This was not a good day at the office for Tonda Eckert and his Saints squad, in truth this performance was as bad as any under Will Still and the question on most of the travelling Southampton supporters lips, was why ?

When the team news came through on Boxing Day, there were no surprises, this was the eleven men and formation that had won some great victories in the previous couple of months and surely they would get back to winning ways at managerless Oxford who sat in the bottom three.

In this verdict i am not going to dwell on the individual incidents in this game, but concentrate on where we are going wrong.

Some will say it is the formation, but I agree with Tonda Eckert that is just numbers, at Oxford this was very much a back three for most of the game with Ryan Manning and Tom Fellows spending most of the game in the opposition half.

The problem is the make up of the back 3, those that played at the Kassam are just too similar, they do not contrast and compliment each other.

Taylor Harwood-Bellis, Nathan Wood & Jack Stephens are just too alike, so we had a back line lacking in pace, lacking in mobility, not great passers of the ball, not great at organising and on this day not great at marking.

The balance of the back line is not there and it is square pegs in round holes, it worked in earlier games as teams had yet to suss us out, but now teams like Oxford know they can beat us by purely hoofing the ball forward and that they will catch us napping at the back.

But the main problem is the inability of all three of those at the back to pass the ball quickly, if they have to pass the ball quickly and more than 20 yards, then they don't have the confidence to do so and often put their foot on the ball and we drift back to the nightmare days of Russell Martin and pass it endlessly along the back line.

Defensively we are all at sea, Harwood-Bellis is the natural central player, but is out on the left, his inability to pass the ball quickly left Tom Fellows isolated for much of the time.

Nathan Wood is in the centre, but he has struggled in recent games to win the ball when it is pumped forward, too often he is beaten in the air when dealing with a high ball punted down the field.

Jack Stephens on the right is as he has always been, neither fish nor fowl, he is too short to play as a stopper in the centre and not fast enough to play out wide both in terms of pace and ability to pass the ball, although in his defence he was better than his two companions in the defence.

It is not the formation that is the problem, but those playing in it,as we pushed forward in the second half at Oxford it was painful to watch Harwood-Bellis try to push forward down the wing, not his fault he is just not that sort of player.

The solution is simple with the players we currently have, either we revert to a back four, which I don't think is the complete answer, or we utilise the players we have to make the best of a back 3.

That means putting Taylor Harwood-Bellis in the centre, that is his game, winning headers and stopping balls punted down the centre, man marking a central strike.

To his right I would have the overlooked Ronnie Edwards, he has mobility, he has pace, he can defend, but he can also overlap on the attack, but he can also pass the ball better than others in contention.

To the left of him I would have Joshua Quarshie, he has strength, he has pace and again his passing is better than the others.

If we are going to play three at the back, these are the best option in my opinion, if only because they offer contrast and there different strengths compliment each other.

But more to the point it offers not only better defensive options, but better passing options and that is the critical issue with our game in recent weeks, we just aren't passing the ball quick enough from the back line.

We are pedestrian, especially when the opposition press us quickly.

But at the heart of the problem is a lack of leadership on the pitch and especially in the back three, the actual named Captain changes from game to game with Tonda Eckert seemingly rotating Jack Stephens every other game.

To be blunt your Captain has to be one of your best players, he has to be a constant in the team week in week out and that is not Jack, the problem is who else would you have ?

There is not an obvious leader in the team, some might say Oriol Romeu, but it is clear that he is not going to start many games this season.

Adam Armstrong leads by example when he Captains the side, but I think a Captain has to be in the centre of midfield or the defence.

Taylor Harwood-Bellis if played in the middle of the defence could be an option, he is now experienced enough and the responsibility could well stir him on to greater things rather than weigh on his shoulders.

An outside bet would be Shea Charles when he returns, he has Captained Northern Ireland and again it could spur him on.

But if I am honest I think we need to bring one in to the club in the January transfer window, surely there is someone out of favour in a Premier League squad who is out of favour and could do a job in the Championship on loan.

At Oxford Tonda Eckert and his side got it badly wrong, but that does not mean that it is terminal, we have had a bad run and have some tough games coming up, but we have the squad to deal with this, we just need to get back to basics and back to what we do best, this is a test for our manager, we will now truly find out how good he is as a manager.

All Photos Via Reuters