Charlie Austin continued his goal-scoring form against a brittle West Ham side to help the Saints go up to 10th in the league, level on point with West Bromwich Albion in ninth place. Austin scored his fourth goal in three games to help bring all three points home, leaving Slavan Bilic once again scratching his head with the Hammers failing to really test Fraser Foster in the 90 minutes. Dusan Tadic killed off West Ham by skipping past Adrian and passing it into an empty net. James Ward-Prowse...

New managers come with new methods. Some want to chop and change a substantial amount at a club, others just want to tinker with a few things. For Claude Puel and his new-look Southampton side? Change has been of the essence.

In the previous four seasons in the Premier League, Saints have been renowned for operating in the modern day preferred setup of a 4-2-3-1 formation. However, since the Frenchman replaced Ronald Koeman at the helm of the club, a new and revolutionary 4-4-2 diamond-styled system has been implemented.

This formation sees a regular back four start but with the full-backs massively pushed forward to provide the width as a result of the narrow middle. The midfield four consist of one holding midfielder, two shuttling midfielders either side, accompanied by an creative, attacking player at the very tip of the diamond.

Most commonly for Southampton, Oriol Romeu has been holding just in front of the defence, Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg and Steven Davis have occupied the roles either side of the Spaniard and playmaker Dusan Tadic has been the outlet in the attacking midfield role.

The forwards’ roles have varied somewhat, though. Whether it be Charlie Austin, Nathan Redmond, Shane Long or Jay Rodriguez, the strikers have often pulled into wide channels to create openings through the middle for their teammates. However, this is effective as due to Puel’s free-flowing philosophy of a fluid footballing game, the front three of Tadic and whoever is playing up front can alternate and interchange between their positions to portray a real attacking threat to defences.

But the real question is, just what makes the diamond tick?

One could quite easily argue that the most important role in the formation comes through the full-backs. Cedric Soares and Ryan Bertrand have been the regular fixtures at right-back and left-back respectively and they hold a massively important role in this new system.

Of course, both wide defenders have their responsibilities in their own end of the pitch and are key parts to the structure of the side defensively. However, something that is clear to see is that Puel wants them to be as high up the pitch as possible. At times, it looks like Saints’ line of defence is with just two central defenders, with Cedric and Bertrand pushed into a wide midfield role.

Their role in attacking situations cannot ever be underestimated. They provide the main wide outball to the side, ensuring that space is created in the little pockets behind the defence due to the occupation of the oppositions’ full-backs.

This was manifested in Saints’ last Premier League game against West Ham. Bertrand drove into the empty space on the left-hand side and found himself in the opposition box - an unusual role for a full-back - to pull the ball back for Austin, who superbly put Puel’s men one up.

However, it’s quite easily debatable that it is not the full-backs who possess the most imperative role in the diamond formation. The player at the very base of the diamond can prove to be just as key to the overall ethos of the team.

For the large part of the season, Romeu has been selected to play at the bottom of the midfield four and the ex-Barcelona protege hasn’t disappointed yet.

The role of the defensive midfielder in this system is so incredibly paramount due to the propensity of the wide players forcing themselves forward. Of course, Romeu or whoever else isn’t expected to go straight over and cover the defensive flanks. However, when defending, the defensive midfielder slots in very deeply, to act almost as another central defender. This turns the diamond system into what could be perceived as a five-at-the-back formation when Saints are in defensive situations, with Romeu at the heart.

The base is also very important for attacking situations. The role when in possession is to carry the ball forward and to relieve pressure from the defenders behind him. Due to playing in the very heart of the pitch, Romeu can see the whole game and use the space created by the wide defenders well, starting off attacks and attacking pressure from his side.

This was again the case against West Ham for Romeu and Saints. He dictated the game from deep and was able to shift the ball out wide to threatening positions with consummate ease, along with showing confidence and intelligence in defensive scenarios.

No matter what you perceive the main outlet and main role of the system to be, the core at Southampton is extremely strong and is certainly good enough to help them to yet another good season.