FA Cup 4th Round - Southampton 1 Watford 0

Winning?  Dominating? In Control?  Never Fear, Captain Chaos is Here

Transfer window klaxon and Saints have actually signed someone with Guido Carrillo coming in from Monaco for £19.1 million.  A 6 foot 3 centre forward who will hopefully mean that we’ve finally replaced Graziano Pellè.  It only took us 5 transfer windows.  Carrillo’s record can be read in a number of ways.  Goals per game is not so great but minutes per goal is because of the number of substitute appearances.   He’s a Pellegrino old boy which makes me suspicious and Monaco are one of the better French clubs so he won’t be used to a relegation battle.  The French league of course, is known for being a bit less physical than the English League but Argentineans can usually handle themselves though, so hopefully he’ll be decent.

Today is the FA Cup 4^th Round with the visit of Watford.  It’s a decent draw as is any home draw against anyone other than a top 6 club so we have to be confident of progressing and we would be if we were any good at winning football matches. On the positive side, 20% of the games we have won this year have been in the FA Cup and there aren’t many teams who will be able to match that percentage (West Brom perhaps).

Would it even be worth coming along today?  With the 6 pointer against Brighton coming on Wednesday and another against West Brom on Saturday – would we be risking any of our first team players.  Gardos and Bednarek at centre back with Obafemi up front?  Nope.  Our line up is relatively strong – there will be no Florin Gardos or Jan Bednarek etc and this tells me that Pellegrino knows he is severely under pressure and can’t afford to tank this game.  Having said that, he’s picked Shane Long instead of a striker.  JWP drops out with Boufal coming in and Davo comes in for Lemina.

Watford have of course sacked Marco Silva since we played them a couple of weeks ago but the new man Javi Gracia has also picked the cheating shitbag Abdoulaye Doucoure.  Happily for us, Troy Deeney is not in the match day 18 which is one less thing for Jack Stephens to shite his pants over.  “And the referee today is Bobby Madley…” oh joy of joys.  Kevin Friend last week, Bobby Madley this week… what have we done to deserve this?

Away we go in front of what looks like a fairly decent crowd, showing that the club have got the ticket prices correct.  Watford have brought down a decent number and the first thing they get to see is Boufal taking on the full back and being tugged back.  With JWP on the bench it’s down to Bertrand to put over the free kick which Long pokes goalwards, the keeper blocks and there’s Jack Stephens to pass it into the net from about 6 yards.  Get in.  You see… good on the floor, not so great in the air.

Watford look strangely not arsed and we stay in the ascendancy with Davis putting Long away and he takes a touch and then has to go and chase it 30 yards.. Due to his pace he gets there before it runs out and puts in a great cross which is just being Cedric who is steaming in at the near post.  What got me about this move was the fact that Shane was completely taken out once he’d crossed the ball and not only was it a foul and therefore a penalty,  he got smashed into the boards and we ended up playing with 10 for a few minutes.  Watford used this to make their first foray into our half and Romeu brought down Capoue giving them a free kick on the edge.  Up stepped Half-season Wonder Richarlison and it was shite from the moment it left his boot, high and wide.

Cheating shitbag Doucoure has hardly touched the ball yet but when he does get involved it’s good to hear some booing.  Not so good is to see Ryan Bertrand pull up and you know he’s going off and we don’t have a left back on the bench.  That’s a strange one when you think about it.  It’s easy to find a right footed player to fill in at right back so why not have a specialist left back to play on the bench?  Anyway, on comes Pied to play on the left.

We are playing some decent football, albeit against piss poor opposition as Hojbjerg works it across to Cedric and he and Tadic combine well with Cedric putting over a low cross which Long slides in and misses.  Once again though, Cedric is completely wiped out after he’s crossed the ball and it should be a penalty.  VAR would probably have given it and so would a vaguely competent referee and linesman.

oHojbjerg works it across to Cedric and

Right on half time Richarlison floats in a cross but it’s one of those which is overhit and dropping in and McCarthy does well to pack pedal and shovel it over the bar and with that we go in 1-0 up at half time.  It must have taken the Watford manager all of 10 seconds to get Okaka warmed up and the big unit is on for the second half.  Get ready for 4-4-2 and long ball.  I’m sure Pellegrino has it covered.

The good news is that as opposed to Deeney, Okaka is shit and so is the quality of hoof coming into him so there’s no immediate danger.  Up the other end, Boufal has them on toast and he tricks past the full back then slows up and Carrillo (their one) bundles into the back of him.  I wasn’t expecting it to be given in real time but when I saw it again it’s a shove in the back and so that’s 3 out of 3 for Bobby M.

Long, who has single handedly responsible for giving Watford any bit of possession they have then fires straight at the keeper from a Davis pass.   He then brilliantly pulls down a Tadic chipped ball through and just when you think he’s going to score one of the great goals with just the keeper to beat, he pulls out some sort of wanky chip which is neither shot nor cross and bollocks.  Is it any wonder we can’t kill teams off?

There is also bad luck involved in that as well as Tadic runs on left before teeing up Hojbjerg who absolutely pings one from 30 yards and it’s past the keeper and smacks off the bar.  From the next attack, Cedric gets over a cross and Long again looks to have a header at goal but has another brainfart and heads it across to no one and it’s cleared again.

60 minutes gone and Pellegrino has of course already had one sub forced upon him and now it’s time for him to influence the game. Yoshida is ready to come on so I assume that Cedric is coming off as he clearly has a knock and that Stephens will go to right back.  I kind of stop looking for a second and then I realise that Boufal, who I thought was going over to receive instructions, had gone off.  What the fuck is that!!!  I was so gobsmacked, I did what I never do and went on Twitter during a game I was watching and tweeted “That fucking substitution is insane”.  I just wanted there to be a record of the fact that even when a game is going perfectly well, Captain Chaos can throw a spanner in the works.  It’s like he’s sitting there stroking a white cat thinking “things are going so well, I must fuck it up”.  So anyway, we now have 5 at the back, three in midfield, Tadic at 10 and Shane up front.  No width at all so guess what, Watford’s full backs push up and start raining crosses down into our box.  Where’s Marco Silva’s number?

I Have an Evil Plan to Fuck Everything Up

I’ve forgotten my glasses today so it doesn’t help that the game has now moved 20 yards up the other end.  In an instant it’s all Watford.  Okaka works his way in from the left and has a blast from a narrow angle which is blocked and then Richarlison gets in a cross which Okaka misses because he’s shite.  Why are they getting these chances now?  Oh yes, Captain Chaos.

Captain Chaos has one chance to realise his mistake and fix it with his last sub – maybe take a defender off and put JWP on but instead he hooks Tadic and brings on Carrillo for his debut – and plays him out of position at 10.  Fucking hell.

Carrillo (our one) kind of lumbers about with the air of a man who is delighted to be trying to acclimatise to English football and in addition, trying to acclimatise to a new position.  Meanwhile, up the end of the pitch where all the players are now, Pereya crosses and Okaka attempts the kind of bicycle kick which would be nearly impossible for a player with much more ability than him and it sails into the Northam.  It’s all them, it’s shite yourself time, long throws, panic clearances, crosses and a free header for Kabasele which he heads wide in abominably shit fashion in the last minute.  Blow your whistle Bobby – thank you.

A win is a win and into the 5th round we go. I guess that the end justifies the means because we won and kept a clean sheet but boy did we make it difficult for ourselves in the last half an hour. When I say that we may be difficult for ourselves, I of course mean Pellegrino made it difficult for ourselves.  Still, he got the win and this means that if we are 1-0 on 60 minutes, he’s going to revert to the 5-4-1 formation that we used away at Man City and drop back to the edge of our own penalty area.  It really won’t work often but there you go.

For the first time in nearly 2 months, we have won a game at St Mary‘s thanks mainly to the fact that Watford were absolute cack and unable to take advantage of the horrific game management of Mauricio Pellegrino. We also got lucky in that Troy Deeney wasn’t available for Watford for some reason.

The substitution on the hour mark when you choose to take Boufal off and replace him with Yoshida was the most negative, pointless and nonsensical substitution from what is admittedly a pretty big catalogue of questionable substitutions that he has made since he’s been our manager. To recap, we were controlling possession, we were the most likely team to score next and we were under no pressure whatsoever and Boufal was terrorising their right back Janmaat who was having to pull Watford’s right winger to help him out. We had already proved that we could handle Okaka upfront for Watford because he is absolutely bollocks. As Boufal was making his way of the pitch it was obvious to anyone what was going to happen. We would drop deep and the Watford full backs would now be able to get forward and sling balls into the box. Pellegrino completely gave up on attacking with half an hour to go. Because he played five at the back, any width was going to be provided by Cedric, who could hardly run and Pied who was out of position on the left. In other words, it wasn’t going to happen. Then, later on in the game he brings on Carrillo for his debut and plays him as an attacking midfielder so we didn’t get to see him in his correct position and even if we had, we didn’t have anyone putting in crosses for him.

The positives today well once again the performance of McCarthy in goal. The defence were not troubled by a pitiful Watford attack but you have to mention Jeremy Pied who put in a decent shift at left back after Bertrand went off. I thought the midfield pairing of Romeu and Hojbjerg were superb And totally eclipsed the cheating fuck Doucoure.  The negative today was obviously the injury to Ryan Bertrand which is when we can well do without with the two games that we have coming up. Not so great was Shane Long. So many of our attacks break down on the fact that Shane Long cannot control the ball. He is not an intelligent runner either. A lot of said about his running and chasing and all that but when the midfield is building up, he is quite often stationary and waiting for a ball to go and chase.  Maybe he still has the after affects of the illness that forced him to miss the Spurs game – if so though, why was he on the pitch with two fit strikers on the bench?

Brighton at home on Wednesday is next and that of course is fucking huge. If Bertrand doesn’t recover then I expect McQueen to start – well he has to really as Targett has been loaned out for the rest of the season. I would also anticipate JWP coming into the side in place of Boufal (even though we need Boufal against what will surely be a massed defence) and Lemina coming in for Davis. I hope that when Lemina does come in that he plays in exactly the same position that Davis did today, in front of Romeu and Hojbjerg. Personally, I would pick Yoshida ahead of Stephens but I can’t see Pellegrino doing that and likewise I can’t see Carrillo being given a start straight away so I expect it will be Shane bloody Long whilst seven players with more ability sit on the bench.  One thing is for sure - all pellegrino's decision will be made with fear and caution in mind.

Nigel Adkins always used to say that it was best not to get too high when you win or to get to low when you lose. We have won today but because of Pellegrino, his substitutions and game management; there is absolutely no danger of getting too carried away with it.

Anyway, 8th and a Cup Final....it's still on!