Carabao Cup 4th Round - Southampton 2 Lincoln City 1

 

You Lot Moaning About a Win? Really?

Two days ago I was sat in front of my TV watching the World Cup final play out with the mesmerising skills of Lionel Messi and Kylian Mbappé. Now I was back in the cold at St Mary‘s, about to witness the first home game of Nathan Jones, our manager recently recruited from Luton Town, who was sending his Saints side into a Carabao Cup 4^th  Round game against League 1 Lincoln City. For Messi and Mbappé, read Maitland-Niles and Mandroiu… perhaps.

So, what would be getting after 5 weeks of working with a virtually full squad of players?  The noises coming out the camp have been good but with a  new manager, they always are. I’ve learned over the years not to expect miracles – for example, any new manager is not going to transform an underperforming player over night. I am expecting this to be disjointed but I am expecting us to win and I am hoping that we show of style of play which looks like it might work at Premier League level. I am wanting us to be in their faces and unpleasant to play against.

To the team news and it’s three at the back with the only slight surprise being Lyanco being preferred to Caleta-Car. The midfield three consisted of Ainsley Maitland-Niles and Mohamed Elyounoussi in addition to JWP and Adam Armstrong given the nod up front partner Che Adams.  OK, not going to lie, I’m a little bit underwhelmed with that midfield three but let’s see how it works out.  Brave New World and all that.

Lincoln’s first attack saw them win a corner over on our right after two minutes. Inswinger and it went to Maitland-Niles at the back post and instead of clearing it like a normal player would have, he slices it up on the air and it comes down with fucking snow on it on top of Baz, who has been policed by some lamp post of a bloke who was about 6 foot 5 and Baz manages to push it in his own net.  No worries though, because the lino has the flag up so surely this is going to be disallowed… but no the referee’s given it and there's no VAR for some reason and the Jones era gets underway with us going ago behind after two minutes to a fucking League One side.  Awesome.

No worries, lots of time to go I guess. Time to show the new style of play that we’ve been expecting but all we get is booming long balls from the centre backs and no one in midfield interested in receiving the ball. It’s fucking weird. Maitland-Niles is playing just in front of the back three and then you’ve got JWP and Elyounoussi and the wingbacks who are not really getting involved because the ball is being bombed long towards Che Adams and Adam Armstrong.  You can see straight away why none of the defenders are giving it to AMN.  To call him shit would be an insult to shit players.  He’s performing at several levels beneath that.

We do press well to win the ball in their half an Elyounoussi slips Adam Armstrong through but he hasn’t got a left foot so tees it up for Che Adams but the pass is a bit behind him so he has to dig it out which allows the goalkeeper to smother the shot out for a corner.

After 25 or so minutes of not a lot really, we get the ball down and Salisu plays a progressive pass through the lines of Lincoln defenders and the ball pops off of AMN by accident to Elyounoussi just the right of centre and his cross his headed into the net by Che Adams. The main man and only goal scoring threat we have is up and running under the new manager. Get in.  Lincoln are appealing for offisde but as you know lads, there's no VAR today.

No VAR Today Lads

There is one more chance before half-time and it falls Lincoln as they build up down our left hand side after Perraud has given the ball away.  None of the defenders cover themselves in glory and Lincoln build well and eventual shot by Vernon is comfortably saved by Baz.

A bit of half-time research reveals that Adams was clearly offside for our goal and there was no reason for the lino to stick her flag up on their goal.  It’s been attritional and not very good from us.  Jones makes just one change at halftime with ABK coming off to be replaced by Caleta-Car.

This means that Lyanco is now on the right of the three so has slightly more license to get forward, which he does after we create an opening courtesy of winning the ball back, counter-pressing after a shocking bit of control by Adam Armstrong. It bounces out to Lyanco about 40 yards out and he just let’s fly about three or four yards wide.  He will score one day and it will be biblical.

After that bright start, it begins to meander a little bit.  Lincoln are settled in for penalties and the keeper is wasting time like a bastard.   The referee, Jarrod Gillet warned him in the first half without booking him and is now doing fuck all about it so I ask, what is the fucking point?  Anyway, Jones makes three changes in quick succession with Edozie, Walcott and Stuart Armstrong replacing Salisu, KWP and Adam Armstrong.  With AMN now at right back where he can cause less damage, we have now gone 4-3-3 and we look better straight away.  It's not so much the formation but the fact that we have got AMN and Adam Armstrong out of the way and have replaced them with players who can actually play.

Good work straight away by Edozie as he cut scene from the left hand side and finds Stuart Armstrong and with his hair looking fine, he works the ball onto his right foot before lashing it narrowly over the bar.

Adams knocks the ball out wide to Walcott on the right hand side, who shows the remaining vestiges of his pace before clipping the ball over to where Elyounoussi volleys it, it hits a defender and Adams has got himself into the middle and as where the ball drops and he bundles it into the net. Scruffy as fuck but we’ll take it.  Having provided an assist, Walcott has had enough so he’s injured and gone, probably til about March.  Enter Djenepo.

Edozie then begins to absolutely take the piss out of the right hand side of Lincoln’s defence, turning three players inside out before finding Adams on the edge of the box but the move peters out. Regardless, what we have now is that Lincoln are actually worried about one of our attackers doing something on an individual basis.

As time runs down, Lincoln have a little bit of possession and curling shot from the edge of the box produces a decent save from Baz.  In the 92nd minute, Lincoln have over-committed and Djenepo picks up the ball in midfield chips it over the top and Elyounoussi is clean through. He draws the keeper and unselfishly passes at square for Edozie to tap into the empty net… Only he fucking misses from 5 yards. Oh no that’s horrible… and you have to laugh because he’s a youngster.

Yeah, About That Open Goal

Not content with that, Armstrong wins the ball in midfield and knocks forward to Adams who bundles past the last defender and literally has half the pitch to himself and the Lincoln goalkeeper to beat.  Instead of knocking at square to Elyounoussi or Armstrong he just dribbles, dribbles, dribbles and the goalie dives three times and gets back to his feet and eventually Adams runs out of space and hits it and it bounces off the keeper and fucking hell.  Selfish to not pass it but unselfish in taking the heat off of Sam Edozie.

Final whistle.  Well that was a very mixed bag. The initial formation of 3-1-4-2 didn’t work at all and we didn’t give Lincoln any real problems playing that way.  The problem with it as I saw it was a lack of progression from midfield. Maitland-Niles was being asked to do that job and it was a bit like asking a one-legged man to win an arse kicking competition.  He played like he was drugs – totally blissed out, no urgency, concrete boots on, unaware of anything and not in control of his limbs. Consequently, if we managed to retain possession it eventually ended up back with the centre-backs, who pumped it long.  Not pretty.

Nathan Jones to his credit did recognise that it wasn’t working and when we changed to a back four and got some of the better footballers on the pitch, then we looked like a different side. Stuart Armstrong and Samuel Edozie may not be the best defensively but at least made us look like a Premier League team playing against League 1 opposition because they can actually do something with the ball.  Quality on the ball is required.

If we go through the team, Bazunu was not strong enough on the goal that we conceded but he was played right into the shit by a shocking clearance up in the air by Maitland-Niles. The starting back three all acquitted themselves fairly well with Lyanco being the standout with his willingness to attack the ball. A lot of the passing out of defence by all three of them was very hit and miss.

Saints were trying to get JWP further forward but we’re failing to get him the ball in decent areas as touched on earlier. Elyounoussi is the strangest player.  He had a hand in both of the goals but was otherwise painfully average - so what do you do with that?  I guess that goals and assists are what we need right now.  Up front, Che Adams battled away, looking like he was up for the fight and wanting to make a difference and he was rewarded with his two goals. I have absolutely no issue with his miss in the last minute and he needs to be more selfish more often. He should have squared it of course but for now, I’m happy with him trying to add more goals to his game. We did have another striker up front of course but we may as well not have done. Adam Armstrong again proved that it’s not lack of effort - he simply isn’t good enough. If he’s not giving the ball away with poor passes or heavy touches, he’s failing to hold off defenders and seemingly having a lack of determination to do so. He doesn’t even stand in the way of the defenders and draw fouls, he kind of just lets them have it.  Any starting 11 but has AMN in midfield and Adam Armstrong upfront is going to struggle.  As I said earlier, out of the substitutes, Stuart Armstrong added a touch of class and Samuel Edozie was brilliant apart from missing the rather embarrassing open goal, which put me in mind of one that Nathan Redmond produced last season where it’s just too easy.

Nathan Jones came out swinging his post-match interview, asking what everyone expected because after all, he’s only there because we don’t win many games. He is right of course and cup football is all about winning and today has to be taken into the context of not having played for six weeks.   On the other hand, Jones has to realise that we've been dreadful for he best part of a year and a lot of fans are very underwhelmed by his appointment so they want encouragement that things will get better.  It wasn’t the most encouraging of performances but the next few weeks are going to be very strange with some strange performances being thrown in by every team.  It will be all about results but today provided little evidence that results will be coming our way and we will undoubtedly need to be much better against Brighton on Boxing Day.

I will say that in order to win the game, Jones went big with attackers on the pitch.  When the second goal went in we had Edozie, Adams and Walcott up front with a midfield three of Elyounoussi, Stuart Armstrong and JWP.  No matter what you think about the overall performance, you have to applaud the fact that he went for it with the substitutions and got the reward because we won the game. We of course, should’ve scored two more goals in injury time and it’s not Nathan Jones fault that we didn’t.  If it had been 4-1 then whilst it would’ve papered over the cracks a little bit, people who don’t think further than their keyboard, wouldn’t have had as much to moan about.

Jones may want time to turn this into a decent team but he doesn’t have time because we need results in the short term and it needs to start on Boxing day. Defeat is not an option.