Exclusive – Le Tissier: Southampton need to sign defenders to stay up

Southampton legend Matt Le Tissier has told talkSPORT that they need to sign two defenders in the next transfer window if they are to have a chance of surviving in the Premier League.

The Saints, despite spending heavily in the summer, have struggled on their return to the top flight of English football, only winning one of their 11 games so far.

And Le Tissier reckons their insistence on strengthening their strikeforce rather than shoring up their backline has lead to their current plight.

“There weren’t too many teams that spent more money than us in the summer,” he told Kick Off.

“A lot of people at the start of the season were saying that we needed to strengthen, certainly in the centre-back department and in the left-back department and I thought it was quite strange that we went out and spent so much money on the forward guys.

“We already had some good attacking threats. Billy Sharp in pre-season was probably our sharpest forward. I think he scored five or six goals. More than any of the other players and yet he was the one farmed out on loan to make way for the new guys coming in.

“I don’t think it helps that Nigel Adkins isn’t really settled on who his number one goalkeeper is as he’s been chopping and changing the keepers. We’ve had three already and that’s probably not helped the defensive situation either.

“The amount of goals that we have scored and the chances that we’re creating gives me hope but for us to stay up I would imagine we need at least two defenders in January preferably with some Premier League experience, that know what the division is all about and can just solidify us that little bit and give us chances to win football matches.”