End of Season Player Review: Steven Caulker

Early uncertainty in defense, the gelling of Fonte/Van Dijk and Florin Gardos' injury, brought the arrival of Steven Caulker on-loan from QPR. Steven Caulker has been on a few relegated sides, which many fans worried about, jokingly about relegation but seriously worried about the form Caulker would bring.

Caulker was a main reason as to why Saints were sent packing in the Europa League so early. It is sad because many fans hoped that having Koeman and the Southampton staff would bring improvement and success to Caulker, who could turn into a decent backup central defender. He didn't.

In several games, Caulker was just seemingly lost sometimes on the pitch. Not very good at getting passes out of the back, and decision-making didn't come naturally to him. The experiment that was Steven Caulker just didn't work out, and maybe his best contribution he made to Southampton was leaving it.

Once Caulker left, the negativity and bad form surrounding the first team and the club seemed to leave, and Saints began a run of good games.

Caulker didn't do much else at Liverpool either. He appeared in five matches for them, with all but one coming as a substitute.

SMM FINAL GRADE: 1/10

SMM Summary: Our writer Dan Noutch asked if giving Caulker even a one was being generous. Like me, our writers expected Caulker to improve, but he didn't. He was a bad player with a bad attitude, and it was better that the club got him far away as soon as possible. He was the one player at Southampton who Liverpool could take, and nobody would skip a beat. His agent does a good job though, so we'll give whoever that is a 10/10 for continuing to find Caulker work, even though he is awful.