Premier League Match 3 - Burnley 0 Southampton 1

 

No Social Distancing After a Pass Like That

We have been given an 8 o’clock kick-off tonight for a game at Turf Moor against Burnley, which was surprising as when the TV companies were drawing up the fixture list for the season, it was rumoured that all Burnley games had to start after 9 pm watershed along with all the horror films and violence and swearing and sex and drugs and rock ‘n’ roll content which has to be aired after that time to prevent the youth of today getting corrupted by what they might see and hear.  However, with Ashley Barnes being injured, it was decided that the TV companies could be given special dispensation to put this game on an hour early.

Ashley Barnes isn’t the only player in the player who might not be available today as we hear that they have seven players missing, including our former players Jack Cork and Jay Rodriguez.  They have just signed Dale Stephens though – remember him?   The injuries are a shame for Sean AllarDyche because they might not be able to play their normal flowing style and might have to resort to a more direct approach. There were a few rumours of discontent around Burnley at the time of Project Restart because they had a number of players who were coming to the end of contract and were unable to be picked. Dyche made his displeasure very clear to the board but he is still here this season amongst rumours of takeovers, similar to what we have ourselves.   Though I don’t like his style of play, Dyche gets enough of a tune out of Burnley every year to keep Burnley in the division fairly comfortably. Their problem is going to come when he leaves.

Burnley away is usually the most predictable of games where as far as playing football is concerned, we come down to their level get drawn into taking them on at their own game and get beat because they are very good at what they do.  On the opening day of last season up here, we held out until around until the hour mark and then let in a horrific goal and then caved in.  There were times in the tail end of last season when we were better against the more direct teams as we beat Watford and Bournemouth but results against the real experts, Burnley and West Ham, elude us for now.

Today, we must get it down and play and cannot be drawn into a game of who can kick it the highest because they will be better at it than we are. Having no fans in Turf Moor will won’t what make any difference at all. It will still be fucking cold and blowing a gale but we have to deal with that.  Simply, we have to take advantage of the fact that they have some of their big players missing and we need to be off of zero points by the end of the day.

The team news confirmed what I had predicted earlier on in the week in that Vestergaard came in for Stephens. To be honest, if you’re not going to use Vestergaard in this game then there is no point in having him really. Our bench therefore consisted of Jack Stephens, Shane Long, four kids and a goalkeeper, again illustrating the chronic lack of squad depth that we have right now.

5 minutes and we go on our first real attack and it sees us knocking the ball around nicely at the back before Romeu goes right to Bednarek and on to KWP at right back. He pushes forward and slides a great ball through to meet Adams’ run.  As Pope comes rushing out, Che pulls it back and there is Danny Ings to kind of bobble it into the net.  There’s a small deflection in there somewhere off of the desperate Burnley boot but who cares?  Not I and not Danny or Ralph and an early lead.

It’s a great start and this is exactly what I was talking about the start of the game - if we play football against this lot they won’t be able to live with us. Another move, this time it on the left as Djenepo is picked out with a diagonal ball from Bednarek. He feeds Bertrand in and the cross finds Che Adams in the middle of the penalty area but it’s a difficult height and he launches it over the bar.

Burnley begin to get a foothold in the game now and create the first real chance with some surprisingly good football as Vydra plays a decent one to with Wood before crossing to Brownhill. The ball drops and Bertrand manages to block the resulting shot.  From the next ball crossed in, Vydra attempts and overhead kick which makes no contact but he’s up quickly to smash it over the bar was under pressure from Vestergaard.

A ball into the channel and Wood goes running into the box but away from goal as Bednarek moves in to close him down. There is the slightest touch from Bednarek as Wood deliberately slows down and the 6 foot 3 Burnley man mountain folds in on himself like someone who has just forgotten how to walk. The net result of all this is that we get given a free kick for handball. No doubt Dyche will fine Wood two weeks wages for collapsing like a big soft twat or maybe he will be a massive hypocrite and piss and moan about it to the fourth official for the rest of the half – yep, the second option.  If that’s a penalty then we might as well give up and fucking go home and you can imagine what Dyche would’ve been like if that had been given against his side.

So far so good but the second-half starts with a minor scare as a cross comes in from a central area and Wood gets up near the back post to try and head it across goal but McCarthy is smartly off his line to catch.  It’s going to be all about concentration and hard work.

Another launch forward by Pope and the linesman for some reason sticks his flag up early, going against what has been happening recently and half the Saints team stop before Ryan Bertrand produces a shit back pass which enables Wood to walk around McCarthy and slot it into the net there is no way this goal is going to be been given because the whistle has already gone in response to the flag going up. It’s the correct decision as Wood is offside but it’s going to give Dyche something else to moan about afterwards.

McCarthy earns his money soon afterwards as there is a bit of pinball in the penalty area which we don’t deal with properly and Taylor steams onto the ball on the edge of the penalty area and drills it goalwards towards the near post and McCarthy pulls off a smart save.  It’s one he should make but important nonetheless.

With 10 to go it’s time to use the limited bench that we have and it’s two kids with Obafemi and Tella coming on for the tiring Adams and the underwhelming Djenepo.  It’s basically gives a more legs and we create a chance but Armstrong chooses the wrong option instead of sliding Tella through and then we have an almost identical situation where Armstrong picks the ball up but this time he finds Danny Ings in an offside position but the main man carries on anyway and pings it into the far corner of the net.

There is the traditional last minute heart attack as the ball pings around a penalty area and Romeu blocks a shot out for a corner. The corner comes in, complete with Nick Pope being in our penalty area, McCarthy punches clear but Burnley are still working the ball around the edge of a penalty area and we are flying in to try and stop the delivery into the box and Andre Marriner decides that he’s cold and bored and that he has had enough of this shit game and blows up and fuck me - we’ve actually done it, won at Turf Moor.

What an appallingly shit game that was but it doesn’t matter a shit because we won so the fact that it was appallingly shit is of complete insignificance. If I wasn’t a supporter of one of the teams playing then I would have turned off a long time ago and gone and done something more interesting like wash my hair or cut the grass with a pair of scissors. It was that bad.

We won in the end because we produced the one bit of quality in the whole game with the move that led to the only goal and then we defended properly.  Ings and Adams didn’t get much service but worked hard to stem the tide of missiles being launched into our half.  In the second-half we settled for a holding pattern of just defending the crosses that came into a box and competing for absolutely everything in midfield. Romeu and JWP were absolutely immense, meaning that Burnley were restricted even more to belting it long and trying to get down the wings to sling crosses into the mixer. The wingers also did their bit but the one disappointment of the game was the lack of quality on the ball from the flanks.  Both were trying hard but Armstrong still looks well short of match fitness and he had the touch of a man playing in wellies and Djenepo didn’t take on Bardsley once when there was opportunity to do so, especially after he’d got booked.

When the bombs did come into our box, Bednarek and Vestergaard were excellent and did what they had probably been practising all week.  Bringing in the Great Dane meant that Bednarek could play on the right where he looked more comfortable and the diagonal passing of these two was really good at times. McCarthy had a strange game, never looking particularly convincing but on the two occasions he was called upon, he made a good catch from Wood’s header and pulled off the smart save at the near post to deny Taylor. Both the fullbacks did the jobs well and Ryan Bertrand will no doubt say that he knew it was offside in the build up when he gave that shit back pass which allowed Wood to stick the ball in the net..

They tried to make a big deal of it on Sky afterwards and tried to goad Dyche about it but the fact remains that would was offside when Pope launch the ball forward. Sure, the linesman shouldn’t have stuck his flag up under the new protocols but no damage done and the right decision was reached. You have to have some sympathy for all the officials including the VAR official because it is hard to judge offsides when the ball forward has come from 60 yards away which it invariably always does for Burnley.

Dyche did have a little bit of a moan about the penalty that they didn’t get when Wood felt the slightest touch from Bednarek and collapsed on the ground.  Dyche admitted that it would’ve been soft but that surely means that Wood tried to buy the penalty. As Dyche is always shitting on about how his players do not dive then saying this makes him sound like a bit of a twat and this is a man who sounds like Zippy out of Rainbow (for those like me who are old enough to remember kids TV in the 1970s)

Dyche Shits on to the 4th Official

Ralph was clearly not impressed with Dyche and his moaning about the penalty and the two of them could be seen chuntering to each other at half time. You can tell at the end was Ralph was absolutely delighted to get over the line with this one and it continues the sequence carrying over from last year in that we beat Palace away, beat Spurs at home and lost Burnley away and this year all those results have been reversed.

Next up is West Brom at home who we didn’t play last year.  The biggest tragedy is that it looks like Charlie Austin has been found out and will soon be packed off to a mid-table Championship side on the strength of his record for a QPR back in the days when he could still run a bit.  This is where we have to start banishing the memory of last season’s home record.

Premier League Match 2 - Southampton 2 Tottenham Hotspur 5

 

Behold, a Positive!

Even if you paid no attention to fixture lists at the start of the season and if you had no idea who Saints were about to play next, you would know when we are about to play Tottenham. You know because three days before we play them, they will be heavily linked in the press to one of our players and our manager will have to spend the whole press conference talking about their alleged interest in one of our players. Last year it was our captain and this year it is Danny Ings. Apparently it was just a cheeky enquiry but isn’t it remarkable how this finds its way into the press.

If anyone gives a shit about this kind of thing, then surely there is someone taking a keen interest in Spurs finances at the moment. They put non-footballing staff on furlough a few months ago and took out a £100 million loan to pay for running costs and the proviso of that was that they didn’t spend any of it on players, be it transfer fees or wages. How they think they are going to afford the £50m plus it would take before Saints would even remotely consider selling them Danny Ings at this point in the transfer window, is beyond me but then, given the financial situation described above and the fact that they are in the second year of playing in the new ground, which I imagine is one of the most expensive ever built anywhere in the world.  It has been a bit of an eye-opener that this week they have struck a deal with Real Madrid to sign Gareth Bale on loan for the season.. 

I admit that I went a bit soft for a while, whilst Mauricio Pochettino was the manager and I almost stopped hating Spurs. It’s hard but I don’t dislike Mourinho either but after my admitted softness, I am trawling the memory banks and finding plenty of reasons why I like them very much. I’ve never quite forgiven Spurs for a number of things - Glenn Hoddle, Dean Richards, Neil Ruddock, Toby Alderweireld and Gareth Bale. In the first four cases though, you could accuse them of acting in a somewhat dubious manner but as far as Gareth Bale was concerned, they signed him from us as a 17-year-old after we failed to get out of the Championship under the stewardship of Whiskey George Burley. We only saw the raw potential in red-and-white and our failure to get promoted that season meant that his departure was inevitable. He probably would’ve left even if we had gone up because back then, we had the future Brexit MP and hockey loving twat Rupert Swing Lowe as our chairman.

Modern day Spurs are still operating in the same way. Their two signings this year have a course been Pierre Hojbjerg from us, who had a year left on his deal and the totally legit and not at all strange transfer of Matt Doherty from Wolves who has the same agent as the Wolves manager, who is the same agent that advises the Wolves board, who has the same agent as José Mourinho and he moved for a fee which seemed well under what you would expect. Whatever the ins and outs of that particular deal, it just shouldn’t happen like that.

Spurs started the season with a shit home defeat by Everton where they only lost 1-0 but they were abysmal, in much the same way that we have been abysmal this season so far. So, today is a clash between two teams who have not pulled up any trees this season, the difference is that they will be on somewhat of a high after getting the Bale signing over the line in the last couple of days, whilst we have been busy losing to half a championship side.

We played them four times last year overall with a home game being memorable for a quite brilliant Danny Ings goal and the away game in the FA Cup being memorable for a very good performance, another brilliant Danny Ings goal and Son Heung Min being a diving twat and buying the penalty that won them the game.

Nathan Redmond picked up an injury in the Brentford game so he won’t be available today though there was some good news about Stuart Armstrong maybe being back. Normally you would expect me such an approach to step into the side in place of Redmond but I can’t see him being fit enough to start the game so that could bring Sofiane Boufal, Nathan Tella or even Josh Sims into contention.

In the event, Armstrong is back and Moussa Djenepo starts on the left.  There are concerns whether either will last the game but it’s a good starting line up on paper.  Part of the problem is though, is that there is no real debate – the bench is made up of largely untried kids, Forster, Vestergaard and Long.

Spurs have rotated a few.  They still look very strong though and the bench is madness when compared to ours – Bergwijn, Sissoko, Alderweireld, Lamela, Lo Celso, Hart, Aurier.  Bloody hell – and Dele Alli didn’t make the 18.  Even with Toby on the bench, it’s still a day for looking at our ex’s with Pierre starting the game.

Our new high defensive line looks like becoming an issue in the first minute as the ball is played up over the top of KWP and Son is away down the left. He hooks the cross over everyone but Doherty arrives from right back and heads it back across and Kane crashes it first time into the net. Fuck me what a start. It’s being checked by VAR, Time goes by, civilisations rise and fall and then Son has decreed to be offside by toenail. Hurrah it’s still 0-0. It was a great goal by Kane, made possible by some sharp movement by the England man and also made possible by our centre backs just watching him move and not reacting.

Saints make the most of their let off and with 5 minutes gone, it’s clearly time for one of the certainties in life – Death, Taxes and Romeu to launch Hojbjerg up in the air – Up you go Pierre and here’s a yellow card.   We start playing quite well however and create a great chance when Bertrand hits a free kick into the box which bounces down and like he did at Crystal Palace, Che Adams absolutely smashes it goalwards but too close to Lloris he pulls off a blinding save.   On the replay you realise that he shouldn’t have been given a prayer from that range and it’s another one for the unlucky versus not good enough debate.

Our next attack Adams release Ings behind the Spurs defence and Lloris comes flying out miles out of the penalty area and I don’t know quite what he’s doing but he ends up getting his head to the ball and it pops up to Danny Ings who steers it into the empty net. There is something about this goal that stops me jumping up and down celebrating in my front room I’m sure enough, VAR comes out again and the ball has bounced up and hit Danny on the arm. He didn’t mean it of course but it doesn’t matter these days, so it’s ruled out.

Saints are playing really good football down the left hand side and Spurs can’t get near us.  We are quick in possession and looking to get forward all the time.  It’s great.  Armstrong has come over from the right to combine with Bertrand who sends Djenepo away down the left hand side. Djenepo was confronted by Doherty and makes him look a complete idiot as he goes past him with ease before get to the line and rolling it back for Adams. Adams should hit it first time but takes a touch and then hits the prone figure Davies who is lying on the ground in front of him and the danger is eventually cleared. Fuck.

Our defensive line has clearly worked as Spurs get the ball in the net as Moura’s cross is converted by Kane but Moura well offside but the linesman is following the new rules of not sticking the flag up until the ball is in the net. I kind of understand why this way of deciding offside is in place but surely if it’s that far offside, just do your job and stick the fucking flag up.

Saints really are playing well and passing the ball about and Spurs still can’t get near us. Stephens and Romeu combine to give the ball to Walker Peters out on the right and he gets his head up and chips it over Dier’s head to meet Danny Ings run and the King of Scummers takes an unbelievably good first touch before from a tight angle, passing it across Lloris into the far corner of the net. It’s an absolutely brilliant finish and the main man is up and running again.

Saints still dominated the game after the goal and it looks like we’re going to get to half-time with a lead but if there’s one thing that you can rely on is that Saints will fuck it up when it seems like there is no way that they can.  Ndombele has literally not kicked the ball in the right direction all game but he manages to spin out of the combined challenge of Romeu and JWP and feed Harry Kane on the left. His ball to Son is perfect who has got in behind the defensive line. McCarthy thinks about coming out and does a bit and then goes back and he’s going backwards as Son’s shot disappears into the far side of the net. McCarthy didn’t have his feet planted at any point so I was never going to be set to be able to push off to save a ball that went quite close to him. Bullshit. Spurs have been shit really and we’ve been the better side by mile but a combination of the quality they have at their disposal and our ever present self destruct button means that its level at half-time.

If we can get back to the same level is that we showed in the first half straight away then this is anyone’s game but our high defensive line is something that needs addressing because it is too easy for them to get through. Despite having a major hand in the goal, Ndombele has not come out for the second half and Mourinho summons one Galactico off the bench, this time Lo Celso.

 

Adams misses another presentable chance at the start the second half that he really should’ve scored and directly from that Spurs win the ball and Lo Celso finds a Kane in midfield, one pass through and Son he is bearing down on goal. He has Stephens to get past and the Saints centre half makes one of the biggest power puff bottle job challenges I’ve ever seen in my entire life and Son walked past it and passed it into the net. For fuck‘s sake.

 

After crunching Hojbjerg in the first few minutes, Romeu has been walking a bit of a tight rope and after trashing through the back of Lo Celso, Ralph decides that it’s time to take him off before he gets the seemingly inevitable red card and so will Smallbone, all seven stone of him, is on to play in the centre of midfield. Once again, Kane goes deep, no one picks him up and he quickly turns and chips the ball over the defence. Three of our defenders are in a line but Bednarek, who probably should’ve gone with Kane, is five yards behind everybody and Son is clean through again and guess what happens. Bednarek has the nerve to stand there appearing for offside when he was the one who played them on. Dickhead.

 

A few minutes later and let’s have another one shall we, as Spurs break and this time Kane takes a heavy touch and goes out of the right wing but he still got enough time to turn and hook up all over our ball watching defenders and Son is clean through again.  Bednarek and Stephens are not marking anybody, in addition, Stephens is miles back behind everyone playing Son onside and KWP has just let Son run past him and what do you know, 4-1.

 

It’s one of those games where you know that things are going to get worse and they do as another chip over the top fines Lamela who drills is in a shot, McCarthy makes a good save but the ball bounces up off the post and there is Harry Kane to get the goal but he thoroughly deserves.

As time is running down and the ground is about as empty as it would be if there have been 30,000 Saints fans in there from the start, we get given a ridiculous penalty as Djenepo tried to take on a couple of players in the Spurs box and the ball hits Winks foot, deflects up and hits Doherty’s hand. He can do absolutely nothing about this whatsoever but we get awarded it via VAR and Danny Ings dispatches it easily enough.

It’s hard to know if 5-2 flatters Spurs or whether our second goal makes it closer than actually should’ve been, bearing in mind how shit we were in the second half. Ultimately, it doesn’t matter a fuck and we have started this season with three defeats after we had come in with a high level of optimism. How fucking gullible are we?

The scale of the naivety in the way we played the second half was quite incredible. You can only play a high line if you have pressure on the ball in midfield. If you don’t then you are just going to get turned around every single time the opposition have time to pick a pass. If you’ve got a forward as quick and as good as Son is, then you cannot play that way with no pressure in midfield. Both of our central defenders are not blessed with pace and also, playing this way requires a massive amount of intelligence and concentration regarding your position on the pitch. You have to read what is happening in front of you and position yourself accordingly.  Spurs adapted to the match situation which was down to Mourinho and to their players intelligence.  Kane dropped deep and time and again, no one picked him up so he was able to do what he wanted.  Where was our intelligence?  Where was our leadership?  Where was our captain calling out this bullshit to the manager and where was the leader in the defence realising we were getting done the same way every time?

Jack Stephens had one of those games where he was like the Jack Stephens at two years ago, in that he was absolutely hopeless, not sensing danger, not being in the right place and not picking up any of the players and of course, being piss weak in challenges. Jan Bednarek is also a country mile away from the levels he was showing throughout most of last season. Are they both just chronically out of form or has the new tactical edict frazzled their heads?

It’s no coincidence that the pressure against the ball completely went when Romeu came off. Ralph probably had to take him off because the next foul was going to be a red card and we have no options. Smallbone is too lightweight and has no defensive awareness. In hindsight, it would’ve been better bringing Vestergaard on, dropping the defence deeper and putting Jack Stephens in midfield. A Premier League team should not have this paucity of options though.

Another issue of course is the goalkeeper as Alex McCarthy does not look really comfortable having to come flying off his line and if you think McCarthy looks uncomfortable, wait til you see Fraser Forster trying to do it. He’s probably the worst goalkeeper ever for playing behind a high defensive line so why we bought him back to challenge for a place in the first team is anyone’s guess.  McCarthy should have done better with the first goal but what the fuck was he supposed to do about the others?  A world class forward clean through with just you to beat, four times.

Ralph can blame a lack of options in midfield as much as he likes but the fact remains that we are not equipped to play this high line and that comes down to him. It didn’t work against Crystal Palace and Brentford so how on earth was it going to work against a much better team? Jose Mourinho had problems with his team in the first half in that they couldn’t get near us and we were bossing the midfield but he sorted it out at half time whereas the warning signs were there regarding the high line for us in the first half but we did nothing and paid the price. Ralph’s post match interview basically implied that the defence should’ve dropped off if we stopped winning the ball in midfield but as said, our defenders are not good enough or clever enough to do that.

The positives of the day were a very good team performance for 45 minutes which showed that we can be a decent team. They were good individual performances and welcome returns from Stuart Armstrong and Moussa Djenepo. Hopefully Moussa can have a decent run of games now and stay fit. The forwards also combined well with Ings deserving his two goals. Adams played very well apart from when it was time to stick the ball in the net. In all three games so far this season, there has been an element of him being a little bit unlucky but he needs to rediscover the clinical edge he had at the end of last season. There was one point today where Adams had had three chances and not scored and Son had had three chances and scored every single one. I know that there is a difference in the amount of money that these players are worth but we have to be more clinical.

The differences on the bench looked stark before the game and it was proven out during the game. Lo Celso made a huge positive difference for them whereas we had to bring on a kid. I’m not slamming Smallbone as a footballer but he is just not a central midfielder in a two man midfield. It took JWP about six years before he could be trusted with that role and it’s ridiculous to expect Smallbone to be ready for that now. We do have an option who is captain of the B Team is and is a natural central midfielder but for some reason, Callum Slattery appears to be persona non grata as far as the first team is concerned.  I don’t know of course if Slattery would be any better but it does seem slightly odd to me that he never even makes the bench.

We all knew our squad was somewhat lacking. We have a decent first 11 but the first 11 can’t play 90 minutes at high-intensity in every game. You have to have some decent options on the bench. If you look at it harshly, we have no one really who is going to make a massive difference up front. In an ideal world, Michael Obafemi would be out on loan to a championship club somewhere and we all know that Shane Long is not really an impact player who is going to get you a goal off of the bench.

The midfield and wing options are non-existent. Djenepo has come in for Redmond today but other than that, you are looking at Smallbone and Tella who are not ready. In central defence our options are not too bad once Salisu gets up to speed but long-term absences in the full back areas would leave us very exposed again with inexperienced kids being the only options. Before the window closes, central midfield is the most pressing area but I also think we should be in the market for another winger and another striker.

Having been torn apart by Spurs today, we have a slightly different challenge in the next game which is away at Burnley. We know what we are going to get against them and it’s up to us to find a way of dealing with it. I am hoping that a high defensive line is not on the agenda.

Carabao Cup 2nd Round - Southampton 0 Brentford 2

 

Amazing that he scored with that tight marking.

The biggest surprise to me about the Carabao Cup this year is that the competition was going ahead at all. When Covid19 first hit and we were all wondering how the season would be completed and I made a totally unthought out prediction that the Carabao Cup would be scrapped for this year and that would be the end of the competition going forward as it would never come back... but as usual, it appears that I was wrong.

Here we are then with a home draw in the second round against Brentford. I used to have this thing with a few mates that we always went to our first game in the League Cup, no matter where it was and we saw trips to such places as Scarborough, Rochdale and Gillingham. Of course, if it was a home game, we paid the reduced amount to go and watch the game at the Dell or at St Mary‘s. We of course don’t have a choice today but what we can do if we want is pay a tenner to watch a stream of the game on the Carabao website. I’m hearing that this official stream is one camera on the halfway line and it really doesn’t strike me as great value bearing in mind that Saints would probably charge a tenner or even less to get into this game if fans could be admitted. As I write, I still haven’t decided whether to pay the tenner or to fuck it off.

Brentford were very nearly a Premier League club this season but they bottled the play-offs against Fulham, just as they bottled their chances of finishing in the top two when West Brom were faltering in the run in. As is usually the case, you prove you have some good players and finish near the top of the Championship but if you don’t make it into the Premier League, then you get pillaged as you have drawn attention to the fact that you have good players. Ollie Watkins has already departed in what is a quite frankly insane £28 million move to Aston Villa. This is not Watkins fault of course and it’s not Brentford’s fault and let’s hope that all the money doesn’t get swallowed up in paying for their new ground and they can put together a team which is capable of challenging to get into the Premier League at the end of this year.

We have seen mass rotation from Saints in these kind of games before but I don’t see it happening today because it will be more valuable to get minutes in the legs of the players who didn’t perform particularly well against Crystal Palace. I can see Fraser Forster and Moussa Djenepo being given a start but not much else.

In the event we went with a full first choice team with only Will Smallbone being left out from Saturday, to be replaced with Nathan Tella, making his full first team debut on the right wing. It is good to get confirmation that we are taking the game seriously.  Brentford have changed 6 from their last league game.  An indication that this should be relatively comfortable if we are motivated for it.

We are playing a higher line than usual and it’s made obvious by the fact that McCarthy is sprinting out of his box and back like he’s on a fucking bungee rope.  Out to right wing to clatter a forward and give a free kick away and then out to the left wing to pass it straight to a forward, necessitating Stephens to get back behind him to clear the shot.

There’s a wonderfully simple but superb move as Stephens, complete with new 4 year contract in his pocket, pings a diagonal out to Bertrand, who produces an exquisite first time volleyed cross to Ings but the main man seems to misread it as he slides in and can’t get a touch.

We then create another really good chance but it’s not for us, as we produce a slightly altered re-enacment of the goal we conceded at Palace.  This time it’s Bertrand taking a throw back to Redmond who made a balls of it and then passed it blind across the pitch, straight to a Brentford player who goes on and smashes it goalwards but luckily, McCarthy manages to block it.

There’s more superb play down the left between Bertrand and Redmond which Bertrnd teeing up Adams with an open goal from 8 yards which he side footed onto the post via the keepers fingertips.  “Unlucky” says most “Absolute shite” says I.  It is an appalling miss and sure as shit, up the other end we go.

Brentford win a corner and in it comes from the left.  Nørgaard makes a straight run from 20 yards out, meets it on the 6 yard line and thunders the header into the net.  Good corner, great header, absolute wank defending.  Bertrand was supposed to be marking him and just didn’t fancy it and stepped away from him and having all our best headers of the ball lined up on the 6 yard line in front of McCarthy, again proves to be a complete and utter fucking waste of time as none of them attack the ball.  It’s been the same for a while now.  You drop a corner in between the penalty spot and the 6 yard line and we’re toast.  This zonal / man-marking hybrid is bullshit.  Maybe get the players who are best at heading the ball marking the players as they’re the ones that put the ball in the net, not the empty space.

Straight from the kick off and KWP breaks forward, Adams gets to the line and pulls it back and there is Danny Ings to launch it over the bar.  Another bad miss it has to be said.

There  a 5 minutes to half time and we are in the territory of get in, get Ralph to sort it out, turn it around 2^nd half.  Instead of that though, it’s a good move down the Brentford left, they work the ball back into the middle and Dasilva arrives unmarked and side-foots it low to give McCarthy no chance, showing Adams exactly how to do it from a much more difficult chance from further out. To be fair it’s a really good goal but the move started with Romeu misjudging a header and heading it straight up and then KWP did the exact same thing.

Half time and this is looking a bit desperate.  A bit like on Saturday I’m looking at our bench options and realising that we don’t have any game changers on there.

You sense that we need to score in the first 10 minutes to have a shout and it doesn’t happen.  Adams tries an overhead kick and hooks it well wide and Stephens meets a Bertrand corner and at least forces the keeper to make a save as he tips it over the bar.

Again there is this feeling that it’s not happening – Redmond, Tella and Adams are replaced with Djenepo, Obafemi and Long but nothing much happens – by that I mean that the half chances fall to Long who gets smothered by the keeper on one and then plays a fucking air shot when 6 yards out on another.

Well.

That was fucking shit.

Questions arising are ones like, is it Stuart Armstrong alone that makes this team tick?.... are these group of players as good as we thought they were?... why do we have so much less intensity than we did at the tail end of last season?.... why are we playing with a higher defensive line than last season when we don’t have the pace at the back?  I’d expected us to win relatively comfortably tonight because I’d just written off the Palace game as a bit of a sluggish one off which would act as a wake-up call. It’s ok for fans to think like that but not players.  Too many not really up for doing the hard yards tonight.

Ralph answered one of the questions in his press conference after the game when he basically said that the players have come back after this break without the same levels of fitness they had after lockdown. He also stated that we have to be very fit and run more than other teams to be successful, which everyone knows. He is also clearly frustrated with the small squad and the lack of additions to it which in turn means that he doesn’t have the options to leave players out.

A certain amount of blame has to rest with Ralph, the management and coaches though. We all gave them credit when we came back absolutely flying for Project Restart but now they have to take the criticism when we appear to have come back ill-prepared. Are they guilty of over trusting the players to look after themselves or is it just bad planning? Is it ok for Ralph to say that he hasn’t had chance to coach the team and then send them out to play a different way than before with the high line.  Looks like he saw Bayern Munich win the Champions League playing like that and decided to give it a go here - without having time to coach the team in it. More questions. Answers needed.

Is it easy to write off being knocked out of this competition early as a good thing in a “concentrate on the league“ kind of way.  This is bollocks because we have absolutely no fucking chance of winning the league, whereas we had a sniff in this competition and of course, now we don’t. It’s also never a good thing to get turned over by a Championship club at home and this should not be happening to us, especially when they rest half of their league starting 11 and we put full strength side out. It does happen though if the players are not 100% on it which seems to be the case. Brentford probably didn’t even want to fucking win either.

We have a whole four days to get this right before we play Tottenham at home. Win that one and most won’t mind too much but if we start with a third defeat in a row then all the preseason optimism is going to be completely gone And the mashing of the refresh button to see if we sign anyone before the end of the transfer window, is going to get more and more desperate.

Premier League Match 1 - Crystal Palace 1 Southampton 0

 

Jon Moss does the Dead Ball Red Card Dance

Meet the new season, same as the old season.

Here we go again with no fans in the ground and depressingly, things seem to be going in the wrong direction with some lockdown measures being reintroduced. It is quite spirit crushing if you let it be.

As a Southampton fan though, you should be quite buoyant going into the new season with there being no real reason why it shouldn’t start like the last one ended, with the team in very good form and showing very positive signs going forward.

This starts today of course with a visit to Selhurst Park to take on Crystal Palace who we have beaten here the last three years. You could look at that and say that we should make it four in a row but you can also look at it and say that we are due a defeat there. Palace are still managed by Roy Hudson who is now 103. He got this job because he was from Croydon and he can see the ground from his rest home.  They’ve even installed a ramp.  Palace are a strange club in terms of the managers that they have had. They had Pardew and then Allardyce who are very old school of course, then tried to modernise a bit with the appointment of Frank De Boer, which lasted a whole four league games before panicking, being unwilling to maybe take a step back to go two forwards and reverting to the old school again and appointing Roy Hodgson. You aren’t going to be progressive with a manager like him but so far he has done the job that he was brought in to do.

He has kept them in the division without them ever looking like they’re going to get relegated, no last day battles for survival and that is probably where he will keep them this season as well. It will be interesting to see how their new signings gel. On the face of it they seem to have bought quite well so hopefully we are playing them at the right time before they all get used to each other. Eze will add some creativity which for the past few seasons has stopped if Zaha wasn’t having a good game and the loan signing of Batshuayi will give them more of a cutting edge upfront though Jordan Ayew actually did quite well at the end of last season.  One thing that does annoy me is the perception that Palace have a very thin squad and don’t spend any money.  £30 million Benteke not in the team suggests otherwise.

There is the subplot today of the Zaha and JWP issue – The Shithouse versus the Dickhead.  Zaha is a 28-year-old petulant baby who famously got himself sent off at St Mary‘s and who should’ve been sent off at Selhurst Park last year when he poked JWP in the eye at half-time.  This incident was reviewed by VAR and nothing happened.  This would have been a red card even in rugby… clear and premeditated contact with the eye area.  Anyway – though he still wants away, Zaha will be a threat this afternoon.

Team news and Saints are as expected bearing in mind that we know that Stuart Armstrong is out, with Will Smallbone taking his place.  Moussa Djenepo is back on the bench so it will be interesting to see how many minutes he is fit for but there is no place for Sofiane Boufal with Nathan Tella making the cut.

Saints start going very well and pin Palace back in their half. There’s a couple of good crosses in from the left hand side from Bertrand into feet and we look very dangerous. The massed ranks of Palace defenders keep us at bay though. On 10 minutes there is a minor concern and Stephens wins the ball from Zaha but there seems to be a clash of knees and he stays down for a little bit before hobbling back into the action. The injury seems to break our momentum though and then we do, exactly what Dave Merrington probably doesn’t want us to do and give away a shit goal.  We have the ball on the left wing with Bertrand and knock it back to the defenders. Romeu and Bednarek exchange passes before Romeu tries to play into Redmond’s feet. It’s a bit of a hospital pass and Redmond appears to be on his heels but anyway, Palace win the ball and away they go down the right hand side through Townsend with most of our team committed forward. You could hopefully rely on Townsend putting over a shit cross but on this occasion, he flights are perfectly and Zaha cushion volleys it into the net. Because of the way we’ve lost the ball, our full-backs are not even in the picture when the ball hits the net. An absolutely dreadful goal to concede.

The goal sets the pattern for the rest of the first half which is largely forgettable. We are not passing the ball through midfield with any pace and therefore not drawing fouls or even drawing the Palace players out of position and we create absolutely nothing. As we approach half-time it’s hard to remember Redmond or Samllbone even touching the ball, let alone doing anything creative that might give Ings and Adams a chance to do anything in the Palace penalty area. It’s comfortable for them and all in front of them and absolutely shit for us and the only hope is that we can get to half-time and sort it out in the second half.

In a half-time change that no one saw coming, Jannik Vestergaard comes on for Jan Bednarek. I can only assume that was for an injury.  Anyway, Saints start the second-half reasonably well and it’s Vestergaard at the heart of it pinging some good balls from left to right hand side where KWP  is always available.

We create straight away with KWP putting in a lovely low cross to Adams who plays a one-two with  Ings before freeing Redmond and he really should burst the net with just Guaita to beat but he scuffs the ball straight to the goalkeeper and it’s a bad miss.

It looks like our task is being made ridiculously more difficult a few minutes later as there is a collision in the middle of the pitch between KWP and Mitchell, the Palace left back as they both challenge for a bouncing ball. On first view it looks like Mitchell wins the ball and KWB pulls out of the challenge but Jon Moss brings out a red card without even thinking about it. KWP just stands there whilst I swear at the TV and swear at Jon Moss bein being born but in line with the new guidelines this year, he goes to check the monitor because presumably he’s been told that his decision is fucking bullshit and then comes back and act out some hilarious farce where he shows another red card then gives a variation of the cricket dead ball signal, then issues a yellow card. Farcical or otherwise, we have at least arrived at the right decision.

A next chance comes from a free-kick delivered from the left by Bertrand which Vestergaard does really well to head down and Adams meets on the half volley from about eight yards and smashes it goalwards. It’s a brilliant effort but it’s an even more brilliant save by Guaita he reacts unbelievably to push it away. Bastard.

75 gone and time for the first change as Djenepo replaces Smallbone who has put over a couple of half decent crosses but not enough for anyone to be able to say that we haven’t missed Armstrong today.  With Saints now pushing forward, we are now of course vulnerable to the counter-attack and a ball down the left hand side sends Zaha away and he advances unopposed to finish in the far corner and then the flag goes up. Another new initiative which is to play on for ages before the linesman does his job. Haven’t quite got my head round this one yet I have to admit. Again though, I will say that it was offside and the correct decision was reached.

Zaha is away again down the left and on side this time as he leaves Stephens for dead who is being hindered by the caravan he’s towing and luckily, Zaha’s more profligate side is on the show as he lashes out into the side netting with the whole goal to aim at.

There is a like for like change with 5 to go with Shane Long coming on for Adams and we create one more chance as Romeu’s crossfield ball again picks out KWP and his first time volleyed cross flicked goalwards by Danny Ings head but Guaita again reacts well to push it away to his right hand side. It isn’t happening today and in truth, I’d kind of given up on it for the last 20 minutes.

The sound you can hear is your bubble of optimism being burst.

We were sluggish and average and Palace was sluggish and average but the only difference was, they defended well, their goalkeeper made a couple of decent saves and they didn’t gift us a goal like we did for them.  Should have been 0-0 really.

The goal we let in. Fucking hell. We won all those games away from home last year because we kept things tight at the back and we were dangerous going forward because we won the ball high up the pitch and then passed the ball quickly or we drew the other team onto us and attacked quickly from deep. A team as limited as Palace are never going to score unless you give them something and we had done to us what Ralph preaches to be done to the other teams in that we lost the ball near our goal, all got caught out of position, Palace passed the ball quickly and Zaha had the freedom of Southeast London to bury what turned out to be the winning goal. We were on the attack, both full backs forward and joining in and then we went backwards, lost the ball and everyone is up, 30 yards out of defensive position. Even after Romeu and Redmond had combined and given them the ball, our players that were back, still made it easy for them by not picking up runners. Bednarek was ball watching and didn’t mark anyone and Stephens was left with both Ayew and Zaha to mark and didn’t mark either as the cross floated over his head for Zaha to finish.  I have to give some credit to Hodgson here as usually, Palace only have one striker but Hodgson playing Zaha up front with Ayew meant that Zaha was in the right place when the cross floated over.

After that, Palace who were content did she sit deep with 11 men behind the ball anyway, were even more inclined to do so and we only really created a few chances of note or game with Guaita making one brilliant save from Adams and only really looking even slightly worked by Ings header – and of course he had to pick up Redmond’s backpass. Our forwards still look lively when they got the ball but they didn’t get much of it with Romeu being painfully slow to pass the ball and Redmond and Smallbone offering absolutely nothing in terms of supply. 

We were okay at the back when we were actually in position despite the fact that Stephens seem to be struggling to run off an injury for 80 minutes. McCarthy didn’t have to make another save after the goal that went past him but the damage was done.  As I write. It’s just emerged that the half time sub was for tactical reasons.  Has to be said that Vestergaard did pretty well when he came on and there’s an argument that he was our best player.

Interview calls Romeu Slow.  Instantly regrets it.

The other main talking point of the game was the red card issued to KWP by John Moss for a challenge but never even looks remotely like a red card on first viewing. Fair play to Moss for reversing his decision having looked at the monitor but there was no way that’s a red card in a million years. BT Sport really come into their own with their coverage having Dermot Gallagher in the studio who basically backed up his mate straight away and thought it was a red card. Gallagher perfectly illustrated at a stroke, all the problems we had with VAR last season. Hopefully this season will be different and today to be fair, the system worked perfectly.

Overall it was a typical Southampton FC start of the season which I certainly wasn’t expecting this year bearing in mind the shortened pre-season. It was in truth, piss poor but we’ve been here many times before and for balance, there are still many reasons to be optimistic about this season and these (in no particular order) are.

We have two full-backs in KWP and Bertrand who can both attack and defend and fit perfectly into the way that Ralph wants the team to play football. We haven’t had this for years.

We have a central midfield pairing in JWP and Romeu, which proved itself very adept at the end of last season and proved that the team can play we are than now departed Hojbjerg.

At the top end of the pitch we have two strikers in Ings and Adams, who both look like they can hit the net with some degree of regularity. We have always struggled with this and I cannot remember the last time we had two strikers make double figures in the league. This is the year.

We have two central defenders in Stephens and Bednarek who were getting better and better as a partnership towards the end of the season and we also have strengthened the area in the transfer window with the addition of Salisu who in time, will keep the other two on the toes and more than likely see them competing against each other to partner him.

We have a decent goalkeeper in McCarthy who this season will be pressured for his place a lot more than he was last season which will force McCarthy to maintain his form throughout the season, unless he wants to sit on his arse on the bench and watch Fraser Forster playing games.

We have a manager who is now fully committed to his methods, one style of play and one formation. Gone are the days of three at the back and overthinking things and we are going to have a whole season of knowing what we’re doing and believing in what we’re doing.. They know what is expected, it’s more ingrained and the automatisms are in place. Automatisms is a word I never thought I’d use in this blog.

On the downside, we are short on numbers in central midfield should either of the first choice pairing miss any games and there needs to be another potential starter in the mix to keep the JWP and Romeu on their toes. This is something that both Martin Semmens and Ralph, have identified and have promised to sort out by the time the transfer window closes in a few weeks. Get that sorted and in my opinion we can really go into the season with some optimism.  I have been fortunate enough to speak to both Martin and Ralph, as part of my role on Total Saints Podcast and the thing that shines through when you talk to both of them is how much they believe in what they are doing.

Nothing takes away from the fact that today was shit, we had little inspiration and less intensity and of course, we gave away a shit goal but we need to draw a line under it and move on, starting with the Carabao Cup game against Brentford on Tuesday and the first home Premier League game of the season against ‘All or Nothing’ Tottenham. Let’s hope they leave with nothing.