Southampton were dragged back into the relegation fight in the Premier League after suffering a 2-1 defeat at home to Brighton and Hove Albion on Sunday afternoon.
Lewis Dunk headed home the opening goal from a corner in the first half before Che Adams’ struck a fierce volley past Robert Sanchez to equalise.
However, Leandro Trossard’s finish in the second half was enough for Graham Potter’s side to take the three points, with the Saints once again nowhere near the levels they produced earlier in the season.
One man who particularly disappointed against Brighton, especially after his superb display in the recent win against Sheffield United, was Nathan Tella.
As per SofaScore, the 21-year-old would earn a poor 6.2/10 rating for his performance, which was the worst of any player on the pitch.
Was Tella poor vs Brighton?
Yes
No
During his 68 minutes on the pitch, the Saints youngster would manage just four passes, whilst he attempted just eight, resulting in an awful 50% pass accuracy rate.
Unsurprisingly, this was the fewest passes played by any player who started the game, with Tella struggling to get involved at all, which will perhaps leave Hasenhuttl fuming as he put his faith in the youngster ahead of the likes of Nathan Redmond and Dan N’Lundulu.
The former Arsenal academy man would only have 20 touches, as he regularly picked up the ball but ran into trouble, as he was also unsuccessful in both of his dribble attempts during the game.
Although it’s a big ask for Tella to come in and replace the influential Danny Ings, his return of no shots, no key passes and no successful dribbles against Brighton doesn’t make for good reading at all.
Whilst you could suggest that the 21-year-old was isolated and didn’t have enough of the ball to make an impression, Brighton’s Danny Welbeck would complete just eight passes during the game, but two of those were key passes, and he also registered an assist, which saw him pick up a solid 7.2 rating.
Unfortunately, Tella was really disappointing when Hasenhuttl needed him to perform and he may need to put in some improved performances in the coming weeks if Southampton are to avoid relegation this season.
And, in other news… Forget Forster: Saints can sign serious McCarthy upgrade in £8.6m beast