Premier League Match 4 - Southampton 0 Manchester United 3

 

Well This Was a Turning Point

Two weeks off for an international break and here we are again back at St Mary‘s for a Sky o’clock kick-off against Manchester United. Actually, it’s a TNT o’clock kick-off but you know what I mean. I guess you could call it our chance to put down a marker to the rest of the Premier League in the first game of the weekend.

Manchester United of course will be looking on it as their opportunity to correct what has been a stuttering start to their Premier League campaign. Last week they got gubbed 3-0 at home by Liverpool and the vultures will certainly be circling around Erik ten Hag again if he doesn’t win today. Some would call it refreshing that United have backed their manager to start another season and some would call it foolhardy. United new owner Jim Ratcliffe always seems to make matters worse for himself every time he opens his mouth and is still in the honeymoon period that was never afforded to the Glazers when they took over. United’s transfer window has seen loads more money being spent as usual with the likes of Joshua Zirkzee, Matthijs De Ligt, Noussair Mazroui and right at the end, Manuel Ugarte brought in to complement the collection of good players that they already have. 

Russell Martin’s press conference this week saw him speak about the need to balance out loyalty towards players and what they did in the past against where they are now. Some people interpreted this as declaring loyalty to the players who got promoted no matter what, but I read it in a very different way – I saw it as him saying that loyalty for past achievements only goes so far and it’s about the here and now and the here and now is the Premier League and it is brutal.  It’s a very different level to the Championship and a very different assignment.  The players who I think are very much under pressure are Adam Armstrong, Joe Aribo, Will Smallbone, Jack Stephens and Taylor Harwood-Bellis, who all played very big roles in the promotion campaign. They all have that in common and also that they have all struggled thus far in the Premier League.

This concept of weighing up when to remove popular players when the level or the assignment changes is not a new thing. When we got promoted in 2012, Nigel Adkins almost immediately brought the axe down on Billy Sharp and Dean Hammond, two of the players who had been crucial in us getting promoted. Sorry, things have changed – off you go.  Others like Jos Hooiveld, Danny Fox, Frazer Richardson and Richard Chaplow weren’t long for the South Coast either.

If you go back even further to 1976, Bobby Stokes scored the most important goal in the clubs history, to actually win a trophy, but did you know that he only played 11 further times for Saints because the assignment became different.  Lawrie McMenemy had to build a team to be consistent and get promoted into what was then Division One, and it wasn’t just Stokes who went. Within 12 months, I think there were only two of the Boys of 76 (David Peach and Nick Holmes) still at the club. Adam Armstrong is Bobby Stokes and he is also Billy Sharp. He’s Bobby Stokes because he scored a ridiculously important goal for the club and he’s Billy Sharp because he can score goals in the second tier. He has to prove he is more than them and Russell Martin has to decide whether he is.

All eyes on the team news and big changes – Aribo, Smallbone, Armstrong, THB all gone, replaced by Ugochukwu, Fernandes, Archer and Dibling and a change to a 4-3-3 formation.  On paper it looks great and you can’t really argue with it.  A small concern over the centre back pairing but you can’t have everything.

Saints start the game well with Dibling taking a pass from Sugawara and rolling past Dalot and driving towards the box before taking it on to his left foot and curling one for the far corner, forcing Onana into a decent save.  KWP then gets down the left and pulls one back but there's no one there. 

United look dangerous though when they attack and Zirkzee really should’ve done better when he’s stretched for a Diallo cross and could only scuff the ball through to Ramsdale.

Even Jack Stephens Got Closer to the Ball Than That

In the main though, it’s Saints on the attack and and from a Sugawara corner, Big Les rises and shoulders it over the bar when he really should have scored.  More attacks in the opening half hour than we’ve had all season combined... and Dibling again picks up the ball on the right and drives at Dalot, going past him on the outside before Dalot dives in as Dibling takes another touch and carts him over. It’s the most obvious penalty ever but we still have to wait five minutes for Bruno to stop fucking whining.  Ben Brereton Diaz has the ball but it turns out he’s only looking after it until they decide it was in fact well inside the box, and he hands it to Cameron Archer.  Archer looks like he visibly shrinks and it’s a short run up, low scuffer, absolutely shit to the goalkeepers right but it’s nowhere near the corner and Onana just falls on it. It’s still pops up again and Archer has a chance with a header but Onana is comfortably on his feet by the time the ball arrives. Bollocks.

Straight up the other end and Zirkzee has a go from long range and Ramsdale tips it round the post.  Eriksen takes a short corner to Bruno and his cross into the box is met by De Ligt with an absolutely free header at the back post and it’s a simple task for De Ligt to head it across Ramsdale and into the far corner.  Fuck off.  Everyone in a red and white shirt is just looking at eachother.

Saints initially respond well, and we go down left with BBD finding Fernandes, who finds Downes on the edge of the box, who falls over…. Lightning break by United and Rashford cuts in from the right and forces another good save from Ramsdale.  United overhit the corner, Diallo picks it up and rolls a simple ball to Rashford at the top of the penalty area and no one really closes him down as he shoots and it nestles in the far corner. Fucking hell. Game over.

If ever there was a graphic is illustration of how you need to take your chances then that was it.  It’s such a pisser. We were comfortably the better side in the opening half an hour and deserved to be ahead. If the penalty goes in then we are probably at half-time 1-0 ahead and looking forward to having a right go at it in the second half. Missed the chance and this is what happens at Premier League level. Absolutely brutal and the game is more or less done.

The second half sees no changes and it’s a bit like poking a dead dog with a stick… go on, do something. Getting a goal back may conceivably put some pressure on them but it quickly becomes apparent it’s just a case of whether United will score another or not. Rashford, now playing with a bit more confidence tries a long-range effort which Ramsdale tips over the bar.

Russell makes some subs with an all-new forward line of Max Cornet, Ryan Fraser and unbelievably, Ross Stewart. I’m guessing that Stewart is coming on so we can at least get something tangible out of the game and I’m sure Adam Armstrong was sat there not really wanting to come on anyway.

Lallana is also on and trying to get on the ball but before the subs have any real chance to make an impact, Sugawara and Fernandes combine to give the ball away and United break down their left through Garnacho and Stephens comes hurtling across, less like the Cornish Maldini and more like the Cornish Vinny Jones and wipes him out. It looks high and dodgy in real time and the referee is straight out with a red card. Surprisingly, there is a feeling of injustice in the crowd but to me it looked slightly high and out of control and I’m not surprised it’s red card at all.

Fernandes comes off with THB coming on and it’s damage limitation from here on in and Ramsdale learns what it’s like to be the coconut in the coconut shy and he performs a few miracles to keep the score down until Dalot gets played in on the right hand side, THB plays everyone onside and when he rolls the ball back and Garnacho smashes it into the roof of the net. The third goal doesn’t elicit much more than a shrug from yours truly. I feel gutted for Aaron Ramsdale though who doesn’t deserve this.

There are many elements that go to make up a good football team. I’m going to focus on two of them, namely the ability to take your chances when you are on top and how you respond to setbacks. The vital moment today is of course the missed penalty. If that goes in then we would have been a totally deserving to be 1-0 ahead and would probably have held that lead until half-time. As it was, it doesn’t go in and instead, we are 2-0 down and the game is over.

Eyebrows would’ve been raised with a starting lineup with Russell Martin being good on his word and freshening things up. To be honest it is exactly the starting lineup that I would’ve selected myself.  Stephens or THB was the only slight issue for me but with THB’s form, it was a toss of a coin on that one.  The starters tore into the game and made a real good fist of things up until the pivotal moment. Flynn Downes and Lesley Ugochukwu bossed the midfield, the full backs got forward well, Matty Fernandes was bright and best of all, Tyler Dibling had Diogo Dalot, an experienced Portuguese international and experienced Premier League player, absolutely on toast. He had already sat him on his arse once and when he took him on a second time, was carted over for the penalty which should have brought a reward for our enterprise in the first half an hour.

There was a pause for shit housing, mainly by Bruno Fernandes. Why we had to wait so long was bizarre, when it was the clearest penalty you’ve ever seen and all that time passed by with Cameron Archer waiting to be given the ball to take the penalty. When he stepped up he didn’t look remotely confident, didn’t hit it in a particularly confident fashion and Onana made what was quite a simple safe.  The disappointing thing is that BBD has a 100% record from penalties and didn’t take it, whereas Archer has apparently never taken one before. Until the award of the penalty, we had put as much pressure put on the Manchester United goal as we had put on the opposition defence in all three of our previous games combined with crosses flying across the box and the United defence looking severely stretched. All that changed once Onana grabbed Archer’s weak header off of the rebound.

The first two United goals were shite from our point of view.  A completely unmarked De Ligt, courtesy of Stephens dozing off and playing everyone onside and from Archer’s half arsed closing down on Rashford, giving him the angle he needed to bend one into the far corner.

In the second half we needed to go out and scored the first goal but didn’t force Onana into any sort of serious action which was a major disappointment. To be honest, United completely controlled the flow and tempo of the second half and would’ve scored more but for Aaron Ramsdale and some good last ditch defending. Russell Martin substitutions were fair enough given the way The game was going at 0-0 but it was never really going to turn things around and before the subs had chance to do anything, Jack Stephens got sent off. I don’t really see how anyone can argue that it wasn’t a deserved red card seeing as how the initial contact was on his knee. After that of course it was damage limitation which we managed to do until the last minute when United picked their way through on our left, thanks to some unaware defending by THB and Garnacho fired in a third which was harsh on Ramsdale in particular.

Yeah, Don't Think We'll Appeal This One

Because we are dealing with the harsh reality of Premier League football, I feel that we have to be harsh with the way that we look at the players and how they performed. For starters, Aaron Ramsdale is a proven Premier League level performer. I have no real idea what made him sign up for this but some of the defending in front of him today must make him ponder his career choices and want to return and sit on Arsenal‘s bench. The central defensive pairing of Bednarek and Stephens has been tried many times before at Premier League level and it has always failed.  Russell Martin has now seen at first hand that it just doesn’t work and the two of them get pulled about all over the place. There was some good moments of defending by both of them at various times but as a pair it just doesn’t seem to gel. It’s trendy at the moment for managers to talk about ‘moments’.  This is fine in an attacking context but defending is not about ‘moments’, it’s about consistency. As the game went on you could see that their brains were fried and when you get tired, the basics go to shit, like the decision-making and the passing. Stephens tired lunge at Garnacho was a perfect illustration of this, crude and high and off you go.  Bednarek’s passing radar just went completely in the last ten minutes.

Both full backs offered a fair amount in an attacking sense to start with but KWP in particular was continually found with space behind him which United exploited. He wasn’t helped however by his winger and more on that later.  Sugawara was part of a good partnership with Dibling on the right and is looking like he will adapt pretty well tot his level of football.

I did feel that the set-up of the central midfield needs tinkering with a little bit. Downes and Big Les seemed to take it in turns for one to run forward whilst the other dropped into the number six role but they seemed to leave us a little bit too open, even in the first half an hour when we were generally on top. Big Les showed a lot of promise but tired after half time.

Ben Brereton Diaz had a couple of decent contributions in the first half hour but then totally disappeared.  Worst of all, he didn’t provide any cover whatsoever for KWP on the left and basically has to do more than that to justify his inclusion. He obviously should have taken the penalty because he couldn’t possibly have produced a tamer effort than Cameron Archer. Archer had a difficult afternoon but you would expect any striker who is not used to the Premier League so have a difficult afternoon against De Ligt and Martinez who have international caps galore for Netherlands and Argentina respectively.

Matty Fernandes started really well as the most advanced midfielder, getting forward to support Cameron Archer whenever he could and being able to pull the strings up against Christian Eriksen and Kobbie Mainoo - again, two international players. He did fade in the second half but what I liked about him was the fact that he never stopped trying to make things happen.

Best of all was one of our own Tyler Dibling, who fully justified the managers faith in starting him and was a constant thorn in Diogo Dalot‘s side until he cramped up in the second half and had to come off. As long as he can adapt to the physical demands of Premier League football then he will definitely be getting regular minutes this season.  Brought a brilliant save out of Onana and won the penalty.  Also, when he couldn’t get forward he kept the ball very well and he played with a lot more defensive responsibility than BBD did over the other side.

Talking of adapting to the physical demands of football in general, Ross Stewart found his way onto the pitch for his first minutes at Premier League level and did okay. His mere presence was enough for ten Hag to panic slightly and bring on Maguire, so that Ross wasn’t playing against Lisandro Martinez. Unfortunately, the red card happened before we could really get any crosses into the box for Ross. Adam Lallana also made a bright cameo off the bench and briefly looked like he may allow us to get hold of the ball and start putting United under pressure again… but the red card did for that.

All in all, another learning day at the office. When you are a newly promoted side you do not put home games against Manchester United down as ones where you should get points from but having lost this one, the home game against Ipswich next week becomes huge because we really cannot afford to lose that one. I saw signs today in the opening half an hour that we can get some points on the board but it of course needs to happen soon and we need to respond to any setbacks a lot better than we did today. As a team today, I saw a lot more to give me hope for the months ahead in terms of the team structure and balance.  We at least gave us something to get behind. Yes, we conceded simple goals but we at least carried a goal threat and had a chance of winning for a short period of time at least.

Before the Ipswich game, the fringe players will have their chance to put their hand up for selection as we travel to Everton in the Carabao Cup on Tuesday night.

Up the fucking Saints.