Southampton put their Premier League troubles behind them to secure a place at Wembley in the FA Cup semi-finals after a comprehensive 3-0 win against Bournemouth in Saturday’s early kick-off.
One man who impressed with his performance at the Vitality Stadium was left-back Ryan Bertrand.
The 31-year-old has come under some scrutiny of late but Ralph Hasenhuttl kept his faith in him for the game against Jonathan Woodgate’s side, and he produced a very solid display in defence.
As per SofaScore, the former Chelsea man earned an impressive 7.4/10 match rating for his performance, with only Nathan Redmond and Stuart Armstrong scoring higher of the outfield players who featured from either side.
Whilst Bertrand wasn’t forced to do much defending in what was a dominant display from Hasenhuttl’s side, he was excellent when he was called into action, as he won all four of the duels in which he was involved during the 90 minutes.
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He also completely nullified Bournemouth’s threat down the right-hand side, as his direct opponent Rodrigo Riquelme earned a lowly 6.1 SofaScore rating for his display, as he completed just six passes and failed with all four of his dribble attempts during his time on the pitch; whilst right-back Jack Stacey also struggled to get forward and picked up a poor 5.7 rating.
Bertrand was also more accurate with his passes than he has been in previous fixtures, as 38 of his 42 passes found a Southampton teammate on Saturday, resulting in a 90% pass accuracy, which is far better than the 79.5% accuracy he has averaged in the Premier League this season.
The £9m-rated left-back also contributed one key pass, which – considering his lack of attacking threat at times this season – is promising as he ventured forwards with far more regularity than usual against the Championship outfit.
Therefore, considering Bertrand’s disappointing performances of late, Hasenhuttl will surely be delighted that his left-back produced such a solid display in the FA Cup, and hopefully that will be a confidence booster for the rest of the season.
In other news… Forget Redmond: £50k-p/w Saints beast who played 3 key passes was superb in FA Cup win