It must have irked Shane Long ever so slightly to see his teammate Jay Rodriguez scored two goals in Southampton's 3-1 win during last week's south coast derby with Bournemouth.
On the one hand, Long, doubtless a decent bloke, would have been pleased for Rodriguez, who had been forced to endure two injury-plagued years following a horror knock to his knee in April 2014, just when Rodriguez was on the cusp of an England call-up.
On the other, the 29-year-old from Tipp hasn't netted for the Saints all season, and so the ease with which Rodriguez finished his brace as he returned from injury will have accentuated Long's rut, and lack of confidence.
And his manager's comments in the lead-up to tonight's Premier League game with Tottenham will surely have done him no favours either. Claude Puel seemed to hint that he wasn't overly enthused by Long's work ethic in recent outings.
[Jay] is important for us and I would like Shane to play the same way.
In the last game Jay scored but also gave a solution for the team with good runs, good work and pressing.
[Shane] has possibilities and it is important he takes confidence with the same success as Jay.
Enough about this 'Jay' guy, already, Claude.
We were of course thrilled to see Rodriguez return with a bang, but publicly insisting that Shane Long simply 'be more like him' is hardly conducive to get the Irish striker firing again after a seven-month goal drought.
Long, who hit double figures in the Premier League for the first time last season, is obviously struggling this campaign. He's started on just four occasions, arriving on as a substitute on a further nine. He has often been pushed wide right to accommodate Charlie Austin, however, and has averaged just over one shot per game as per WhoScored.com.
