The central midfielder should be dropped down to the bench for today’s match
Southampton travel away from St. Mary’s to face Middlesbrough this afternoon as they look to end a run of three straight defeats in the Championship.
Russell Martin‘s side have lost to Ipswich Town, Sunderland, and Leicester City in their last three league outings by an aggregate score of 10-1
The Saints head coach has confirmed that Flynn Downes is back fit and available for selection against Boro after he missed out on the most recent loss to Ipswich.
He has also revealed that central defender Jan Bednarek is in contention to feature after his return to training, whilst summer signing Ross Stewart is not expected to be back in action until after the international break
With the return of Downes in mind, Martin must now ruthlessly ditch central midfielder Joe Aribo from the starting XI after his struggles against the Tractor Boys.
The Nigeria international recorded a dismal Sofascore rating of 6.1 for his performance against Kieran McKenna’s side and was worse than Adam Armstrong in midfield.
Whilst the striker, who has been converted into a midfielder, struggled and lost five of his eight duels, Aribo stood out ahead of the English dynamo, for the wrong reasons.
The former Rangers star, whose style was once described as “languid” by former teammate Ezri Konsa, lost six of his seven ground duels and three of his four aerial battles throughout his 56 minutes on the pitch, which shows that he failed to deal with the opposition’s physicality and was dominated by the other team.