Top 8 and a Cup Final... It's Still On!!!
Nearly a week into the
transfer window and nothing is happened in terms of the incoming players which
we so desperately need. Nothing is also happened regarding the manager that we
desperately need to get rid of either and so we arrive at the FA Cup third round
and an away trip to Fulham where we are probably the underdogs despite being a
league higher.
Before we played there was a
game on the Friday which was Liverpool against Everton and what do you know, Virgil
Van Twat scored the winner when he bounced a header off his head with his eyes
shut. Needless to say, in the Liverpool wankfest that went on, no one mentioned
how he had behaved for the last year or how Liverpool were a bunch of scumbags.
All will be forgotten as history gets re-written. Seeing all the Liverpool fans
kicking off the next day when Coutinho finally got is move to Barcelona was
amusing and unsurprising in equal measure. Van Dijk was a hero for forcing a
move to Liverpool but Coutinho is not thought of in the same heroic terms. What
a surprise. What are bunch of wankers.
I was looking forward to Pellegrino’s selection with a mixture of interest and dread as usual and I can’t say that I was too impressed. Bednarek was in for his debut which was not surprising given the unavailability of Pied and Hoedt. It wasn’t too long ago that a £5 million signing making his debut would’ve brought great excitement but not this time.
As the game started it became apparent that instead of playing Stephens at right back where he has actually played before, as recently as two weeks ago, Bednarek was shoved out there where I don’t think he’s ever played, certainly not for Saints or for the Under 23s. Yes, Pellegrino had decided to stick Bednarek at right back, playing against Ryan Sessegnon who is Fulham’s best player. This can only end well. Again, it seems a very fucking strange decision, in fact almost like he hasn’t thought about it at all.
The start of the game was predictably cagey with no one having any efforts on goal until the ball found its way to Steven Davies and he cleverly back-heeled through the defence to Shane Long who actually looked like a striker for a second that he lashed the ball into the net. Trouble was, he was offside as usual but you can’t be too harsh because it was fucking tight but it was the correct decision.
We weren’t taking the game to Fulham but waiting for their attacks to break down and then hitting them with quick counter-attacks. At least this looks like some sort of plan and from one of these, Boufal broke down the right hand side and fed JWP who fired wide from the edge of the box.
So half an hour gone and and we haven’t had a fucking shot on target and then Yoshida play the ball over the top to meet a good run from Davis. He found Boufal who committed a defender. Then we got lucky as his pass was mis-controlled by Long but ricochets off a Fulham defender to JWP who swept it into the net left footed to give us the lead.
If we score I the first half then you know we have about 10 minutes more of attacking before Pellegrino sounds the retreat and we switch to 9-0-1, defending our own 6 yard box. Boufal then tried and succeeded in pulling off a ridiculous bit of skill in the left-hand corner to skin the full back along the line and with absolutely no fucker trying to get into the box, he was forced to try shot from a narrow angle which the Fulham keeper deflected wide without knowing too much about it.
I was looking forward to Pellegrino’s selection with a mixture of interest and dread as usual and I can’t say that I was too impressed. Bednarek was in for his debut which was not surprising given the unavailability of Pied and Hoedt. It wasn’t too long ago that a £5 million signing making his debut would’ve brought great excitement but not this time.
As the game started it became apparent that instead of playing Stephens at right back where he has actually played before, as recently as two weeks ago, Bednarek was shoved out there where I don’t think he’s ever played, certainly not for Saints or for the Under 23s. Yes, Pellegrino had decided to stick Bednarek at right back, playing against Ryan Sessegnon who is Fulham’s best player. This can only end well. Again, it seems a very fucking strange decision, in fact almost like he hasn’t thought about it at all.
The start of the game was predictably cagey with no one having any efforts on goal until the ball found its way to Steven Davies and he cleverly back-heeled through the defence to Shane Long who actually looked like a striker for a second that he lashed the ball into the net. Trouble was, he was offside as usual but you can’t be too harsh because it was fucking tight but it was the correct decision.
We weren’t taking the game to Fulham but waiting for their attacks to break down and then hitting them with quick counter-attacks. At least this looks like some sort of plan and from one of these, Boufal broke down the right hand side and fed JWP who fired wide from the edge of the box.
So half an hour gone and and we haven’t had a fucking shot on target and then Yoshida play the ball over the top to meet a good run from Davis. He found Boufal who committed a defender. Then we got lucky as his pass was mis-controlled by Long but ricochets off a Fulham defender to JWP who swept it into the net left footed to give us the lead.
If we score I the first half then you know we have about 10 minutes more of attacking before Pellegrino sounds the retreat and we switch to 9-0-1, defending our own 6 yard box. Boufal then tried and succeeded in pulling off a ridiculous bit of skill in the left-hand corner to skin the full back along the line and with absolutely no fucker trying to get into the box, he was forced to try shot from a narrow angle which the Fulham keeper deflected wide without knowing too much about it.
Half time and for me, the
second half was going to be a huge test.
Could we stay on the front foot and learn the lessons from recent
mistakes or would we just be passive and allow Fulham back into it?
Into the second half and we nearly scored again after driving run by Hojbjerg, a pass to Long, a decent ball back in but Hojbjerg was by this time too close to the keeper keeper who managed to smother his shot wide for corner. It’s amazing the Pierre wasn’t in the side for the first 15 games of the season as he is easily one of our better players now. He’ll probably get dropped next week.
From JWP’s corner, Shane Long flicked it on and Jack Stephens had a free header into an open goal from 4 yards and displayed the marvellous heading technique that we usually see at the other end of the field and headed it against the bar. It’s a quite shocking miss.
You knew that despite being pretty awful that Fulham wouldn’t have a chance at some point, probably from a set piece and so it proved as Norwood slung in a cross from the left wing and McCarthy bucked the trend of usual Saints goalkeepers by actually came out for the cross. The trouble is that the defenders are not used to this kind of goalkeeper behaviour that they don’t know what to do and Hojbjerg got in McCarthy’s way and the ball ended up at the feet of a Fulham centre back who luckily, showed why he is a centre back and lashed it over the bar.
Into the second half and we nearly scored again after driving run by Hojbjerg, a pass to Long, a decent ball back in but Hojbjerg was by this time too close to the keeper keeper who managed to smother his shot wide for corner. It’s amazing the Pierre wasn’t in the side for the first 15 games of the season as he is easily one of our better players now. He’ll probably get dropped next week.
From JWP’s corner, Shane Long flicked it on and Jack Stephens had a free header into an open goal from 4 yards and displayed the marvellous heading technique that we usually see at the other end of the field and headed it against the bar. It’s a quite shocking miss.
You knew that despite being pretty awful that Fulham wouldn’t have a chance at some point, probably from a set piece and so it proved as Norwood slung in a cross from the left wing and McCarthy bucked the trend of usual Saints goalkeepers by actually came out for the cross. The trouble is that the defenders are not used to this kind of goalkeeper behaviour that they don’t know what to do and Hojbjerg got in McCarthy’s way and the ball ended up at the feet of a Fulham centre back who luckily, showed why he is a centre back and lashed it over the bar.
Substitution time was upon us, late i the game as usual and Pellegrino managed to get himself a blast of 'you don't know what you're doing' with the removal by numbers of Hojbjerg who had been our best player. Lemina, Gabbiadini and
Redmond on for Hojbjerg, Davis and Long and the three combined as Gabbiadini
put Redmond away on the left he fed Lemina who backheeled into the path of
Gabbiadini who showed exactly why he’s not playing at the moment by lashing it
into Row Z. In fact it may have been row ZZ as it was that high.
First the good news, we won again and in truth we won it quite comfortably even though it was only 1-0 in the end and any win is a good win, especially in our situation. This has to be put in context though.
After several attempts, it appears the Pellegrino finally got what he wanted which was to score a goal in the first half and then defend and keep a clean sheet in the second half. It’s a shame we had to play against the Championship side in order to do it. All the decent chances in the game are created by us with Fulham only really looking like scoring from the old set piece, especially the one when McCarthy came flying out and crashed into Hojbjerg. Defensively we were solid enough and Bednarek was ok in that regard but it really would have done no harm at all to play a proper right back from the academy who may at least have added something going forward. Failing that, play JWP at right back and Sims on the wing.
The negative from this game for me is that we decided to sit back again after an hour and spent the last half an hour just containing a very limited Fulham side and quite often, banging the ball forward to nobody. It’s this lack of learning from our past mistakes which drives me nuts. The win is a bit of a papering over the cracks situation but as said earlier, in the situation we are in then any win and against any opposition is welcome.
It’s been the case recently that the team have been fucking dreadful and letting down the fans. Today, the fans showed up in numbers which was impressive but quite of few of them let the team down. I’ve said it before and I’ll keep on saying it that booing a player on your own team and singling out an individual on your own team for sarcastic applause or booing whenever he comes onto the pitch or touches the ball, is a cunt’s game. That’s what you are and that’s what you deserve to be called. No one would miss you if you weren’t there so just fuck off.
First the good news, we won again and in truth we won it quite comfortably even though it was only 1-0 in the end and any win is a good win, especially in our situation. This has to be put in context though.
After several attempts, it appears the Pellegrino finally got what he wanted which was to score a goal in the first half and then defend and keep a clean sheet in the second half. It’s a shame we had to play against the Championship side in order to do it. All the decent chances in the game are created by us with Fulham only really looking like scoring from the old set piece, especially the one when McCarthy came flying out and crashed into Hojbjerg. Defensively we were solid enough and Bednarek was ok in that regard but it really would have done no harm at all to play a proper right back from the academy who may at least have added something going forward. Failing that, play JWP at right back and Sims on the wing.
The negative from this game for me is that we decided to sit back again after an hour and spent the last half an hour just containing a very limited Fulham side and quite often, banging the ball forward to nobody. It’s this lack of learning from our past mistakes which drives me nuts. The win is a bit of a papering over the cracks situation but as said earlier, in the situation we are in then any win and against any opposition is welcome.
It’s been the case recently that the team have been fucking dreadful and letting down the fans. Today, the fans showed up in numbers which was impressive but quite of few of them let the team down. I’ve said it before and I’ll keep on saying it that booing a player on your own team and singling out an individual on your own team for sarcastic applause or booing whenever he comes onto the pitch or touches the ball, is a cunt’s game. That’s what you are and that’s what you deserve to be called. No one would miss you if you weren’t there so just fuck off.
Anyway, through to the 4th
Round of the Cup and maybe Pellegrino will deliver a top 8 finish and a cup
final appearance after all though you’d get better odds on Shane Long scoring
30 goals this season.
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