The
first part of the Miracle of Ivan starts today with the visit of West Ham to St
Mary’s on Boxing Day 2024. I just hope that no one lets the football ruin their
Christmas though I’m pretty sure it would ruin Ivan’s Christmas if we didn’t
win today
Rumour has it that, after the pathetic defeat by Spurs, the players were given
a day off in the aftermath of Russell Martin being sacked. I found that
completely infuriating given how shit they were that particular game. The manager got sacked but the players were
shit and should have been in. Rumour
also has it that the players were supposed to be off on Christmas Day, but the
new manager made them come in and train. More power to him if all that is true.
If Ivan only had minimal input against Fulham, then today will certainly have
more of the new managers footprint on it.
The main questions today are about who will start as the central
attacker and who partners Flynn Downes in midfield. There shouldn’t be a
question of Jack Stephens coming back into the team now he’s available, but
there just might be.
West Ham have flattered to deceive this season. They should be doing a lot
better than they are but Julen Lopetegui has found it hard going. West Ham
seem to see themselves as a big club because of the stadium they got gifted
and the fact they are playing in front of 60,000 people every week but yet they
still find themselves in the bottom half of the division and more concerned
about keeping out of the bottom three then challenging for the European places.
With the squad they have, they should of course be challenging for said
European places and trying to emulate what their last manager, David Moyes
achieved by winning the Europa Conference League.
When you look at the West Ham team on paper, the main weakness appears to be
the central defence and goalkeeper. The keeper is 39-year-old Lukas Fabiański
and Max Kilman is a solid player and has been for a few years at Wolves before
he moved to West Ham, the same cannot really be stared for Stefano Mavropanos,
West Ham strengths lie in attacking areas with Jared Bowen, Lukas Paqueta,
Thomas Soucek,, Mohammed Kudus and Nicholas Fullkrug the big names, with Fullkrug,
the eighty-fifth centre forward that West Ham have signed in the last five
years. Paqueta certainly won’t be playing because he is suspended and this suspension is nothing to do with gambling,
other than gambling on not getting five yellow cards. Kudus has been liked to moves away, mainly by desperate Manchester United client media. One
player who always scores against us, who won’t score against us today is Michael
Antonio who is recovering following a car crash that is probably going to keep
him out for a year. As an ex-Saint, I can only wish him well in his recovery. With the way Russell Martin used to set up a
defence, Antonio probably would’ve had a chance of scoring from his hospital
bed.
It promises to be different today with the improvements that we made in that
area against Fulham and the fact that Ivan Juric teams are always built on a
solid defence, so in a way today, I am expecting more of the same as that game.
I just hope we can nick it and provide some sort of threat of the other end,
which we didn’t do last week at Fulham. It’s
unfortunate for Ivan in a way, that this game family falls into the category of
“must win”. Logic says that we are absolutely no chance of getting out of the
situation that we’re in but you never know.
Team news and the big lads are in with both Tall Paul and Big Les in the side,
with Dibling and Aribo dropping out. Kick off and Saints immediately continue the no nonsense
approach that we saw last week against Fulham with the ball going long towards
Tall Paul earlier on. The energy is
there and the pressing is evident straight away. We are kind of playing a man for man system
but it breaks down horribly on four minutes as Bowen drops deep and turns and
plays a ball to send Wan Bissaka away down the right hand side and with KWP in
his wake, he gets all the way to the penalty area before pulling it back to the
penalty spot where Soler meets it and manages to smash out onto the bar with
Soucek’s follow up blocked by Sugawara.
When Ramsdale has the ball, the tactic is to put it long towards Tall Paul and
he immediately holds off a defender and brings the ball down on his chest and
gets the attack moving. Fernandes plays it wide to Sugawara who tosses it into
the mix, but it looks too long and then KWP appears and stabs it back across
first time and Tall Paul rises on the 6 yard line having not looked like he
anticipated the cross and heads it just past the post. Fuck.
It’s still going to be epic when he scores.
With one big man making an impact, Lesley Ugochukwu is doing the same in
midfield and via Wood, the ball goes out to Armstrong on the left and he put
over a decent cross which is met well by Fernandes bursting into the box but
his header is straight at Fabiański.
Another good chance and Armstrong has started the game pretty brightly, spinning
off his man and trying to make things happen. Another chance as Tall Paul and Les combine to get the ball out to KWP on the
left and he tries and optimistic shot from an angle and Fabianski fumbles it
and regathers but keeps it away from danger.
That problem with the man to man thing is illustrated again as Bowen picks up
the ball in midfield and has acres in the centre of the park and gets to the
edge of the penalty area before dragging his shot wide as Wood throws himself
in the way. Bowen had started on the right wing and picked up that ball in
central midfield so this really looks like new system teething troubles to me
as KWP had not tracked him into midfield and no one there had picked him up.
The attacking side of things is working much better than this season so far, in all but the final finish as THB pings are brilliant diagonal ball out to KWP on the left who again, stands up Wan Bissaka before chipping it into the middle and Tall Paul, has to reach and twist for it but manages to get a head on it and Fabiański defies his 39 years and takes off keeps it out. For fuck sake. In comes the corner and Fabianski gets airborne again to punch it away but clatters into Wood and is down and not moving. Nasty. There’s a lot of concern and the stretcher is on straight away and oxygen masks and all sorts. Jan Bednarek, his Poland team mate comes up to check on him, as does Aaron Ramsdale and eventually off he goes to the whole ground applauding and on comes Areola.
More crosses and more carnage. We have obviously been working on our deliveries into the box and Matty Fernandes finds himself in a wide area and there’s no thought of going backwards as he slings the ball along the six yard line and Tall Paul goes flying in with Todibo and it comes off the West Ham defender and goes behind.
Yet another crossing opportunity is created with Big Les swinging it out to Sugawara on the right and from the corner of the penalty area, his ball is perfect for Tall Paul again and surely this time…. Mistimes it and it’s straight up Areola.
Half time and what a difference. It’s direct, it’s exciting, it’s fast paced and it’s still 0-0. Not scoring when on top is clearly an issue and I am already getting worried about us dying on our arses in the second half but in isolation, that 45 minutes was very good indeed. We also restricted West Ham to not very much after Soler’s shot onto the bar after five minutes.
We start the second half well with Tall Paul again winning the ball up front, this time from a tackle and KWP skips round Guillermo who then, looking obviously pissed off launches him into the air. Saints players around the referee, obviously not happy and out comes the red card. Scenes. But we’re off to VAR.
Hi there – Stockley Park here
Can you review my red card decision please boys
Oh do fuck off, it’s Boxing day – I’ve been on the piss for 36 hours
So have I, that’s why I might have got this wrong – going to the screen – talk me through it
OK, is he out of control – yes, has he lost his shit – yes, has the two footed lunge landed – no, it came up short and he clattered into him anyway.
So, what do you reckon?
What’s the mood in the ground from the fans around the screen?
Oh the Saints fans are 1000% convinced we’re going to overturn it because they haven’t had one off us all season.
Do that then.
A West Ham attack comes to nothing as Fullkrug tries to put Kudus through and there’s no danger but Sugawara has a complete mare and shanks it off for a corner for no fucking reason whatsoever. In comes the corner, Soucek wins the first knock, THB away, back in, THB away again back out to Alvarez who crosses to the back stick where Soucek heads it across, flicked on by Fullkrug and there is Bowen in front of Ramsdale to score. For fuck sake. New manager or not, we will still find a way to give away a preventable soft fucking goal.
Let’s see what Ivan has got with substitutions and it’s Flynn Downs who’s going off which must be a fitness issue, to be replaced by Joe Aribo and Sugawara has clearly not made himself popular with the corner he’s given away that and so on comes James Bree. To me that’s two substitutions that have made the team weaker.
With Fabiański having gone off with a concussion, we get an extra substitute and they all get used as time drifts by with KWP, Armstrong, Fernandes and Ugochukwu all going off to be replaced by Manning, Sulemana, Dibling and Lallana. Yeah, not sure about all that.
Ryan Manning is launching throws into the box, and from one of those it’s flicked on by THB and Tall Paul can only flick it into the side netting. Manning gives up the long throw option next time and works it short to Lallana, who cross into the box is met by Tall Paul leaning back, and his header drops wide of the far post.
There is one final chance in the last minute as we win the ball high up on the right hand side and Tyler Dibling carries it into the box and he absolutely has to square it for Tall Paul but instead of that, he has a swipe with his left foot and it’s high and wide. Fucking hell.
96, 97, the end. Bollocks. I never really felt that we were going to score in the second half, even though there was no lack of effort and intent. We were overall, ridiculously unlucky to lose that game. The problem of course came from not scoring in the first half when we were on top and as the energy levels dropped in the second half as they were always going to, the substitutes brought on, in the main, did not really add that much and so the team gradually got worse as the game went on.
In the first half, Saints looked like a pretty good football team. It was an energetic, it was exciting, and we put West Ham under pressure. The only thing missing of course was the goal. Tall Paul of course should’ve scored one, if not two and he also brought a ridiculous save out of Fabiański with another headed effort. Matty Fernandes also should’ve done better with a header as well. As we got into the second half, there was the incident of the non-sending off which when it went to VAR, was always going to be overturned. The fact is that there wasn’t much contact but he did go flying in, almost in retaliation for getting beaten seconds before. He lost his head and lost control but there was a crushing inevitability of that being overturned. I’m not sure it was a clear and obvious error to warrant an overturn but overall I think the correct decision was reached.
Soon after that of course we coughed up what turned out to be the winning goal. Ramsdale didn’t cover himself in glory by not coming for the ball but the goal stems from Sugawara needlessly giving away a corner and after that we were chasing the game and as said earlier, the substitutions didn’t do us any favours overall. Downes coming off for Aribo actually made the energy level of the team drop and Bree coming on for Sugawara meant that that side of the pitch was instantly offering nothing going forward. Adam Armstrong had had a half decent half a game before disappearing, and his replacement Sulemana was absolutely shit and clearly couldn’t have cared less. The sooner we get that guy out of the club the better. I’d take £5 million, but then I’m not Rasmus Ankersen’s ego, that made the decision to sign him in the first place.
Man of the match for me was Lesley Ugochukwu in midfield who was superb from the first minute until when he went off, barely wasting a pass and carrying on from his excellence substitute appearance against Fulham last week. Ran everywhere, tackled everything, headed everything and didn’t give the ball away. Brilliant performance from a player who has been frozen so far this season. He obviously has it in the locker so it does make you wonder how it’s been unseen until now.
The main talking point from the selection was of course to Paul Onuachu. If you leave his finishing aside for a second, he was absolutely superb in everything that centre forwards are supposed to do. Holding the ball up, bringing others into play, passing the ball, taking people on…and then it came to the finishing. I think he definitely should’ve scored once, at the end of the first half, and the early one from KWP’s volleyed cross was not great either but none of the other headers were quite clear cut but you can see that he is going to be an absolutely vital player for us going forward. More games and more sharpness will make a difference. He is in the team to stay as long as he stays fit and today showed just what a good player he can be. If we are going to have some sort of miracle this season, he is the difference-maker.
Other players who seemed to be elevated by the new boss were Matty Fernandes, who like Tall Paul, did everything but score and I was also impressed by KWP on the left. The three centre backs all did well and handled the “big fucking German” as the West Ham fans sang.
If this was near the start of the season, you would’ve watched this game and thought that things are definitely going turn and that we will be fine. That might still be the case of course with a miracle, but we needed to win today. We needed the three points and the belief it would’ve given us to carry on and get a few more good results. The fact that we didn’t even get a draw is pretty gut-wrenching and it was a bit of a smash and grab for West Ham to be honest.
Here’s a thing though, I actually enjoyed the game. I enjoyed the fact that we had a committed, attacking display and that we created chances throughout the game. There was intent to create chances. There was a commitment to press the opposition, which was great to see. We do need to save energy a bit though or else it’s going be like the bad days of Ralph in that if we’re not out of sight after an hour, we will die on our arses and struggle to close games out, especially as our squad is not strong enough to bring on a load of substitutes and for the quality not to go down. Ivan Juric’s first game in charge after only a couple of training sessions, showed a team that is at least capable of winning games at Premier League level. You would think that we will only get better.
First things first this season is to beat Derby’s record for being shite. I saw enough today to suggest we’ll do that and after that who knows. I know – we get relegated. We need about 30 points from the remaining 20 games and that’s Europa League Qualifying form, so that isn’t happening but at least today showed that we are going to give it a go in the remaining games.
Up the Fucking Saints,
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