Premier League Match 13 - Southampton 0 Stoke 1

Graziano Celebrates Having a Week Off

The time since the last Saints game had been dominated by the terrorist attacks in Paris.  England played France in a friendly which was a played in a really good atmosphere of support for our near neighbours which was very good to see and it was good that out normal way of life was not disrupted.  People carried on and people went to football matches.

This all happened during what was an international week and once the average supporter got their head around reading about the terrorism, it was a case of scanning the internet for news of whether any of our players had come back injured from their playoff games or their friendlies.  Shane Long had played 35 minutes for Ireland in their successful Euro 16 playoff game against Bosnia and the media had tries to turn Ronald Koeman’s ‘surprise’ at this into a huge ‘Club v Country’ issue and had failed.  Our only issue seemed to be around Virgil van Dijk who had a knee problem, causing a precautionary half time removal but Ronald revealed that we had another issue which had nothing to do with internationals as J-Rod’s problem with his foot was probably going to result in more surgery.  He doesn’t have much luck does he?

Today we play Stoke who are traditionally horrible opposition.  The style of rugby that they used to play under Tony Pulis has been replaced with a style of rugby which does at least have some flair with the inclusion of Xherdan Shaquiri, Bojan Krkic and Marco Arnautovic.  They still have Ryan Shawcross playing at centre mountaineer and Charlie Adam at centre thug.  In goal they have Jack Butland who has been superb this season and cemented his spot as 2^nd choice England keeper with Fraser Forster being injured.  Virgil is fit so Saints have just the one surprise in the line up with Sadio Mané being on the bench and Shane Long starting.  It annoys me slightly that Sadio manages to arrive back late from every international break and I’m pondering why Gaston Ramirez is not on the bench.  Also, why is Long starting when he’s on just got fit again and Juanmi is on the bench again.  If ever there was an indicator that Juanmi is not impressing the management then this is it.  Personally, I’d have started Gaston.

Anyhow, my opinion does not matter - It’s Stoke, it’s fucking cold, let’s do this.... but first, let’s listen to La Marseillaise. OK.  Away we go.

Right.  As it’s Stoke and Shawcross – do we have a decent referee?  Hmm, it appears not as the mountaineering starts and no free kick given.  We don’t look too bad though and have the first real effort as the ball drops to Tadic on the left of the penalty area and he finds space to fire one across goal and wide of the far post.  Stoke create a chance which Bojan scuffs at the keeper but that’s not the issue – the issue is how east it was for them to build up and get into the position to have a shot.

We then do that horrible ‘standing off’ thing which has made a few appearances this season. Tadic gives it away on the left wing and we  allow Stoke to pass it about at will with Arnautovic and Pieters combining whilst under no pressure and the latter firing over a low cross and Bojan makes a run in front of Fonte and superbly flicks it past Stekelenburg and inside the post.  Oh shit, 1-0.  I’m forseeing a horrible afternoon ahead as the gameplan Stoke clearly have of defending deep and hitting on the break is now going to be even more difficult to combat because they have a lead to hold on to.

It has to be said though that their forward play is really dangerous, in complete contrast to ours.  Whereas we go pass-pass-sideways-pass-backwards-pass-pass-lump-to Pellè–lose it, Stoke go pass forwards-pass forwards-pass forwards-shoot with Shaqiri firing over and then bringing another good save out of Stekelenburg.

We do have a few chances but nothing that you’d call a good chance and we don’t get any on target.  Firstly José Fonte gets up to meet an inswinging free kick from Davis but gets too much on the header and headed it over.  Our next free kick is rubbish but is dropped by Butland under no pressure and Big Vic can only stab it wide.  I would have been interesting if Vic had tried to take it round Butland as the keeper just threw himself at the ball and would have trashed him.  Then, a Stoke attack broke down and we broke through Tadic but with Long failing to make a good enough angle for a pass, he took it on himself and lashed it high and wide of the near post.

I think that Cédric must have a second job as a crash test dummy.  Never does a game go by without him getting smacked in the face and needing some sort of bandage stuck on his head.  Perhaps the club could sell a patented Cédric crash helmet for kids who keep running into things.  He’s down for about 3 minutes but the ref decides that he’s cold so spot on 45 minutes, we’re straight off for half time without any time being added.

The half time break is a time for pondering what has gone on in the preceding 45 minutes and wondering what is going to change in the second half. That's what it usually for anyway. Today it was a time for thinking back over my 40 years of watching Saints and wondering if there had ever been a less enjoyable 45 minutes of football. I’m sure there has been but this one is right down there.  This general state of misery was not helped by the fact that it was fucking freezing cold.

The second half starts with some half arsed shambles from us and loads of space for them with Arnautovic finding Shaqiri who again fired over.  Arnautovic is an odd player.  His body language infers that he’s in a permanent sulk and he has a stupid little pony tail which makes him look like a twat but underneath all that, he’s a good player who most of the time, puts in a good shift defensively.

Finally some pressure as we start to ping it about with a bit more purpose but it’s all still in front of Stoke with no sustained pace in the attacks.  There’s some decent football but it always breaks down on the edge of the box or it goes to Tadic who get s a cross in which in either shin height or floated straight to Butland. We look like we’re trying to walk it in and sheer weight of number in the Stoke defence makes this impossible.  There’s on bit of play where Virgil brings it out of defence and plays a 1-2.  He picks it up again and tries to play another 1-2 but we check out and knock in backwards again.  He’s made a run and Charlie Adam is not going to track him but we turn around and come out again and Virgil’s left on the edge of the area, thirty yards ahead of the ball and waving his arms about because he didn’t get it back.  Vic sidefoots just wide from the edge of the box and Ronald decides that 65 minute sis enough and Sadio Mané comes on but it’s strange that Clasie is coming off as he’s been decent and easily our best passer of the ball.

No sooner has the change been made then Long runs across the top of the box and has a crap dive over an Arnautovic challenge.  I can’t even be bothered to appeal as it’s that obvious.  Lee Mason again shows he’s shit by not booking him.  With Davis having dropped back into Clasie’s position we are just about holding our own in midfield but then he’s taken off and replaced with JWP.  Our midfield has now disappeared and it’s just a case of waiting for Stoke to score and with that, Arnautovic strolls through and smashes one over the bar.

The only way we’re going to get anything is from a set piece (unlikely as we’re wafting them all straight to the keeper) or a penalty and we should have one as Wollscheid hacks Pellè over but the twat with the whistle is not having any of it.  To confirm that nothing is going to happen, Juanmi comes on for Cédric and his crash helmet, so we now have five strikers on.  All that happens is more Stoke chances as Afellay gets one on target which is past the keeper but cleared off the line by Bertrand.  We are resorting to pumping it long and from one of these bombs, Graziano clearly controls it with his arm, the referee blows and Pellè just smashes the ball into the crowd and has a yellow card waved at him before it’s even landed.  Great. 5 bookings and out of the Man City game next week.  End.

What a miserable game that was and thank Christ it's over. It is very easy to dismiss it as just one of those days and I guess it was but you have to look at why. A lot of it was down to stoke been Stoke and all the niggly fouls and climbing and all that sort of stuff. You of course need a good referee to stop all that and we didn't have one today as we had big fat bald guy Lee Mason who was terrible. How he missed the foul on Pellé defies belief.  Despite not giving us a penalty, Mason is not the reason we played so badly though as that lies a lot closer to home.

Whether it was the cold weather or the French issue I don't know but for whatever reason, a number of our players just didn't seem up for it today including the whole forward line which kind of means you’re going to struggle to score. The worst offender was Graziano who despite not getting much of the ball still managed to not fight for it or hold it up once and I don't think he held Shawcross or Wollscheid off once. They would have been expecting a really hard game but it must have resembled a training game for them.  Most of our good moments came through to Tadic but he in the main was dreadful and then we had Shane Long being Shane Long with no first touch, no composure and throwing himself around looking for free kicks and penalties that were never going to be given and just resulted in us losing the ball again. So that's the whole forward line who were terrible and then we had Sadio Mane coming on, on the right wing where he was pretty ineffective and the last throw of the dice was to bring Juanmi on who added another 10 minutes to his tally of minutes for Saints when he hasn't touched the ball. We may as well have put Steven Caulker on upfront and just launched it as it would've been more effective. Again, why is Juanmi on the bench when Gaston Ramirez is not? I know he's going in January or at the end of the season but for now, he's our player, we are paying him, and on merit he deserves to be on the bench. In fact, you could make a strong case for him being in the team today instead of Shane Long.

On the positive side, it was another good performance by Jordy Clasie who was always looking to pass the ball quickly and pass it forwards. It was strange to take him off because he was our best player and we just got worse once he went off.  Changing the formation never seems to work for us so in hindsight we should have taken either Long or Tadic off when Mané came on and kept the same formation. We hear lots of talk about impact subs but all our subs did today was make it worse. JWP did less than Davis as it just meant we were more open in midfield and it was only down to their shite finishing that Stoke didn't win two or three nil. As mentioned earlier, bringing Juanmi on is a waste of time.

A win today would have put us fifth but of course we have now dropped down to 8th and a lot of teams have closed in including bloody Liverpool who managed a quite ridiculous 4-1 win at Manchester City who will be keen to put that right when they play us at the Etihad next week. We will be without Pelle, thanks to his moronic booking today, though this may work out in our favour as we will have Long and Mane up against Di Michaelis and Mangala who are both as slow as you like.

I know it's a day for keeping the faith but as I froze my bollocks off, trudging back across the Itchen Bridge, I didn't really feel like it. We were fucking rubbish today and all we can hope for is that when we look back in May, that this is our worst performance of the season…. Apart from Midtjylland away perhaps... ok, our worst league performance of the season.... apart from Everton.