Analysis: Saints 'miles off' last season's standards at Watford

Tonda Eckert's Southampton were beaten 2-1 at Watford on Sunday [PA Media] On Sunday, I felt flattened by Southampton's defeat at Watford. When recording Goin' Home With Adam and Jo on the way back, Jo Tessem and I could hardly raise our spirits and delivered a thoroughly miserable half-hour. Since then I have been reflecting on how the game unfolded at Vicarage Road and whether we were overreacting on Sunday. Should we have said "well, it's only the first game" and "it's early in the season, they will get better"? As I write this, the answer is still no. Saints have set very high standards under Tonda Eckert and we all expected that they would hit their stride early and swat Watford aside. It never happened. The reason I am not dismissing the loss as "one of those games" is because Saints have publicly stated they want automatic promotion and they had nearly all of last season's best side on the pitch. When you state your lofty ambitions, you have to back it up on the pitch. They were miles off the standards they set in the second half of last season. Over the past five seasons, the average number of defeats suffered by the sides going up to the Premier League automatically is seven. Currently on -4 points, they are seven points down after one game and their room for error is smaller than others in the race. I respect Eckert for defending his side after the game like managers should, but it was a push defending their first-half performance on Sunday. They were poor and the worrying thing was the manner of the performance and the way they conceded. There were other occasions where Saints were left wanting out of position as Watford's forwards found themselves running freely at a back four, with too many Southampton players not getting back to help quick enough. Why? I am reluctant to ever suggest fitness as a factor for highly-trained athletes, so what was it? My biggest nagging worry is that while the expulsion from the play-off final in May has become a galvanising factor for fans and players alike, is there a quietly bigger impact on that let-down for the players in the back of their minds? Has it punctured their resolve slightly knowing they have got to go uphill again for nine months to get where they want to be? Will bad moments and defeats be magnified, create doubt and test willpower? Players love a manager who makes them better and plots their path to victories, and Eckert has done a job that nobody thought when he was appointed. But having forgiven him for costing them a chance of the Premier League, would players doubt him and give him short shrift if they get things so wrong again? While he is masterminding wins, it is great, but do we think playing Leo Scienza at 10 and moving Lewis Dobbin out left on Sunday after spending all pre-season the other way around made them feel good? Eckert defended it, but Tessem was right - playing Scienza in behind took away his best weapon and his biggest threat. They were so much better when he moved out wide again and Finn Azaz came on. Southampton fans have been incredibly resilient in the wake of this tumultuous summer and many have decided to get behind Tonda once he was backed by chairman Dragan Solak. Good, the club needs to move forward, but I have seen enough football to know that players and fans will be the first to remember 'Spygate' if Saints keep performing like they did at Watford, and those supporters who still feel the head coach should have been sacked will have their voice again. Hopefully all my worries are just that and they turn up for the first home game against Stoke City on Saturday, show their class and win. They need to, and Eckert needs them to.