Alright Ill have a go answering some of these.
1) Players were taking chances getting forward, Digne and Richarlison when James whipped those cross field balls. There's been less of them , but then again James has had less of the ball. Saw a few today, but only one real decent one to Digne. Some decent balls to Iwobi. I'm going to blame it on James not being fit, also not getting as much of the ball and better defence on him
2) I don't think Pickford drained the back 4 of confidence, many of the goals from the last 4 games were either decent goals from the opposition, or some comical goals like the last week's where Fraser just went round Mina. That was a great cross and header today for the first goal. And that needed to be snuffed out way before the cross comes in. Barely any pressure on the ball in the leadup to that goal.
3) Agreed on Richarlison - gets us forward.
5) 4231 is doucoure and allan, 433 is that and Gomes... no more experimenting. Davies if Gomes is injured.
6) Southampton did the simple things well, they weren't amazing or anything...