We’re in a situation now where every game is more
important than the one that preceded it.
With every game that goes by and every three points we add to the tally,
the more the pressure grows and the more important the game becomes. After the
defeat to Ipswich and especially after the draw against Blackburn, we all
assumed that we were done and the media certainly assumed that and more
amusingly, the fans of Ipswich, Leicester and Leeds also assumed that. But, we are still here and win today at
Cardiff and we are officially right back in the mix going in to a game against
Leicester at the King Power on Tuesday night. That is for another day,
obviously.
Today we take on Cardiff City, who are safe for another year in the Championship.
They’ve never really been in serious danger of dropping down the season but got
the results they needed over the last few weeks to make sure no one was
anxiously looking over their shoulders in their part of Wales. When they
visited Saint Mary’s earlier on in the season, they kind of just turned up, did
nothing, and got beat 2-0 with a brace of goals from Adam Armstrong. Then as
now, the manager is Erol Bulut, who one way or another seems to be coming to
the end of his reign at the Cardiff City Stadium. A man with a history of not lasting too long
in jobs has apparently upset the owner and every time you read anything on a
forum about Cardiff, their fans are usually using words like lacklustre,
boring, dull, defensive. We hoped that when we played Preston a few days ago,
that they would not put up much of a fight as they had nothing to play for and
we must hope that Cardiff make our job easier today. It’s less likely when you
are away from home of course but hopefully we get to see where an early goal will
take us.
It was confirmed that Gavin Bazunu‘s injury was a season-ending one and
his ruptured achilles tendon is it going to mean the best part of a year out.
Whilst he’s not everyone’s cup of tea as a goalkeeper, you have to remember
this is a 20-year-old kid who has a long road of rehab ahead of him and how you
rate him as a goalkeeper is irrelevant at this point. All the best to Gavin in his recovery. What
this means for us in the short term is a choice to be made between Alex
McCarthy and Joe Lumley. With McCarthy haven’t been chosen against Preston and
keeping a clean sheet, I would actually be completely staggered if it was
anyone other than McCarthy in between the sticks today. Hopefully we can
restrict Cardiff as well as we restricted Preston on Tuesday night. The 11 that
started against Preston all deserve to start today, So let’s see.
Oh shit – Flynn Downes is injured and despite receiving praise for his
performance as a sub against Preston, it’s not natural replacement Shea Charles
coming in but Will Smallbone as the Number 6.
That might be ok as Cardiff have a host of injuries so their team is
going to be a bit scratch and a bit young so hopefully we’ll dominate the ball
and the lack of grit in that midfield won’t be an issue.
Saints tear into Cardiff from the kick-off and it
very quickly looks like men against boys. Some snappy passing down the left and
KWP drifts in from right back and plays an incisive ball into Stuart Armstrong
and the Scotsman with the fine hair works the ball on his right foot and curls it
away from Horvath but it smacks against the post and out.
More of the same with Stuart Armstrong again on the left, driving forward and
feeding Adam Armstrong, who cuts in and shoots, parried out by Horvath to the
edge of the box where Joe Aribo is waiting and he does well to keep the shot
down and it flies past the keeper for 1-0.
Come On!
On, on – starting with McCarthy and Stuart Armstrong picks at the ball in midfield and chips one over the defence and Aribo competes for it against the defender and the ball breaks to Che Adams who is right in front of the goalkeeper and in the red hot for he's in, he could’ve taken it round him or he could’ve slotted it but instead of that he scuffs it straight at the goalkeeper in a demonstration of whatever the opposite of clinical is. Che has another go a minute later as Cardiff have a throw on the left and cough up possession and Stuart Armstrong plays Che clean through on his left foot and we all know what happens when he has the ball in his left foot… but today is different as he’s in great form…. and under challenge from the last defender he slices in madly wide from right in front of the goal. Fucking hell.
Again we build up from the defence and Adams plays a lovely ball around the corner towards Brooks but the full-back Tanner gets there first and knocks it back to the keeper at a very awkward height. A shit Horvath touch later and Adam Armstrong piles in with the keeper and the ball breaks to David Brooks with the keeper on the ground but with the ball on his stronger left foot and an open goal to aim at, he moves it left and has an open goal to aim at and …. he takes it left again past an invisible player … and Horvath gets back to scramble it wide with the final touch coming off Brooks himself so we don’t even win a fucking corner. What is ridiculous is the Brooks at two chances to put that in the net and in the end he doesn’t even get a shot away despite have two open goal chances to do so.
Half-time and despite missing a ridiculous amount of chances, it still shouldn’t be an issue because Cardiff don’t look to have anything and Saints are totally in control. How many times have we said that though? The second half starts with Bree on for Manning for what I assume is an injury. Aribo chips a ball down the right to Adams, who digs out a superb cross fizzing along a 6 yard line and Adam Armstrong comes in at the back post and heads it from five yards but puts it in the only place where the goalkeeper can possibly save it, which he duly does. Anywhere but at the middle of the goal at mid height and it’s 2-0 but you know, this is Saints on a bad one.
Still we carry on with Brooks feeding Adam Armstrong and he takes his time as rolls it to Smallbone on the edge of the box and he has all the time in the world to casually wave his foot at it and pick out a spot on the advertising board five yards wide of the goal, and that’s what he does.
Cardiff have thrown on a couple of subs, one of which is Diedhiou and he’s causing a few issues as Cardiff have their first spell of anything in the game. Down our left they go and past KWP as he’s trying to stop two players and over comes the cross, Meite swings a leg at it and it’s going wide but it goes straight to Diedhiou at the back post, unmarked and he scores easily. Would you fucking believe it? Even with the old cliché’s of “you’ll regret missing those chances” – this one is particularly ridiculous.
We’ve lost control of midfield as Smallbone, Aribo and Stu all start looking tired and the sub is made in this area and it’s Aribo off for Rothwell, which makes us worse and will not give us any further control in midfield. Predictably, it’s Cardiff in the ascendancy now and after a Bednarek foul out on the wing, Cardiff sling the ball into the mix, in comes the unmarked header, saved by McCarthy and an almighty scramble and we get away with it because THB throws himself into the melee to block. Proper committed defending.
More subs and it’s just throwing stuff at the wall time now as it’s three wingers coming on. Smallbone, Arma and Brooks are off and it’s Kamaldeen, Edozie and Wee Man on. Wee Man is in midfield so the combination is Rothwell, Stu and Wee Man. So, basically, we have six forwards on the pitch. Ok then.
Sulemana is on a mad one. He gets booked straight away for pulling back someone. Then he commits another foul and could quite easily get a second yellow. Then he ventures into he penalty area gets in the way and managed to get a knee in the face off Stuart Armstrong. Bednarek puts him in the recovery position but he manages to carry on after a few minutes, which is mental. If he’s knocked out then get him off. If he’s faking it then get him off and play with ten.
Cardiff are coming now and we’re not doing anything because no one can win the ball. They switch the ball out to the left to Ashford, one of their youth players who looks about 15 and he cuts past Sulemana’s pathetic challenge, but the Saints man does make the effort to jog alongside him. Rothwell backs off and Stuart Armstrong jumps away from the challenge as Ashford hits and hopes and it flicks off Bednarek and gives Macca no chance. Wankers.
One last chance as Adams gets away on the right and gets the ball over and Stuart Armstrong takes a touch and then shoots and then collapses in agony as a defender blocks it. Four minutes later and he’s off on a stretcher and thoroughly miserable end to a miserable day.
Wankers. It’s the hope that kills you. Having won those games to get ourselves back into contention, we faced quite possibly the easiest assignment against Cardiff Youth and Reserves and we totally shit the bed. As soon as there’s a chance to achieve something, bottle it and how very Southampton that is. I genuinely thought we were destined to keep winning and take advantage of everyone else falling over but oh no. When will I learn?
On the face of it, it’s easy to blame Russell Martin for going for the Will Smallbone at six to replace the indispensable Flynn Downes but whilst that drew a sharp intake of breath from everyone, is that really the problem here today? The bottom line is like at Ipswich, we were exceptional for the first hour of the game, totally controlling the midfield and creating and endless stream of chances for the forwards and they missed the fucking lot. Is it Russell Martin’s fault that Che Adams is clean through and hits the goalkeeper when it was easier to score? Is it Russell Martin’s fault the David Brooks has an open goal to aim at but instead of that he decides not to shoot and allows the goalkeeper to get back? Is it Russell Martin’s fault that Adam Armstrong can put a header a high or low or just inside the post but instead of that heads into the only area of the goal where the goalkeeper can possibly save it? No, it’s not the managers fault that those three (and others) pissed away every chance that we created today.
Behold - I Give You 4-0-6
What is Russell Martin’s fault is the way we managed the game from just before Cardiff scored their slightly fortuitous equaliser and in the last half hour. Russell said afterwards it was absolutely criminal not to win that game with the chances we created and that if you don’t score then you have to defend your own box. He is of course correct. Martin cannot be blamed at all for the fact that we missed a stack of chances but the defending our own box, well, I don’t think he can really hide from all the criticism for that. He picked a midfield that can’t tackle and when he could’ve shored up, even before Cardiff scored, by bringing on the bonafide defensive midfielder who might have given us a platform. Instead of that he brought on Joe Rothwell who is a contender for the biggest nothing player I think I’ve ever seen. Here we have a central midfielder who can’t run, doesn’t tackle, has no defensive discipline and on top of that, today he couldn’t pass the ball. He reunited the infamous Rothwell, Smallbone, Stuart Armstrong midfield shit triangle combination that has been proven many times not to work. Then he made it somehow worse by putting Wee Man in midfield. The 4-0-6 formation won't win many games.
As I said earlier, I do not get it when Shea Charles gets praised for his performance against Preston and Russell talks him up as the Flynn Downes understudy - fast forward a couple of days and Flynn Downes is unavailable and Charles sits on the bench and watches us lose and kill the automatic promotion hopes stone dead. So, Charles was unused and the subs that were used after Rothwell - Sulemana, Edozie and Fraser were all slightly differing levels of shite, 2 out of 10 performances from all four of them. These are our game changers ladies and gentlemen. They all made the team worse and we would have been better off making no second half subs.
A terrible day was made even worse with the possible long-term injury to Stuart Armstrong who has now probably played his last game in the Saints shirt. We can only hope at this moment but that injury is not as bad as feared but being stretched off with your shirt over your face is never a good sign. It’s a sobering warning to players who let their contracts run down as well.
Once again we proved ourselves to be incredibly soft. All the opposition has to do is to have a little bit of possession in our half and they inevitably score. Yes, both Cardiff goals today had a large element of fortune about them with the first goal being a shot that was going wide that fell to the goalscorer and the second being a huge deflection. What did we do to make those goals difficult to score? Nothing.
First goal – yes it’s lucky but he’s free in the six yard box and James Bree is ball watching and KWP didn;t do enough to cut out the original cross. Second goal was of course a big deflection off of Bednarek but Ashford should never of been allowed to get that shot in, in the first place. As Ashford makes his way across the pitch, three of our players do nothing and just watch. Where is the body on the line defending? We don’t do it. The body on the line defending was all at the other end where Cardiff earned their own likely win by defenders and goalkeeper chucking themselves in the way of everything and riding their luck. This was Cardiff youth and reserve team. a cobbled together unit that have never played together before and we fucked it, completely. So, I blame the manager for the horrendous game management after Cardiff equalised, but the vast majority of the problem is on the players.
As said, Southampton FC drag you back in and actually have you believing that everything is going our way and things are going to work out and we were going to achieve something amazing, only to find a way to somehow bring it all crashing down again. Playoffs it is. Tuesday against Leicester could’ve been a massive battle with everything on the line and now it just isn’t. They managed to grind out win against West Brom today and we did the opposite, losing to Cardiff Youth and Reserve team. Pathetic.
The most worrying thing about today was that when the pressure is on, we can’t do it. Playoff games are massive pressure. Up the Fucking Bottle Jobs.