Premier League Match 24 - Manchester United 2 Southampton 1

"Tres minutos de mierda, vas a tener una risa!"

Since the Everton game, Saints have been away in Barcelona on a warm weather training camp, getting away from the snow and away from FA Cup which we’ve retired from.  Nothing remarkable about that really until you throw in the news that Don Cortese saw fit to give his first interview in about a year.  My overall feeling afterwards was that he came across quite well and basically confirmed what I knew anyway which was that he makes decisions, regardless of whether it makes him popular or not, is 100% convinced he is right and that anyone who disagrees will be sorted.  He also spoke of focussing on the club as a whole and not on individuals and this part I agree with completely.   Celebrity culture and hero worship in this country makes us concentrate on individual footballers and managers when after all, it’s a team game.  The England national team for example, has had decent individuals for years but has it had a decent team?  So, I agree with that bit but I’m not having the ‘we had a good relationship upto the last second’ line about Nigel Adkins.  There’s no fear of this assertion being contradicted though as I’m sure there will be a Non-disclosure agreement in place and you can’t draw a blue line under it if you’re “Swimmin’ with da feeshes”.  Another interesting snippet was that he’d never met Matt le Tissier.  I was at the League 1 promotion celebration dinner myself and so was Tiss and so was the Don.  Maybe they didn’t meet but I’d be surprised if the Don didn’t know Tiss was in the room.

FA Cup 4^th Round weekend came and went with us not in it of course and we now find ourselves visiting Old Trafford in Mauricio Pochettino’s first away game.  Apparently he’s worried about what wine selection to take for Sir Alex so I’d like to offer my suggestion which is to take him a bottle of piss with a label on it.  One selection to really worry about is on the left wing where Guly has been playing but he’s done his knee so he’ll be out for a while.  Adam Lallana is back in training but not match fit so the logical next in line is Steeeeeve.  Please no!  If it was down to me I’d play Danny Fox as he can help Luke Shaw out and also, it gets our best set piece delivery from wide areas on the pitch.  We won’t get too many chances at United so this area is vital and we don’t want to be hitting the shin of the first defender or hoofing it out for a throw on the other side. 

The player facing the media this week has been Vegard Forren – I can’t work out if it’s because he’s playing today (which would be harsh on Big Jos after a clean sheet) or just because he’s just signed from a club managed by United legend Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.  It turned out to be the latter as he didn’t even make the bench in Senor Pochettino’s  selection.  Danny Fox did indeed make the team but it was instead of Luke Shaw who was presumably rested as he was on the bench along with Adam Lallana who wasn’t considered fit enough to start.  J-Rod started wide left as the new manager has obviously watched Steeeeeve in training for five minutes.  United had both Van Persie and the Granny Shagger starting with Welbeck and Kagawa on the wings.  Offering hope for us was the relatively weak central midfield of Carrick and Anderson, the dodgy Smalling at centre back and the worse than dodgy Coco de Gea in goal who looks about on a par with Gazzaniga – the odd flashy save but no presence at all.

I remember one game we played at Old Trafford when the game kicked off and I had said “we’ll be alright if we can hold out until....” and then van Nistelrooy scored the first goal in what would turn out to be a 6-1 defeat.  It was with great delight and an element of going completely mental that Anderson gave the ball away to J-Rod and Morgan broke up the left.  His ball inside was intercepted by Carrick who casually lobbed it back towards Coco who didn’t fancy a collision with J-Rod one bit so he closed his eyes, missed the ball and J-Rod turned it into an empty net.  Fuck me we’re winning. Two years ago we were in League 1 and now we’re winning at Old Trafford.

Unfortunately, the elation and surprise of being in front at the Theatre of Wet Dreams was only just beginning to sink in when we suddenly weren’t winning any more.   Foxy’s throw in was won by United and the ball deflected to Kagawa who flipped it over the defence into the path of Rooney who scored with ease as Jos and Maya lumbered after him and Artur had no chance at all.  Bugger!  United suddenly look very dangerous and are playing with pace.  The tactic seems to be to play it wide and cushion the ball inside to a runner and we can’t handle it at all and need a massive stroke of luck as Rooney puts Kagawa through on the left and his shot thumps against the near post and across the goal and away.

To our credit, we’re still going forward when we can and United seem content to cynically take the foul whenever we get to within 40 yards as they have to half kill someone to get booked at Old Trafford.  Sir Rickie tries to exploit Coco’s nerves from 40 yards but it deflects for a corner and following another cynical foul, this time by Vidic, Gaston tries to emulate his Old Trafford Olympics goal for Uruguay but only succeeds with hitting a shocker miles over the bar.

One of the things that has improved greatly with Luke Shaw in the side is that not as many crosses come into our box from our left as the winger doesn’t have the room.  With Foxy back in the side, Jones finds himself with half the pitch to himself and feeds van Persie who cuts in and shoots which deflects off of Yoshida’s thigh and we’re all expecting it to drop into the net but it floats just over the bar.  Foxy does get in a superb man-and-ball tackle on Rooney as United break again but it’s all a bit desperate and the fact that we’re getting overrun in midfield means you don’t have to be Mystic Meg to predict we’re going to let a goal in soon.

When it comes it’s soft as hell.  Firstly, J-Rod puts in a stupid tackle on Jones who is going nowhere and waiting for the challenge and an opportunity to fall over which duly comes to pass and the ref gives it.  You wouldn’t mind so much but it’s the second time in about 10 minutes that J-Rod has done this.  Last time we got away with it but this time we don’t as van Persie’s cross is well headed back across by Evra as Corky ball watched, to Rooney who buries it into the unguarded goal like he buried one in that Granny a few years back.

The rest of the first half is all about only being 2-1 down at half time and we’re grateful to the Holy Goalie for preserving our margin of losing when he spreads himself well to block from Welbeck who has bundled his way through.  When we do attack we mess it up either with a bad final ball or most frustratingly, from set pieces which we’ve been crap at all season with Foxy being the latest to put a corner over everyone and out the other side.  The final action of the half is for J-Rod to continue his defensive masterclass and give the ball back to United on the edge of our penalty area which forces Morgan to bring down Jones and pick up a booking for hoofing the ball away in frustration.

A quick half-time check on Twitter reveals a level of bedwetting from Saints fans which defies belief.  We are 2-1 down and still in the game, away from home against the best side in the country.  Seriously – get a grip.  It’s like being sat at St.Mary’s with the Chuckle Brothers whining in my ear and moaning about this that and everything.

Pochettino is not pissing about and we make two substitutions with Gaston and Punch (who have both done very little) replaced with Steven Davis and the returning Adam Lallana.  Within five minutes you can see the difference as we get good possession of the football (thanks Nigel) and pin United back.  Our initial spell of pressure results in J-Rod bursting in the box and the ball being cleared upwards and Sir Rickie hitting the dropping ball on the volley which gave Coco a simple enough save.

We’re consistently winning the ball high up the pitch on one such occasion the ball falls to Steven Davis who is proving with every passing shot that his goal on day 1 against Man City was a bit of a one-off.   Sir Alex is clearly not happy that we are dominating the game at this point and his face would have gone even more beetroot when Carrick carelessly carted Lallana over and somehow avoids getting booked for about his 5^th foul.  Sir Rickie’s free kick was straight at Coco but he still managed to flap it into his face and back out into play before diving on it.  I know he has had criticism for recent mistakes and various United people have said this is unfair – no it isn’t because he’s rubbish.  He emphasises this further by bowling the ball straight out to Saints and we eventually win another corner.  Fergie springs into beetroot faced Taggart action and takes off Anderson and Smalling who have both disappeared in the 2^nd half and are contributing very little and replaced them with Dopey Rio (who got battered all over the place by Sir Rickie at SMS) and Rafael.

The word ‘outplayed’ is being bandied about a lot as we keep possession of the ball and have United chasing shadows but once they get it, they’re away up the right and a cross from Nani is right onto the head of van Persie about 6 yards out and his header it brilliantly blocked by King Artur who has thrown the big starfish shape and somehow kept it out.  The miracle save and the warm feeling from it lasts about 10 seconds as the ball goes out to the Granny Shagger on the left and his ‘outside of the right foot’ cross is headed in by van Persie..... who is offside.... just......... haaaaaaaaa!

Back up the other end and J-Rod bursts onto a pass on the edge of the box and is cynically taken out by Vidic in 100% deliberate fashion.  He gets booked but Sir Rickie’s free kick is just a little too close to Coco and he manages to push it away.  The next action is up our end as Rooney shows England form when given a run on goal and knocks it just too far which allows Artur to come flying out and flatten him, taking the ball in the process.

Luke Shaw is on for Danny Fox and immediately he’s revelling in the wing-back role, charging past Rafael and laying it back for Sir Rickie whose shot is blocked and the rebound goes to Morgan who hoofs it a yard over the bar.  Luke is at it again a minute later, hanging up a cross which Sir Rickie does brilliantly to head down and Lallana revealed his Achilles heel and fannied about rather than just putting his fucking laces through it and United cleared again.  The final chance as it turned out was a Clyne cross which J-Rod tried to glance into the far corner but it bobbled a yard wide.  Shit!

Just the three minutes of Fergie time as indicated by the 4^th official which was about half of what would have been signalled if we were winning.  The three minutes tick away with more possession by us but no real threat on Coco’s goal and on 92 minutes and 59 seconds, the ref blew up so Fergie couldn’t add to the list of referee complaints he’s made that the FA will let him off for in a couple of weeks.

We played very well today and in the second half especially, with Fergie, in a rare moment of me not getting annoyed at everything he says, saying we were the best team to play there this season.   Would he have been quite so complimentary if we’d nicked a draw?  Somehow I doubt it but fair play to him anyway.  Mauricio was happy with the praise but ultimately he’d rather have had the point that we deserved.    He also didn’t make the translator remember 5 minutes of Spanish at a time either.  Mauricio can take great credit for our territorial domination of the second half which was quite something though with United only having sporadic attacks, it must be noted that they came closest to scoring the second half whereas we actually didn’t get much on target from open play despite being camped in their half.  Coco was forced into a couple of saves from free kicks and that was about it, aside from when Lallana decided that flicking it sideways from five yards out was a better option than smashing it at the goal which is still driving me nuts a day later.

Pochettino made his mark in the 2nd half in that the full backs were playing as wingers and Morgan was dropping in to make a defensive three with the centre backs when required.  It’ll be interesting to see the reaction of Gaston and Punch in that they’ll have watched from the side and seen us play a hell of a lot better without them on the pitch.  It was another very good display from The Holy Goalie as well with the highlight of course being the save from van Persie and I’ll keep saying it until we do it – extend his contract now!    Playing like he is now, any team would want him – D’you think Fergie didn’t notice the comparison between King Artur and Coco.

When I saw some highlights on TV there was some shots of the respective fans when their teams scored – we went mental whereas United’s 2^nd goal was greeted with what looked like confusion and no idea how to react.  United’s travelling fans are a pretty raucous bunch who (aside from supporting United) are spot on but some of the people at the home games.... oh dear.  I guess that’s the trouble when you turn up expecting to win every game easily – not something that’ll ever happen with us in the Premier League.

Next up we have a bigger game away at Wigan who did a right number on us at SMS back in August.  That defeat aside, we have a good record against relegation rivals this season and we need this to be another one in this sequence.  If I was playing ‘guess the team’ I reckon Shaw, Gaston and Steven Davis will start on Saturday with Foxy, Punch and J-Rod on the bench.    We need to win and I expect us to do so – if we play as well as we did today then we really should be coming home with all 3.