Lesson 1: There is No Point in Fouling Cameron Jerome
Who cares about the early rounds of the FA Cup any more?
If this is judged by the teams that are selected then the
categories of teams who don’t care are as follows:
Teams in the top 6 of the Premier League with a chance of
a Champions League place
Teams still in the League Cup at the semi final stage
Teams with any chance of getting relegated from the
Premier League
Teams will any chance of getting promoted into the
Premier League
Teams in danger of getting relegated from the
Championship, League 1 or League 2
Teams with a chance of going up from League 1 or League 2
or the top of the Conference but most of these will have fielder a weakened
side in Round 1 or 2 and already gone
out.
Any of these side who go out in the 3rd or 4th
Round will just shrug and say “it’s probably for the best”. The list doesn’t leave many does it? Maybe the middle 4 sides of each division on
average. Then there’s the fans who, if
they regularly attend games will know that this is an extra game they have to
find money for and they will know the ‘weakened team’ scenario. I remember 1976 when it was a bit different.
“In goal for Southampton – Harry Lewis”…. Here we go –
our 4th choice goalkeeper, 5th if you count Gazzaniga out
on loan… Anyway, more of that later.
The issue that everyone knew was simmering under the
surface all season, came to a head with the announcement that José Fonte had
asked for a transfer. This is a mess as
yet again, it’s a captain and supposed leader who wants to go which can never
be a good thing. Also, Les Reed says he
was offered more money and a contract extension and José says he was never
offered it. The truth will be somewhere
in the middle of course – most likely that it was offered, José wanted to see
what else was available (he changed his agent) and by the time all this had
happened, the transfer window was closed and whatever offer there was, was off
the table. Stalemate and an unhappy
captain. This season we’ve had the
fiasco of him not playing at all in the Europa League for reasons that will
probably never be explained but whatever the explanation, it was not down to
the luck of the rotation policy.
Though he is a club legend and always will be in my eyes,
I can’t help but side with the club on this one. I don’t understand why the club, with so much
recent history of players quitting and moving on, would try to force one of its
longest serving players out of the door when he’s just won the European
Championship. I suspect a new agent and
a new inflated opinion of worth following said Championships are the main
reasons behind it and in a standard Koeman type way, it’s easier to save face
and blame the club. Matt le Tissier’s
comments that José has not been acting like a captain should add weight to this
as well. However this plays out in the
end, it’s a mess. Whilst in the main I
side with the club - we’ve half-arsed it.
We should have either stripped him of the captaincy in September or
played him in every important game, especially the Europa League campaign. We kind of did a bit of both and that’s never
a good thing.
So, Norwich away and a pretty uninspiring Cup draw. City
should be one of the promotion chasers but they aren’t and recently had their
first win after about 6 defeats on the bounce.
There are issues there with the fans not happy about the price of
tickets following their relegation.
There is the threat of a boycott today so add that to weakened sides and
both sets of fans having a bit of a downer on the relative managers and we
should be in for an atmospheric classic.
Where were we – yes, Harry Lewis is in goal – good luck
kid! Jack Stephens has got another go at
right back with Cedric still injured and Martina still shit. Ryan Bertrand is at left back which
immediately has me worried that he’s going to be on the bench against Liverpool
in the League Cup Semi Final next Wednesday.
There is no choice but to play Virgil and Maya at centre back so that’s
who’s there. Harry Reed is given another
chance in midfield with Hojbjerg and JWP and up front is Long, Sims and Tadic
which will surely strike fear into the Norwich defence.
Long nearly gets through from the kick off as Tadic lofts
a ball over the defence but it’s a committed keeper against a non-committed
striker so predictably, it doesn’t end up in the net but is easily blocked by
the keeper and the Norwich defence blocks well from the next effort from Tadic
after Long had got to the line and chipped it back.
Norwich’s first foray into our half is crudely interrupted
by Reed and Olson’s free kick gets up and over the wall and Lewis makes some
decent ground across to catch it well.
There’s almost an identical incident up the other end as Long is fouled
about 30 yards out and Tadic’ free kick is easily saved by McGovern who makes
it look good in full ‘one for the cameras’ mode.
There’s a minor alarm as Lewis slides out well to claim a
ball and forgets to stop and carries it outside the side of the penalty
area. Luckily Mike Dean is not
refereeing otherwise it would have been a straight red so no damage done when
the free kick is headed away. We break
quickly and Sims picks it up on the left and plays a perfect ball to put Long
clean through on the right but what do you know, with just the keeper to beat
he launches it over the bar in a display of fucking uselessness.
Hojbjerg is having a decent game in midfield and it’s his
cross which hangs in the air which stps Shane getting much power on it but it’s
a decent header which McGovern shovels over the bar. Tadic’ corner is cleared back to him before
he sends in a superb cross to the back post where Virgil is waiting and with
perfect technique, he volleys it down and into the net. Great finish and he’s now officially our best
striker as well as best defender. There
is no way that Shane Long would have put that anywhere other than over the bar.
So, 1-0 up at half time and loads of possession and
Norwich haven’t done a thing really. The
second half starts and Norwich get to the edge of the a box and in a departure
from what I usually do I’m going to print what was posted on the official
Southamptonfc.com website and then tell you what really happened.
Southamptonfc.com said:
“And they were
level when Cameron Jerome’s pace caused problems inside the box and Lewis
brought the forward down for a penalty, with Whittaker stepping up to convert.”
What actually happened was:
Virgil broke up an attack on the edge of the box and
knocked it back to Lewis who instead of launching it, took a horrific touch
which went about 10 yards. No worries as
Cameron Jerome has the ball and three things should have been going through the
young keepers mind. 1) it’s Cameron Jerome
and he’s on the wrong side of average in terms of ability and 2) he’s heading
out of the penalty area and there is no danger and 3) get back in the fucking
goal. What shouldn’t have been on the keepers
mind was barging into the back of the striker and giving a penalty away but
that’s what he did so out of nowhere and totally undeservedly, Norwich have a
chance to equalize which Whitaker takes easily.
Shite.
Ah, here’s comes the predictable dead zone for 15
minutes. It’s so dead that there were
reports of the East Anglia police fielding calls about zombie sightings. Claude’s answer is to go for it with straight
swaps – Romeu for Reed and J-Rod for Long.
J-Rod’s first contribution is to miss a ball across from Bertrand about
two yards out but Stephens return cross from the other wing finds it’s way back
to Tadic who smashes a volley towards the goal but McGovern takes off to make a
really good save.
Surprisingly and miraculously, we do go back in front and
JWP finds Stephens and on to Hojbjerg who fires in a peach of a cross and there’s
Maya Yoshida to power a header past McGovern.
Great cross, great run, great header and 2-1. Surely we can play this out now. The best way to play it out is to score
another goal and J-Rod has a great chance on his left foot but can’t get it on
target again.
Ex-Norwich man Redmond is on for Sims with 10 to go but
Norwich have an effort on 80 minutes when Murphy tries one at the near post and
Lewis drops on it pretty well. It’s a
shame about the penalty incident because he’s done pretty well for a kid
playing his first game. (0 minutes are
up and the 4 minute board is displayed.
We’ve kept them out with ease so far and now…. 92 minutes gone…
Back to the official site:
“But Saints
could not hold out and were cruelly denied in injury time when Whittaker's
cross from the right was flicked into the far corner by the head of Naismith to
earn the hosts a replay”
What actually happened was:
It wasn’t really a storm as much as a slight breath of
wind but whatever it was, we had weathered it and into the next round we go but
no. A cross from our left and Yoshida is
totally asleep allowing Naismith about 10 yards of space and a free header
which he plants in the corner. Just what
we wanted. The closest Saints defender
was probably José Fonte who was at home in Southampton.
Just what we wanted, a draw and a replay to be sandwiched
in between the League Cup Semi Finals.
Great. This game was as low key
as I expected it to be. There was
certainly no gung-ho spirit from Norwich as if they were desperate for a Cup
run and we did what we always do – tried to win with the bear minimum of commitment
to attack. Norwich were pretty average
and we still couldn’t put them away.
Piss poor from us.
The positives were that Virgil again proved what a great
player he is, Pierre Hojbjerg looked like something approaching his best after recent wobbles and Harry Lewis (brainfart for the penalty aside) had a competent debut. Maya was Maya – took with one hand and took
away with the other. Scores a great goal
and then fails to concentrate for the full 90 and plays a major part in
coughing up a goal.
As for the manager – the team that we put out should have
been able to win that game but I hope he realises that that cohesion that we
just don’t have, will only have a chance to come to the fore with a settled
side. That said, I have a major downer
at the moment on our two fit strikers who today played against a Championship
defence and both had chances which they failed to even get on target. It doesn't matter how cohesive you are as a team if you every shot your strikers have is over or wide.
On we go to the Liverpool League Cup Semi Final. Klopp predictably rested an entire team for
their home tie with Plymouth and they drew as well. Safe to assume that all their big guns will
be available for the game on Wednesday – at least Mané will be in Africa so
just Lallana, Coutinho, Firmino and Sturridge to worry about. I am not optimistic but you never know. Maybe a perception changing result is just
around the corner…
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