If ever there was a game
that was tailor-made to bring us crashing back down to earth then it’s this one
at home to a Sheffield United side have only got one point all season. Combined
with that is the fact that this is the first game with any fans back in the
ground and as you know, there was a narrative a while ago the Saints fans were
somehow responsible for our home form. I was thought that this was bollocks but
I guess we’ll see.
Chris Wilder’s Sheffield United took the division a storm last
season and you could’ve argued that he should’ve won Manager of the Year
instead of that German bloke with the teeth, bearing in mind the resources Wilder
had to work with. They did start to fall away with the restart after the long
break and unfortunately, they have carried that form into the season losing 10
out of their first 11 matches. You know
that they are going to win at some point and you have to think that they are
due a change in fortune because they haven’t lost any of those games by more
than one goal. With a striking roll call that includes David McGoldrick, Oli
McBurnie, Lys Mousset, Rhian Brewster and 34-year-old Billy Sharp, one goal is
usually all the opposition needs.
This summer they splashed £24 million on Rhian Brewster, a striker who had only
played 20 games at Championship level, in another example of Liverpool getting
an obscene amount of money for their squad players who are probably never going
to be good enough to play for them. Unsurprisingly, Brewster has looked like
the step up is a bit daunting for him, what with playing for a struggling team
but, for the amount of money if they have shelled out, they really need him to
score about 15 goals this season, or else they are really going to be up
against it.
Let me get this right, I love Billy Sharp and when I look
back on it, it’s one of the things that I wasn’t terribly impressed with Nigel
Adkins about, not giving Billy a chance in the Premier League for Saints. All
water under the bridge now I’m sure and Billy has spent the last eight years
playing for his boyhood club and cementing his place as a club legend. Now
however, he’s looking his age. Last
year, at the other end of the pitch they had Dean Henderson on loan, who has
gone back to Manchester United and they’ve replaced him with Aaron Ramsdale
from Bournemouth who is the kind of goalkeeper who pulls off eye-catching saves
on shots that he really should save but seems to have zero presences,
especially on crossed balls.
I like Chris Wilder and winding up Jurgen Klopp should always
be appreciated. With him being a former Saints apprentice, I really hope he
survives regardless of what happens with the Blades this season. I have nothing
against them at all and hope that they do stay out but to stay up for the
position that they are in at the moment will take a monumental effort and
hopefully that won’t start until after today.
There was a few soundbites from the fans forum that was held
this week featuring Martin Semmens, Toby Steele and Ralph Hasenhuttl - The main
one being that Alex Crook is full of shit and just makes it up and has no facts. Well colour me surprised. This means that the Danny Ings and Ryan
Bertrand contract extensions are not as imminent as Alex Crock (of shit) was
making out. Personally I think it’s
good when the media are called out occasionally as we now live in a culture
where quite often, the news is driven by the media rather than reported by it. It’s all well and good until you consider the
scenario where journo makes something up which is reported on a Sky platform,
which causes odds to change and brings in loads of bets on Sky Bet.
Moving on and today it does however appear that we have a
clean bill of health going into the game so they really are no excuses. It’s
been an interesting week on social media as well with some of the lucky 2000
being unable to realise that it might actually be pissing people off who didn’t
get a ticket. Then you’ve had the ones who have been going on for weeks about
football not being the same and not wanting to go back until they can drink 15
pints and jump all over their mates again. Surprisingly enough, when offered a
ticket, these people have not turned it down. I’m searching for the word to sum
these people up. I can’t think of one so I’ll have to go with “wankers“. It is
especially galling when these wankers get tickets and others (including me) do
not. I will say that I am genuinely happy for the vast majority of got the
chance to go to the game.
Team news and we’ve gone with the side that finished against Brighton with Ings
coming in for Djenepo and Walcott dropping to the left wing. The bench is solid with the main news being
that Dan N’Lundulu is preferred to Shane Long and that Mohammed Salisu has been
seen in St Mary’s. The Blades have
brought in Jagielka and Billy Sharp, who are 72 between them. McBurnie is playing and he’s shit.
Away we go and the Blades have 5 at the back and are sitting in, hoping that
McBurnie and Sharp can do something up front.
Unsurprisingly, it’s Saints with all the possession and we create some half
chances through Adams who has a couple of shots blocked and then Romeu tries a
wild swing from the edge of the box which goes miles wide. Adams then turns superbly away from his marker
and plays Ings through. He tries to poke
it through Ramsdale’s legs but the keeper wins and it’s offside anyway.
Armstrong and Walcott swap wings and Vestergaard changes it
up from 40 yard diagonals and steps into midfield, sends one defender for a hot
dog and play in Ings who wins the corner off Jagielka. The corner comes over
from JWP and Vestergaard meets it under challenge and heads is just wide. There was a time when he didn’t get anywhere
near any corners but now he looks disappointed if he doesn’t score.
Enda Stevens decides to try and play football in midfield but
falls over and loses the ball and stops Walcott streaking away by grabbing the
ball with his arm. It’s only ever going to be a yellow card but Saints
basically had a two on one break so I think you could argue that he has
deliberately prevented a goalscoring opportunity. I don’t blame him but maybe
that’s a rule that needs looking at.
As I’ve said, Oli McBurnie is shit. He is also a nasty little
prick, taking out Bednarek in the air and then hitting the same player with a
late tackle which goes unpunished by the referee. So, two cowards challenges and McBurnie’s next action is to
be tackled by KWP and throw himself to the ground in a big swan dive.
Unfortunately for the twat, when he lands he seems to have dislocated his
shoulder or his collarbone or something like that. What an absolute cock.
35 gone and KWP is fouled out of on the right and JWP whips in the free-kick.
Jagielka heads it up in the air when Ramsdale really should’ve come and claimed it
and no one really challenges Bednarek for the dropping ball and then Ramsdale
and Egan seem to leave it to each other as Adams gets to swing a leg at it and pokes
it into the net. A bit of a strange goal but who cares? Not I, not the 2000 and 1-0 up.
Half-time arrives and another goal really should do it.
Sheffield United can’t be that bad again and start the second-half quite well
and after about five minutes I find myself saying a sentence I never thought
I’d say “they will be a better side with McGoldrick on“. Then it happens, McGoldrick is on for shit
McBurnie who is still obviously feeling his self-inflicted injury two minutes
after half-time. Sheffield United win an
actual corner and over it comes from Fleck and Egan heads it way over the bar.
Billy Sharp get a good reception which he acknowledges, as he’s replaced by
Rhian Brewster.
Saints are stepping it up now and it seems like it’s going to
happen and then it does as Armstrong breaks, plays a 1-2 with Ings and shoots
and sees it take a horrible deflection off of Jagielka and wrong-foots Ramsdale
into the net for 2-0 and 3 points.
Walcott’s direct running is causing all sorts of problems and
one run down the middle sees him get trashed by a combination of Ampadu and
Egan. JWP takes it of course but it’s at the outer limit of his range and it just flicks
the top of the net as it goes over. There's another opening as Adams tries to set up Ings with a clever ball but the rusty
King of the Scummers is offside once again Ramsdale’s save is once again
unnecessary.
Redmond is on for Walcott for the last 15. Adams is fouled on
the right hand side by 48-year-old Jagielka and JWP’s freekick goes right
across from right to left where Redmond picks it up, plays a 1-2 with Romeu and
then passes it into the far corner of the net. Brilliant goal.
A couple more subs with Diallo and N’Lundulu coming on for Romeu and Adams and with a bit of luck, big Dan could have scored with his first touch as he closed down the keeper and blocked the clearance. For the last 5 we passed it about with Diallo and KWP in particular showing some lovely footwork to keep the ball against some Blades who couldn't cut their way out of a paper bag.
A textbook win for the mighty Saints and up to 3rd in the league. Goal in the first half, goal in the second half and then put the icing on the cake at the end, all the while keeping quite possibly the most comfortable clean sheet you could ever keep. Completed it mate.
It was a great day for Ralph. Not only did we boss the game from start to finish more or less, but significantly, we put three substitutes on who all contributed in a positive way. Nathan Redmond of course got his goal but Ibrahima Diallo and Dan N’Lundulu also looked the part when they came on. Ralph had a tear in his eye when celebrating in front of the fans at the end as well – what a guy! I found his post match interview very interesting, especially the part about using the six months without fans to change things and make every aspect of the team better with no fan pressure. I absolutely guarantee that a lot of teams and managers wouldn’t have even given this a thought and these are the sort of advantages that we need to take as of course, we can’t spend huge money.
Today, we had obliging opponents. Sheffield United were absolutely fucking dreadful from start to finish and I don’t think Alex McCarthy even had to get his kit dirty or be remotely bothered by anything that was going on in front of him. Having said that Sheffield United strikers weren’t very good, we saw five of them today and they were all varying degrees of Championship and League 1. Oli McBurnie was of course the highlight. What an absolutely massive weapon. Billy Sharp hasn’t got it at this level any more and then we had David McGoldrick, who actually looked the best out of the five and that tells you all you need to know. Lys Mousset didn’t have much time to be fair but they need to see if they’ve got the receipt for Brewster. Look at the effort N’Lundulu put in to try to make things happen when he came on and he looked lively and interested throughout. Brewster just stood there. Pathetic. There’s an old adage that says that you are only as good as your strikers and if that’s true, then Sheffield United are fucked.
Elsewhere, they were just really average with Phil Jagielka looking every year of his 38 and Sander Berge leaving you wondering how on earth he’s got the fairly decent reputation that he has got. Slow and clumsy and he must’ve got caught in possession about 5 times. Ramsdale did ok but didn’t take command of the first goal which turned out of course to be the most important one. Much though I’d like Sheffield United to stay up, they haven’t got a chance if they carry on playing like that. They weren’t so much toothless in attack, they didn’t have gums or a jawbone either.
Che Adams was of course the scorer of the first goal and in my opinion he was our best player today and with some really lively and inventive forward play and totally deserving of the goal he got. Stuart Armstrong was back on it today I feel that Walcott also did a good job with his direct running. He knows he’s probably going to get hacked over but he does it anyway, takes the hits and keeps on getting up. It was a decent first performance by Walcott in front of some of the St Mary‘s fans.
Danny Ings did look a bit rusty, as is to be expected but leaving him on for the whole 90 minutes will still be a good thing and it’s only going to get better from here on in. Another positive is that we scored three goals without him getting one. It goes without saying that JWP and Romeu ran the midfield and the back four did everything they had to do, which admittedly wasn’t much. There was some superb running and dribbling by KWP and some excellent passing as usual, by Vestergaard.
Today’s game was on Sky Sports and the coverage was very enjoyable because of the presence of Efan Ekoku as the co-commentator who was absolutely excellent. No cliches and calling out McBurnie‘s dive for what it was. So much better than Alan Smith. It’s a noticeable thing that when we have commentators and pundits who come from lower down the football pyramid and not the usual suspects, it is a lot better. I’ve thought the same of Matt Murray and Chris Iwelumo recently. These guys actually do their research and know more about the “other 14” than your Big six pundits can ever be bothered to find out.
Up to 3rd place in the league and the lowest place we can possibly be at the end of this weekend is 4th. How long before we officially become part of the big six? Ha ha - maybe if Arsenal get relegated. And it’s Arsenal at next at The Emirates, where we never win. They will have 2000 fans in place (Edit: they won’t) so they will have the same number of vocal fans that they normally do. Bring it on.
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