Premier League Match 10 - Southampton 0 Leicester 9 (Fucking NINE!)

Bad Day at the Office

Friday night, Sky o’clock kick-off for the visit of Brendan Rodgers and his very impressive Leicester City side. It has been said since the start of the season that they would be a very good bet to break the top six this season and nothing that has happened since the start of the season has changed that point of view. If anything, they should now be looking at the top four given the relative poor looking efforts from Tottenham, Arsenal and Manchester United.

Brendan Rodgers has recovered from being somewhat of a figure of ridicule at Liverpool where Gerrard’s infamous slip cost them the title. As time has gone by, more of that indifference towards Rogers has proved to be coloured by peoples indifference towards Liverpool and finding every near miss very, very funny. Brendan did catch that Liverpool disease though of saying the most irritating thing at the most irritating time but a spell in Scotland winning every game with Celtic has revitalise the man and now, I think of him as being a decent manager first and a bit of a dick second. I wouldn’t have thought this was possible.

The team he has built since replacing the somewhat useless Claude Puel is impressive. They have replaced Harry Maguire, who some thought was irreplaceable, with a young player with a daft haircut who they already have on their books, Caglar Soyuncu. Jonny Evans has always been an excellent central defender and how Manchester United to do with him now. Too exciting full backs in Parreira and Chilwell complete the defence. The midfield three is as good as anyone else in the Premier League with Wilfred Ndidi, James Maddison and Youri Tielemans. Unlike the club playing in red and white stripes who will be opposing them today, Leicester signed their number one target and paid decent money to get him.  40 million sounds a lot and it is but if I sell him next summer he will go to double that. That’s how you invest in a football club.  Up front they have Jamie Vardy who will always be a handful and it’s a terrifying prospect thinking of him running at a defence containing a 6 foot 6 totem pole that can’t run or jump.

There has been a sense of relief around the Southampton camp since we stop the rot with the point last weekend and I’m really not expecting any changes in personnel or tactical tweaks for this game.

Walking across the Itchen Bridge is a load of fun in the pissing rain and the wind. The three of us walk across like the front row of a rugby scrum with my son at tighthead, my dad at a loose head and me providing the ballast from the hooker position to stop the other two getting blown over. Upon arrival at the ground, of course it’s Sky and it’s under the lights so we have all the usual bollocks with flashing floodlights for the epileptics amongst us and though I cringed when it started, the performance by the two young rappers, despite not being my genre of music, was decent.

Away we go and it begins to look slightly worrying after a couple of minutes. Leicester have the ball and look incredibly threatening straightaway. If Saints do win the ball then we don’t get any further than the midfield before we lose it again. Occasionally we get a ball up to Redmond or Ings but the midfield are concentrating on defending and not getting forward to support at all so we immediately lose the ball again and here come Leicester.

It starts on our left with Bertrand hacking Pérez over but the ball bounces to Ndidi who feeds Chilwell on the left. He tried some sort of shit shot which is a mis-hit but it find Barnes who hits it, Gunn pushes it out back into play, straight to Chilwell who side foots it into the net as simply as you like. 10 minutes gone and that goal has been coming, for 10 minutes. Whilst the celebration is going on, it flashes up on the screen that a V AR check is going on for a potential red card. Fucks sake… And it’s a red card for Ryan Bertrand. They do actually show the tackle for about half a second on the big screen and it looks like he’s taken him out just below the knee so you can see why he has had to walk. It’s a bit strange that no one from Leicester appealed for the free-kick and the referee and linesman didn’t see it despite being right next to it but there you go. So, 1-0 down and 80 minutes left with 10 men when we were already getting battered with 11. Fucking awesome.

Ralph’s response to the red card is to take JWP out of midfield and stick him at left-wing back. What the fuck? Now we are surrendering the midfield even more and now we have three centre backs marking Jamie Vardy. I don’t understand this at all and nor did the players as Barnes pisses past Valery and Romeu on our right and tries to knock it inside but it’s not going anywhere until Valery tries to intercept it and succeeds only in passing it to Tielemans who shoots on the edge of the box and sscores virtually in the middle of the goal past the presumably unsighted Gunn.

A few minutes later and Pérez, who hasn’t scored all season of until tonight, bundles through our kind of non-existent left hand side, totally unimpeded by JWP or Vestergaard or any other players should be over there and shoots straight through a gap between Gunn and the near post. This is 10-year-olds defending and goalkeeping. Absolutely fucking useless and we might as well all fucking go home. On that note, some people decide that evening will be better off spent at home or in the pub and start to leave and I can’t blame them. The boos ring out.

18 minutes gone and this is fucking ridiculous. Another formation change and I don’t really know what’s going on and it’s clear the players don’t really know either but it appears that Valery has now gone to left back And possibly Bednarek to right back or maybe there is absolutely no one at right back. JWP is kind of over there but he seems to have reverted to his normal position on the right of the midfield three. Ings is playing on the left wing and Redmond has the fun job of running around upfront on his own with no one within 40 yards of him.

Even with two and a half central defenders, we are not marking any of the players and when the next cross comes over from Chilwell, it floats over the embarrassing arseholes at the back and Valery has not tracked Perez who meets it on the volley and buries it for 4-0.

My mood is now leaving the realm of anger and entering the realm of finding it amusing. I’m sure it will switch back and forth a few more times as the game goes on. Still we’ve nearly reach half-time only 4-0 down and oh fuck me, another goal as Chilwell tries a sort of cushion volley cross which isn’t really going anywhere until JWP flicks it over Vestergaard who was stood there going “I am Groot“ and it falls to Vardy who holds off Yoshida as you would a three-year-old child who was trying to hit you and smashes it into the empty net. I think Gunn may have actually been in the goal but he might as well not have been.

Half time. 0-5. Believe. When the saints go marching in. The Southampton Way… We March On etc.  Fuck off.  Useless cunts.

I had soup at half time.  Highlight of the game.

Leicester are out on the pitch for a good three minutes waiting for our shambles to emerge. Could it be that no one wants to actually play the second half and we are going to concede and fuck off home? Oh shit, here we come, well eight of us anyway and there are two subs on the line waiting to come on. Jack Stephens, just the player you want when you are looking to shore things up, is coming on and so is Kevin Danso who Ralph clearly doesn’t rate. The lucky two are Danny Ings and Vestergaard who have been taken off for different reasons I assume. For Ings it will be because he is our best player and there is absolutely no point in flogging him today running around chasing lost causes. For Vestergaard it will be because he is fucking embarrassing and maybe because there is a light bulb that needs changing in one of the high ceilings in one of the changing rooms and they couldn’t find a fucking ladder.  From the positions the players stand in before kick-off, it becomes apparent that the two central defenders who have come on are our new full backs with Stephens on the right and Danso on the left. Hojbjerg is on the left of midfield with Valery on the right and Redmond is given the thankless task of running round in the middle of a Rondo training drill for the next 45 minutes. There were some other changes at half-time in that about 10,000 fans went for a piss at half-time and kept on walking.

For about 15 minutes we are relatively solid but then Leicester decide that there may be some records to be made so they start attacking again. Barnes chips one in from the Leicester left and I have no idea where Bednarek is but Yoshida has two men and he picks up neither of them. Danso does absolutely nothing and Pérez runs off the back of Yoshida, takes the ball down, changes his boots, changes his shirt, put it on inside out by accident and still has time to put it on the right way and smash the ball past Gunn for number six.

Super Jack Stephens is now right back and of course, Ben Chilwell is absolutely taking the piss. Stop the cross stop the cross, okay, don’t even fucking bother to try and over comes a cross from Chilwell, Yoshida completely misses it and Jamie Vardy is all alone in front of goal about 6 yards out. He doesn’t miss many of those and he doesn’t miss this one. Seven fucking nil.

I think that it’s at this point that Stuart Armstrong gets told to warm up and come on to replace Valery. As a substitute, in the pissing rain, I would not have been terribly happy about being asked to come home at 7-0 down. On comes Armstrong and dribbles past a player, therefore instantly having done more than JWP has done.

We do manage to equal the record as Leicester win a free-kick on the edge of the box and James Maddison flips it over an absolute shambles of a defensive wall which Gunn is standing behind and into the net for number eight. I believe we lost 8-0 to Everton in the early 70s So I feel somewhat privileged to be in attendance for history being equalled.

Can we beat it though as we reach the 90^th minute… of course we fucking can. There’s still time for more as yet another ball dissects the defence and Vardy is through and Bednarek makes an attempt to win the ball that he has absolutely no chance of pulling off and trashes Vardy. It’s a clear and obvious yellow card but Andre Marriner can’t be arsed to book Bednarek and so all the little kids in the family stand get to watch Jamie Vardy smashing the 9th goal to complete his hat-trick and then give it the big one to supporters. Can’t really blame him. I was pleased he scored because I’ve got him in my fantasy team. That’s how bad it was today, I found myself thinking about my fantasy football team by way of consolation and my desperate search for a positive.

Nine fucking nil at home. Nine fucking nil.

So, how am I feeling right now? Well from about 4-0 onwards I was just finding it funny. It’s not funny of course bearing in mind all the money that people shell out to come and watch but it was funny in that it was so abysmally shit. I will be laughing my head off it was anyone else but it was us. We were shit. We went to shit, we were gutless, hopeless, rudderless.  We were an embarrassment, we were a disgrace.  Those players were a disgrace to the fans, the club, the city and to themselves.  Useless fucking wankers.

The spotlight will ultimately fall on Ralph as the manager and he should cop some heat, obviously – but solely blaming him is ridiculous. In my opinion, we are lucky to have him. He’s managed a far higher level than we will ever get to and sure, he has made some strange decisions, including today but I’m not remotely surprised given the absolute shower of shit he has to work with. These are basically the same set of players that the last four managers have had and no one has been able to get a tune out of them for anything like a sustained period of time. Basically, the vast majority of them are third rate and are simply not good enough.

A manager can be tactically perfect and can get his team selection spot on in the eyes of a vast majority of people and the players can be as well prepared physically and as well-prepared about the opposition as they can possibly be. Once you step over that white line,  it comes down to what’s in your heart and if you haven’t got it in you to run for 90 minutes to support your team mates and play for the badge and the supporters then there really is absolutely no hope and there is nothing any manager can do. 

Ralph's Getting Good At His "What the Actual Fuck?" Face

Today, Ralph’s major fuck up was in the aftermath of the first goal and the red card. At that point you have to go 4-4-1 and just try and keep it tight until half-time so what we should’ve done was moved Yoshida to left back and tried to get to half-time without too much damage and stayed in the game. In the event, within five minutes we were 3-0 down and completely fucked because he tried to keep five at the back for some reason and  we had JWP slotting in at left back which basically meant we surrendered midfield and even though they only one striker to mark, our three central defenders just didn’t defend. After that we basically gave up for the rest of the first half.

Post substitutions at half time we had a 10 minute spell where we looked relatively solid when the 6^th goal went in we gave up again. Utterly fucking gutless. What summed it up for me on tap for me was the 8th goal which was Maddison’s free-kick from the edge of the box. Free kicks from right on the edge of the box actually quite difficult to score but the way we lined up the wall and the way Gunn stood behind it made it an absolute formality that Maddison was going to score. Our wall looked like it couldn’t be less interested and despite the fact there were about five players in it, it looked really really small. Weird.

The way a manager should be judged is if he gets the most out of the resources at his disposal. This is where, in my opinion, Ralph has to wake up and smell the coffee about a few of these players. Angus Gunn is shot to shit and he should have come out of the team weeks ago. I am tired of saying that McCarthy is our best goalkeeper and it gets proven with virtually every passing game. Vestergaard is shit. I’m beginning to think he is actually worse than Wesley Hoedt. This is not much of an achievement but at least Wesley would smash into a tackle occasionally and remind strikers that he was about. Strikers only notice Vestergaard if they accidentally run into the big bollocks. Yoshida will have one good game in five and if he is starting regularly then you have absolutely no chance.  He is supposed to be the calm head and the organiser back there. Fucks sake.  The only two centre backs we have who haven’t proved themselves to be not good enough yet are Bednarek and Danso but Bednarek is getting worse and Ralph clearly doesn’t rate Danso.

Vestergaard Action Figure

The three players in midfield are so similar in terms of pace and passing ability that all three of them in there is never going to work. None out of Hojbjerg, Romeu and JWP are bad players but all three of them on the pitch at the same time just doesn’t work. This area really needs to be freshened up with either giving Stuart Armstrong are run in the team so we at least have a midfielder who might get forward and support the attack or bringing Callum Slattery into the first team squad. Neither of those could make the situation worse but I’m not for one second suggesting that bringing either of those two in will be significantly better.

As I said though, the bottom line is I don’t think it matters who the manager is as the squad is shit. We still have Shane Long on the bench and today we got treated to Jack Stephens coming on to try and shore things up. Fucking hell. We have one left back because someone at board level throught we’d be better off with some money, rather than having a reserve left back and the first choice is suspended for the next three games now.

I’m not gonna waste any more time talking about those gutless sacks of shit but I did spend a bit of time during the game looking round the Family Stand at the next generation of Southampton supporters. I saw one small kid crying as the second-half went on and his dad decided it about 6-0 that he would spare him any more. There was one woman I could see with two kids sat either side of her and his two kids were just throwing sweets at each other having completely lost interest in the shambles in front of them. The bloke and his wife who sit directly in front of me who usually stay right to the very end, decided that they had had enough on about the hour mark and got up and left. He almost apologised as he went saying “there’s only so much I can take”.

On the other side of the coin, there was more vocal support in St Mary’s than there has been for some time. Why do we need adversity to bring out the best in people at times? The noise around the ground and the black humour was great because it showed the gutless sacks of shit on the pitch that we still fucking care. You’ve humiliated us and we’ve had to resort to taking the piss out of ourselves but we still fucking care. The fans that stayed to the end but the players could barely look them in the eye at the final whistle showed the players that we still fucking care and in some way, everyone that fucked off show that we still fucking care as well. For the second home game in a row, I can’t get angry about people who left early.  I love it that those useless cunts saw a half empty stadium and those that we left were taking the piss out of them.  If that doesn’t hit home I don’t know what will.

It was tough but we stayed to the end to the end. We stayed to the end to beat the traffic and then I walked home across the Itchen Bridge and got fucking soaked a second time. My dad once again repeated that this is probably going to be his last season as a season ticket holder. This time I genuinely believe him.

I’m looking forward to an email from the Saints marketing team asking me if I enjoyed my match day experience. Now would not be a good time to receive an email about artisan burgers and/or corporate fine dining.

Next up, Manchester City – we’re coming for you!

Up the fucking Saints.

Premier League Match 9 - Wolves 1 Southampton 1

Doherty's Totally Natural Fall the Only VAR Contoversy Here

A trip to the Midlands to play Wolves at Molineux and we are going there at exactly the wrong time. Their start the season was the traditionally dodgy one the team who qualify for the Europa League seem to have but they have sorted it out now and have won their last three games including a ridiculous 2-0 win away at Manchester City.

In the two games against them last season, I really didn’t think they were that impressive. Sure they beat us 2-0 at Molineux but we were the better side for most of that game and we smashed them easily at St Mary‘s. It can’t be denied though that they had an impressive season last year, particularly in matches against the top six big boys. It’s a good job we not one of them then.

The international break was interesting to say the least with England putting in a really poor performance in the Czech Republic and losing. Like the Kosovo game, this really showed up some of the limitations and certain players did their course no good at all. Michael Keane was again dreadful and Declan Rice didn’t look like the saviour of the English midfield that he is supposed to be. Both of those got dropped for the game in Bulgaria which ended in a 6-0 win but will be remembered purely for Bulgarian fans racially abusing all the black players in the England team. I can’t add anything to the debate that hasn’t been said already but until we start chucking these teams out of international competitions then nothing is going to change. It’s like anything in football. If you want to sort things out then you have to impose some proper punishments. Closing sections of grounds clearly doesn’t work. Minimal fines clearly doesn’t work. The thing I still don’t understand about the Bulgaria game was that after the referee stopped the game for the second time, a large majority of the meathead racists filed out of the ground. I find it very strange and hard to believe that they did that of their own accord and you can’t imagine a big group of idiots, containing the sort of people who would aim monkey chants at players, would leave relatively quietly if asked to do so.

There’s not much to say about Saints in the international break that we’ve just had except that Ross Wilson has moved to Rangers, which is a subject I’ve covered elsewhere. Ralph’s press conference before this game hinted that there may be a change in goal and also stressed how hard the players have been working during the two weeks without a game.

There was some anticipation at seeing the team sheet for today’s game but when it was announced, the feeling was a little bit flat. Vestergaard was back in the team as part of a three-man defence with Bednarek and Yoshida. JWP had retained his place in midfield despite an incredibly average season so far and there was no change in goal after all, with Angus Gunn given another chance to do 90 minutes without doing anything horrendous. The spine of Wolves team is much the same as last season with Rui Patricio, Connor Coady, Willy Boly, Joao Moutinho, Ruben Neves and Raul Jimenez all present and correct. The manager, Nuno Espirito Santo has not yet been poached by a bigger club and he still looks like Nathan Redmond‘s dad.

Saints start pretty well to be fair and the passes are snapping about but there’s not really much incident aside from an Ings chance from a narrow angle which is easily saved and a neat 1-2 between Hojbjerg and Ings which the skipper curls miles over the bar.  The 20th minute sees Wolves defender Ryan Bennett goes down to be replaced by a Real Madrid loanee, Vallejo Who immediately shows that all he has learnt in the Real Madrid academy is how to be as dodgy as fuck. Meanwhile, we have got our own dodgy defenders on show.

Long ball forward and Vestergaard has dozed off and loses the flight of the ball which goes over him. Gunn has come racing out like a pillock, too fast and too far and Jiménez has knocked it round him and runs into the empty net. The flag has gone up for something and it turns out that the forward’s controlled the ball with his arm. It goes to VAR just to confirm it and the on field decision stands. Well spotted linesman and the referee books Jiménez for his troubles.

Not long afterwards, Wolves break up the left on the ball goes loose for a second but Yoshida for some reason stands there appealing for offside or for a foul or something and allows Wolves to nick the ball again. It goes on to Cutrone who flicks a shot towards goal. Angus Gunn can do nothing but push it sideways and there is Jiménez to knock it into an empty net. Fuck it. Doesn’t look like there’s going to be any way that this is disallowed as we prepared a kick-off. Farcically, the word then comes through that Cutrone has been offside in the build up and it’s going to be disallowed. When the pictures come through, sure enough, he is about two feet offside so you can bitch about it all you like, but the goal has been correctly disallowed.

Half-time and to be honest we look like we could potentially get something out of this game if we could discover some sort of cutting edge and Wolves continue to have all their goals disallowed.

I like the look of Vallejo in the Wolves defence who is shite.  Under no pressure he passes straight to Ings on the edge of the box and he tries to curl a shot around Coady but doesn’t get hold of it and it ends up as a virtual back pass.  Vallejo carries on in his quest to try and give us a goal by chipping an aimless floaty straight ball into the midfield area. Hojbjerg wins it and powers it forward and Coady has a brain fart and just misses the ball. Ings is away, cutting across Boly before finishing to the goalkeepers right. The Fratton Park need slide is out again and we are 1–0 up.  Wolves look to VAR but there is none.

9 minutes is all it took. Doherty picks up the ball on the right hand side and weaves into the box past Vestergaard and Romeu and then bellyflops to the ground under a challenge from Hojbjerg . On first viewing it looks incredibly soft and he’s definitely helped himself to the ground but the referee gives it. The VAR check shows that there is contact between Hojbjerg and Doherty but that Doherty has instigated it by dragging his leg… but in VAR world, contact means contact and we can’t possibly overrule the referee. It does make you wonder what the fucking hell this part of the system is there for.

Gunn’s penalty saving technique has been called into question before because collapsing into a small ball in one corner of the goal doesn’t lead to many penalty saves.  He tried to put Jimenez off by dancing along the goal line but when the kick is actually taken, Angus doesn’t really move one way or the other and it’s 1-1.

Substitution time with 20 to go and an interesting test to see if Ralph wants to win this game or if he’s happy with a point. I was hoping for Boufal instead of JWP and we nearly got that with Boufal coming on and more or less taking JWP‘s position but JWP got bunted to right back and Valery got hooked off. I guess That Valery’s early booking makes it sensible to take him off but I am terrified that Nino Espirito Santo is immediately going to switch Traore to the left wing.

10 minutes of not a lot and it’s time for another change when Romeu, who has been arguably our best player, is removed to accommodate JWP back in the middle and this time it’s Kevin Danso who is given the opportunity to add right-wing back to the list of positions that are not his own where he has played for Southampton.

We are looking like the better side as we approach the end of the game and Boufal takes time off from running down blind alleys and mazies is across the pitch before being clattered to the ground by Dendoncker. It’s a long way out but JWP’s freekick is spearing towards the top corner but Patricio gets across well to keep the score level.

Full-time and a point and a job well done.

It can’t be denied that that is a fair result and as far as we are concerned, certainly a point we would’ve taken before the game. Wolves will point of the two disallowed goals they have even though both of them were disallowed correctly and we will point out the slightly dodgy penalty they got given. We didn’t have much of a cutting edge and relied on their mistake to give us a goal but in truth, if he the team was going to win it in the last 10 minutes, it was us.

Danny Ings is now working harder and looking fitter than he has done at any point during his time at Southampton. He took his goal superbly, picking up on the mistake by Coady but the way he moved across Boly to ensure he didn’t get tackled was the master stroke that gave him his fifth goal in four matches. I know the ones against the useless skate bastards shouldn’t really count but they do.

Elsewhere, Nathan Redmond had a good game apart from occasionally holding onto the ball slightly too long and there were decent performances from Romeu And Hojbjerg in midfield. We got a bit lucky in defence at times and actually got away with some horrendous defending on both of the disallowed goals. Angus came flying out to far too fast yet again on the first one and that was after Vestergaard had totally lost the flight of the ball. On the second one, Yoshida stood still and appealed for something rather than going into clear the ball but he got lucky again when a genuine offside happened a bit later in the move.

VAR had a mixed game. The referee and linesman between them spotted that Jiménez had handled the ball for the First disallowed goal so all VAR did was confirm it. VAR got the offside that the referee and linesman missed on the second disallowed goal so that was good but why the fuck did it take so long because when you saw the pictures, it was pretty clear cut.. The Wolves penalty was given by the referee so I think it has to be a clear and obvious error of VAR to overturn it. There is contact by Hojbjerg on Doherty but Doherty initiated it by dragging into Hojbjerg’s leg. From me, VAR should be overruling that one as Doherty has put himself on the ground. At least we know how VAR is being used now. Basically, the referees decision will stand unless it is fucking horrendously wrong which in some ways is okay but that’s not how it works with offsides where if the linesman doesn’t flag then the goal will be disallowed if the striker is offside by the width of a blade of grass. In the case of Doherty and the penalty he has just won. Applying VAR in this way is not going to discourage forwards from diving because that if there is any contact at all and the referee falls for it, then it is not going to get overturned. In my view, the referees both out in the middle and in the VAR room have got to grow a pair of bollocks and actually decide if a striker has been put on the ground by contact or if he has put himself on the ground.

If we wondered before the game whether it was Angus Gunn or JWP who had the compromising photographs of Ralph, we now know that it is JWP. Not only was he dreadful today but we took the regular right back off and moved it JWP there to keep him on the pitch and then took off a central midfielder and move JWP back to there. Both of the substituted players, Valery and Romeu were both adding a hell of a lot more to the effort than JWP. Aside from the free-kick right at the end, there really wasn’t much of a contribution from the golden child and at one point I found myself trying to guess whereabouts on the first man, every JWP delivery from a wide area would hit. Would it be knee-high or hip high or shoulder height?

After stopping the rot of three defeats in a row today, we next face Brendan Rodgers excellent Leicester City side at home. Leicester are currently third in the league and looking like a very good side and certainly one that will give us a lot of problems. I am however, more optimistic after today as we looked much better, more cohesive and more like a team than at practically any point this season. Bring it on.

Ross, Les and Ralph Too (and Chairman Gao)

Here's a Picture of Ross, Which Hasn't Been Used to Hype Up his Work

Ross Wilson finally left the Saints after many weeks of rumours and joined Glasgow Rangers. My initial reaction was “See you later Ross. Don’t let the door hit your arse on the way out“. For me anyway, Ross Wilson will forever be associated with the second, less successful era of Les Reed’s time at Saints. Is that fair though?

When I look at Saints struggles over the last three seasons as a whole, the finger of blame inevitably points at the departments that Wilson has been involved in. Recruitment since 2015 has on the whole, been garbage with us really only having signed (and retained) two players who will have increased in value, those being Hojbjerg and Redmond.  Since then we have signed a load of players who have been average at best and who aren’t performing well enough, we will struggle to get any money for and who are hanging around stinking out the accounts, meaning we struggle to move them on and try again. Wilson’s arrival at Rangers is being hailed as some sort of triumphant coup for them and It seems always every media release has a picture of Ross with Moussa Djenepo, who is looking like he might be successful. They don’t use a picture of Ross with Elyounoussi or Lemina or Carrillo or Hoedt or any of the other complete failures that we’ve wasted big money on. Van Dijk has been touted as a massive Ross Wilson triumph but that one happened just six months after Wilson joined and so I do wonder how much input he actually had into that one, bearing in mind Les Reed was still there and Koeman was the manager.

Is it totally Ross Wilson’s fault that the recruitment has largely gone to pot? Let’s rewind a bit.

The transfer of the set us back, certainly on the pitch, was when we tried to replace Graziano Pelle with Charlie Austin. This is where we first went down the cheap and cheerful route. Austin cost £4 million because he was in the last year of this contract and everybody seemed irrationally excited about the fact that we secured this striker for such a low fee. However, we paid peanuts and we got a monkey. We certainly didn’t get the target man striker who could lead the line like Rickie Lambert had done and Graziano had continued. Ever since Pelle left, it is no secret and no mystery that we have struggled to break teams down especially at home. We don’t seem to have a clue of what to do against teams who sit tight and defend deep against us. When you have a big target man you have the option of going over the top and it’s an option we haven’t had since we went for the cheap replacement.

Having had a bit of a moan about Wilson’s record, the question remains – has the recruitment department has been fighting with one hand behind its back? Almost certainly yes. There have been better players linked who we seemed to be in pole position for but for some reason it hasn’t happened – James Maddison who went to Leicester and a couple of years ago, the Rickie/Graziano replacement we never had - Sebastien Haller, who is now tearing it up at West Ham.  Were we penny pinching over a few quid?  Back in the days when we were plucking players out of Europe and turning them into superstars, it was a little bit easier. If you go with the basic truism of ‘you get what you pay for’ then five years ago, an absolutely top level player would cost you about £50 million and your level 2 player, the kind of player that would use Southampton as a stepping stone to greater things, you could buy for about £15 million and we did and we did very well. We signed players that would later be later sold on for huge money like Van Dijk and Mane or we signed players like Wanyama, Pelle and Tadic who did a good and effective job for us and help turned us into a club that regularly finished in the top half. 

Times have changed and top level player will now cost you £100 million plus and therefore the level of market that we want to be in will also have roughly doubled so you need to be paying £25 to £30 million to have the same success rate as we had before. The amount of money we spend on a player has gone up a little bit but it’s only gone up to about £18 or £19 million so I would suggest for that money, you are dealing with level 3 and hence players like Vestergaard, Hoedt, Elyounoussi, Lemina. Is it any wonder things are falling away?  It’s a simplistic way of looking at it I grant you but I feel it holds some water at least.

Whilst we’re on the subject and looking back at the transfer window from the summer. We spent £15 million on a striker from the Championship and that so far hasn’t worked and we spent roughly the same on a winger who looks incredibly promising but unfortunately he’s been injured for most of the season. We needed players in those positions and we needed a centre half but do you really think that Ralph would’ve wanted to wait to the last second of the transfer window to sign Kevin Danso who as I write, has not played one game in the position he was bought in for. I’m sure that he would’ve rather spent a bit more and maybe secured Willi Orban who was his captain at Leipzig and by all accounts a strong defensive organiser. Instead, we have padded out an alreaedy over-padded squad again with players who are not immediately making the first 11 any better.

This brings us on neatly to Chairman Gao. I’m sure that Gao bought the club because he liked the business model of Premier League TV income and the sideline income stream of signing a player for £15 million and then selling him for twice or three times that amount couple years later. Hasn’t really worked there has it?  What Gao needed to do first was draw a line under the mistakes that we made before he joined and fund some proper recruitment so we were recruiting players at the right level and not a lot of mediocre players who are as far as Gao is concerned, money down the drain. All he’s done with his austerity approach is to keep funding the decline by forcing us into signing third rate players who ultimately don’t achieve much either in terms of being sold on for a profit or contribution to the team itself.

Maybe a bad example but I had a sharp intake of breath when Villa signed Tyrone Mings for £25 million but in the true spirit of get what you pay for, if they sell Mings to Manchester United next summer, what do you think the price will be? It will be £75 million plus. Villa spent some serious money on their first choice target, and he triples in value in one season, Saints on the other hand, needed a transfer deadline time extension to get a loan deal with a get out clause for a 20-year-old centre back and we all expect him to be the answer to our defensive woes. 

I also think Gao needs to start funding things properly at some point because if he doesn’t, it’s not inconceivable that Ralph is going to walk.

Ralph joined Southampton because he wanted to further his career and one day be manager of a really big club. That’s fair enough. We have got to remember that Ralph has managed a team to 2nd place in Germany in one of Europe’s top leagues. That’s a level that Southampton are never going to get to, so he is by far and away above our level and it was a major coup to get him to join. In my opinion, we are letting him down at the moment with the squad that is available to him. He is not a miracle worker and we are basically playing this season with the same squad as last season so why should it really be any better? Our squad is odd – when we sold Matt Targett, I assumed that Jake Vokins was ready to be the back up to Ryan Bertrand but he’s not ready to even play in the Carabao Cup – I can’t imagine Ralph was happy going into the season with only one left back.  We have only three central midfielders who are all one-paced.  We have five centre backs and you could basically pick any two of them out of a hat.  Sure, Ralph has made some decisions that have seemed strange on the face of it in the opening weeks of the season which have raised a few questions but if things don’t change in January or at the latest next summer, then I can’t see Ralph being here too much longer.  I guess it’s a case of whether he agreed in advance to a low-budget, treading water season this year.  His stock was high at the end of last season and it is slightly lower after the start we have made this season. He won’t want that to carry on but if we as a club don’t give him the tools to work with then that’s the only way it’s going to go.  .

So after my initial celebration at the departure of Ross Wilson, I now kind of think that he was a symptom of the problem as much as he was the problem itself but he certainly shouldn’t be lamented as a great loss.  His CV reads like it belongs to one of those people you don't recruit when you are looking at them on LinkedIn.  A bit too young but has had lots of jobs and not been outstanding at any of them though it says he's brilliant.  It was interesting hearing that Saints want to replace Wilson with a ‘player trading expert’. It won’t matter who this player trading expert is unless we give them a suitable budget to work with.  No one of course wants to go into huge debt but there does seem to be many clubs around who are spending their money more wisely than we are. Looking at transfer fees paid is of course, not an exact science because it doesn’t take into account length of contract or how desperate the selling or buying club was at the time but I do believe that in the main, you do get what you pay for and the self sustaining approach that we appear to have is certainly not going to improve things quickly. Maybe we should all temper our expectations accordingly.

Premier League Match 8 - Southampton 1 Chelsea 4

Goal Line Technology Confirms That Gunn is Nowhere Near the Fucking Goal Line

Frank Lampard is the new Chelsea manager in case you didn’t know. You do know this of course because the media love a little bit of Frank Lampard and to be honest, I quite like him as well and I hope he makes a success of the job. The trouble with Frank making a success of the job would be having to put up with Chelsea as one of the top teams again but that’s better than having Liverpool up there. On the subject of Liverpool, it’s interesting that Chelsea got punished for basically, breaches of rules in signing young players and were banned from signing any players for two transfer windows whereas Liverpool can break every tapping out rule in the book a few times and get nothing. Liverpool can also play an unregistered player in a cup game and get fined half of one players’ wages for a week.

Anyway, Chelsea’s transfer ban has been used as a convenient “woe is us’ reason for them to actually blood some of the young players they have at the club rather than loan them out all over the world. Yes the strategy has been shaped a bit by the transfer ban but all it has in fact done is made in Chelsea act like a proper football club and have a squad of promising youngsters mixed with experienced talent. Having said that, Frank has gone above and beyond with Tammy Abraham getting regular games ahead of Olivier Giroud, Mason Mount being a fixture in the midfield and Fiyako Tomori in defence. In addition to that, Callum Hudson-Odoi will no doubt get regular games ahead of the likes of Pedro when he gets fully fit. The reason I’m slightly cynical when people talk of Chelsea just taking their punishment on the chin and moving on us that they were certainly very quick to exploit some sort of wanky loophole that meant they could sign Kovacic for £40 million, having had him on loan last season so they have still spent more than many clubs.

The Chelsea team of this season is very good going forward but a little bit flaky at the back, especially when it comes to physicality and set pieces. It would be a good day for JWP to get everything spot-on.  With another international break after this game it would certainly be nice to go into that with 10 points rather than 7 and 8th or 9th in the table as opposed to 16th. All I really want is for us to give ourselves the best chance of doing that by having round pegs in round holes. Over to you Ralph. The Yan Valery question was asked in the press conference leading up to this game and the noises from the manager were positive about him slotting in to the right back role. That would be a good start.

The only real clunker in the team news is that Sofiane Boufal has been left out and Shane Long starts.  Personally I can’t see any tactical reason for ever preferring Long to Boufal and it’s even more bizarre as Long is stationed in Boufal’s position on the left wing.  Vestergaard is nowhere to be seen with Danso and Stephens on the bench, joined by Alex McCarthy.

Saints actually make a really good start, winning the ball high and put in Chelsea under pressure. Only a minute has gone when the first shot comes in from Redmond which fizzes just over the bar. Promising stuff.

We do appear to have Chelsea slightly rattled which is a cue for Kante to go on a one man fouling spree and as usual he is completely invisible to the referee. Not that Chelsea need any favours off of anyone other than the team they are playing against.

Our limitations however have exposed a few minutes later as a single pass forward on the ground takes out our entire midfield and defence and Abraham is in, cutting inside Yoshida before scuffing are shot that Gunn saves comfortably.

A promising and break up the right hand side it is butchered when JWP passes it straight to the nearest Chelsea defender. One long ball over the top and Abraham is in on goal with Yoshida for company.  With a  bouncing ball and a defender present, Angus Gunn, for no readily apparent reason, comes running out to the far extremities of the penalty area like a fucking pillock and misses everything and Abraham, with crushing predictability gets a foot to the ball and loops it goalwards. From my view directly behind the goal I can see that it’s going to fucking go in and despite Maya’s valiant effort to kick it off the line, the little bleep on the referees watch tells you that we have once again, opened the Gunn cupboard and shot ourselves in the foot.  For fuck’s sake. If you have a defender there then you just shouldn’t fucking be there. Stay on the line and Abraham has got to beat Yoshida and then he’s got a make up his mind what to do and actually work to score a goal. Come running off your line like a prick and not getting there means all the striker has to do is get his foot to it.

A few minutes later and Gunn has the ball at his feet and tries to chip it to Valery who is being marked by Marcus Alonso. Unsurprisingly, Alonso wins the header and then Bednarek tries to cushion the ball down to Romeu (as opposed to heading it as far as possible) but instead gives it straight to Jorginho, 30 yards from goal. Jorginho to Willian and on to Mount and he’s clean through and Gunn once again makes himself as small as he possibly can and Mount stuffs the ball into the net. What’s the fucking point? 2-0.

We now look like we’re going to get absolutely fucking annihilated as Chelsea’s young guns look like they’re ready to stuff us for five or six. We clear one attack as far as Shane Long who puts Chelsea straight back on the attack with a  one touch layoff that bisects out defenders and eventually we get away with it as Mason Mount puts it wide.

On the half hour something totally unexpected happens as Valery takes a throw-in to Redmond and gets the ball back and then takes on five Chelsea players, getting to the by-line before squaring for that man Danny Ings to knock past Kepa and into the net to give us a completely unexpected lifeline.  Though it’s a brilliant goal, it’s kind of hard to get excited given the shambles that has preceded it.  It’s a slightly weird feeling.

We can’t possibly, can we? A ball over the top find Redmond on the left but he can’t get his foot round it and can only hit it into the side netting. Remember that question I asked about 10 seconds ago, the answer is, of course we fucking can’t.  We allow Chelsea to build up down the left, a simple ball across and Kante has about half a fucking hour to take aim and shoot. He gets a bit lucky as it flies off the only Saints player anywhere near him who is Hojbjerg but it’s in the net for a rare goal that wasn’t remotely Angus Gunn’s fault. This one is down to a lack of pressing and a slightly naive mistake by Valery who went and pressed the wrong guy further up the pitch which allowed a simple chip over the top to the guy he should’ve been marking.

Just before half-time we do actually have a chance to get another goal back as Danny Ings pounces on some shit play in the Chelsea defence and dinks over the keeper but Jorginho has got back to clear it with him in front of the goal.

Half-time and at least six of the players have been absolutely fucking dreadful so I am expecting at least two substitutions at half-time but instead of that we get none and the same team takes the field for the second half. My thoughts that we would come out fired up to try and get a goal back and put them under pressure was completely dashed after about five minutes of aimless wondering about and allowing Chelsea to be as comfortable as they liked. Willian walked through the midfield and put Hudson-Odoi clean through on goal but Gunn pulled off a decent save as the young England winger try to slot the ball past him.

With nothing much happening because Chelsea don’t need another goal after all, Ralph’s first sub is to take off Long and the loss one sub who got dug out for doing nothing last week, is mitigated by the appearance of another with Obafemi coming on. Sofiane Boufal must wonder what the fucking hell he’s done wrong or are we not trying to win this game anymore? Fucking mental.

Fuck all continues to happen until the two players who should’ve come on at half-time, Adams and Boufal rise from the bench in the 80th minute to replace Redmond, who has had one of the worst games I’ve ever seen him have and Danny Ings who at least has continued his goalscoring run.

Meanwhile, two of Chelsea subs, the admittedly very expensive Pulisic and Batshuayi combine and the latter scored easily give the scoreline a more realistic look. Wank.  I could write more about the second half but the players and the manager couldn’t be arsed so why should I?

And breathe…

That was absolutely fucking shit. The second half was back to the good old days of Pellegrino and Hughes where we settled for a defeat at half time and at times it looked like we weren’t even trying. We were just strolling around letting Chelsea have the ball and they were delighted because they didn’t need another goal. Absolutely fucking pitiful.

One of the things I hate most is when fans or fuck off home early but today I can’t blame anybody for leaving early because most of the players fucked off at half-time. At least those fans who fucked off early were making some sort of statement. The ones that just sit there going “we played alright“ or “the fans should just support the team“ can get right in the fucking bin today with that attitude. I don’t care who the opposition is, that performance today was robbing people out of their money. Football is fucking expensive so unless you’re one of the lucky few who can afford everything easily, you should be getting angry about what you’ve just seen.  I don’t think anyone cares too much about getting beaten by a better team after 95 minutes of 100% effort and if I get that then I’ll clap the players off the pitch cos they deserve it. Didn’t get that today. Absolutely fucking dreadful second-half and a complete waste of everybody’s time and money.

Ralph has got some major thinking to do over the next couple of weeks but he is very limited in what he can do with the squad that we have got. It is becoming painfully clear that we didn’t do enough restructuring of the playing staff in the summer. Of course we are hamstrung by all the shit players we’ve got on expensive contracts who we ended up loaning out what we are left with - the current first team squad is woefully deficient in a number of areas.  It’s amazing that we got rid of all the shit players out on loan and what we have left is the better ones?  What an amazing job we’ve done with recruitment the past few years.  Apparently Ross Wilson is going to take the Rangers job – I’ll drive the overrated prick there myself.  Even Elyounoussi looks good in the Scottish League.

The most obvious thing Ralph can do is to change the fucking goalkeeper. I’m getting incredibly bored and irritated with watching Angus Gunn throw goals in his net game after game. The first 20 minutes of this game was actually fairly even and if anything, we were the better side until Gunn decides to go fucking walk about again chasing a ball that he is never going to get. Central defenders must be in two minds now wondering where the fucking hell he is going to turn up next. He then compounds the error on goal number 2 by chipping the ball into the midfield area. Even if it goes to one of our midfielders they are going to be facing the wrong way with Chelsea midfielders putting them under pressure. He carried on doing this in the second half as well. What the fuck is that about? The wanky chip into midfield led to the second goal and the second goal was the end of the game as far as we were concerned. Sure we got one go back thanks to some individual brilliance on the right hand side by Yan Valery and a smart finish by Danny Ings but the third goal, from yet another move started by another catastrophic mistake by ourselves, killed it completely and Ralph and Frank may as well have shaken hands at half time and called the whole fucking thing off and saved us all the bother of watching that utter shit.

Virtually every area failed to function today. In defence, Yoshida was very average all game and Bednarek had a mare. Hojbjerg and Romeu cannot be faulted for effort but the passing at times bordered on the diabolical. On the wings, Shane Long ran about and was a nuisance and what a shock that is. This being used in mitigation for someone who is basically a dreadful footballer with no talent, is about three years past its sell by date now. If Shane Long is the answer then what the actual fuck is the question?  Nathan Redmond on the other wing might as well have been sat next to me in the crowd for all that he did.   He had a good opening 45 seconds and then disappeared.  The only players who really did anything positive at any point were Valery and Danny Ings and Valery was questionable defensively. Bertrand and Hojbjerg had their moments but other than that, it was utter bollocks. Oh and I’ve left the worst till last, JWP who added absolutely nothing of note either attacking or defending. Even when he’s playing badly you can rely on the set pieces so the story goes. No you fucking can.... that one from right on the edge of the box when we were 3-1 down which is just floated aimlessly two feet over the bar. The keeper wasn’t even nervous and just watched it go.  Give Callum Slattery a go.

Ralph again has to take a massive share of the blame for the way we gave up in the second half. His job was to send that team out for the second half of the rocket up its arse to play for pride and for the badge and for the fans in the stadium who pay their money but that clearly didn’t happen. He very clearly sent the message that he was not bothered about anything other than avoiding a thrashing by saving bringing on Boufal and Adams until the 80th minute. Give me one good reason why Obafemi was brought on first?

Chelsea were decent and are going to develop into a very good side. They didn’t have to get out of second gear today as we basically gift wrapped the game for them but the young players in their side all look very good indeed. They will get found out defensively by better teams than us and it’s strange, even though we lost 4-1, if we had managed to keep it mistake free at the back then there was certainly something in this game for us. No chance to find out though due to that defensive shit show.

International break thank Christ, so we don’t have to worry about this shit from other two weeks. On my way home tonight over the Itchen Bridge, I was doing that old thing and tried to find three teams that are worse than us. It shouldn’t be that way this season but it really looks like that is the way that it is going to be. I am currently pinning my hopes on Norwich, Watford and Sheffield United. This may be an over dramatisation but that was the performance today, of a team only heading one way.

Premier League Match 7 - Tottenham 2 Southampton 1

At This Point, Hugo Realized That He'd Fucked Up

Spurs away at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, a far from the salubrious surroundings of Fratton Park as you could possibly get. From the ground that hasn’t had a lick at paint since Henry the eighth was on the throne to one that was built for an eye watering amount of money and only opened about six months ago.

Tottenham have had a dodgy old start of the season as they seem to be suffering from the Champions League hangoverBut regardless of that, they are obviously still a very good side and one which we will do well to get anything out of today. I’m expecting us to put up a decent show on the back of the Pompey thrashing which really did point to better times ahead regarding players playing in a formation that suits them and playing in positions that suit them. Hold my beer.

The starting 11 on paper looks decent with three changes from the record win against Pompey (I wonder how many times I can use that.) Redmond is back ahead of Obafemi and Boufal comes in for Che Adams. Angus Gunn returns to reclaim the goalkeeper spot from Alex McCarthy which is a bit of a shame in my book. However, a quick look down the subs and McCarthy and Adams are not on the bench which kind of suggests a small injury or two. Significantly, Danny Ings starts after his two goals on Tuesday and Yoshida is in for Vestergaard who is dropped for the first time this season after struggling recently.

Then, a few minutes before kick-off it emerges that Cedric has injured himself in the warmup and Vestergaard will come into the team, the initial thought being that Yoshida would move to right back which is a bit fucking weird because Yan Valery is on the bench.

It’s a fairly even start of the game and don’t look at overawed at all. You can tell Spurs are not as confident as they normally are and you feel straight away that there is a bit of an opportunity for us today.

Saints create the first decent chance as Vestergaard passes it into midfield and Boufal pulls out a brilliant first time back heel to send Hojbjerg away. The ball goes on to Redmond who delays just long enough to pick out Hojbjerg’s continued run, a decent hit and Lloris plunges to his right to push it away.

Our first real alarm comes as Tottenham go down our right hand side for the first time. Ndombele feeds Son who makes JWP look a complete mug as he flies past him before returning the ball from whence it came but luckily, Ndombele leans back and creams it over the bar.

After our initial decent start it’s suddenly got ugly and it looks like it’s only a matter of time before Tottenham score as we begin to look very ragged and strung out in defence. Eriksen crosses from our left and Kane flicks it on towards the other wing. Son retrieves it, pretty much unhindered by any of our defenders and eventually lays it back to Ndombele who doesn’t hit it clearly but it takes the slightest of deflections off Bednarek and goes over Gunn who has decided to make himself as small as possible. McCarthy would have saved that and so would Forster.

Boufal was looking like our best bet further forward and he gets the ball on the left hand side before being victim of a ridiculous scissor tackle by Aurier. It is one of the more stupid and “only going to end one way“ tackles that you’ll see. No chance of getting the ball and through the back of a player and deservedly booked by Graham Scott.

Not content with that bit of stupidity, five minutes later, Hojbjerg plays Bertrand in behind Aurier and he grabs Bertrand and drags him to the ground. Guess what is going to happen now you fucking idiot. Off you go. Aurier complains, Kane complains, Spurs prawn sandwich brigade complain... why? He’s a fucking idiot and the ref has no choice.

The resulting free kick comes in from JWP and Lloris knocks out as far as Hojbjerg who drills it narrowly over the bar. We now have a man advantage and there is an hour to go.  Surely it’s ours to lose….

When you’ve got 10 men and you’re 1-0 up, I guess the game plan is to keep it tight and not do anything remotely stupid to give away a soft goal. Hugo, World Cup winning goalkeeper, gets a pass from Toby Alderweireld and stands there in front of his goal. He still standing there as Danny Ings jogs towards him and still standing there as Ings speeds up and by the time Ings is going full pelt towards him, Lloris decides that what he needs to do of course, is a Cruyff turn. There are many reasons why goalkeepers are goalkeepers and not creative midfield players and one of the reasons is that they are not very good at Cruyff turns. Goal.  Fucking hilarious.

Having been gifted a route back into the game, we really should have just kept it tight until half-time but of course we don’t. We decide that Tottenham have been far too nice and giving us that goal so we are going to give them a helping hand as well.  It starts with a long ball up to Kane who easily beats Vestergaard in the air and knocks it to Son who makes his way down the right hand side past the oil tanker that is Vestergaard and he finds Kane in the middle who controls and smashes it into the bottom corner before Gunn can move. Vestergaard showed all his weaknesses in one move there. Firstly, getting beaten in the air by a much smaller man because he’s too big to jump and then not being quick enough to cover the space once we lost the ball. If he is not going to win the header then he has to clear Kane out. End of story.

Half-time and I’m still quite optimistic that we can win this game given the numerical advantage. We start the second-half on the front foot with Boufal being trashed by Son about 35 yards out. In frustration, Kane kicks the ball away but because he is Harry Kane he doesn’t get booked for it.  Spurs clueless prawn-sandwich fan base is still booing Graham Scott about their idiot getting sent off and are therefore mildly perturbed that we’ve been given a free kick for a clear foul..  It looks outside of JWP’s normal range but he hits a fantastic dipping effort and Lloris partly makes up for his shit Riverdance impression in the first half and gets across to spectacularly tip it over the bar.

It’s all us with Spurs basically sitting in a 4-4-1 formation and challenging us to break us them down. As usual with Saints, the passing is a little bit slow and a little bit too deliberate and it’s only when we get wide that we look like creating anything, usually through Bertrand. The left back wins a corner which comes in from JWP and is cleared for another. From the second corner Yoshida does what he does best and gets free in the box and meets it with a firm header from 6 yards but the other thing Yoshida is very very good at is not scoring with these free headers from 6 yards and he puts it close enough Lloris for him to get airborne and push it away again.

As the half wears on it becomes apparent that Graham Scott is not going to give us anything and he is going to let Harry Kane referee the game. One particular pull-back on Yoshida when he had got in front of him was particularly ridiculous and he somehow managed to give Spurs a fucking corner.

Unperturbed we are still trying at the other end with Boufal putting in a superb cross from the right wing which is missed by Alderweireld and also sadly, by the outstretched foot of Danny Ings.

10 minutes ago and we still have three centre backs on the pitch and Romeu and Spurs are as comfortable as you like and not looking remotely like conceding a goal. We may as well stick Vestergaard up front than having him playing in defence for all the attacking the Spurs are doing but we take him off and bring on Armstrong. The next few minutes bring absolutely nothing in an attacking sense apart from Armstrong trying a ridiculously optimistic shot all the way along the ground from 30 yards which Lloris just picked up.

There’s about five minutes to go when Obafemi comes on for Ings and about three minutes to go when Long comes on for Boufal. Two like for like swaps which have left the team looking worse.  Ralph’s had a bad one.

There’s time for one final bit of shite refereeing from Graham Scott as Obafemi is clearly trashed right on the edge of the box, dead central but he is so concerned about Harry Winks who is lying down pretending to be injured that he doesn’t give the free-kick but stops the game and give Spurs a drop ball. Fucks sake.  The End.

Only one place to start today And that is with the injury to Cedric in the warm up. Since the Bournemouth game we will have been working on the 4-3-3 formation. Training would’ve happened along those lines, the Pompey game was a success and we were clearly going to play that way today. Someone needs to explain to me why with Cedric’s injury in the warm up, we didn’t just slot Valery into the team at right back and not waste all the work that we have done this last week. It just seems fucking ridiculous.

I was delighted when I saw the original team without Vestergaard in it because he has been struggling recently. Imagine what this has done to Valery’s confidence? He was the poster boy of last season, the shining example of Ralph bringing a young player into the team and him proving his worth. Again, we’ve had another example of a player being thrown under the bus by a weird decision on a player position with JWP being expected to play against Son Heung Min who is one of the best wide attacking players in the Premier League. Needless to say, Son went in dry against JWP... not his fault.

Saints Defence in Block Form (L-R Bertrand, Vestergaard, Yoshida, Bednarek, JWP)

The only justification for it I can possibly think of is that having seen the Spurs team, Ralph wanted to try something different. Eric Lamela has been in the starting line-up all season and he was replaced today by Christian Eriksen who tends to play a little bit more centrally so maybe, just maybe, that’s why Ralph went with the extra centre back.  One of Ralph’s saying is is that you win or you learn. Hopefully he’ll have learnt again today that we struggle when players are played out of position, especially against good sides away from home and also hopefully he’s learnt that if you throw formation change our players just before the kick-off, it doesn’t work.

The substitutions today were also absolutely gash. We played for half an hour against a team with 10 men who weren’t really interested in attacking us but we had three central defenders and Romeu. So that was four players who weren’t going to do anything at the attacking end of the pitch. Armstrong came on for Vestergaard and we at least had a little bit more attacking intent (even though Armstrong was crap) but the last two substitutes were like for like swaps, Ings and Boufal off for Long and Obafemi and that just made us weaker and even less likely to score a goal. Ralph has basically dug out the three players who came on and so they didn’t add anything to the team and it’s hard to argue with that but at the end of the day, he put them on and he put them on late. I don’t think Obafemi actually touched the ball and Shane Long’s first touch was one of those hilarious ones where it bounces off his knee and goes 30 yards straight out of play.

The Spurs fans inside the ground were shitting on about Graham Scott’s refereeing and basically because Aurier is a fucking idiot who deservedly got himself sent off. I doubt they had many complaints in the second half when Scott basically allowed Harry Kane to referee the game and gave us absolutely nothing. Kane was allowed to foul at will without giving away a free kick including one where he basically threw Yoshida on the ground. The Obafemi/Winks free-kick incident was a joke also.

Overall, considering we played against 10 men for an hour it was a really poor result and we should’ve got at least a draw out of the game. Despite having a ridiculous amount of possession in the second half, the only two real chances as we created with both from set pieces with JWP’s free kick and Yoshida continuing his run of hitting the goalkeeper with free headers from six yards. The point is though that we didn’t create a fucking thing from open play and we seem to have a problem with attacking play unless we steal the ball high up the pitch. We don’t seem to have a plan for how to play through teams who are back in their shape.

This is so frustrating because I think we all thought after the Pompey win that will be the end of the crazy experimentations and people out of position. The starting line-up today was what I think a majority of people would’ve chosen but given the opportunity to do something slightly odd, Ralph took it with both hands. It seems like he just promoted the player who he thought most deserved to play rather than who is best for that actual position.

We have to laugh about our goal because it was hysterical. What the fuck Lloris was doing is totally beyond me. A Cruyff turn on the goal line with an on-rushing forward. Really? It really isn’t a coincidence with Danny Ings though is it as both his league goals this season have been as a result of closing down the goalkeeper.

This was a chance today to get a result against one of the big clubs away from home and we felt to take it. It’s not catastrophic but it is very annoying especially when you bear in mind that they were on the face of it, some pretty nonsensical decisions going on that on the face of it, certainly didn’t help.

There weren’t many who had particularly good games today. Though the first goal took a slight deflection, there is a question mark over Angus Gunn as he seem to just fall backwards into the goal as the ball flew over him halfway up the goal. Vestergaard is okay when the team stays compact but as soon as it becomes spread out then he is an absolute liability. The best teams with the best players will always exploit him.  Up front, Redmond and Boufal were both guilty of trying to do it all themselves and just holding onto the ball for too long which of course meant it was a frustrating afternoon for Danny Ings apart from his goal which will never not be funny.

The games don’t get any easier with Chelsea up next week at St Mary‘s. After a wobbly start to the season, Chelsea seem to be getting it together now.  It’s a game, where if we get it right, we certainly have a chance of getting something, mainly because they don’t have Eden Hazard to kill us and Giroud appears to be banished to the bench.

Round pegs in round holes please.