Wednesday, August 26, 2015

Premier League Match 3 - Watford 0 Southampton 0


The Public React to Another 'Sky Sources' Saints Transfer Exclusive

We’re at the time of the season when the end of the transfer window can’t come soon enough.  It’s an exciting time because your team may well bring in a player or two in the last week like we did last year with Sadio Mané and that greasy haired git who moved to that underachieving shambles in North London.   For Saints though it’s a time for mainly switching on any newsfeed you like and seeing 95% of the stories relating to one of your players being linked to a Champions League Clickbait Club or an Underachieving North London Clickbait Club.

Firstly we had the very amusing transfer of Pedro from Barcelona to Chelsea.  He was supposed to join Manchester United of course and it was a done deal and all that stuff until he signed for Chelsea.  I was laughing along with Jose Mourinho and the next day, the fact (not the word ‘fact’) that United had lost out had been relegated behind a rumour from 'Sky Sources' that United wanted Sadio Mané.  They’ve made a bid, they haven’t made a bid, the player’s unsettled, Saints have rejected the bid that may or may not have been made.  Big fucking yawn.  The facts are that Pedro has moved to Chelsea and it’s very funny and that’s it.  Also funny is that 'Sky Sources' can be both ever present and non-existent at the same time.

After a day of that we got the ‘Victor Wanyama has indicated he wants to leave’.  Oh bloody hell…. So you have to read one or two and there are no quotes so you relax again but it’s irritating that the storm has kicked off again and it’s in your brain.  This time of course it’s Spurs again – greasy haired git says last week that it was easier to be a centre half at Saints with Wanyama in the team plus Pochettino is there plus there’s Spurs fixation with all things red and white.  In amongst all this you have the Saints manager saying ‘no one is leaving’ so that’s that and there’s no need to change the sheets on your bed.  With two years left on his contract I guess those bastards from North London will have to wait until the summer until they can watch him join a big club.

Having said all that, I’m sure Celtic fans are feeling the same as us over the rumours of Virgil van Dijk and his seemingly inevitable move to England but for now, he’s not at Saints or anywhere else so we have to try and get over the last two dodgy results with the existing squad and today, Ronald changes things and we’ve gone with a 3-5-2 formation.  Cédric is in at right wing back with Caulker, José and Maya in defence and Targett on the left.  The very solid looking Big Vic and Romeu in midfield with Steve Davis, Mané and Pellè completing a line-up that looks solid as you like if a little light on creativity.

I’ve almost not acknowledged Watford’s presence this season as they have spent the last few season dealing exclusively in the loan market and every transfer window seems to being in 20 new loan players (usually from the same club) and three new managers.  The Manager today is Quique Flores and their notable players are ex-Spurs keeper Heurelho Gomes, captain Troy Deeney who’s been with them a while and scored loads of goals in the Championship and Etienne Capoue who was one of the players that Spurs thought would replace Gareth Bale.  Needless to say… he didn’t.

Away we go and boooooom from Maya towards Pellè.  If the first few minutes are anything to go by, we’re in for a boring afternoon as we are rigidly sticking to a solid 7 players in front of Stekelenburg and hoping that Mané and Davis will create something for Pellè who immediately look like he’s going to be trying to control throat balls all game.  Playing with three centre backs does give the wide centre backs a bit of license to get forward and Caulker thinks he’s Beckenbauer for a moment and bursts into the Watford penalty are to collect a pass from Davis but it ultimately comes to nothing.  Watford don’t look very good to be honest and their first effort is from Nyom on the right wing but his diagonal drive is closer to the left corner flag than the goal.

Ikechi Anya, the Scottish international with the very un-Scottish sounding name then puts a cross in the same area as Nyom’s shot.  Maybe it’s something they work on in training – if so, Flores will be delighted.  A ball is played over the top to Mané and Nyom tries to block him and fails but Gomes came flying out and collects the ball but he clatters Sadio as well.  A few minutes later and he makes a meal of a challenge from Bahrami and stays down again, gets up and falls over again and he’s done for the day to be replaced by Long.

Shane’s first involvement is to fasten onto a good ball from Graziano down the wing and cut in.  He does superbly to work a shooting chance on his left foot and then does a Shane Long and scuffs the shot straight to Gomes.  After waiting ages for a decent effort on goal, bus theory takes over and we get two.  Football breaks out and ends with Long picking up the ball on the right wing and getting in a good cross which Graziano lunges to meet and flicks his header wide.  Next we have a corner and Davis delivery is met by Caulker who heads it straight at Gomes.  I am really encouraged by the amount of times Caulker gets his head on corners and it’s a matter of time before he scores in a game.  He’s had one in a pre-season friendly, the disallowed goal against Midtjylland, a couple of other efforts against the same opposition and it’ll come as long as we keep aiming at him.

It’s brown trousers time after that though as Fonte tries to head out a punt forward and succeeds only in knocking it down for a Watford player who feeds Anya.  He plays a dangerous ball in front the right but mercifully it’s in front of everyone and Nghalo isn’t really very close to getting a touch.

Watford make a sub at half time with Diamanti, who was an Italian international about 3 years ago, coming on but it Saints who start the second half the better and a lovely move through the middle and down the right eventually sees Davis thread a straight ball through to Pellè to the right of centre and the beautiful Italian lashed a first time shot which Gomes tipped over the bar.  For the corner, Long rose well and flicked a header just over the bar off his quiff.

Fifteen minutes of tedium followed before, on 65 minutes we have a major let off as Jurado wins a corner as he tries to turn Targett three ways at once but the full back sticks to his job.  The corner was swung in and flicked on to the back post where Capoue had a free header from three yards but luckily he lacks the basic technique to head a ball and he shut his eyes and the ball bounced off his shoulder and went over the bar.  Words cannot do justice to just how shite it was.

JWP is on for Steve Davis and following good play from Targett, Cedric and Romeu, Big Vic is teed up for a shot which he hits quite well but Gomes gets down well too save.  We have once more half chance as Graziano chests down a ball on the edge of the box and Cédric comes steaming in and goes for a goal of the season contender which flies narrowly over the bar on the volley.  J-Rod is on for Graziano for the last 10 minutes but to no avail and a game which had largely started badly and then tailed off was over.

Neither team deserved to win and both probably deserved to lose.  The only thing that makes me smile is that the Premier League “Brand” takes a bit of a hammering every time there’s a completely dull game like this one.  It’s hard enough to watch your own team play in a match like this but for anyone neutral, this would have been appalling.  Still – who cares about neutrals sitting there in their half and half scarves.

We always moan about our team being last on Match of the Day but today was so lacking on the entertainment front that it could have been left off Match of the Day 2 altogether and put on a special Match of the Day Zero program at 4am.  It would satisfy the BBC’s contractual obligation to show every game and no one would actually have to watch it.  It’s a solid point and the positive is that we neither let in a goal nor looked like letting one in.  This is Watford however who have just come up so maybe we should be setting out to be a bit more adventurous and win this one.  Mind you, last year against the promoted sides, we lost at Burnley, lost at Leicester and scraped a last minute winner against a shocking QPR side.  Ronald was keen to stress afterwards that we’d been letting in too many goals recently and the need for better defensive organization was paramount. Overall I agree with him and another defeat here would have been tough for everyone.

The trouble today was that once Mané had gone off, the little creativity that we had in the side went off with him.  I would have thought that Tadic would have been the better sub to bring on and that point and maybe because Romeu and Big Vic are a great pair defensively so maybe Tadic could have started ahead of Steve Davis.  Having called for his inclusion, I will say that Tadic seems a bit out of favour at the moment after his abysmal showing against Everton.  With Shane Long coming on as an early sub and being a bit of a liability again, we resorted to hoofing the ball up towards Pellè a bit too often so it was a frustrating afternoon for the Italian.  Elsewhere, José Fonte put in his best performance of the season and other positives included Oriol Romeu, despite maintaining his 100% record of picking up a booking in every match he plays.  Also, if he wants away then Big Vic certainly didn’t show it as he certainly put a shift in.

So – on to Denmark and the return leg against Midtjylland, which I have finally learned how to spell.  It’s a game which could be absolutely anything from a comfortable win to penalties to a frustrating borefest as the Danes waste time from the first minute.  I will be putting money on us winning though and kick starting the league season in the process which we have a great chance to do next Sunday against Norwich at St.Mary’s.  If we do that then the world will seem a better place.


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