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.