Top Corner, Over There.
The game that would possibly complete our journey to the
bottom of the league and maybe even be Pellegrino’s last stand was here, with a
trip to The Hawthorns to play West Brom. Tony Pulis finally managed to turn
West Brom into what he wanted which was a team of centre backs and defensive
midfielders and at that point after one win in about 20 games they got rid of
him. His replacement is our old manager Alan Pardew. It was an appointment that
many people scoffed at but how many Saints fans would take Pardew over
Pellegrino?
Jay Rodriguez of course, moved to West Brom at the start of the season and has found some form of late, notching five goals in his last seven games. This is brilliant for him and a complete indication that he was correct to move on from Southampton. He needed a change of scenery and he needed a run of games and he was never going to get that with us. Fairplay to him, he moved for football reasons and like Jack Cork, it has paid off so far for him. You don’t wish him any ill will because he wasn’t a twat about anything. In this transfer window, West Brom have made what is being lauded as a great signing, in bringing in Daniel Sturridge from Liverpool. I’m not convinced myself and think he is decidedly overhyped. It’s easy to be a flat track bully boy playing for clubs in the top six who are always attacking and of course, he has to stay fit.
In addition to it being a tough game anyway, we have to cope with the fact that it is West Brom‘s first home game since Cyrille Regis died. I remember him well, terrorising Saints defenders in the late 70s and early 80s in their iconic green and yellow West Brom kit. He was a brilliant player and in his later years at Coventry City, though he lost a bit of pace he more than made up for it with football intelligence. The main focus is about the racial abuse he used to have to put up with and his part in changing that. As a kid at the time, I didn’t really understand all that but he was an absolutely superb footballer.
Jay Rodriguez of course, moved to West Brom at the start of the season and has found some form of late, notching five goals in his last seven games. This is brilliant for him and a complete indication that he was correct to move on from Southampton. He needed a change of scenery and he needed a run of games and he was never going to get that with us. Fairplay to him, he moved for football reasons and like Jack Cork, it has paid off so far for him. You don’t wish him any ill will because he wasn’t a twat about anything. In this transfer window, West Brom have made what is being lauded as a great signing, in bringing in Daniel Sturridge from Liverpool. I’m not convinced myself and think he is decidedly overhyped. It’s easy to be a flat track bully boy playing for clubs in the top six who are always attacking and of course, he has to stay fit.
In addition to it being a tough game anyway, we have to cope with the fact that it is West Brom‘s first home game since Cyrille Regis died. I remember him well, terrorising Saints defenders in the late 70s and early 80s in their iconic green and yellow West Brom kit. He was a brilliant player and in his later years at Coventry City, though he lost a bit of pace he more than made up for it with football intelligence. The main focus is about the racial abuse he used to have to put up with and his part in changing that. As a kid at the time, I didn’t really understand all that but he was an absolutely superb footballer.
It is Pellegrino time and time for the team selection (closes eyes and prays even though I’m not religious)…. on the face of it, it looks miles better than the Brighton selection. Carrillo starts up front so we have a proper number nine instead of a false nine, a fake nine or just a shite nine (you know exactly who I’m talking about). There were also places for Mario Lemina and Sofiane Boufal in place of Steven Davis and the ridiculously unlucky Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg. Whilst overall, the team looks much better on paper, I am quite staggered that the two players who got hauled off at half-time against Brighton because they were shite, both managed to stay in the team whilst Hojbjerg, despite being our most consistent player this season, gets left out. Tadic keeps his place due to his hard-drive full of photos of Les Reed, Nicola Cortese and various farmyard animals.
There were loads of tributes to Cyrille at the start of the game and the Saints fans did themselves proud by respectfully joining in with everything. West Brom handled the whole celebration superbly.
The West Brom team is missing a few with Krychowiak injured
and J-Rod has surprisingly been left out to accommodate show pony greedy
bastard Daniel Sturridge. I just can’t
see him doing it for a relegation threatened club. He’s not going to get the ball as much so his
greedy bastard tendencies are going to grate and I can’t really imagine him
putting a huge shift in when they haven’t got the ball.
The game starts and West Bromwich win a corner on our left. Over comes the in swinging ball from Brunt and Hegazi, all 6 foot 5 of him has a completely free header from 6 yards which he buries. Needless to say, Jack Stephens was supposed to be marking him and just like the goal that Harry Kane scored for Spurs against us a few weeks ago, he got totally manshamed by an opponent who wanted to win the ball and head the ball much more than Jack did. West Brom are very good at set pieces and a 6 foot 5 player can score with a header and there be absolutely nothing you can do about it but this is now an epidemic regarding Stephens and heading the ball in our own penalty area and every single team we played against knows about it.
The game starts and West Bromwich win a corner on our left. Over comes the in swinging ball from Brunt and Hegazi, all 6 foot 5 of him has a completely free header from 6 yards which he buries. Needless to say, Jack Stephens was supposed to be marking him and just like the goal that Harry Kane scored for Spurs against us a few weeks ago, he got totally manshamed by an opponent who wanted to win the ball and head the ball much more than Jack did. West Brom are very good at set pieces and a 6 foot 5 player can score with a header and there be absolutely nothing you can do about it but this is now an epidemic regarding Stephens and heading the ball in our own penalty area and every single team we played against knows about it.
Whilst it was very depressing to fall behind early, given
our lack of goals, we were given encouragement by West Brom having similar
issues to us and appearing to sit back.
We began to dominate possession and the chances started to come. After a decent spell of possession, Hoedt
stepped out of the back 4 and played Boufal into space and he shot just wide
with Foster concerned. I was encourage
by the fact that Hoedt found himself up the park and joining in. Also encouraging was Carrillo. When Rondon and Sturridge could be arsed to
close us down and we were forced to go long – Carrillo was winning headers,
flicking one on to Tadic, taking the return and shooting wide once more.
Tadic had an effort deflected by Brunt, spooning it up and
landing on the roof of the net before another defensive calamity by Stephens
allowed Sturridge in on the left but he blazed across the goal and over. The Sturridge chance was a rare break in our
domination as Hoedt won a tackle on the left against Matt Phillips who couldn’t
have bottled it any more if he tried. On
it went to Tadic and then to Bertrand on the left – a great cross on the run
and Carrillo dived in to meet it only for Foster to pull out a very good stop
low down.
Another encouraging sign was forward players being fluid in
their movement and not restricting themselves to one channel. Boufal turned up on the right and nothing much
seemed on as he teed up Lemina but with real intent, the returning midfielder
took a touch forward and then just launched it right footed, perfect strike and
still rising as it sped past Foster and into the top corner (near enough). Great goal and just what we deserved.
And then, fuck me, it got better. Hoedt played a great ball to Bertrand and his
cross was blocked for a corner. Over it
comes from JWP and in a bit of role reversal, Stephens loses Hagazi, meets it
in front of the near post and flicks it perfectly over everyone and into the
far corner as Foster looked imploring at the man he hadn’t put on the post.
Of course, having turned it around and gone in front, we
have a go at fucking it all up with Bertrand trashing Rondon on the edge of the
box and from rine left footed territory, Brunt smashes it and McCarthy read it
all the way and got down superbly to his right to parry it away and not back to
the penalty spot like Fraser would have done.
Half time and it had been a very good first half. After the Cyrille stuff and the early goal,
it would have been easy to fold but we kept at it and were the better side and
deservedly 2-1 in front. The second half
started with a joke decision as Dawson fell over Bertrand who wasn’t even
looking at him or moving or trying to play the ball or anything and got given a
free kick in Brunt territory once more.
This time he tried to scuff one under the jumping wall but it flicked
off someone and wide.
Another thing I like about us today and the inclusion of Carrillo
is that it allows us to mix it up. We
can play possession or go long which at least keeps the opposition guessing,
unlike the Brighton game for example.
From one such long ball, everyone leaves it and Tadic gets there just
before the keeper, lobs him but it’s half cleared and eventually Boufal sees
his shot deflected wide.
Out next attack is out of some decent possession and Hoedt
once more sees a chance to run and he’s past a couple of half arsed pathetic
challenges and gets cynically taken out on the edge of the box. There’s a bit of a tussle with Boufal wanting
to take it but Wes steps in and points at JWP and Sofiane doesn’t feel like
arguing. Up steps JWP and drills it low
to the right of the wall and into the corner for 3-1 with Boufal being the
first to catch of with him for the celebration.
I can’t help but feel that Foster put the wall in the werong place here
but he wasn;t helped by Barry being farthest right and turning his back like a
10 year old would.
Just stay on the front foot lads. Lemina is making my pre-match midfield Twitter prophecy come true on his own and once more he’s all over the Baggies midfield,
freeing Tadic on the right but he underhits the cross and Dawson gets back to
clear from Carrillo. 18 minutes to go and you’re just hoping it’s really boring
to the end and as Dave Merrington would say…what we don’t want to do is concede
a goal. So we do as West Brom retrieve
their own corner after it had been cleared by Carrillo, feed it to Brunt on the
left and he puts over a superb cross which Rondon meets (with his shoulder) and it flicks into the
net. This time, neither centre half has
covered themselves in glory. Stephens
has mis-read it and gone up under the ball and Hoedt has allowed Rondon to get
in front of him. 3-2.
It is more or less Carrillo’s last involvement as we resort
to the False-9 formation and bring on a False Striker. I’ll give you a clue – in the last year he’s
averaged one goal every six months. There
is always hope with Shane that he’ll do something and then he actually touches
the ball. It’s a superb crossfield ball
by Hoedt. JWP knocks it on for the
overlapping Cedric and he pulls out a wonderful cross which is a centre forwards
dream ball right on his head. Up goes
Long and heads it pathetically over the bar.
Oh just fuck off for fucks sake.
In truth the rest of the game is played out quite
comfortably.. J-Rod is on for The Baggies and he has a half shout for a penalty
when Bertand stands strong but that’s about it.
Hojbjerg comes on for Boufal and then Redmond for Tadic and it’s Redmond
who nearly has the last word, cutting in from the left and forcing a decent
save out of Foster just before the final whistle.
Get in there, we have finally won a fucking game and
Pellegrino didn’t mess it up. It wasn’t a perfect game by any stretch of the
imagination but it is all about the positives today. We have actually won a ‘must
win’ game, we have won a six pointer away from home, scored three goals and
moved four places at the league. You cannot moan about any of that.
The only thing I will say is that one win against West Brom side that had a lots of injuries and have their manager making some really fucking strange decisions does not mean that everything is wonderful in our account. One game in isolation never means anything until it becomes the norm. In other words, we had little two game spells before where we have looked ‘not shit’, only to revert to being shit again.
Having hinted at the start of the piece that I would take Pardew over Pellegrino any day, you have to seriously question his decision to leave Rodriguez out and play Sturridge. Rondon has to play because of our weakness in the air but why pick Sturridge ahead of a player who scored five goals in his last seven games. That is absolutely bizarre. It’s almost as if Liverpool are demanding that he plays.
The game was won for us in midfield and I don’t get to say this often but I kind of predicted this on Twitter before the game started once I saw Gareth Barry and Claudio Yacob as the West Brom midfield. In the event, Mario Lemina put in one of those performances where he looks like the best midfielder on the planet. The goal he scored showed exactly what he can do at the top of the pitch but the general performance had everything. Energy, pace, trickery, passing short and long and then he smashes one in the top corner from 30 yards - just leave all the man of the match awards and champagne outside my locker thank you very much. The man has it all.
Supporting cast was led by JWP who had an excellent game and buried another goal for his 4th goal in 5 games. Boufal was a constant threat on the wing and I am sick and tired with people saying he gives the ball away too much. Let’s pick Davis and go sideways and backwards then. The fact is that whilst Boufal is on the pitch, the full back he’s playing against didn’t go forward too far because they know that he is going to make them look an absolute mug once he gets goal side of them. Guido Carrillo looks promising upfront as well and was unlucky not to score. His first touch is not great at times but he gave us that focal point which we have been missing. It is just a shame that he wasn’t still on the pitch when Cedric put over that wonderful cross from the right wing which Shane Long headed pathetically over the bar.
Overall it was very encouraging but we need to keep it going of course. Next up we have bloody Liverpool who are not looking quite what they were before they sold Coutinho but they can be ridiculously good. As well as all the other wankers, they now have King wanker Virgil Van Dijk and I hope he gets dogs abuse from the first whistle to last. This game is a big test for Pellegrino because he naturally want to apply his 9-0-1 formation but our defence is not good enough to sit back and let the other team attack so we are going to have to try and use the huge space that exists in between Liverpool‘s defence and midfield. If we take the game to them and get beat then no one will mind too much but if we just sit there and wait and end up getting beat 1-0 then that is no good for anyone.
It is up to you Mr Pellegrino, stay on the front foot and you never know, good things might happen.
The only thing I will say is that one win against West Brom side that had a lots of injuries and have their manager making some really fucking strange decisions does not mean that everything is wonderful in our account. One game in isolation never means anything until it becomes the norm. In other words, we had little two game spells before where we have looked ‘not shit’, only to revert to being shit again.
Having hinted at the start of the piece that I would take Pardew over Pellegrino any day, you have to seriously question his decision to leave Rodriguez out and play Sturridge. Rondon has to play because of our weakness in the air but why pick Sturridge ahead of a player who scored five goals in his last seven games. That is absolutely bizarre. It’s almost as if Liverpool are demanding that he plays.
The game was won for us in midfield and I don’t get to say this often but I kind of predicted this on Twitter before the game started once I saw Gareth Barry and Claudio Yacob as the West Brom midfield. In the event, Mario Lemina put in one of those performances where he looks like the best midfielder on the planet. The goal he scored showed exactly what he can do at the top of the pitch but the general performance had everything. Energy, pace, trickery, passing short and long and then he smashes one in the top corner from 30 yards - just leave all the man of the match awards and champagne outside my locker thank you very much. The man has it all.
Supporting cast was led by JWP who had an excellent game and buried another goal for his 4th goal in 5 games. Boufal was a constant threat on the wing and I am sick and tired with people saying he gives the ball away too much. Let’s pick Davis and go sideways and backwards then. The fact is that whilst Boufal is on the pitch, the full back he’s playing against didn’t go forward too far because they know that he is going to make them look an absolute mug once he gets goal side of them. Guido Carrillo looks promising upfront as well and was unlucky not to score. His first touch is not great at times but he gave us that focal point which we have been missing. It is just a shame that he wasn’t still on the pitch when Cedric put over that wonderful cross from the right wing which Shane Long headed pathetically over the bar.
Overall it was very encouraging but we need to keep it going of course. Next up we have bloody Liverpool who are not looking quite what they were before they sold Coutinho but they can be ridiculously good. As well as all the other wankers, they now have King wanker Virgil Van Dijk and I hope he gets dogs abuse from the first whistle to last. This game is a big test for Pellegrino because he naturally want to apply his 9-0-1 formation but our defence is not good enough to sit back and let the other team attack so we are going to have to try and use the huge space that exists in between Liverpool‘s defence and midfield. If we take the game to them and get beat then no one will mind too much but if we just sit there and wait and end up getting beat 1-0 then that is no good for anyone.
It is up to you Mr Pellegrino, stay on the front foot and you never know, good things might happen.
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