Europa League Match 1 - Southampton 3 Sparta Prague 0

Two 8-Year Olds Have to be Separated by Their Dad

It’s time for the rewards for last seasons efforts to be delivered and here we are, Europa League Night 1 – it’s been a journey from the Liebherr takeover in 2009 to now.  The Europa League branding around the ground looks good and there is an undoubtedly different feel about his as opposed to a normal League game.  Sparta Prague were pretty well known in European Football terms when Czechoslovakia was still a country and in the early 90s when the Czech Republic was formed, they were the dominant side domestically but they’ve not been as great recently, hence their appearance in the Europa League whereas teams such as Slovan Liberec are in the big competition.

Not that this is a small competition (well maybe it is for Mourinho and those patronising Man United bastards) and certainly not for Saints and Claude.  We need a win and we need some positive signs that the way we are playing is going to work.  However, I was expecting a different style of game tonight, one that would suit us more.  We’re seen as the 2^nd seeds in this group, behind Inter and ahead of Sparta and Hapoel so in the context of the group, it’s important to get a result against the team who on paper at least, should be challenging us for a qualifying place.

The team selected by Claude is kind of strange but not strange.  Three changes in the back four is a bit of a change with Cuco, Maya and Matty Targett in and only Virgil retained from the Arsenal game.  Elsewhere there are 4 other changes but nothing that you’d deem earth-shattering with Austin, Long, Hojbjerg and JWP coming in for J-Rod, Redmond, Davis and Clasie.

Oh look we’ve got one of those behind the goal officials that does nothing, right in front of us.  The first action of the game is after 5 minutes when Austin gets down the right and tries to cross only for it to be blocked by the sliding Costa at left back for a corner.  The ref gives a corner and everyone seems happy and then out of nowhere he points to the spot and it’s a penalty.  What the fuck is that for says I, with not the same venom as I said it at The Emirates a few days ago... and how did he arrive at that decision as he didn’t consult the traditionally placed linesman who didn’t have a flag across his chest.  It must have been a word in the radio earpiece from the official behind the goal.  Later replays proved this to be harsh beyond belief.

Before the penalty is taken we have a scene as Austin has the ball and is clearly wanting to take it and he and Tadic are having a bit of a row like a couple of 8 year olds.  It takes the head boy Virgil to go up and pull Tadic away and he’s still not having it but eventually he walks away.  Fucking embarrassing.  Anyway, after the comedy award and the comedy double act, up steps Charlie and drills it into the corner to give us a great start and hopefully give him some confidence.

We’re all over them now and Cuco is getting involved down the right, putting over a good cross which Charlie meets and nods into the net but as is often the case with Charlie, he’s offside.  We then settle into a rhythm of playing possession football but it’s all a bit slow paced for me as we work it up to the half way line and then knock it back again. 

It takes until the 20 minute mark for us to create another chance and it’s that man Cuco Martina again.  Thirty seconds after me moaning at him because he was so slow at getting out that he allowed his winger all the time in the world to get a cross in, he gets down the wing and has a great position to cross it in but he scuffs it into the defender and it bounces back to him and out of nowhere, he pulls out this wonderful cross with the outside of his right boot, right onto Charlie’s head, back across the keeper and 2-0 as easy as you like.

Back to the holding pattern for the rest of the first half, not really giving them a sniff and then Maya (as usual) has a go at ruining an exceptional first half for him by blindly knocking a shite short back pass to Fraser who has to dribble past a forward before clearing.

My prediction at half time was that it would be a dull second half and we’d just try and play it out and as we restarted, this looked like coming true.  We got a free kick for a foul on JWP on the half way line and we took it, passed it about a bit on halfway and then worked it back to Fraser.  Fraser then wellied it back to half way, where JWP lost a header and Sparta had the ball.  My question is this – what was the point of that?  Far from advocating ‘putting it in the mixer’ a-la Allardyce, there has to be more value in passing it forwards. Why not stick Charlie Austin on the penalty spot and toss it in there?  What’s the worst that can happen?  We lose the ball in their penalty area.  We are at times too patient and need to commit to a few more forward passes slightly earlier than what we are doing.

Anyway, nothing much is happening and it’s time to bring on some subs and Redmond is up first, coming on for Tadic.  Dusan has again looked superb in places but went out of the game when a Sparta player whacked him in the back in the first half.  After being bollocks and static against Arsenal, Redmond was a revelation here and was exactly what the game needed with his willingness to run at people and inject a bit of pace into the play.  Charlie Austin was beginning to look knackered as he was doing lots of tracking back on the left wing and so he came off without a hat-trick and was replaced with J-Rod.

The game was won to be honest and this was illustrated when Hojbjerg played a superb ball inside the full back for Cuco to run onto and whilst he looked up for someone to knock it back to for a tap-in, there was absolutely no one busting a gut to get into the box so he dithered and got tackled.  Not Cuco’s fault and I bet he wished he’d just smashed it at the goal.

Oriel Romeu had been having a mixed match to say the least but the tackle he put in to get booked was so late that the ball was in another post code.  Hilarious but Claude thought better of leaving him on for entertainment value and on came Davo for the last 10 minutes.

Whilst Austin had rebuilt his confidence with his goals and a decent performance, Shane Long had not and was having what is usually described as a ‘mare’.  He’d been so bad that it was somewhat surprising a) that he was still on the pitch and b) that when he got put into space on the left that he didn’t fuck it up and he got his head up and fed the onrushing J-Rod who sorted his feet out well and passed it across the keeper and into the corner for 3-0 and make the final score more representative of the match.

There had been a bit of a niggly undercurrent in the game and Sparta had clearly had enough as JWP copped a bad one on half way which made him kick off and as the final whistle blew, the left back decided to take a chunk out of Redmond and they had to be kept apart at the final whistle. 3-0, a decent if not perfect performance and happy days.

On the one hand, it’s great to get a win and it’s great to make a good start in the Europa League group.  It’s a welcome boost for Claude and there were a lot of positives with the biggest potentially, being the goals for Charlie Austin and the confidence it will bring him.  Christ knows we need a goal scorer.  Elsewhere, Virgil just strolled through the game looking like a Rolls Royce in a garage full of Trabants and Maya had a very good game aside from the one massive balls up.  Romeu was hilarious in midfield, going through a cycle of win ball, give ball away, win ball, give ball away, break someone.  He is part Schneiderlin, part Wanyama, part Wotton.  I was impressed by JWP for the whole game and by Hojbjerg for most of it.  Pierre seems to have ten minutes off here and there but when’s he’s switched on he’s a great player.  JWP is obviously working hard to adapt his game to what’s required in this system and is notably being more aggressive and passing the ball quicker.  He should really now be getting as much game time as Davo and Clasie. 

And then there was Cuco, swinging from bloody crap to bloody brilliant within seconds.  Miles away from the man he’s supposed to be marking one minute and then putting over a superb cross the next.  He’s totally unpredictable, which is not necessarily what you want in a defender.  Nothing sums him up more than the goal he set up for Charlie – a horrible shanked cross which hit the first defender and bounced back to him, followed by a perfect cross with the outside of his foot to give the striker a goal on a plate.

Elsewhere, Man United lost to Feyenoord which is funny but they don;t give a shit so we shouldn't be surprised.  They too chose a few squad players like Depay (£30m), Schneiderlin (£25m), Herrera (£28m) and other big money players like Rojo and Martial.  Pogba was shit again and Zlatan came on as a sub so it was hardly a team of untried kids.  Tossers.  More importantly, there was a shock in our group as Inter lost at home 2-0 to Hapoel Be'er Sheva which I guess is not a good result for us.  I guess we'll find out in a couple of weeks when we travel to Israel.

Bigger picture… Are we getting there?  I don’t know really.  The wide areas of the pitch still concern me.  I have a feeling that against teams that play with real width we’ll really struggle.  Our strikers chase back into the traditional right and left midfield positions and then aren’t up front if we break.  To me it looks like they don’t really get back far enough to be part of the defensive effort but they’re back far enough to not get involved up front too much.  J-Rod’s performance was interesting in that he had 15 minutes on the pitch and in that time he only managed to get forward once, when he scored.  The rest of the time he was playing just in front of Targett.

Sparta – they were pretty shite to be honest.  Some tidy stuff in midfield but nothing up front and some strange players at the back and in goal.  However, the penalty that we were given was complete bollocks which put them up against it right from the start.  Would it have been given at The Emirates?

Next up we have Swansea in the League and another ‘must win’.  Claude has a few decisions to make regarding the 11 that start but I would imagine the defence will be re-installed with Cuco being the most likely to be given a chance out of today’s line-up.  In midfield I think Romeu is set in stone and I thought Tadic was until today but Redmond coming on and playing in the hole behind the strikers really made a difference so maybe Redmond there and Tadic on the left, up front with Austin.  Personally I’d persevere with Hojbjerg and JWP in midfield but I think that Davis will come back into the side, probably at JWP’s expense.

Anyhow, that’s for another day.  For now, let’s just bask in that winning feeling again.  It seems like it’s been a while.