Premier League Match 24 - Ipswich 1 Southampton 2

 

Ivan's Seldom Seen Victory Celebration

A trip to Portman Road to play Ipswich Town in a game that should be vital for both teams chances of survival this season but as we all know, it’s only vital for one team and it’s not us. As a result, there will probably be more pressure on Ipswich and if they have any serious ambitions of staying up this season then this comes into the category of “must win” for them. For us, it’s a game where we could potentially get our first point under Ivan Juric, before we win 10 matches in a row and end up on the fringe of the Europa League places.

Ipswich of course, got one of automatic promotion places last season having only arrived in the Championship the year before from League 1. The spirit and ability to play to the 95th minute got them through several games last season and it’s no surprise to me that they have made the best fist of attempting to stay in the Premier League out of the three promoted clubs. They also of course had a bit of an advantage because they had more scope to spend money both in the summer and in January because they weren’t up against it at all regarding PSR, having come up through the divisions.  Both Saints and Leicester were carrying heavy losses from their previous relegation and were therefore restricted, not that that seem to stop Leicester spending money of course because they are cheating fuckers who have got away with it.

Ipswich have made a better effort at doing what you should do when you get promoted, in that some of the players have got them here who are not quite good enough for the Premier League are now squad players and they have improved the starting XI with some quality, unlike us, who signed a load of players with the same intention but our new players ended up being worse than the guys they were bought into replace. The main headline signing for Ipswich was of course Liam Delap.  Apparently a transfer fee was agreed with Manchester City by both Ipswich and ourselves, but as Liam stated in his interview afterwards “Ipswich wanted him more“, which probably translates to, Ipswich offered me bigger wages. That’s the way football works we will probably never find out but the failure to get that deal over the line does shine the light on what the hell our recruitment was doing in the summer and who was in charge of it. Who was it who tried to lowball Delap and his representatives and why did we miss out?  We apparently almost missed on Flynn Downes to Ipswich as well, despite holding every card imaginable in that particular chase.

The other big name they bought in was Kalvin Phillips, who was in England regular not too long ago but has fallen from grace somewhat by moving to the graveyard that is the Manchester City bench. This move to Ipswich was to get his career moving in the right direction again and after a slow start, he is beginning to make headway in a central midfield partnership with the invisible man Sam Morsy, who is invisible only to referees because we will undoubtedly notice all of the fouls he will commit today. 

Leif Davis at left back is a player that we need to be fearful of, with his attacking play down the left but we also need to target him because we saw last year at Portman Road, what a dreadful defender he is. Last year we played James Bree against him and that went predictably well with Bree being partially or fully responsible for the first two goals we let in, before getting sent off just before the 97th minute winner that Ipswich got.

That thing that they’ve got of scoring late goals, also came back to bite us at St Mary’s earlier on this season, with Sam Morsy’s 95th minute deflected equaliser. At the time we thought that if we had won that game then it may have made a difference and we would’ve pushed on but I think that now we now know that our squad and management has just not been good enough and it wouldn’t of made a whole lot of difference.  It would have got us two points closer to the unwanted Derby record, however.

Our summer business as once once again been in the spotlight.  It’s very noticeable that two of the players who we brought in, in the summer are now out of the club at the earliest possible opportunity. Ben Brereton Diaz has gone to Sheffield United on loan, and it’s very unlikely that he will be coming back at the end of that loan period and Maxwel Cornet has gone back to West Ham to be loaned out somewhere in France. That’s two players who we brought in to be part of the first XI this season there has been some noise to about Cameron Archer, who Leeds have been sniffing around, Charlie Taylor and even Flynn Downes.

Saints have bought in Albert Gronbaek who will probably play today at some point, but there has been no one else, not even using up the additional loan opportunity we now have from the Premier League. Ivan Juric was very matter-of-fact about the lack of prospect of us getting getting anyone in to help.

Juric’s name of course came up in an interview with Dragon Solak that was broadcast on talkSPORT during the week, when Solak of course backed his manager to be at the helm next season as well.  In reality, that statement means fuck all because he’s hardly going to say anything else. The the bottom line is that he needs to win some football matches because he hasn’t even managed to draw as yet and today is probably as good as chance as he’s gonna get.  In case you haven’t noticed, next week we are playing Champions League chasing Bournemouth. What a fucking sentence that is.

The pre-match press conference revealed that we have a few players returning to fitness for this game with Aaron Ramsdale, Kamaldeen Sulemana and Tyler Dibling all being in the frame. New left back Welington was also mentioned and will be in the squad, as well, the returning talismanic defender, Jack Stephens after missing half the season through suspension after getting sent off for a thigh high tackle, calling the refereee and fourth official ‘cunts’ and pulling someone’s hair.  All that.generally translates to being a dick.  Then there was another month or so through injury. Captain, Leader, Legend.

The referee today is Michael Oliver who of course made a horrific mistake in sending off an Arsenal player last week for a professional foul 80 yards from goal. Gone are the days when PGMOL used to stand referees down for making horrific mistakes, but they probably feel that they have in a way, because they’ve given him this game instead of the game he was supposed to be doing, which was Arsenal against Man City.  Joking aside, he is still refereeing in the Premier League so it’s no punishment at all and we wonder why refereeing standards don’t get any better.  More reason why Howard Webb should resign or be removed at the end of the season.

Team news and it’s new player time with both Welington and Gronbaek starting.  Sulemana and Dibling are on the bench, which has a lack of Flynn Downes, which is a bit odd.  There is also no Cameron Archer which is not really a surprise given the Leeds interest.  Ipswich have left out Phillips in favour of Cajuste and have Muric in goal, who got dropped earlier on in the season for reasons of being shit.

To the game and Ipswich make the better start as befits the team that has to win.  Brighton loanee Enciso nicks the ball off of Big Les in midfield and takes aim from the edge of the box but comfortably save by Ramsdale.  It sets the tone for an average opening twenty minutes where there’s no threat on either goal.  Hutchison tries to take on Welington a couple of times and both times is turned to dust by immaculately timed tough challenges.  Not today pal.

The lack of goal threat all changes though as a ball up towards Tall Paul is headed out to THB who fires it in to Fernandes, out to KWP, back to Fernandes and the cross spoons up off an Ipswich defender and lands on the edge of the box,  There are two players attacking it, both wearing a yellow shirt and Aribo gets there before Gronbaek and keeps the volley down and it bounces up and seems to go through the hands of Muric and one fucking nil, get in!

Air Aribo

Ipswich create a chance as Hutchison decides against taking on Welington again and chips it early to the back stick and it’s headed down by Broadhead and flicked over the bar by Delap, with Bednarek doing just enough.  Five minutes later and Broadhead tries to be provider again and this time from the middle of the pitch, he kind of scuffs a ball through midfield and Delap has stolen a march on Bednarek, skips past his ‘red card in waiting’ lunge and calmly gives Rambo no chance.  Fuck it.

It then gets positively entertaining for five minutes (relatively speaking), with new boy Gronbaek having two shots in succession well blocked and then Delap sends Broadhead through on the left and he tries the dink over Ramsdale which is easily blocked and in conjunction with Big Les, Rambo snuffs out any danger from the rebound.

Wellington’s excellent start to life in the Premier League takes a knock as he trashes Hutchison on the edge of the box to the right.  Enciso tries a right footed curler around the wall at the near post but it’s comfrtably wide but the Ipswich pressure keeps coming with Hutchison again shooting straight at Ramsdale from twenty yards.

Welington Meets Michael Oliver

The last five minutes are pure carnage near our goal as we eventually clear a corner and THB goes down under pressure from no one.  He’s been having a shocker of a game so far, all shite passed and moaning, and I am unavoidably reminded of ABK going down for nto much every time he waqs having a shit game.  Anyway, THB is back with us and there’s another almight scrambkle in the box as Bednarek makes a mess of clearing a cross under pressure and there are bodies required to be thrown at Broadhead to block the incoming shot.

Half time and 1-1.  It’s the usual combination of disappointed to have lost the lead but happy to be level.  Our attacking play has been shit to be quite honest with us looking for Tall Paul too early and even if he wins it or controls it (he does neither very often) then there is no support and the ball just comes back.

Captain Jack is back for the start of the second half, with THB presumably not fit to continue.  The opening ten of the second half doesn’t have much other than Cajuste smashing an effort at the moon and Enciso slicing another effort over the bar…. And Captain Jack is off again injured and Janny B has the armback back.  Is this ABK time?  No… it’s Will Smallbone… of course it is, which means Joe Aribo in the back three.

Saints eventually have a little bit of pressure with Fernandes finding Jimmy Champo on the right and his shot is deflected wide.  The corner amounts to nothing and soon it’s time for Sulemana to come on for Gronbaek.  The direction of the game is still largely towards our goal and Ramsdale keeps out a low strike from Delap with his foot before Tall Paul and Big Les combine superbly to give the ball away in the middle of our own half and the referee Michael Oliver gives a free kick as Broadhead goes down.  They take it quickly and Bednarek trashes through Delap with Oliver playing the advantage and Enciso completes his ‘all fart no shit’ as he picks up the ball and from the edge of the box, bobbles shot straight to Ramsdale.

It’s time for another of Ivan’s mystifying substitutions, with Big Les going off to be replaced with Adam Lallana and it was going to be Dibling coming on but Welington has chosen the moment of the substitution to collapse in a heap with cramp, so instead of whoever, he’s off and Sugawara is on.  The midfield of Lallana and Smallbone on paper, is not the most convincing I’ve ever seen.

87 minutes Ipswich sub Clark trashes Fernandes in midfield but Michael Oliver is consistent and allows us the advantage with Lallana finding KWP on the left.  On it goes to Sulemana who runs straight at Tuanzebe, who shites himself as he runs backwards,  Sulemana cuts inside walking pace Morsy and shoots.  Muric has taken a step towards the middle of the goal and has to dive back to the near post to parry it out and reacting first is Tall Paul to slam it into the net.  Mental.

The Tall Paul Redemption Gathers Pace

It's in the remaining ten minutes that we see how limited Ipswich are as they offer nothing.  Any attack is easily repelled and though we never look in control, it’s as comfortable as it’s ever going to get.  Time ticks by and it’s 97 minutes as Aribo wins a free kick out on the left and Michael Oliver blows his whistle.

And there we have it, we won a game to move up to a whole nine points and avoid unpleasant club records like losing seven games in a row. There is still time for that this season of course but not today.  Up the Premier League we go, not.

As a game, it was very scrappy, between two teams who really don’t have much idea when they got in the opposition penalty area. There have been times this season where we have defended the penalty area terribly but in the main today we were decent in that regard and up front, we had enough to take advantage of some terrible goalkeeping by Muric, who allowed Aribo’s goal to bounce through his hands and parry the low shot from Sulemana straight to Tall Paul‘s feet for the winner.

Ipswich were the better team at the start but didn’t really causes any problems and we scored with what was basically our first attack. There was a stroke of luck about it as Fernandes cross was deflected high up in the air. The difficult part of it as far as Aribo was concerned was to keeping the ball down, which he managed to do and as previously said, the keeper was an absolute ass clown.

The Ipswich equaliser only took ten minutes to arrive with Delap running through beyond our defence and finishing with these. There was a large slice of luck with how the ball got to him as well as Broadhead scuffed the pass when tackled by Aribo and it just happened to go in the perfect place for Delap to run through.  Bednarek didn’t cover himself with glory and an accusation of ballwatching could easily be made.  Our 1v1 defending model is always going to be prone to having some disasters if players doze off even for a second.

Having lost THB at half time to an ‘injury’ – more on that later, we lost his replacement Jack Stephens within 10 minutes and I’m not going to lie, bringing on Smallbone at that point left me with as much hair as the substitute as I tore all mine out, with Joe Aribo dropping into defence. The fact that both Stephens and Aribo were preferred as central defensive options to ABK, tells you all you need to know about that particular issue . Smallbone, as we all know, can’t run and he can’t tackle because he never gets close enough to an opposition player to engage, but somehow we stayed in the game mainly because Ipswich couldn’t really create anything clear cut.  Enciso looked dangerous as already said, was the very definition of all fart and no shit, when it came to the key moments.  The substitution that did work was bringing on Sulemana for Gronbaek, and the new man’s pace against the painfully crap Axel Tuanzebe lead to the shot that Muric spooned straight out to Tall Paul. The eight extra minutes passed by, relatively problem free and fucking hell we won a game. Ed Sheeran can write a tribute to Tall Paul for his next album.

I was pleased for so many of our players. Joe Aribo was our best midfielder and when he got shuffled into the back three, he was the best player there as well. His performances can be very up-and-down, but today was one of the good ones and you can see why Ivan Juric starts him every week . I was particularly pleased for Tall Paul scoring the winning goal. He had played the whole game on a diet of balls coming down from the Suffolk sky with snow on them and had been given absolutely no support by anyone else for the rest of the game, so for him to be as knackered as he was and still react quickest score the winning goal, is a great moment.

The new guys both played well. Welington showed enough to suggest that he will certainly make the left back role his own for the rest of the season and Albert Gronbaek had some good moments, though he faded in the second half which is never a surprise on your debut.

The negatives were mainly THB, who was fucking atrocious. The tone was set from the first few minutes when he passed the ball directly out of play and immediately blame the player nearest to the imaginary player that he had passed to. If you fuck up, you need to own it and not blame anyone else. Forty minutes of whingeing and moaning and generally being shit later, led to the moment when he just went down to the penalty area with nowhere near him and though he came back for the rest of the first half, it was absolutely no surprise when he came off at half time. I question, given his attitude in the first half, how injured he actually was. I can’t imagine his potential father-in-law Roy Keane would’ve been particularly impressed and maybe some wise words from Roy will lead to Taylor drawing a line under it and moving on to next week.

It was a good day for Ivan Juric as well and he deserves it.  It was his first win of course and also the first time that he had not been on the losing side in the Premier League.  He made some brave decisions today from the starting XI through to the substitutions and I didn’t agree with all of them but they came off and we got the job done.  Some more of that earlier in the season and we would be better off than we are of course.  The one win today in isolation won’t make a huge difference to the outlook for the season as a whole but it’s just nice to have a good day.

Up the fucking Saints

Deadline Day Incoming

PS - Transfer Deadline Day happened, only we didn't really take part in it - no one arrived anyhow.  I think it's fair to say that we were expecting something after Dragan Solak's recent pledge to support the manager but not a thing, not even filling the loan slot from the Premier League, vacated by Maxwel Cornet's return to West Ham.  I wonder if Ivan Juric feels supported?  He says (out loud anyway) that we are still working towards staying up but the lack of support doesn't really scream that message.  I am not surprised and I don't expect Ivan is either.

Anyhow, more interesting was the outgoings with Sam Amo-Ameyaw departing on loan before departing for good to Strasbourg, a kind of nothing side in the French league.  Most people expected him to go on loan but few expected the obligation to buy for a relatively low fee.  He joins the recently departed Jimmy-Jay Morgan, Kami Doyle and Jayden Meghoma as players who have shown promise either in the U21s or fleetingly at first team level, before deciding to almost force an exit by refusing to sign contracts. Such is life but the warning for Sam is that the other three players mentioned were in a rush to move and are currently playing in League 2, League 1 and the bottom end of the Championship.  You can never predict what will be the case in three years time with these players of course but right now, we aren't missing out on anything.  Saints rightly have a good name for providing a pathway for first team football but it seems now that these lads just want Southampton on the CV up to a point.  They all seem to be in too much of a rush to go for me.  We could regret the decision to sell Sam but then, on the balance of probabilities, I'd say it's more likely that he'll regret it.

Arma Celebrates a Move to the Championship

Meanwhile,  Gavin Bazunu has gone out on loan to Standard Liege, which is great move to enable him to get some games before coming back to fight Alex McCarthy for next years No 1 jersey.  Also, Adam Armstrong moved on loan to West Brom in the Championship.  To be honest, he wasn't going to play much for us this season under Juric so it makes sense because as we saw last year, he'll be a force in the Championship for us next year and even if we decide to let him go in the summer for whatever reason, we at least retain control up until that point with no obligation to buy agreed with the Baggies.  As with Russell Martin, if this is the end then we'll always have Wembley.  It's a fall from grace for Arma from that day, but that's two and a half Premier League Seasons where it hasn't happened, so it really is no surprise.