With Any Luck This Is A Wave Goodbye
When the fixtures were
announced and we saw the list of games we had for December, one stood out as ‘3
points’ and that was this one, Huddersfield at home – and the Leictester at
home one which we’ll gloss over here,.
Huddersfield had a very good start to the season and then tailed off as
newly promoted sides are prone to do and for the last few weeks they’ve been
picking up the odd result including a thumping 4-1 win at Watford last
week.
Saints have generally been
utter turd this season but I’m sure that all will be well now because Les Reed
has risen from the dead and done something.
Public enemy number one apart from the obvious candidates like the
manager and Les Reed himself has been Eric Black. Eric was brought in by Claude
Puel, mainly because he worked with him before and because he spoke French.
When Claude left, I assumed Eric would be following him out the door but he’s
stayed on and joined Pellegrino’s staff. There must’ve been a reason for this
but I don’t know what it is. Maybe, just maybe, the people that matter, as in
the players and the board, think that he was good at his job.
Because he was a caretaker manager Aston Villa when he inherited a job that would’ve been beyond Jesus Christ himself, it appears that he has been tarred as being useless and one of the main reasons why we’ve not been so great for the last season and a half. I must have missed the announcement that said that Eric Black had decided to sell Sadie Mane, Graziano Pelle and Victor Wanyama in the same summer. I also missed the announcement that he was picking the team and deciding on the tactics and substitutions. I also missed the announcement that the reason that both Jose Fonte and Virgil Van Dijk have thrown the toys out of the pram was because of Eric Black. Eric Black is actually an anagram of antichrist if you take a few letters out and had a few more in. The only thing Eric Black did wrong really was get caught up in that gambling sting which turned out to be a complete load of bollocks anyway.
There is a slight question left unanswered as usual because he is apparently leaving because he’s got a bad back. In any other line of work, if you have a bad back then you go off sick for a period of time and get it sorted but it appears that he is no longer going to be employed by Southampton FC so I wish him well with whatever he chooses to do next.
I’m not looking forward to today. I have a distinct mood of pessimism about the whole thing. Our Itchen Bridge game of predicting the scores has wild Optimism from my son and my Dad and brutal 1-1 realism from me. Before the game and before I saw what team Pellegrino had picked for today I had decided to write down the League 1 Minus 10 rules for picking a starting 11. This was by no means an exhaustive list and was thrown together in approximately three minutes and listed things I just think are obvious.
Because he was a caretaker manager Aston Villa when he inherited a job that would’ve been beyond Jesus Christ himself, it appears that he has been tarred as being useless and one of the main reasons why we’ve not been so great for the last season and a half. I must have missed the announcement that said that Eric Black had decided to sell Sadie Mane, Graziano Pelle and Victor Wanyama in the same summer. I also missed the announcement that he was picking the team and deciding on the tactics and substitutions. I also missed the announcement that the reason that both Jose Fonte and Virgil Van Dijk have thrown the toys out of the pram was because of Eric Black. Eric Black is actually an anagram of antichrist if you take a few letters out and had a few more in. The only thing Eric Black did wrong really was get caught up in that gambling sting which turned out to be a complete load of bollocks anyway.
There is a slight question left unanswered as usual because he is apparently leaving because he’s got a bad back. In any other line of work, if you have a bad back then you go off sick for a period of time and get it sorted but it appears that he is no longer going to be employed by Southampton FC so I wish him well with whatever he chooses to do next.
I’m not looking forward to today. I have a distinct mood of pessimism about the whole thing. Our Itchen Bridge game of predicting the scores has wild Optimism from my son and my Dad and brutal 1-1 realism from me. Before the game and before I saw what team Pellegrino had picked for today I had decided to write down the League 1 Minus 10 rules for picking a starting 11. This was by no means an exhaustive list and was thrown together in approximately three minutes and listed things I just think are obvious.
1) Only ever pick a Tadic or
Davis, never both. If you pick both of them then it’s too one-paced and not
enough pace or power in the side. We are
not Barcelona.
2) Never pick Steve Davis as
a defensive midfielder because he is fucking useless there. He doesn’t track
runners and can’t tackle and doesn’t win headers because he’s 5 foot 8.
3) If Nathan Redmond is going
to play it has to be on the right and never the left. It just doesn’t work on
the left.
4) If Tadic plays, it can
never be as a right winger. Virtually all of the decent games he played for
Saints in the dim and distant past were as a left winger.
5) Shane Long upfront on his
own. No nay never, no nay never no more.
6) Only pick players who are
hundred percent committed to Southampton football club. A can’t be arsed,
sloppy attitude from one player spreads.
One bad apple and all that.
7) Sofiane Boufal always
starts. He’s not the finished article
but in the context of this squad, he has to start every game as he’s the only
attacking player we have who is not relatively easy to defend against.
I am sure that Pellegrino will
pull something else completely fucking random out of the hat to make me add to
this list later on….. and so we are walking past the Chapel Arms when I see the
team on my phone.
A quick tot up reveals that 4 out of the 7 rules will have definitely been broken and maybe a 5th depending on where Tadic plays. What the fuck is he doing? It might be slightly different when the game actually starts but on the face of it, we are playing 4-2-3-1 and on paper, the team looks fucking dreadful. The attacking midfield three will be Redmond, Tadic and JWP – how completely uninspired and one dimensional is that? A defensive midfield of an injured Lemina and fucking Davis. Jack Stephens at right back and even at left back, it’s Matt Targett instead of Sam McQueen. Matt Targett hardly ever gets forward so who is going to put crosses into the box? Probably the wingers who will also be tasked with defending when they are attacking. It just looks like a fucking disaster waiting to happen. I haven’t even got to the ground yet and I’m already depressed. Is the pub open?
No Romeu, no Hojbjerg, no Boufal…
but the story will be no van Dijk who isn’t even in the squad so we can assume
that that’s the last we’ve seen of him in a Saints shirt and a deal has been
struck with hopefully, anyone apart from Liverpool though anyone who is watched
Liverpool‘s defence this season knows that they still need him.
Away we go and I just can’t get
excited about this. There is always that
thing that as a supporter, you of course don’t see what goes on at training and
just maybe the manager has hit upon a winning formula during the week. That’s what stops you not bothering about
going – it’s the hope that we’ll get it right even though every instinct that
you have is telling you that you are about to watch a complete pile of shite.
Huddersfield look the more
composed side and our makeshift defence looks all over the place as Ince, the
perennial ‘good Championship, Shite Premier League player’ gets down our left
easily and picks out Mooy with a low cross who no one has tracked. He should score but he delays his shot long
enough for Hoedt to make a block. We
have not got to grips with anything and we have another huge let off when our
left hand side is exposed again and Unpronouneablename at right back stands up
a cross to the unmarked Schindler and his header is superbly tipped onto the
bar by Fraser.
We have a foray up the other end with a roaming run by Stephens from right back and win a corner, JWP’s kick is cleared out to the left and Targett whips in a good ball which the keeper Lossl punches away and Redmond wins another corner. This time, JWP’s kick finds Hoedt who wins it easily and heads down and we have a goal hanger two yards out and he stoops to head into the net. Charlie Austin of course and he’s off to have a celebration in front of the Huddersfield fans. Not sure what all that’s about but there seems to be some history there. Anyway, 1-0 up, undeserved but we’ll take it.
We have a foray up the other end with a roaming run by Stephens from right back and win a corner, JWP’s kick is cleared out to the left and Targett whips in a good ball which the keeper Lossl punches away and Redmond wins another corner. This time, JWP’s kick finds Hoedt who wins it easily and heads down and we have a goal hanger two yards out and he stoops to head into the net. Charlie Austin of course and he’s off to have a celebration in front of the Huddersfield fans. Not sure what all that’s about but there seems to be some history there. Anyway, 1-0 up, undeserved but we’ll take it.
Inspired by our tactically astute manager, we know that a
clean sheet wins the game but before that, a cross comes into our box and
Stephens and Yoshida ball watch and Schindler is in between them but luckily he
has a 50p head moment and heads it down and wide. I don’t care what anyone says – until these
two defenders start dominating in the air, they are never going to be good
enough to play regularly in a team that doesn’t want to be near the bottom of
the Premier League.
Going forward, Stephens is a
different matter though and another mazy out of defence sees him try to put
Austin through but he’s mistaken Austin for someone with pace and overhits
it. The keeper claims easily and about
three minutes pass before Austin arrives, obviously too tired to jump over him
so he kicks him in the face. Do you want
Christmas off then Charlie? Anyhow, the
ref doesn’t give anything and the Huddersfield players don’t kick off too much so
Austin has completely got away with that one.
We have our best spell just before
half time. In a half that has been so
shit, this is not saying much but Austin and Lemina combine for Redmond to
cross and Tadic to have a shot blocked by Lossl. The keeper is having a fun time and he takes
ages over a clearance and it gets charged down by Tadic and comes out to Austin
who had to hit it first time really but he takes his time and then tries to
chip the keeper who is comfortably back in his goal by that time.
Half time and 1-0 to us but
it’s been shocking. We’re winning due to
a set piece goal which was against the run of play. It’s two desperately poor teams and it’s like
being in a time machine when we had players like Neal Trotman and Paul Wotton,
such is the level of ineptitude out there.
The second half starts in
much the same way but Huddersfield appear to have upped their game in midfield
and are closing us down much quicker. It
takes quarter of an hour but we create the chance to go 2-0 up and kill the
game off as Redmond breaks down the left and for once, with the insane cackling
laughter of Pep Guardiola ringing in his ears, he bursts pat
Unpronounceablename and squares it to Austin who just has the keeper to beat. It’s a sitter and the ball is with the only
player you’d want it to be with. Shank –
wide. Fuck.
And in that instant, the game
changed. Davis gets bustled off the ball
on our left and another cross comes in and falls to Mooy who once again, see
his shot blocked but it doesn’t take much Huddersfield pressure to get a goal
as substitute Smith takes a pass from Ince and puts over a cross and Depoitre,
who is a massive lump with Shredded Wheat on top of his head, has sensibly
decided to attack the gaping fucking space between Yoshida and Stephens,
knowing that neither will challenge him and he can’t miss and he doesn’t. Pathetic beyond words.
Maya Looking for The Man He Lost Again.
So, having watched us take a
shit in midfield for the past 20 minutes, Pellegrino decides to wait another 10
before changing anything and he hooks Davis and Tadic who have bother been
garbage and puts on Hojbjerg and Boufal.
The effect is instant. Hojbjerg wrestles
back the midfield and Boufal commits defenders.
We come close when a JWP
corner from the left flicks off Yoshida and goes wide before Lossl gives us
another shout with a shite clearance which Austin chests down and hits and
Lossl gets lucky as it hits his wrists and stays out. Austin is down in that all too familiar pose
of arm-up, signalling to the bench. That’s
a hamstring and he’s gone for a while.
The Huddersfield fans are loving it as he limps off and Gabbiadini is
on.
Though we’re the better side
now, it’s too little too late but we get the predictable last minute
chance. This time, a foul by Smith on
Boufal gives us a free kick out on the left about 35 yards out. In it comes from JWP and time and the defence
stands still and Yoshida meets it with a superb down wards header and it beats
the keeper, hits the base of the post and hits the keeper in the face and
bounces clear. The we get the spectacle
of a grown man claiming that he’s injured because the ball has hit him. Yoshida – not the most irritable of players –
gestures to him to get up and it all kicks off with handbags and a mental
over-reaction from Huddersfield.
A suitably pathetic moment to
finish the game on.
Three more rules for Pellegrino.
8) Never leave both Oriel Romeu
and Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg out, ever. It
never even occurred to me before the game that any manager could be that
fuckwitted as to do this.
9) Don’t start Maya Yoshida.
He has never been good enough to be a starting centre back in the Premier
League and he never will be. Goal a game, every game.
10) Don’t play out of position
players at full-back. If ever a player is going to get found out then that is
the position where they will get found out because they can’t cross the ball.
#PellegrinoOut
Fucking hell. What a tedious
bag of shite that was. A dreadful game between two dreadful teams. We were
probably unlucky not to win it as Huddersfield scored with their only shot in
the second half but let’s not forget but they could’ve been in front before our
goal which came from a set piece and totally against the run of play. If Austin
scores that sitter then it’s 2-0 and game over but Huddersfield slung a ball
into the box and there were Maya and Jack were doing what Maya and Jack do and ball-watching
and allowing a free header from 6 yards. Absolute fucking crap.
This is the end of the line to me as far as Pellegrino is concerned. The team looked fucking dreadful on paper and it was predictably fucking dreadful out on the pitch as well. The substitutions that he made, which was far too fucking late made us instantly better once he got Davis and Tadic off the pitch and got Hojbjerg and Boufal on. The improvement was absolutely instantaneous. Up to that point, Hudderfield had bossed the midfield in the second half and Pellegrino just stood in the technical area and watched it happen whilst Romeu and Hojbjerg sat on the bench. Fucking madness. Sadly, there wasn’t enough time for us to make it count. We nearly did with Yoshida’s header but even if that had gone in it would’ve just been papering over the cracks. We are getting no better as a team and Pellegrino has now had 19 matches and won the grand total of four with seven draws and eight defeats. That is bollocks.
After the game, Pellegrino was asked about van Dijk but who fucking cares at the end of the day? We know he’s going and that isn’t news. The more interesting question would’ve been why the fuck were Romeu, Hojbjerg and Boufal all left out for a game that we had to win. Next up we have Tottenham away and Manchester United away. In both games, no doubt we will resort to the 9-0-1 formation which has carried us to narrow defeats at Manchester City and Chelsea. Charlie Austin won’t be fit for those games but it looks like he’s probably going to pick up a suspension anyway for kicking the Huddersfield goalkeeper in the head. (UPDATE: He got three game ban). He wouldn’t of been picked for those games anyway as they are the sort of games where Pellegrino picks Shane Long to run around and do fuck all or he picks Gabbiadini to make run after run after run and never get the ball.
What a fucking strange goalkeeper Lossl is. There was always a chance for us every time the ball went near him as he fucked up kicks and showed bad ball control. I have never seen a player get an injury break for getting hit with the ball which is what happened when Maya’s header bounced off the post in the last minute. I know he’d had a kick in the face earlier but that’s embarrassing.
This is the end of the line to me as far as Pellegrino is concerned. The team looked fucking dreadful on paper and it was predictably fucking dreadful out on the pitch as well. The substitutions that he made, which was far too fucking late made us instantly better once he got Davis and Tadic off the pitch and got Hojbjerg and Boufal on. The improvement was absolutely instantaneous. Up to that point, Hudderfield had bossed the midfield in the second half and Pellegrino just stood in the technical area and watched it happen whilst Romeu and Hojbjerg sat on the bench. Fucking madness. Sadly, there wasn’t enough time for us to make it count. We nearly did with Yoshida’s header but even if that had gone in it would’ve just been papering over the cracks. We are getting no better as a team and Pellegrino has now had 19 matches and won the grand total of four with seven draws and eight defeats. That is bollocks.
After the game, Pellegrino was asked about van Dijk but who fucking cares at the end of the day? We know he’s going and that isn’t news. The more interesting question would’ve been why the fuck were Romeu, Hojbjerg and Boufal all left out for a game that we had to win. Next up we have Tottenham away and Manchester United away. In both games, no doubt we will resort to the 9-0-1 formation which has carried us to narrow defeats at Manchester City and Chelsea. Charlie Austin won’t be fit for those games but it looks like he’s probably going to pick up a suspension anyway for kicking the Huddersfield goalkeeper in the head. (UPDATE: He got three game ban). He wouldn’t of been picked for those games anyway as they are the sort of games where Pellegrino picks Shane Long to run around and do fuck all or he picks Gabbiadini to make run after run after run and never get the ball.
What a fucking strange goalkeeper Lossl is. There was always a chance for us every time the ball went near him as he fucked up kicks and showed bad ball control. I have never seen a player get an injury break for getting hit with the ball which is what happened when Maya’s header bounced off the post in the last minute. I know he’d had a kick in the face earlier but that’s embarrassing.
Huddersfield were pretty
shite but what they did do was contest every second ball and not give us any
time on the ball at all. In the second half in particular they swarmed all over
us and Steve Davis just disappeared in the midfield. Pellegrino should’ve taken
him off at half time and put Romeu or Hojbjerg on as we were winning but no, he
left it too late to do anything about it so instead of being proactive he was
reactive and we didn’t have enough time to bring the game back. He is fucking
useless as a manager and he has to go. I would rather put ready Radhi Jaidi in
charge for the two games we’ve got coming up and have a new manager in as soon
as possible. I just hope that the board have been proactive themselves and have
someone lined up.
Nathan Redmond is as usual, getting slaughtered after the game and he didn’t have a great game though he did set up the sitter of a chance for Austin that he missed. I feel that Redmond does exactly what the manager asks him to do and as a result, he doesn’t take risks and he plays safety first if there’s a chance that he might lose the ball. This is probably why he got picked today. It’s more ingrained in Boufal to be a maverick and play off the cuff which is why Pellegrino has a mistrust of him and that’s why he’s a substitute. Though I do think Guardiola is insane, his comments on Redmond to carry a lot of weight, let’s face it and the boy would do much better for us if he was allowed and encouraged to take people on.
The modern game is all about pace and power. We appear to be stuck in 10 years ago mode with having midfield players like Davis, Tadic and JWP who are neat and tidy pretty passing footballers. You can have one of those in your team in the Premier League in my opinion but any more than that and the team becomes slow paced and easy to play against. You rarely hear the term ‘water carrier’ any more and there’s a reason for that and it’s because the modern game doesn’t need players like that. Pellegrino should know this by now but even if he doesn’t, he knows that 4 wins in 19 it’s not good enough and playing in exactly the same way is going to continue to fail. There are absolutely no signs of improvement and it is actually worse than the tail end of last season. Bye – don’t let the door hit your ass.
Nathan Redmond is as usual, getting slaughtered after the game and he didn’t have a great game though he did set up the sitter of a chance for Austin that he missed. I feel that Redmond does exactly what the manager asks him to do and as a result, he doesn’t take risks and he plays safety first if there’s a chance that he might lose the ball. This is probably why he got picked today. It’s more ingrained in Boufal to be a maverick and play off the cuff which is why Pellegrino has a mistrust of him and that’s why he’s a substitute. Though I do think Guardiola is insane, his comments on Redmond to carry a lot of weight, let’s face it and the boy would do much better for us if he was allowed and encouraged to take people on.
The modern game is all about pace and power. We appear to be stuck in 10 years ago mode with having midfield players like Davis, Tadic and JWP who are neat and tidy pretty passing footballers. You can have one of those in your team in the Premier League in my opinion but any more than that and the team becomes slow paced and easy to play against. You rarely hear the term ‘water carrier’ any more and there’s a reason for that and it’s because the modern game doesn’t need players like that. Pellegrino should know this by now but even if he doesn’t, he knows that 4 wins in 19 it’s not good enough and playing in exactly the same way is going to continue to fail. There are absolutely no signs of improvement and it is actually worse than the tail end of last season. Bye – don’t let the door hit your ass.
Spurs away
United Away
Merry Christmas
Happy New Year
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