Premier League Match 28 - Burnley 1 Southampton 1

Bobby Madley Celebrates His Assist

Here we go then, the five games that would decide the division we’re in next season, starting at Burnley away in a fixture where we’ve lost 1-0 in a dreadful game in the last two seasons.  This season seen Burnley safely in the top half of the table due to decent fist half of the season but they’ve gone 10 games without a win and we should be going here looking to extend that run and leave with three points.  Their win at St.Mary’s earlier on in the season neatly summed up things for both clubs this season.  Burnley sat deep and made it a horrible game and then threw on a big striker and went even more direct and Saints couldn’t deal with it and lost 1-0.  The change in tactics from ‘basic’ to ‘even more basic’ from Sean Dyche was too much for Pellegrino to deal with, so he did nothing in what was a complete shambles of a performance from us.

Aside from Pellegrino, the other shambles this season has been the transfer window and this was brought into focus again this week with the news that we’d be playing these 5 do or die games and the FA Cup Quarter Final without Maya Yoshida in the squad.  I know he’s not a regular at the moment but we are now one injury or suspension to Hoedt or Stephens from having Bednarek in the starting XI and an untried kid – probably Alfie Jones – on the bench.  Bearing in mid we knew Virgil was leaving sometime in December and that we did the exact same thing last year as well, it’s a complete dereliction of duty by Les Reed and the football side of the board.  Talking of Les, he’s at Turf Moor along with Ralph Motivational Hockey Guy – hopefully they’ll be honest about the shambles they’ve helped to create.

An hour before the kick off is always a great time to be alive as a Saints fan at the moment as we get to see if Pellegrino has been taking his strong meds this week or just the standard ones.  Romeu for Hojbjerg is the only change so Redmond keeps his place despite the presence of Boufal and Sims on the bench who should both start ahead of him in my opinion.  Burnley have left out Sam Vokes and have the same 4-2-3-1 formation as us which proves my earlier point.  You would think that being 7^th and at home against the team in 18^th, you’d keep the same formation you had last week with two strikers but Dyche has set up to strangle the shite out of the game and probably play like the away side.  Bobby Madley is the referee, oh deep joy.

I can probably sum up the first half in either one paragraph, one sentence or one word beginning with ‘S’ but to describe the highlights in more detail – Burnley had a volley from Lennon which went straight at McCarthy for him to pick up after they’d bombed a ball long and it had been headed out.  Saints fashioned a chance after a poor keeper clearance with Redmond playing in Tadic and he had a decent effort with the outside of his left foot well saved by Pope.  That was it.  There was nothing except banging in long from them, banging it long from us and no intent from either side.  Carrillo was isolated for us, Barnes for them and it was abysmal.  Best League In the World – ha! Best Top 6 perhaps and the rest is atrocious.  With just the slightest bit of attacking intent and a little bit of ability, this game is there for the taking.

We start with a bit more about us in the second half but that quickly subsides to mind-numbing bollocks and Burnley are just doing what they do, throwing crosses into the mixer and hoping for the best.  They get a corner which is cleared by Carrillo, crossed back in and Barnes puts a decent header wide as no one bothers to jump with him.  We’ve got nothing going forwards at all.  Stephens and Cedric are engaged in a competition to see who can reach the goalkeeper with a clearance and none of our ‘creative’ players, JWP, Tadic and Redmond are doing a thing to hurt Burnley and Carrillo is lucky if he gets a ball within 20 yards of him.   It’s appalling and you know what’s going to happen.

Jack Cork wins a battle in midfield and gives it out to Lennon on our right.  Lennon is completely one footed so rather than showing him down the line, Cedric thinks it’s a good idea to allow him to switch it onto his good foot and cross it unopposed.  It’s met by someone at the back stick who is unmarked, McCarthy pushes it out onto the head of Hendrick who knocks it goalwards and there’s that shit Ashley Barnes to bundle it over the line from 6 inches out.  On first view it looks like a bit like a handball but Bobby Madley has given it.  Surprise, surprise, 1-0 down.

Josh Sims is on for JWP which suggests to me that Boufal is not fully fit.  JWP has been crap but Tadic and Redmond must be wondering what they have to do to get substituted and get one of those nice warm substitute coats to wear.  We have a go at totally fucking it up as a long ball over the top is gathered by McCarthy on the right hand edge of the penalty area and he clearly carries it out of the box (he’s nearly carried it out for a throw in) before dropping it and hoofing it out.  Lots of moaning from Burnley as Madley doesn’t give anything bar a throw.  At best for them it should have been a free kick and a yellow card but they’d shitting on like it should have been a red.

We wake up as an attacking threat and it starts with Hoedt winning a decent tackle out on the left and away we go with a ball up the line, Redmond to Carrillo and the big man finds Sims inside who goes directly at the goal, beats a man and then curls a shot at the top corner and the fucking goalkeeper somehow gets a finger to it and deflects it onto the post.  It’s the first bit of attacking quality all game from either side and it deserved a goal.  Bollocks.

As time ticks down, Pellegrino decides that we might actually need a goal so he hits the ‘random’ button taking off Tadic and Romeu and bringing on Gabbiadini and Boufal.  The formation has gone to shit and no one really knows what’s going on, including Pellegrino I suspect.  Sims has a lash which flies over the bar and the 3 minutes extra board goes up.  Bobby Madley takes centre stage.

Burnley have the ball in midfield and a loose-ish pass is played sideways to Westwood who turns and runs straight into what looks like a pitch invader but it’s in fact, Bobby Madley who is in the way.  Redmond picks it up and drives forward, skipping past a challenge and finds Sims on the right.  He crosses to back stick, Carrillo heads down and Gabbiadini holds off a defender, swivels and crashes it into the net on the volley.  Fabulous finish and Burnley are all round Bobby, giving him shit.  It’s hilarious.  Burnley’s bench is giving it the large one and they’re mood is not helped in the last minute as Barnes decides to sit down in the box rather than try and win a header against Hoedt and cries for a penalty.  Fuck off.  Bobby blows for full time.  What a legend.

I guess this is a decent point given where we were when 90 minutes and given that any away point is decent in some regards … so why am I disappointed and find it hard to accept that this is a decent result.   I guess it’s because Burnley are one of the most limited teams in the division and for anyone to pretend otherwise is ridiculous.  They are seventh in the league because they won a lot of tight games 1-0 at the start of the season. Fair play them to doing that but they could just have easily drawn three or four of those games and they will be down there with us at in the bottom of the table.  I have nothing against Burnley but the amount of moaning bollocks that came out in the aftermath of this game from Sean Dyche (mainly) was quite staggering. Listen lads, you don’t play any football and you just smash the ball from back to front. You didn’t deserve to win the game and moaning about every fucking decision that might possibly have not gone your way just makes you look like twats. You could maybe get away with it if you acknowledged that Ashley Barnes bundled your goal in with his arm but you didn’t acknowledge that so you can take all your whingeing and moaning and fuck off as far as I’m concerned.

Dyche Gets Ready To Give It the Big One, Pellegrino looks Bewildered as We Score.

Let’s be honest, Ashley Barnes put that ball into the net with his arm. It’s not like Doucoure at Vicarage Road but the bottom line is that ball is not going into the net without a second deliberate movement by Barnes with his arm towards the ball to push it over the line. I’m not saying he’s a complete fucking cheat like Doucoure is but it’s a hand ball and with VAR, that goal would probably have been ruled out.  I don’t blame the officials for missing this one.  Talking of officials, our goal on the other hand was hilarious because Bobby Madley got an assist. He’s a fucking diabolical referee and has cost us on many occasions but on this time he played an absolute blinder by getting in the way of Ashley Westwood and allowing Redmond to start the attack which led to the goal. I can’t believe Burnley are saying that Gabbiadini fouled Kevin Long before he smashed into the net. That is just absolute bollocks. So are you saying that the referee did it on purpose Mr Dyche? The referee is part of the fittings and exactly the same way that the posts and the corner flags are. Occasionally these fittings are going to get in the way. I learned that when I was seven years old and have accepted it ever since so stop with your fucking moaning.  As mentioned, Dyche won some tight games 1-0 by basically boring the shit out of games and winning on a set piece or a long ball goal.  You need luck to win games when you play no football and you’ll get the breaks  sometimes and sometimes you won’t.  For him to be talked up as a future Arsenal manger (for example) as he was at the start of the season is laughable. 

Ashley Barnes’ interview on Match of the Day was hilarious. He looks like he was going to cry, acting like some sort of innocent victim.  Anyone remember that tackle he put in, halfway up Nemanja Matic’ standing leg a couple years back. Yeah, that’s how much of an innocent victim Ashley Barnes is, so spare me all your whingeing moaning, hard done by bollocks.

This game, from both sides was absolutely atrocious. I watched the rugby in the afternoon and there was less kicking long for territory in that than in Burnley versus Southampton. The first half was as bad as there has ever been and the second half wasn’t much better. It was entirely predictable that we would let in a goal in the manner that we did and be 1-0 down and it was not thanks to a manager that we got back into the game. He got lucky as there was absolutely no plan with his substitutions other than throwing on attacking players and hoping for the best. No one seemed to know where they were playing and there was no discernible formation as such.  It might have been 4-1-3-2 or it may have been 4-1-4-1 or it might have been something completely different entirely.  What it was however there was nothing that had ever been practised before.  Redmond and Boufal both seem to be playing on the left wing, Sims was on the right and Gabbiadini and Carrillo where upfront. Sims was absolutely electric once he came on and contributed more in 20 minutes then Redmond has contributed all season. All of a sudden we had someone with intent to make something happen, forcing the keeper into worldy save, putting another chance over the bar and setting up the goal should earn him a starting place next week.  It won’t of course but it should.

Then you have the fact that Sims put in a cross, Carrillo headed it down and Gabbiadini smashed in the net. We actually had players in the box and we had probably our most natural goalscorer on the pitch and in a forward position, with support from a bigger stronger strike partner. Again, both scorer and supplier should be starting next week but unless the manager can actually bring himself to drop his golden boy Tadic, then Gabbiadini will be on the bench again and Carrillo will be isolated. 

Before the last few minutes panic, there was a massive lack of intent in our play and a lack of desire to score a goal. Even the bloody mainstream media are beginning to notice it now. Jermaine Jenas called it out on Saturday afternoon.  Pace, power and intent of the three things that you have to have in your side. The frustrating thing is that we are not far away but under this manager, it is never going to happen. We have full-backs who want to get forward. We have a central midfield player in Lemina who wants to drive the team forward but whilst we have a manager who picks his attacking midfielders based on how well they can defend, we are always going to struggle.  I understand it against good sides but Burnley, regardless of the league position, are not a good side. If you go back to the pace and power intent thing, Tadic is none of these but he is the first name on the team sheet because Pellegrino values the defensive things that he does.   

I heard and interview Gary Neville a week or so ago we kept going on about how Alex Ferguson encouraged the Manchester United players to take risks, especially in the final third. Ferguson would’ve picked Boufal, would have given Hesketh a chance  and he would pick Josh Sims and he would play with one striker dropping off of another striker. Sadly we have a risk-averse shambles of a manager which is why we can go to a team as limited as Burnley and only show intent when we are one down with five minutes to go. I said after a few games but if you offered Pellegrino 36 1-1 draws and that kept us up, then he would’ve snapped your hand off for it and there is nothing that I have seen in the 28 games we have played so far to make me change my mind.

And breathe… having said all that, at the end of the day the point here is what I expected as a minimum so it’s not a horrific result and it has moved us up to 16th in this ridiculously tight relegation battle that we are in. Next up is the massive acid test for Pellegrino. Stoke at home.   Stoke, along with West Brom and Swansea are the three teams that look worse than us at the moment so in this game, a draw really is no fucking good so he has to send a team out to win the game. I won’t be holding my breath.