after 1 7 year absence, he scored 11 goals and 10 assists and now it is claimed that a successor to the crown he abdicated from in 2014 in a rather messy (Not Messi) transfer is about to be claimed by a new head.
saintsmarching.com say that "Tonda Eckert has finally unearthed the new Lallana)
They say that man is Finn Azaz, who in the Championship this season has already scored 9 goals plus 6 assists and another goal and assist in the two games he played for Boro before joining Saints.
This is even more amazing when you consider the start that he had at the club after joining from Middlesbrough.
Under Will Still, he like many others in the squad struggled to find their form, but once Tonda Eckert took over it seemed like a weight was lifted, in the first game under Eckert he had his first assist for the club at QPR and then in the following game against Sheffield Wednesday his 11th game for the club, he scored his first goal.
Since then he has flourished under Eckert who has clearly worked with the player and is now playing to his strengths rather than squeezing him into a role that was not his best position.
Now although Leo Scienza is the man who makes all the headlines, Azaz is the man who makes the team tick.
In our 11 game unbeaten run so far in the Championship, Aziz has played virtually every minute, he has completed the full game in 8 of them and only missed 61 minutes of action, although over a third of that amount was when he came off in the 5-0 rout of QPR with the game already won and a goal and an assist already in the stats for him.
During this run he has contributed 3 goals and 2 assists, but his success for Saints has been far more than just those stats.
In the last few games he has truly flourished, put bluntly he is pivotal in most of our attacking moves, he has the ability to move the ball quickly and turn defence into attack, certainly Leo Scienza has been a beneficiary of this.
These are the things that get him noticed and has led to the Lallana comparisons, but look deeper and you see the contributions that do not get the plaudits.
Watch him in action off the ball and defensively you will see the number of loose balls he tidies up and with a touch and a little pass restores possession to us.
Not every touch can be turning defence into attack, so he makes sure we get the ball and keep it, he has a knack of reading the game.
When we go on the attack, again he is usually there somewhere, he might not always be the man scoring or assisting, but he is in the move somewhere, an early ball that has got Scienza going, a quick ball out wide, a little pass to someone in the move that means that the opposition are on the back foot,
That has been the case in recent games, of course his winning goal against Norwich City perhaps made a few people sit up and notice, but for much of this unbeaten run he has been the pivotal player, the man making the side tick and a constant in the team.
This is down to Tonda Eckert who himself has quietly and slowly got the team playing in the way he wants.
He has done that by having a strong spine to the team, Peretz in goal, Taylor Harwood-Bellis in defence, Flynn Downes as the holding midfielder, Finn Azaz playing just in front and then either Ross Stewart or Cyle Larin as centre forward.
We have got consistency and we now have identity, we have a way of playing and more to the point it is a fluid system that is adaptable to suit the situation.
Finn Azaz is a vital cog in that system and he has stepped up to the plate, if you get Azaz on the ball things happen, just as they did for Saints with Adam Lallana pulling the strings.
Leo Scienza has got most of the plaudits this season, but the truth is without Finn Azaz he and indeed Saints would not be in the position that we are.
We were worried that with Leo Scienza out injured we would struggle, but we have now seen Azaz come to the fore, arguably the best outfield player in the wins over Coventry and Norwich, Tonda Eckert knows who really is the lynchpin and most valuable player in the squad if promotion is to be won.
Best signing this season, I think by the end of the season we will be saying Finn Azaz !
All Photos Via Reuters
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