Fecking Goal Machine !!
It’s a big day in the scheme of things. Win today and I feel
that we are virtually there and we can start planning for next season. A win
for Cardiff at Burnley, coupled with us not winning would certainly make it a
bit squeaky still. The good news is, that Ralph is certainly not going to let
up at all until we are over the proverbial line and I can’t imagine he will
even when we are over the proverbial line.
A quiet week with the press conference revealing only that Mario Lemina is still injured, so badly that it's restricted him to 15 Instagram posts a day. We have seen the last of him in a Saints shirt I’ll wager. Great player when he wants to be but there you go.
And then on Friday it was announced that Ralph Krueger was leaving with his contract not being renewed at the end of the season and vice chairman Martin Semmens standing in in the meantime before restructuring commences in the summer. I think that in the main Krueger is done a decent job bearing in mind what a chairman is supposed to do and in particular, what he was supposed to do, increase revenue and look after and implement the culture and philosophy of the football club. Some of the Motivational Hockey Guy shit we could’ve done without but at the end of the day he was a positive force and I would say his only real major failing was leaving Les Reed in place for too long at the start of the season.
There seems to have been a bit of a nasty triumphalism about him leaving which I don’t like. Any change brings with it the possibility of a negative impact and with the club going in the right direction at the moment it has to be at least a slight concern that there may be a negative impact with Ralph Hasenhuttl and maybe the summer uncertainty causing problems with incoming and outgoing transfers. If I had to put money on it, I would say that there won’t be a negative impact but you do have to bear in mind that there’s a bit of doubt before you hang out the flags and start shouting ‘bring back Cortese’ from the rooftops.
Today’s visitors are Wolverhampton Wanderers, fresh from tossing away a 2-0 lead with 10 minutes to go in the FA Cup semi-final last week. In the main, they have had a brilliant season and deserved to get to the FA Cup final but two late Watford goals meant that the manager, Nuno Espirito Santo had made the school boy error of taking off two of his best players before conceding a last-minute equaliser so he then had to play extra time with a weakened side. It’ll be interesting to see how they react because all their eggs were very much in the FA Cup basket and they really have nothing to play for in the league. Hopefully, they will be in beach mode. They do have some standout players though with Joao Mourinho and Ruben Neves in particular, catching the eye in midfield. The defence, marshalled by Connor Coady has been decent and Raul Jimenez, on loan this season has been signed up for next season for a cost of £30 million quid.
A quiet week with the press conference revealing only that Mario Lemina is still injured, so badly that it's restricted him to 15 Instagram posts a day. We have seen the last of him in a Saints shirt I’ll wager. Great player when he wants to be but there you go.
And then on Friday it was announced that Ralph Krueger was leaving with his contract not being renewed at the end of the season and vice chairman Martin Semmens standing in in the meantime before restructuring commences in the summer. I think that in the main Krueger is done a decent job bearing in mind what a chairman is supposed to do and in particular, what he was supposed to do, increase revenue and look after and implement the culture and philosophy of the football club. Some of the Motivational Hockey Guy shit we could’ve done without but at the end of the day he was a positive force and I would say his only real major failing was leaving Les Reed in place for too long at the start of the season.
There seems to have been a bit of a nasty triumphalism about him leaving which I don’t like. Any change brings with it the possibility of a negative impact and with the club going in the right direction at the moment it has to be at least a slight concern that there may be a negative impact with Ralph Hasenhuttl and maybe the summer uncertainty causing problems with incoming and outgoing transfers. If I had to put money on it, I would say that there won’t be a negative impact but you do have to bear in mind that there’s a bit of doubt before you hang out the flags and start shouting ‘bring back Cortese’ from the rooftops.
Today’s visitors are Wolverhampton Wanderers, fresh from tossing away a 2-0 lead with 10 minutes to go in the FA Cup semi-final last week. In the main, they have had a brilliant season and deserved to get to the FA Cup final but two late Watford goals meant that the manager, Nuno Espirito Santo had made the school boy error of taking off two of his best players before conceding a last-minute equaliser so he then had to play extra time with a weakened side. It’ll be interesting to see how they react because all their eggs were very much in the FA Cup basket and they really have nothing to play for in the league. Hopefully, they will be in beach mode. They do have some standout players though with Joao Mourinho and Ruben Neves in particular, catching the eye in midfield. The defence, marshalled by Connor Coady has been decent and Raul Jimenez, on loan this season has been signed up for next season for a cost of £30 million quid.
Bloody hell – Ralph is going for it, no Romeu in midfield
and Josh Sims from the start. Cojones. Danny Ings is back so Shane Goal Machine
reverts to the bench.
Away we go and Hojbjerg picks up a Boly header out and chips it down the line to Sims who races into the gap vacated by the central defender and crosses low to wear Redmond, dancing in front of Saiss, gets a foot in and pokes it past Patricio into the roof of the net and fuck me, we are ahead after about a minute and a half. It’s just like the Mark Hughes days isn’t it not.
We are leaving three players upfront at all times and this is forcing Wolves into mistakes with Boly presenting the ball to Valery and via Ings to Redmond who, full of confidence, tries his luck but it comfortably curled into Patricio’s mid-riff. Where going to gets difficult is when Wolves get the ball into the three players in midfield who are outnumbering Hojbjerg and JWP. Hojbjerg gives the ball away to Jimenez but Saints get all around him quickly as he takes ages before getting away a shot which Gunn saves easily.
Wolves are on top but only really look dangerous from set pieces which are devilishly swung in by Joao Moutinho. We get away with one or two without ever looking confident but another corner is swung over and there is Willy Boly to thump in a free header who got away from his marker and met the ball just in front of our three centre backs who were nicely lined up marking their zones along the edge of the 6 yard box and generally not doing anything. Fuck it!
I don’t know what Ralph has done but we always used to be this side that responded to setbacks by immediately creating another one for ourselves. Strange shit is going on and virtually from the kick-off it goes back to Bednarek who knocks it forward to Sims, into Ings and he slotted through to Redmond who dinks the keeper and a minute and a half after conceding, we are 2-1 up.
The game should be over in the next few minutes as Ruben Neves give the ball straight to Sims who has a choice between shooting and playing Ings through for an open goal and he doesn’t do either and the ball dribbles apologetically wide to the left. A minute later and Wolves are trying to play out of defence but JWP wins a tackle, passes to Ings who put Sims through again with just the keeper to beat and this time he totally fucks up even more and it goes wide of the other post.
That’s the last significant action of what has been a very strange first half. Wolves have looked a very good side but we should be winning 4-1.
The start of the second-half is fairly even with Wolves having the majority of the ball and Saints being content to defend deep and try and hit them on the break. After 15 minutes or so though we are beginning to creak so it’s time to bolster things somewhat with Romeu coming on for Sims. Danny Ings has got through another hour without getting injured so it’s time to be happy with this contribution for the day and on comes Shane Goal Machine Long.
It takes a while for these changes to have the desired affect as Wolves have a couple of chances… well I call them chances in the loosest way as Jota’s spin and lash ended up in row Z near the corner flag and then Jimenez does even better with a free volley from 8 yards which he belts out for a throw-in. The latter chance had resulted from a classic bit of non-communication between Yoshida and Vestergaard which resulted in Maya just heading the ball straight up in the air.
Redmond is again the man to get us on the front foot as he sprints past two players before winning a corner. The corner is delivered by JWP and Vestergaard gets bundled over. In the chaos that followed, Yoshida tries an overhead kick which gets blocked back to him and he manages to poke it goalwards a second time whilst sitting on his arse. Shane Long is loitering in his normal position of offside and turns it into the net first time past Patricio only this time he is not offside as Traore has dozed off on the post and not pushed out at all. 3-1 and Shane scores for the second game in a row - Goal Machine.
Wolves are a big side and are really dangerous when they get a corner at the other end but they are fucking hopeless at defending corners. In comes another from JWP, carnage, Romeu shoots and Yoshida connects from point blank range only to see Patricio pull off a fabulous save. The ball falls to Vestergaard who tries to dribble past couple of players in a tight space with predictable comedic results. Vestergaard was actually clipped by one of the Wolves players but if he had gone down it would’ve looked so bloody awkward that there was no way he would’ve been given a penalty by fat John Moss who was probably 40 yards away.
Ten to go and Stephens is on for Valery, who has been carrying a knock for the last five minutes so I guess Ralph trusts Jack not to throw two goals in the time that remains. There is no danger of having any extra injury time when John Moss is referee so with the bunter about to have a heart attack, he blows the final whistle.
Get in, another three points towards the target and to make things even more fabulous, Cardiff lost away at Burnley. Apparently they got given a penalty which was then over ruled so imagine Colin Wanker throwing another absolute shit fit as we speak. Brighton also continued their plummet towards the danger zone with a very closely fought 0-5 home defeat by fucking Bournemouth. Admittedly, three of the goals were after arch knobhead Anthony Knockaert had got sent off for the most ridiculous late challenge. You could argue that the late challenge was against Adam Smith so he probably deserved it but Knockaert will miss the season defining game at the Amex between Brighton and Cardiff on Wednesday. Can they both lose?
Ridiculously, today was almost a run-of-the-mill victory. There was almost an expectancy to win and we turned up and did the job. Of course it is not as simple as that. I think that Ralph Hasenhuttl must have special trousers because he has balls the size of watermelons. Matching up three strikers against Wolves back three and therefore conceding a player in midfield was an incredibly bold move but it paid off within a minute and a half of the start of the game. Not only that, it continued to give Wolves defensive nightmares throughout the first half to such a degree that we should’ve been about three goals in front by half-time. Sure, we conceded a lot of possession in midfield but the five defensive players held firm and apart from their goal which was a bog standard header from a corner, but didn’t create too much to worry Angus Gunn in goal. By the time Ralph did bring Romeu to stiffen up the midfield, Wolves had had enough and the semi-final defeat they had last week seemed to come back to haunt them a little bit in that it all got a little bit too difficult and they just wanted the season to end….. and what is going on when Shane long comes off the bench, scores and puts in what you could describe as the perfect cameo performance. Goal machine.
Away we go and Hojbjerg picks up a Boly header out and chips it down the line to Sims who races into the gap vacated by the central defender and crosses low to wear Redmond, dancing in front of Saiss, gets a foot in and pokes it past Patricio into the roof of the net and fuck me, we are ahead after about a minute and a half. It’s just like the Mark Hughes days isn’t it not.
We are leaving three players upfront at all times and this is forcing Wolves into mistakes with Boly presenting the ball to Valery and via Ings to Redmond who, full of confidence, tries his luck but it comfortably curled into Patricio’s mid-riff. Where going to gets difficult is when Wolves get the ball into the three players in midfield who are outnumbering Hojbjerg and JWP. Hojbjerg gives the ball away to Jimenez but Saints get all around him quickly as he takes ages before getting away a shot which Gunn saves easily.
Wolves are on top but only really look dangerous from set pieces which are devilishly swung in by Joao Moutinho. We get away with one or two without ever looking confident but another corner is swung over and there is Willy Boly to thump in a free header who got away from his marker and met the ball just in front of our three centre backs who were nicely lined up marking their zones along the edge of the 6 yard box and generally not doing anything. Fuck it!
I don’t know what Ralph has done but we always used to be this side that responded to setbacks by immediately creating another one for ourselves. Strange shit is going on and virtually from the kick-off it goes back to Bednarek who knocks it forward to Sims, into Ings and he slotted through to Redmond who dinks the keeper and a minute and a half after conceding, we are 2-1 up.
The game should be over in the next few minutes as Ruben Neves give the ball straight to Sims who has a choice between shooting and playing Ings through for an open goal and he doesn’t do either and the ball dribbles apologetically wide to the left. A minute later and Wolves are trying to play out of defence but JWP wins a tackle, passes to Ings who put Sims through again with just the keeper to beat and this time he totally fucks up even more and it goes wide of the other post.
That’s the last significant action of what has been a very strange first half. Wolves have looked a very good side but we should be winning 4-1.
The start of the second-half is fairly even with Wolves having the majority of the ball and Saints being content to defend deep and try and hit them on the break. After 15 minutes or so though we are beginning to creak so it’s time to bolster things somewhat with Romeu coming on for Sims. Danny Ings has got through another hour without getting injured so it’s time to be happy with this contribution for the day and on comes Shane Goal Machine Long.
It takes a while for these changes to have the desired affect as Wolves have a couple of chances… well I call them chances in the loosest way as Jota’s spin and lash ended up in row Z near the corner flag and then Jimenez does even better with a free volley from 8 yards which he belts out for a throw-in. The latter chance had resulted from a classic bit of non-communication between Yoshida and Vestergaard which resulted in Maya just heading the ball straight up in the air.
Redmond is again the man to get us on the front foot as he sprints past two players before winning a corner. The corner is delivered by JWP and Vestergaard gets bundled over. In the chaos that followed, Yoshida tries an overhead kick which gets blocked back to him and he manages to poke it goalwards a second time whilst sitting on his arse. Shane Long is loitering in his normal position of offside and turns it into the net first time past Patricio only this time he is not offside as Traore has dozed off on the post and not pushed out at all. 3-1 and Shane scores for the second game in a row - Goal Machine.
Wolves are a big side and are really dangerous when they get a corner at the other end but they are fucking hopeless at defending corners. In comes another from JWP, carnage, Romeu shoots and Yoshida connects from point blank range only to see Patricio pull off a fabulous save. The ball falls to Vestergaard who tries to dribble past couple of players in a tight space with predictable comedic results. Vestergaard was actually clipped by one of the Wolves players but if he had gone down it would’ve looked so bloody awkward that there was no way he would’ve been given a penalty by fat John Moss who was probably 40 yards away.
Ten to go and Stephens is on for Valery, who has been carrying a knock for the last five minutes so I guess Ralph trusts Jack not to throw two goals in the time that remains. There is no danger of having any extra injury time when John Moss is referee so with the bunter about to have a heart attack, he blows the final whistle.
Get in, another three points towards the target and to make things even more fabulous, Cardiff lost away at Burnley. Apparently they got given a penalty which was then over ruled so imagine Colin Wanker throwing another absolute shit fit as we speak. Brighton also continued their plummet towards the danger zone with a very closely fought 0-5 home defeat by fucking Bournemouth. Admittedly, three of the goals were after arch knobhead Anthony Knockaert had got sent off for the most ridiculous late challenge. You could argue that the late challenge was against Adam Smith so he probably deserved it but Knockaert will miss the season defining game at the Amex between Brighton and Cardiff on Wednesday. Can they both lose?
Ridiculously, today was almost a run-of-the-mill victory. There was almost an expectancy to win and we turned up and did the job. Of course it is not as simple as that. I think that Ralph Hasenhuttl must have special trousers because he has balls the size of watermelons. Matching up three strikers against Wolves back three and therefore conceding a player in midfield was an incredibly bold move but it paid off within a minute and a half of the start of the game. Not only that, it continued to give Wolves defensive nightmares throughout the first half to such a degree that we should’ve been about three goals in front by half-time. Sure, we conceded a lot of possession in midfield but the five defensive players held firm and apart from their goal which was a bog standard header from a corner, but didn’t create too much to worry Angus Gunn in goal. By the time Ralph did bring Romeu to stiffen up the midfield, Wolves had had enough and the semi-final defeat they had last week seemed to come back to haunt them a little bit in that it all got a little bit too difficult and they just wanted the season to end….. and what is going on when Shane long comes off the bench, scores and puts in what you could describe as the perfect cameo performance. Goal machine.
Ladies and Gentlemen - Your Player of the Season
Talking of goal machines, Nathan Redmond was brilliant today, totally deserving his two goals in yet another man of the match performance. Both goals were great with the dinked finish for the second goal being the better team goal due to the contribution of Sims and Ings but the first goal is a superb strikers goal nipping in front of the defender at the near post to meet across coming in from Sims. Fabulous goal.
The two that had the toughest job today were Hojbjerg and JWP who had to compete against the very decent Wolves midfield three of Dendoncker, Moutinho and Neves. Personally, I think if you’re going to play only two central midfielders then it needs to be Hojbjerg and Romeu but you can trust JWP to put tackles in now where is you couldn’t last year and he’s also much more disciplined positionally.
Unsung heroes today were our full backs. Bertrand and Valery knew they were going to have to do a little bit more defending than usual today because of the lack of numbers in midfield but when they needed to, they dropped alongside the centre backs and got in touch with Vestergaard on the left and Bednarek on the right to mean that Wolves hardly had a shot of note. This is a marked contrast to the Wolves wing-backs who basically left their back three on their own when they were clearly struggling against our three strikers.
Talking of whom, Ings is slowly getting back to his best and hopefully can stay fit to the end of the season and if Sims had finished either one of the two clear-cut chances that he had straight after we went 2-1 in front then he would’ve been rivalling Redmond for man of the match. Sims won’t be a first choice player just yet but playing those three is another tactical ploy that Ralph can use. The player I feel sorry for is Stuart Armstrong who has seen JWP overtake him in the pecking order and now it appears that Sims is ahead of him regarding one of the wide roles if we decide to play that way.
Next up is Newcastle and Watford Away And with us on 36 points, it should be the target to get four points from these two games and get to 40. We won’t need 40 to stay up because with the best will in the world Cardiff are getting 37 at an absolute maximum. After a decent win at Leicester last week Newcastle are safe so hopefully they will be on the beach and we should have a decent chance of exercising the ghost of the absolutely fucking abysmal 3-0 defeat we suffered there last year.
After the players and Ralph are done the celebrations at both ends of the pitch, it was great to be walking out of the ground and looking around and seeing smiles on everyone’s faces. Long may it continue. If we had persevered with Mark Hughes or if not got the appointment right after we sacked him then we would be right down where Cardiff are, if not worse. As it is, we can actually plan for another season. Barring a complete collapse, it’s about looking upwards and climbing a few places up the table to win as much prize money towards next years warchest as possible. And there’s always next season under Ralph to look forward to.
In the week where Ralph Krueger left the club, it’s a case of “The Ralph is dead, long live the Ralph”
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