Jamie Carragher says Gavin Bazunu's form for Southampton this season has been a "big problem" for the club.
The Ireland international goalkeeper played all 32 games for the Premier League side prior to being dropped in favour of Alex McCarthy for the game against Bournemouth last month.
McCarthy started the 1-0 defeat to Bournemouth along with the 3-1 loss to Newcastle and Monday's 4-3 loss to Nottingham Forest.
With just three games of the season left to play, Southampton are bottom of the Premier League table, eight points adrift of safety.
"A big problem for them has been the goalkeeper they bought in from Manchester City, a young goalkeeper, still finding his way in the game," Carragher said on Sky Sports' Monday Night Football prior to the game between Forest and Southampton.
Gavin Bazunu's goals prevented stats for Southampton. Picture credit: Sky Sports
Carragher highlighted that Bazunu, who only turned 21 in February, has conceded 16 goals more than what would have been expected by xG numbers.
"In terms of when you look at Southampton's defending numbers, the underlying numbers, they're not too bad," said Carragher.
"Their actual goalkeeper has let in, probably a lot. The goals conceded (52) is a lot, certainly not the worst, we see Leeds underneath that.
"What really we would expect, on the back of xG, is 35 - not that bad a number when you consider where they are in the table.
"What we see when we look at xG is that he should have been expected to save another 16 goals, which would have been a huge difference."
Carragher also highlighted the recruitment of too many young players by Southampton as an issue.
"We'll look at the major signings this season. We go to what happened in the summer, and the big thing that stands out is it was obvious someone (Joe Shields) in the club had a contact with Manchester City," said Carragher.
"The big thing that stands out is the age of these players. There's a lot of young players in there. In fact, there's too many. There's too much inexperience. It's just too much."
Southampton's major signings for the 2022/23 season. Picture credit: Sky Sports
Southampton manager Ruben Selles said after the defeat to Bournemouth that Bazunu "wasn't happy" with the decision to drop him.
"But he understood the decision," said Selles.
"He is the young goalkeeper with the most minutes in Europe as we have said and he's had a good season in the Premier League.
"But I made the decision together with the rest of the technical staff using some of the facts that we just need to give it a try. Alex has been training and competing really well and he showed us a good level today. The conversation has been clear and direct as usual with all three goalkeepers and with the direction that we took for the game."
Jamie Carragher critical of Gavin Bazunu
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