Ralph Hasenhuttl

Ralph Meets Ralph

With the World Cup break being here, I have time to look at the last 4 years under Ralph Hasenhuttl.

The end finally came to Ralph Hasenhuttl’s time as manager of Southampton, with the final straw being the 4-1 home defeat by Newcastle. That game in isolation was not a problem – amongst other things, it was that in addition to the 25 games that preceded it, in which we have only won 4 times.  4 wins in 26 would get any manager sacked.  There is always a certain sense of triumphalism among certain elements of the fan base when a manager gets sacked. This of course is not needed and not merited for a manager who has been with the club for four years and has left things in a better state than how he found them, whilst having an unfavourable set of circumstances to work with. 

When Ralph took over from Mark Hughes in 2018, we were lucky to have him.  He wanted to make a name for himself in the Premier League and we were getting a manager who had managed in the Champions League and had taken Leipzig to 2^nd place in the Bundesliga.  How did we get this guy when we had just had the Puel, Pellegrino, Hughes triumvirate of dreadfulness?  Dumb journalists christened him 'The Alpine Klopp' because of his style of football and because everything has to be about Liverpool doesn't it?  When asked a dumb question by a journalist, he responded with “if you want a guarantee, buy a washing machine”.    

I liked the fact that he knew that he had no magic wand or right to be successful.  He knew he had to work at it and that the players would have to work.  The fact that he said that we would eventually be playing ‘pressing’ football and that some players would fall away was music to my ears as Ralph inherited an average squad full of overpaid crap and poor attitudes.  The work began with a bit of humour and humility and he steered us to an 11th place finish, including very good home wins against Arsenal and Spurs.  In not very much time at all, he got us believing again that we could be a half decent Premier League club and after those three managers, it was amazing to feel that we were going places again as he overachieved with what he had to work with. 

Final Whistle, Fratton Park

The start of his first full season saw a fanbase full of optimism and bang, a really jarring 3-0 defeat at Burnley on the opening day.  We rolled on in inconsistent fashion and had the present of a League Cup draw at Fratton Park against the Skates, which Ralph took very seriously, and we thrashed them 4-0.  After that game he was a God walking among us.  Soon enough though, the first period of confusion followed, when Ralph seemed to be overthinking things with new formations and there was none of the high-octane pressing style of football which he had become synonymous with during his stint at RB Leipzig before he joined us, and things went downhill rapidly and then off a cliff in the 9-0 defeat at home to Leicester.  He survived, with the board backing him over the crap players we had and after an international break, back came the press and the 4-2-2-2 formation and back came some decent results – 6 wins, 2 draws, 2 defeats in 10 games, including beating Leicester away from home and then the Covid-affected end to the season was negotiated with us beating Manchester City at home and being one of the form teams in the country and we finished 11^th.  The Covid break saw us heralding Ralph’s SFC Playbook, which was Ralph’s blueprint for the entire club from the first team on down.  We looked the fittest team in the Premier League and whilst we tended to really struggle in the last 20 minutes, we in the main were entertaining and just too much for some teams to handle.

The German Hasenhuttl Shows a Human Side

More optimism for his second full season in 2020/21, which was again Covid affected and after 8 games we found ourselves top of the league for a day and we stayed decent (losing just 2 out of 15) until just after New Year when we beat Liverpool 1-0, which became memorable / infamous for Ralph crying on the touchline at the end.  At this point I felt that we had the best manager that we could possibly have but the Liverpool win signalled the wheels to come off and down the league we went with 6 defeats in a row which stretched out to 1 point in 9 games.  In the middle of the 6 defeats of course, we literally ran out of players, getting demolished 9-0 again, this time by Manchester United. 

9-0, Again

Just as we began looking over our shoulders, we did enough to scrape into 15^th.  It was alarming how we got into these big slumps and the manager seemed powerless to do anything to reverse it. One thing had become obvious - the 4-2-2-2 only worked if the players were 100% at it.  Any slacking, particularly when we didn't have the ball was a massive problem and the team was too strung out.   In amongst our disastrous end to the season, we played in the FA Cup Semi-Final against Leicester… only we didn’t play, we just turned up and were shit as Ralph went experimental.  The fact that he picked Nathan Redmond ahead of Che Adams in that game has always rankled since.  The FA Cup was there to be won that year and Leicester of course, beat us in the semi-final and then won it.  Cracks looked like they were beginning to happen with the experienced players with Ryan Bertrand never playing again after that semi-final.

This Particular Ralph Look Didn't Really Catch On

Ralph was backed again in 21/22 as the mitigating factors and lack of players from the end of the previous season, meant most kept faith with him.  Danny Ings moved on and with him, went most of our goal threat and after a shaky start, we had a golden period in the middle of the season, culminating in a fantastic 3-2 away win at Spurs.  We had a settled team, everyone knew their role and we were a match for anyone. Bizarrely, around that time Ralph announced that he’d retire at the end of his contract in 2024.  Could Ralph steer us to push on?  No - from March onwards, we began phoning in performances, suffered a 4-0 defeat at Villa, which was seen at the time as just a bad day at the office.  Following that pretty soon was a 6-0 home defeat by Chelsea, which honestly could have been double figures.  With that, the team selections went random, the press disappeared completely and with it went Ralph’s bottle.  His only answer appeared to be to defend deep with nine players which led to tedious, “Puel-Ball” and no improvement in the results. 15^th again.  Once again, we’d had a big slump but with no mitigating factors this time (apart from being relatively safe) and absolutely no sense that Ralph knew how to get us out of it and we were all just waiting for the end of the season, just so it would all stop.  The last three games were a pathetic 3-0 defeat at Brentford, a 2-1 home defeat by Liverpool Reserves and a dismal 4-1 defeat at Leicester.  At this point, I was thinking that I didn’t really care whether Ralph stayed or went – I certainly didn’t feel that it would be the end of the world if he had gone.

The New World 2022:  Three of these no longer at Club.

He stayed however and if anything, became more powerful with the backroom staff changed in the summer and a significant amount of money spent by the new owners, Ralph wanted to make the team more solid (fair enough) and he tried to implement a system that had three central defenders and played a lot deeper.  It was almost like he was insisting that the crap style of play implemented at the end of the previous season was going to work.  He prioritised our work ‘against the ball’ which was all encompassing, mentioned in every single interview like an obsession. The trouble was that there was no discernible attacking plan and given the lack of natural goalscorers and creativity in the squad, it was desperately needed.  

Pre-season games had looked worrying and any hope that the real games would be fine, disappeared in a dismal opening day defeat against Spurs.  The pre-season plan was then abandoned after a game and a half of the new season as we were 2-0 down at home to Leeds and desperate, and we went 4-2-2-2 and pressed them high.  We scored twice and nicked a point but the real point for me was that Ralph had spent all summer working on a plan and we were canning it already, in favour of throwing stuff at the wall and hoping that it worked.  We we had got a point and it felt like a win, which I think we all revelled in it at the time, but looking back, I do feel that this was the point when I felt that I really wasn’t happy with the way things were going.  Stories leaked that Ralph didn’t talk to the players, especially when things weren’t going well and whilst never really confirmed, it’s not great, especially when you have a squad of young players.

Since the Leeds game, we’ve tried about 4 formations, none of which worked particularly well, long ball football and a passive approach to games against poor sides, leading to 1-0 defeats where we basically did nothing all game.  After a particularly bad home defeat by Everton, stories began leaking out that he was a dead man walking and it was only a matter of time.  It took a few more weeks but by the end, the aforementioned Newcastle defeat, there didn’t seem to be any facet of the team that was working properly and that is always going to bring the axe down on the manager. 

Yes, he has been let down in the recruitment department with very little in terms of serviceable creative players and also the lack of a genuine goalscorer to finish off any chances that we do create.  The bravery which characterised his approach when things were going well, disappeared as we tried to be pragmatic but what we ended up with was long ball football and passive defending and we lost most of the games anyway. There’s nowhere to go when you reach that stage.  Down came the curtain the day after the Newcastle game and relief all round for all parties.

Newcastle At Home, 1 Day to Go

Overall, I feel that Ralph is a really decent guy and he overall has done a pretty good job for us over the turbulent four years in that we haven’t got relegated given all the restrictions he’s been managing under.  He is very good at coaching the pressing style of football (cast your mind back to the SFC Playbook) and when it worked and we didn’t ‘die’ in the last 20 minutes of games, it was very good indeed.  He has proved however, that he was very limited in other tactical areas so if the team didn’t play the pressing style, we were generally awful.  Now I know that things evolve over time but if you set up your whole club to play one way and that way begins to not work, where do you go?  Or do you stick to the Playbook no matter what and have the courage of your convictions?  By the end, we had nothing about us that made us a decent functioning football team.  Because Ralph never developed a Plan B to win games when plan A didn’t work, he decided to try and adapt Plan A and cut its legs off, which basically meant that we had nothing that we were good at.  

I also feel that the fight got kicked out of him with all the knock-backs you get as manager of Southampton. Being manager of Southampton is fucking hard work. You are against it for all sorts of reasons - having smaller budgets, having less good players generally, having more than your share of bad VAR or refereeing decisions and further to travel and all that sort of stuff. Overall, it’s a tough gig.  I questioned at the end of last season whether Ralph had the energy and a stomach for the fight anymore. I generally think that it had all got too much and he never really gave the impression this season of someone who was relishing the job and enjoying it. Announcing your retirement for a date in the not-too-distant future wasn’t perhaps the smartest thing to have done.  If you’re looking at the finishing line yourself, how motivated are you going to be?  The fact that you’re looking to the end kind of suggests you’ve had enough.  As a manager you set the tone for the whole team and if you are lacking in energy or seemingly tired of all this shit, then you can’t be surprised if it translates.

I find it interesting that being called stubborn is something that seems to follow Ralph around. And some regards that is true because for a while he’s stubbornly refused to countenance any suggestion that the pressing football was too difficult to maintain for a club with our resources. He then decided to change that and this season in particular, there seems to have been a lack of stubbornness and we have been throwing different things at the wall on virtually a weekly basis in the hope that some of it works. I expect the club expected more than that for the £6 - £7 million a year that we were allegedly paying him.

There was however, never a question with Ralph that he wasn’t giving 100% to the club. I don’t feel that he was like a Koeman or a Pochettino, who always had their eye on their next move though maybe he would have, had he been more successful. I think that in time he will go down as one of our better managers that we have had, due to the outside factors he had to put up with – poor squad, no investment from Gao, no striker this season etc.  I also think he was slightly unfortunate that one of our better periods in terms of consistent form, came when there were no crowds allowed, so fans didn’t really see it.  You could argue of course that we didn’t get to see us lose 9-0 at Old Trafford!

He leaves the club with my best wishes and if he wants to jump back into the world of football management, I think he’ll be able to do that with his decent reputation still intact to the world outside Southampton and the fact that he is very highly regarded still, in Germany and Austria. Good luck to him and thanks for the four years. It is a real shame that he has ended up not leaving on his own terms but we had reached a point where it was very difficult to see how things were going to improve with Ralph in charge.  There is really no way you could argue that it hadn’t reached a natural end.

Ralph leading the Celebration in His Final Win, Away at Bournemouth

All the best to Ralph Hasenhuttl – onwards and upwards for everyone.

           

Premier League Match 15 - Liverpool 3 Southampton 1

 

Nathan Jones Blue and Light Blue and Gold with Swirly Wave Patterns Army

It’s the last game before the World Cup and we are away at Liverpool. Not only that of course, it is the first game of the new era under Nathan Jones. This time last week he would have thought he would be managing a game at Kenilworth Road today against Rotherham, in front of about 10000 fans with Matt Taylor (not the ex-Skate) as the opposition manager. As it is, he’s at Anfield in front of a combined 55,000 Scousers and tourists and a certain Jürgen Klopp in the opposition dug out.

People have been somewhat underwhelmed of course by Nathan Jones arrival but there’s nothing that would get everyone on side more than Lyanco scoring a 90th minute winner at Anfield and Jones doing a full knee slide past Jürgen Klopp and flicking him the bird as he goes by. The only reason that won’t happen is because Klopp has a one match touchline ban for berating the fourth official a month or so back, whilst they were in a bit of a run of dodgy results.

Of course, they are not in a dodgy run of results now so he’s the all-happy smiley Jürgen that the media all love. There still is an inconsistency about Liverpool though that hasn’t been there in the past few seasons so new manager bounce and all that… Why not?

Well, to answer that question, the glaring reason why not is that we are crap at the moment with no cutting edge and it’s hard to see how Jones will have been able to work on that in the two days since he took over.

He of course had to do a round of media interviews and came across very well. There’s much to like in the things that he said about having a clear identity and being proud to manage the team but these are the exact same things that Ralph Hasenhuttl said when he joined. As we all know, talk is cheap and you have to deliver results on the pitch and Nathan Jones knows that. He acknowledged as much whilst also praising the project that we have here which is the buzzword that he probably felt he had to mention as it’s Rasmus Ankersen that he has to impress.

Results on the pitch are all that matters really between now and the end of the season, maybe not starting with today but starting pretty soon after the World Cup.

Oh yes, the World Cup in glorious Qatar, where of course it should never ever be held. It’s being held there of course because Sepp Blatter was in charge back when the tournament was awarded and was susbsequently banned from all football activities for 8 years. How galling it was this week to hear him being interviewed saying giving the World Cup to Qatar was a mistake. Talk is cheap.

At a push, we had five players with a chance of going to the World Cup and in the event we only have two going. Mohamed Salisu will be there for Ghana and Armel Bella-Kotchap has seen his decision to not have surgery on his shoulder completely vindicated, with a call up to the German squad. It was a slight surprise that Duje Caleta-Car didn’t make the Croatia squad and slightly less of a surprise that Romeo Lavia didn’t make a very strong Belgian squad. He will have plenty of other opportunities.

Thanks for Playing in the Meaningless Games but Jordan and Kalvin are Nearly Fit, So See Yer!

Opportunities are however running out for JWP, who was predictably overlooked for Gareth Southgate‘s England squad. It’s a standard thing for Southampton players and it’s happened for three tournaments in a row.  Ryan Bertrand 2018, JWP 2020 (2021) and JWP again in 2022.  I’ll repeat what I said back in 2021 - it’s okay if you play for Southampton during qualifiers the Nations League games because you will make the squad and get minutes on the pitch, but as soon as it comes down to a tournament, you have got absolutely no fucking chance. All the big club boys will miraculously be available for the tournament and blind loyalty will be the order of the day, so they'll be selected.

We all know that JWP has not had a decent start of the season and that has been down to the role he has been asked to play as much as anything, with the injury absence of Romeo Lavia and being forced to play with Ibrahima Diallo or Ainsley Maitland-Niles, who have both been pretty poor support in a two man midfield.  In Southgate-world, JWP is not seen as a number six so he’s not competition for the selected Kalvin Phillips, who has played one minute of Premier League football this season but he is seen as competition for Jordan Henderson who has been crap/injured for Liverpool, Jude Bellingham who is a completely different type of player and Connor Gallagher who has Chelsea next to his name this season, even though he doesn’t often start and when he does, he quite often get substituted early. In my opinion it wouldn’t have mattered if JWP had been brilliant at the start of the season. He still wouldn’t have been selected, partly because he is easy to leave out and there wouldn’t have been a media campaign to include him like there was with James Maddison.

I don’t think anyone could blame JWP if he thought his career would benefit from a move away from Southampton. On that front, it will be vital to see how the season progresses under Nathan Jones. Of course, if we go down and JWP will be off and so will the more promising of our youngsters. They might be off anyway even if we stay up but if we stay up they’ll be off for £50 million as opposed to considerably less, unless Dragan Solak fancies throwing some more money at it.

So, with only two of our players going to the World Cup, I reckon we should take advantage of the fact that some of Liverpool‘s players are going to be a little bit tentative about things with the vast majority of them off to Qatar to pretend that human rights don’t matter for a month or so. Smash into them. See how much they fancy it.

It’s going to be a weird game today with The World Cup starting next week and we’ve got to hope that Liverpool have got their eye on that more than we have. As I said earlier, Liverpool have been very up-and-down this season with several top performers not being at the top of their game. Trent Alexander-Arnold has only made the England squad because of an injury to Reece James and Andy Robertson has been in and out of the team this season with Kostas Tsimikas quite often taking his place. Even Virgil van Dijk has been found wanting on occasions this season as has Fabinho in midfield and Jordan Henderson. Injuries, notably to Thiago Alcântara have meant youngsters like Harvey Elliott and Curtis Jones getting regular starts as well as James Milner who must buy now be in his 40s. It’s all combined to leave Liverpool well short where they normally are and that if nothing else gives us a bit of optimism for today. I see this game as being about us however. It’s about how we play, how aggressive we are and how much intent we show. What did for Ralph as far as I’m concerned was the ‘nothing’ football that we have been playing for the majority of the season, just sitting back and allowing the other team to basically do what they wanted. Fuck that. It has to stop - starting today.

Nathan Jones has got a reputation for basically playing three at the back and that’s what we had in his first line up with ABK, Caleta-Car and Salisu lining up in front of Bazunu. Elyounoussi at right wing back was a worry with Perraud on the left.  Lavia and JWP made up the midfield with Stuart Armstrong with Adam Armstrong and Adams charged with actually trying to score one of those goal things that were not terribly good at doing.  Liverpool's line-up and bench is notable for the absence of Henderson, who probably is injured.

Our brave new era starts well as Liverpool doze off from a throw and Elyounoussi takes one touch and delivers a cross quickly which is marginally too high for Che and he heads over.  The more things change, the more they stay the same and with five minutes gone, Salah dives into Caleta-Car on our left and ‘earns’ a free-kick and a booking for the Croat.  Irritating bastard Robertson swings it in and Firmino walks in front of Elyounoussi and flicks it back over his own head and it beats Bazunu’s somewhat lead-footed attempt to get across and keep it out. I don’t think Firmino even meant that as an attempt on goal but here we are, 1-0 down, five minutes, welcome to the Premier League Nathan Jones.  Deep intake of breath.

OK, we don’t look like we’re going to cave in and it’s a free kick for us out on the left hand side as Firmino gets penalised for a trashing tackle that normally gets you a booking but you can’t have everything. JWP, fueled no doubt by being left out by Gareth fucking Southgate, swings in a perfect ball and Che Adams gets away from van Dijk to plant a header into Allison‘s net. Fucking hell we’ve scored. Nathan Jones Blue and Light Blue and Gold with Swirly Wave Patterns Army!

If we could now do some defending – that would be great but no, Irritating Bastard Robertson catches Elyounoussi out and picks out Nunez down the left-hand side with his cross is met at the back post by Salah - a situation that he’s scored from about 200 times but this time, Bazunu spreads himself superbly to block the shot

To be fair. We are trying to be aggressive and go forward and there is a definite soft touch about some of Liverpool’s defensive work both in midfield and in defence. We can get these but we have to keep the back door shut which we duly don’t as we fail to clear on a couple of occasions, having had the chance to do so and Elliott chips in a diagonal ball from the right hand side and Nunez has peeled off the back of ABK and finishes across Baz to make it 2-1. He looks offside at first glance but he isn’t – really good movement and we are behind once again.

We need to be thinking about getting to half-time just one goal behind and we are indebted to Baz again makes an outstanding close range save from Firmino but of course we don’t manage it as we absolutely doze off pathetically from a free kick in the ball is slotted inside Elyounoussi.  Irritating Bastard Robertson sends it across low and there is Nunez to ram into the net. 3-1 at half-time.  Game over you would think.

No changes at half time and the second half starts with a kind of dead period.  Liverpool are happy to hold what they have and Saints look happy to still be even remotely in the game still.  On the hour mark, Jones freshers things up with Edozie, Maitland-Niles and Walcott coming on for the Armstrongs and Caleta-Car, so it’s now a back four with AMN slotting in on the right.  Edozie immediately combines well with Adams to send Elyounoussi in on Allison and he tries to dink it over him but that’s not happening. From the resulting throw out, ABK has a nightmare when he receives a short pass in defence and Salah is clean through. ABK gets back at him and then Salah does what Salah always does and as soon as the defender gets everywhere clear, he hits the deck with his arms flailing and Simon Hooper probably uses that to not give it.  Despite the theatrics, it looked a foul to me and we are somewhat lucky to get away with it.

Edozie is at the heart of things again as we create another great chance, working the ball across the pitch and Edozie plays a 1-2 with Adams inside the penalty area, picks up the return pass but again Allison shows why he’s one of the best goalkeepers in the world. More chances as Walcott plays in Maitland Niles on the right and he puts over a wonderful cross which is met by Adams and flicked goalwards really well, but yet again, the big Brazilian bastard gets down and pulls off a superb one-handed save. OK we haven’t scored but it’s great that we are creating chances and actually working the goalkeeper.

It’s pretty quiet in the last 10.  Lavia goes down with cramp and has to come off and it’s a bit surreal.  Liverpool are happy to have won with Klopp banished to the stands and we seem quite happy with a relatively decent performance.

Nathan Had Plenty of Opportunity to Try Out His 'What the Fuck?' Face

Overall there was quite a lot for Nathan Jones to be happy about. There was definitely a response to the new man coming in because previously, we would never have done what we did in the second half today and actually worked the opposition goalkeeper. Fair enough, Liverpool might well have had one eye towards just seeing the game out but we played well in the second half. Jones will also have learnt about some of our problems from the first of where we just conceded goals too easily.  Bazunu made a couple of really good saves but will probably feel he should have done better for the first goal, as should a couple of defenders. Defensively we didn’t look quite on it though Liverpool‘s movement will cause any teams problems, we just didn’t deal with things particularly well.  We had chances to clear the ball before Elliott picked out Nunez for the second and the third go in particular was absolutely preventable because we just dozed off and you can’t do that at Anfield, not even for a second. You have to remember though that we are struggling with injuries at the moment and Elyounoussi pressed into service as a right-wing back was always going to be a tough job for him today.  The one mistake I think that Jones made was not starting with AMN at right back.

JWP and Lavia looked decent in the centre midfield today and Romeo showed what we’ve been missing whilst he’s been out, before he went off with cramp.  There was also a good display by Che Adams up front, even though the players around him didn’t exactly contribute very much, until Sam Edozie came on in the second half.  In the two games that the new manager has watched, Edozie will certainly have made a more favourable impression than the likes of Adam Armstrong, Walcott, Aribo or Mara.  Che of course scored one and couldn’t have done any more with the second chance he had, which forced Allison’s best save of the three good ones he made in the second half. January is certainly going to be an interesting time regarding the top end of the pitch but it was nice to hear Nathan Jones talking in glowing terms about Che and how he can make him a better striker. I look forward to that.  Ralph never seemed to rate him that highly so it will be interesting to see how Che responds to a new voice that is more supportive.

Jones interview at the final whistle was pretty encouraging to be honest. He recognised that we were too passive in our defending in the first half and said all the right things about what needs to happen going forward. As I said before though, talk is cheap and we’ll see what sort of team we have when we come back after the World Cup and it will be good to see us in our League Cup game against Lincoln just before Christmas.

We got this one over with today and there were positives.  We didn’t get hammered and the break will now help massively but make no mistake, we have to be back and firing immediately after the World Cup with games against Brighton, Forest and Fulham coming straight away.

Up the fucking Saints.

EFL Cup 3rd Round - Southampton 1 Sheffield Wednesday 1 (Saints win 6-5 on pens)

 

We. Are. Massive.

With everything being about Ralph Hasenhuttl leaving the club on Monday and the reported incoming Nathan Jones, it’s been somewhat difficult this week to remember that there’s a game going on.

It’s EFL Cup time and our manager for the day will be Ruben Selles who joins other such luminaries as Kelvin Davis, Jason Dodd, Dean Wilkins, Dennis Wise and Dave Bassett as people who have been caretaker managers for us.  The fact that none of them got offered the job in the end tells you they were probably all a bit crap. Ruben has a very winnable game tonight against a Sheffield Wednesday side, whose priority this year will be to get promoted out of League One.  Hopefully they achieve it as that would be one less spot available for the lot down the road.  Darren Moore is the Wednesday boss these days and he’s always struck me as a decent guy, despite having played for the lot down the road in the past.  We last played Sheffield Wednesday at this stage of the competition 10 years ago, which turned out to be fairly easy 2-0 win for us with two goals from Jay Rodriguez.

It will of course be interesting to look for any tactical changes today, to what has gone before. Personally, I don’t think you’ll see more effort from the team because I don’t see that any of them have been phoning it in particularly.  With the potential new manager in the stand though, hopefully those playing tonight will be determined to put their hand up.  Personally, I don’t see any reason why we shouldn’t put out as strong a side as we can today, seeing as we only have one more game before the World Cup break and we also have only about four players who are going to the World Cup at most.

All eyes will be on the stands because prospective new manager Nathan Jones has been speaking to the club today and it’s hard to imagine that he won’t be in attendance if he is at all likely to take the job. It seemed like a formality on Monday that he would be installed as the new manager but in his interview after managing Luton to a 2-0 defeat at Stoke on Tuesday, suggested that it’s not particularly a done deal, even though we all know how football works and we all know that it probably is. The fact that no other names are being mentioned anywhere as prospective managers, is quite telling.

The first action of the game is a shot by Barry Bannan, who has a reputation for being Sheffield Wednesday‘s best player and he drills in a shot with his left foot which Macca has to save down at the near post before we scramble it away, or to be more accurate, Lyanco smashes it 3 miles straight up in the air.

We go into Shambles Mode as Salisu and then Adam Armstrong gave the ball away and Sheffield Wednesday break through midfield, one pass though in much the same way as Newcastle did last week and there is Josh Windass in on McCarthy and he drills in the near post to make it 1-0 and deservedly so. Fucking hell we are crap.

Our shite forward play means that our best moments come from set pieces usually, won by Edozie going past Patterson at right back getting hacked over.  JWP whips one in from the left hand side and Aribo gets up to flick goalwards but Stockdale takes off to claw really good save out of the top corner.

I repeat - we are crap. No movement at all from the front players with only Edozie looking remotely interested in that part of the pitch. He takes on the cart horse Patterson at right back and gets absolutely flattened in a “Don’t Nutmeg me again you little bastard” kind of way.  Unpeturbed, as half time approaches, Edozie again skips past players in midfield and gets hacked down at the referee plays a good advantage and Mara pushes it out wide to Djenepo. There is a notable lack of anticipation when Djenepo gets the ball because he’s been fucking useless so far but he takes on the fallback, a quick step over and he gets carted over. Penalty.  Mara wants to take it but there’s only one man who is going to and JWP drills it down the middle to send us undeservedly in 1-1 at half-time.

Perraud in on for Salisu at left back after the break which was obviously a premeditated half-time switch and it’s noticeable that Sheffield Wednesday have changed to double up on Edozie to try and save Patterson from getting sent off.  Nothing much happens, nor looks likely to happen so more subs come on with Walcott is on for Aribo, who probably reaches his top speed of the evening jogging off to be substituted and Djenepo is taken off to be replaced by Maitland-Niles.

Watching League 1 sides trying to play the way through the press is always quite amusing and Sheffield Wednesday work it back to Stockdale who then plays an absolute shit of a pass straight to Theo Walcott who manages, with unerring Che-like accuracy to hit the one defender on the line and the ball bounces off the prone Stockdale‘s head back to Walcott and he gets a second go at it and hits the same defender on the line so he’s managed to miss two chances without the goalkeeper actually being in the goal at any point.

More subs with Stuart Armstrong and Elyounoussi on for a Edozie and Mara.  Saints are considerably better now with Stuart Armstrong on the pitch and he plays a 1-2 with JWP which wins a free kick on the right hand side as the skipper is hoiked over.  After a bit of a break for a Wednesday injury, JWP takes it short and no one has noticed Stuart Armstrong on the edge of the box and he clatters in a shot which bounces off the bar, hits Caleta-Car and flies over the bar.

We are actually building up a head of steam as we approach the last five minutes with JWP firing just wide via a deflection. The final chance sees Maitland-Niles put Stuart Armstrong away on the right and he beats two before pulling it back to Walcott who brings a decent save out of Stockdale.  That is the final action of the game and mercifully we don’t have to watch another half an hour and it goes straight to penalties.

JWP – No concerns at all, high into the net 1-0

Smith – Macca gets hand to it, still goes in, 1-1

Elyounoussi – 100% confident for some reason – sends keeper the wrong way easily, 2-1

Bannan – left footed players always look more likely to miss for me…. Bang, Macca wrong way, good pen, 2-2

Diallo – oh this will be one of those horrible stutter jobs…potential miss here…. goal, keeper wrong way, nice. 3-2

Johnson – another left footer.. chance… not the best pen but Macca’s dived the wrong way… bollocks, 3-3

Maitland-Niles – oh fucking hell, not fancying this one at all,…. Stupid fucking stutter, more stutter, he’s gonna fall over…. Goal, keeper wrong way.  Christ it looks shit but it worked, 4-3

Volkes – Big run up here… smashed it, Macca gets a bit of it but no chance, 4-4

Adam Armstrong – Hmmm, only ever seen him miss them…. Keeper wrong way again, nice pen, 5-4

Gregory – Identical the one above, easy, 5-5

Surely it’s Lyanco time…. Oh fuck me it’s Theo.  Didn’t we establish that he’d never scored one in his career when he missed at Chelsea a couple of seasons back?.... bang, high into the net, keeper wrong way again… well well well, probably the best one of the lot, 6-5


Iorfa – big centre back – this is the one…. Bang, Macca goes the right way, hits him, Southampton win 6-5 on penalties against the League 1 Side at home – We. Are. Massive.

Through to the next round we go with a far from convincing performance.  That’s a polite way of saying ‘dogshit’.  I wonder what Nathan Jones impression of that would’ve been from his seat in the Itchen stand.

The first half in particular was absolutely fucking dismal as we were out-played by a League One side and deservedly behind until we got the gift of a penalty right on half-time due to a rush of blood tackle from a defender who clearly didn’t know that if you let Djenepo do all his step overs and shit, there is no need to make a tackle as you just let him tackle himself.

The second half was better with the introduction of a few players from the bench but ultimately we didn’t score and then won the penalty shoot-out with what has to be said, six really good penalties which the Wednesday keeper didn’t get anywhere near.

Wednesday were a thoroughly decent side.  Physically imposing and they could play as well.  We certainly couldn't handle them in the first half and they deserved to take the game as far as they did.  It's still a good night for them despite the defeat as they will leave with a good feeling about themselves and free to concentrate on promotion.  Good luck to what is a huge club.

The watching Nathan Jones will have got a picture of those players who are nowhere near the required level to do a job in the Premier League.  I think at this stage we all know Ibrahima Diallo, Adam Armstrong and Moussa Djenepo are firmly in that category with no hope of getting out of it and Sekou Mara again proved that he is nowhere near the level required at present.  With Armstrong and Mara giving us the cutting edge of a spoon, it goes to show the problems we have at the top end of the pitch because it only leaves Che Adams and he has his well documented “hit the goalkeeper from anywhere“ issues. Theo Walcott actually looked more lively than both Armstrong and Mara but anyone thinking that he is the answer is not really paying much attention.

The new manager is going to have to try and make us silk purse out of a sows ear in the same way that Ralph had to and good luck with that. We have all been focusing on Ralph’s failings over the past few months but him not being there today really left me to concentrate on how poor some of our players are.  I have gone from slightly concerned to very concerned about Joe Aribo. In front of the almost certain new manager today, he really looked like he could barely raise a jog. I know he has a languid style but that only covers up so much.  

A couple of players will have impressed. Alex McCarthy had a decent game in goal though I would argue that he didn’t make Josh Windass‘ finish as difficult as it should’ve been as he seemed to drive one way and leave the near post open.  Though relatively untested, the centre back pairing of Lyanco and Caleta-Car were solid enough and Perraud and Stuart Armstrong had strong showings as subs. JWP had a decent game in midfield, hamstrung that we was by the lack of movement upfront apart from Sam Edozie, who in the first half, was the only attacking player worth watching.  

There was a classic incident in the first half when JWP picked up the ball and he was looking to pass it forward. Saints had three players in front of him, namely Armstrong, Mara and Aribo and they were all stood still, marked, doing absolutely fucking nothing.  JWP looked up three times before eventually he knocked it sideways to Edozie to run at the right back.  Edozie got past him and got the ball over and the same three players were all stood about 15 yards out and there was nobody attacking the ball. Football basics. Not fucking good enough.  To score goals at any level of football if you show intent, be that intent to have a shot or intent to get yourself into the box. That’s the biggest problem that the new manager has to fix.

A relatively flat uninspiring performance all told, rescued by a penalty on 45 minutes and six penalties in the shoot-out.  Everything’s fine though because next up is Liverpool away. Assuming it’s Jones, it’s the perfect game for Nathan Jones to cut his teeth because there is zero expectation of a result from the fan base and this won’t be his team.  It is however the one and only game that he has got it before the results become paramount if we want to stay as a Premier League club and keep the Sports Republic project moving forwards. Now of course, we have the next round of the EFL cup before our next league game after the World Cup but that is really a must win as well because of the feel good factor that it would bring being in the Quarter-final of a cup competition.

What The Fuck Have I Done?

So – Thursday and Nathan Jones was confirmed as the new manager but as I said earlier, everyone knew he was coming from the afternoon of Monday, when Ralph was sacked in the morning. In my opinion it’s quite a big risk because of the lack of Premier League experience which I would’ve thought would’ve been needed, given the inexperienced nature of our squad.  Okay, having a big name is not the be all and end all, as we’ve seen with Steven Gerrard being shite at Villa recently, but it does worry me that whilst everyone has to start somewhere and Nathan Jones may in time proved to be a very capable manager at Premier League level - I do wonder if that’s what we need right now, given the issues we have.  I do understand that it’s Sports Republic’s modus operandi to search the long grass and do something different. They don’t need me to remind them that the whole project falls on its arse or succeeds, based on how well the first team does in the next 25 games.  We of course need to hit the transfer window hard in January and Nathan Jones’ lack of profile won’t exactly be an advantage.  I’m not exactly sure about the appointment but we have no choice but to see how it goes and where it takes us.

The game tonight was uninspiring, the managerial choice could also be said to be uninspiring on the face of it but all we can do is look forward to Liverpool on Saturday, the next round of the EFL (League 1 Lincoln City at home) and hope that Sport Republic have got the right man.   Let’s get behind him and see what he can do.  Up the fucking Saints.

Premier League Match 14 - Southampton 1 Newcastle 4

 

Quality Goal, Quality Player, We Don't Have Them

The phrase “Champions League chasing Newcastle” hasn’t been a thing since the days of Les Ferdinand and Alan Shearer but here we are with them in fourth place in the Premier League table. If you just look at the football side of things, which we will for the moment, new manager Eddie Howe has taken over from the deeply unpopular Steve Bruce and transformed the team with astute signings in defence and a sprinkling of magic in midfield and upfront. In addition to that, he has transformed players who were previously seen as nothing but journeyman under the previous manager and moulded it all together into a team that works incredibly hard for each other and has a clear game plan. So far this season, they have been decent to watch despite still having the old Eddie Howe tendency of wasting as much time as they possibly can. Expect to see Nick Pope taking a minute and a half over every goal kick regardless of the match situation.

So, Eddie Howe has done remarkably well given the pressure he was under to deliver given the riches available to him, courtesy of the new owners, who have been in place for about a year. The new owners are of course the PIF which is (allegedly) a front for the Saudi Arabian state. Don’t get me wrong, they would’ve been jealousy and angst from other clubs, regardless of where the money has come from. In the 90s there was jealousy over Jack Walker’s backing of Blackburn and he was from the town and a self-made millionaire. This is of course slightly different.

I can’t help but think that nation states owning football clubs is a bad thing, especially when those nation states have diabolical human rights records like the Saudis do. Newcastle and their fans have not only embraced the new ownership but they have shithoused other Premier League fan bases by adopting the Saudi Arabian national team kit as one of the change strips for the season.   I’m all for shithousing bur even I think this is not showing much self-awareness. I think it’s sad in a way that the Newcastle supporters of embraced all this so readily and position in the league table probably allows them to think that the end justifies the means. The bottom line for fans of other clubs is to imagine yourself in their position. More than not would embrace the new ownership, regardless of where it’s from, if their team improves as a result.

It does undoubtedly help if you can spend £130 million in each of the last two transfer windows which is what they have done with Isak, Botman, Targett and Pope joining this summer and Wood, Willock, Burn and Trippier joining the previous January.  Oddly, they’re not as keen to get this game called off as they were last years.

So, plenty of players to look out for today if Saints are going to get a result, chief of them seems to be Callum Wilson who has hit the goals again and he needs to with the absence of £60 million signing Alexander Isak.  He’s a decent outside bet for a World Cup place.  Our nemesis Alain Saint-Maximin has not been in the side recently but probably will be on Sunday because Joelinton is suspended.  One major reason for Newcastle’s rise up the league has been the form of Bruno Guimaraes in midfield but all good teams as we know, are built from the back and having Nick Pope in goal with Kieran Trippier, Sven Botman, Fabien Schar and Dan Burn in defence has certainly given them the basis to move forwards as a club.

Saints defence is usually pretty decent as well but we don’t have the sprinkling of magic that Newcastle’s top end players would bring us because of course, we don’t have the money. We are hoping that our 18-year-old with five Premier League games is fit to start in midfield and we are hoping that Che Adams hits the gaps either side of the goalkeeper this week instead of just smacking it straight at him. We do have other strikers in for now, given that Theo Walcott and Sekou Mara both bagged hat-trick‘s in an 8-1 win for a ridiculously strong Saints B team against Middlesbrough Under-12s. Goalscorers thrive on confidence though, so it won’t have done them any harm.

Remarkably, Walcott is in the starting line-up in place of Aribo and there is a return for Armel Bella-Kotchap instead of Caleta-Car at centre-back.  Romeo Lavia has made it back as far as the bench and away we go. The right-back tombola has been won by Juan Larios.

There’s an early cross from the Newcastle right which evades both Willson and Bazunu before Saints first effort which comes courtesy of a big boot forward by Bazunu which drops to Perraud.  He drives at the edge of the box before bringing a good save out of Pope with a low right-footed effort.

We get away with one is Baz produces a shite of a kick which just presents the ball to Newcastle deep in our half but luckily the ball forward to Longstaff finds him offside and though Baz makes a good save, it wouldn’t have counted anyway.

Juan Larios is having fun at right back. Not only is he on his wrong side but he then tries to win a header against Dan Burn who is a full 1 foot 2 inches taller than him. It doesn’t end well.  It gets worse for Larios on the half-hour mark as it goes down and doesn’t get back up again and eventually goes off to be replaced by the returning of Romeo Lavia. Whilst this is great news that he’s back, I can’t imagine that they wanted to pay him for an hour in his first game. Anyway, AMN has gone to right back.

As we get used to the reshuffle, Baz aims a kick out towards Elyounoussi on the left wing but whilst Elyounoussi waits, Trippier just walks in front of him and heads the ball down. Longstaff picks it up and drives forward knocking it up to Wilson and Salisu tries to pile through and win the ball but doesn’t, leaving himself on his arse.  It’s knocked off to Almiron who has now driven into the box, past Maitland-Niles who kind of just falls over pathetically in front of him and then he passes it into the far corner of the net like the man on form that he is. Fuck me that was easy and about 4 mistakes from us.  Shit.

There’s a golden chance for 2-0 but Longstaff heads over before there in a bit of play that sums us up as Che Adams and AMN combine really well to send Stuart Armstrong away on the right hand side and his cross perfectly picks out Elyounoussi at the back post, who has an open goal to aim at but puts it wide. What a load of shit for fuck‘s sake.

Half-time and not very optimistic about the second half.  It’s only one goal but how hard is it to see us scoring.  Anyhow, we start the second half and reasonably bright fashion with Armstrong being bundled over by Willock about 35 yards out. It’s right on the out of range for a JWP freekick but he has a go anyway and put his foot through it and it’s a decent enough effort but Pope sees it easily enough.

Another free kick right on the edge of the box out wide, as Trippier handles a cross from Elyounoussi. JWP‘s cross is headed away, sent back in with a decent ball by AMN and Elyounoussi tees himself up for a volley from about 25 yards out which flies comfortably over the bar.  Good optimistic effort from a player who couldn’t score from 2 yards earlier on.

Newcastle look a little bit rattled to be fair and Botman presents the ball to Walcott, who was still playing, in the centre circle, and he drives forward before picking out Elyounoussi on the left, who picks exactly the right ball to Adams on the right hand side but instead of taking a touch, he tries to smash the cover off it and drills it a couple of yards wide. Another glorious chance.

Che and Ralph Arguing Over Who Has Had the Bigger Mare

Newcastle have been crap since half time but out of nowhere, a build up down the left through Jacob Murphy and he plays a simple ball inside to Chris Wood, on as a substitute for Wilson at half-time and he turns and passes the ball into the corner of the net giving Bazunu no chance at all.  We’ve completed the set – made Chris Wood look like a cultured striker.

Are we gonna do anything?  Yep, we’re gonna completely fuck the game off and three minutes later it’s all over as Saints press to try and win the ball high, fail and one pass from Trippier sends Willock clean through and he calmly slots it past Bazunu into the corner of the net as well. Fucking hell. So easy.

With the horse well and truly bolted and 3 miles down the road, Ralph decides to have a look at the stable door and it’s triple substitution time with a Edozie, Aribo and Aribo on for Stuart Armstrong, Walcott and Che Adams.

For 15 minutes or so nothing really happens and no one can be arsed.  The atmosphere is dead and no one has the energy or spirit to do anything.  As we approach 90, Salisu changes the mood a bit, playing a lovely ball through the right hand side of Newcastle‘s defence to send Perraud away and he cuts inside the sliding Burn before burying it past Pope with his right foot. He really has been our best player by a mile.

So we have a consolation goal but of course that can’t be the end of the story as Bruno Guimaraes shows what a good player he is by being involved in the build up all the way up the pitch before taking a simple return pass and from 25 yards, he just passes the ball into the corner of the net. What the fuck are our defenders doing?

Fucking hell that was grim. Predictable and grim. It was so fucking boring to watch with absolutely no expectation of us getting anything positive out of the game even when it was only 1-0 and we had two chances. The miss by Elyounoussi sums up both us and him and the miss by Che Adams is a striker without any confidence. We pushed the desperation button marked Theo Walcott and that unsurprisingly, achieved the square root of fuck all. Apparently, our plan was to attack down the sides in between the centre backs and the full backs but you wouldn’t have known it because no one made that run and no one played the ball down there. That sums us up, no attacking identity and no plan. Every week it’s just throw it at the wall and see if anything sticks and if it sticks then we’ll try the same thing next week. If it doesn’t then we will make up some other shit during the week and hope that works. We are a shit football team.

On first viewing I can’t blame the goalkeeper for any of the goals that went past him today as they were all very good finishes by Newcastle. We made multiple mistakes on the first goal, with the finishing layer of shit being applied by Maitland-Niles falling over like he was on fucking ice skates.  The three goals we conceded in the second half we’re all remarkably similar with easy build ups through the thirds and the person with the ball just passing it into the corner of the net. Was it the defence or was it the midfield? The answer is that when you let in a simple go, it’s the whole teams fault.  There seemed to be a lack of intensity and a lack of desire to keep the ball out of the net.

Let’s do the the positives because that won’t take long. Romain Perraud was excellent at left back and is the only player for me who plays with the correct level of intensity when trying to attack. He looks like he wants to get forward, he looks like he wants to score a goal and he’s our left back.

Another positive was the Maitland-Niles looked slightly better at right back than he did in midfield.  He has all the tools to play at right-back but I wonder if he has the brain.  It was a positive to see Romeo Lavia back on the pitch but he was understandably very rusty and was clearly feeling his way back into the game and him playing whilst being sure on dynamism was probably one of the reasons we got ripped a new arsehole so much in the second half.

I’ve seen it said in their interviews after the game that Newcastle didn’t play particularly well and that’s probably true. They played as well as they had to play to beat us easily. A team in form with a clear plan and players playing with a good intensity and at the right levels is always going to beat a ramshackle bag of shit like us.

Ralph: Time to Go

Ralph sounded dejected and defeated after the game and how else could he sound to be honest. It was fucking shit.  It doesn’t look like Ralph is going to survive much longer (Update: He didn’t) and I’m sure he will be looking on from his holiday sunbed when we sign the striker that he desperately wanted in the summer.  It’s not just a striker though, it’s creative attacking players and we have the perfect shit storm at the moment in that we don’t have much creativity and when we do create one or two chances a game, we don’t have anyone clinical to stick them in the net. Any manager would struggle to get much of a tune out of the squad but then again, that’s why Ralph is paid between £6 and £7 million a year. You could pay me a tenth of that and I don’t think we would be a worse team or lower in the league.

There is no joy in watching us anymore. It’s just a struggle.  You can’t be invested in this team because there’s nothing remotely to get excited about. At least when we pressed teams, we made it difficult for them and we got in their faces. If they didn’t fancy it then we found them out. Nowadays, we just don’t do anything and we allow the opposition to dictate the pace whilst we stand off. If we win the ball off them and there’s the opportunity for a break, then we don’t break up with any pace and we always end up with the ball with all 11 opposition players behind it and then we have no creativity to get through anyway. It’s fucking awful football to watch.  Last Days of Puel all over again.

Next up is Sheffield Wednesday, on Wednesday in the Carabao cup third round. This game is likely to disappear another subplot of who is the manager. It surely can’t be Ralph as it appears that sources at the club are briefing journalists that they have decided to sack him.

We will see what tomorrow brings (Update: they sacked him)