EFL Championship Match 9 - Southampton 3 Leeds 1

Sit Down Leeds

Two clubs get relegated from the Premier League at the tail end of last season.  Both struggle and lose lots of players due to the relegation. One starts the league season well and the other starts it poorly whilst all the chaos is going on. The transfer window closes and the one that started well, completely goes to shit - stops scoring and carries on conceding loads, whereas the one who struggled, suddenly starts winning and not conceding any goals. Guess which one we are and guess which one Leeds are?

Saints got some criticism for not getting business done early enough in the summer, especially with some of the departures. Leeds seemed to get everything done early, even though it seemed to be by the route of just loaning players out in order to get the wage bill down as quickly as possible. Time will tell if that was a good plan or not.  They also had to wait for a ‘dickhead going on strike’ situation to play out, with Willy Gnonto refusing to train and play etc, but when no move happened for him, he’s now back, presumably with his tail between his legs.

What Leeds have definitely done is addressed the main problem area for sides that get relegated and that is at the top end of the pitch. They have kept Giorgino Rutter, who to be fair, at the end of last season they probably couldn’t have given away, bearing in mind they paid a ridiculous amount of money for him and he didn’t do anything last year.  They also signed Joel Piroe from Swansea, a player who would of course have been on our wish list, having scored 20 odd goals for Russell Martin’s Swansea side last year.  I suspect that we blew that one the moment we got into the compensation row with Swansea over the manager. Another reason that we couldn’t sign Piroe is because we didn’t sell Che Adams and the difference between those two players since the transfer window closed is stark.

Leeds have ex-Norwich boss Daniel Farke as their manager and he apparently coached Russell Martin in his last year at Norwich.  Farke of course has the pedigree of having won the Championship before with the Canaries. The strength in this Leeds side is up front and you would normally look at the defence and think that was the area you could get at but having kept four clean sheets in a row, a run that Saints could only dream of, this is shaping up to be a very difficult game.

I think in every game that we have played this year, except maybe the Leicester game, Saints have gone into it as favourites, at least marginally but no one is really expecting anything from us here so the job for Russell Martin is to surprise everybody, to avoid racking up a run of five defeats in a row.  Having reflected on the past couple of games, I feel that the manager has tried to address some of the issues but has been let down by the players. Of course, he chose those players and the buck stops with the manager as usual. Against Leicester we tried the inverted full back nonsense which caused us no end of problems and then corrected that for the Ipswich game.  In the Ipswich game he got the midfield completely wrong and he corrected that for the Middlesbrough game.  Slim pickings but we have got better with Ipswich being better than Leicester and Middlesbrough being better than Ipswich. It’s a real marginal call however and there is it going to have to be a massive step up in the amount of improvement for us to get anything out of today’s game

There are certainly a few surprises in the starting line-up.  Kamaldeen Sulemana is in from nowhere and Stuart Armstrong and Charly Alcaraz also start with Shea Charles, Che Adams and Ryan Fraser dropping to the bench.  Is Stu playing on the right or is Charly up front?  Either way, we have most of our better players on the pitch.

Dink

Away we go and try and build out a defence with the ball being passed from THB to Alcatraz in the middle of the park and he works out well to KWP on the right hand side charging forward. On he goes, cuts inside, left foot reverse pass through the Leeds defence to where Adam Armstrong has run off the right wing and picks the ball up from a really tight angle and confronted with large headed keeper in the Leeds goal, goes for the dink and it beautifully flights over the flailing goalkeeper and drops in the far side of the goal. Fucking brilliant finish.  Two minutes? Who is this imposter in the captain’s armband?  1-0 – Sit down Leeds.

Leeds immediately show little bit as you would expect having gone behind after two minutes and Rutter travels across the box before attempting a left-footed effort which Baz palms away easily enough.  We soon get the first piece of unnecessary defending as Sulemona stops a break down our right knocks it to Manning in the penalty area who instead of smashing up the park like a normal player would, tries to take a touch and treads on it and we end up with a spot of pinball in the penalty area before Byram lashes it well wide.

Will Spots That There Is a Player In There After All

Stuart Armstrong has has moments of showing class and picks up the ball on the left before sliding it into Sulemana down the left. He faces up Shackleton at right back and takes his time before playing a lovely pull-back ball on the ground to the arriving Smallbone on the edge of the box who rolls it neatly past Meslier and in off the post. Fucking brilliant goal. Amazingly, we are 2-0 up.

Surely this can’t get any better? Yes it can as again we build up on the right hand side through Adam Armstrong and KWP and once again Alcaraz has come deep to pick the ball up and spreads out wide to Sulemana who makes his way across the top of the box and just when you think he’s about to shoot, he picks out Adam Armstrong on the right wing who makes an absolute mug out of Byram sitting him on his arse before from a tight angle again, slides it past the Leeds Hologram and the desperate effort of Struijk on the line to keep it out.  3-0. Madness.  Sam Byran took ‘Sit Down Leeds’ literally, knowing that he’s going to be appearing on a few memes.

Leeds have nothing – they almost look like they’re playing at half pace.  Sulemana wriggles away from two or three agricultural challenges before flashing the ball out to KWP.  He heads towards goal and is held up by Byram before turning out and crossing left footed to the back post where Alcaraz header is touched over.  Regardless, it’s a brilliant move and the positivity is remarkable bearing in mind where we’ve been the last four games.  The resulting corner from Stuart Armstrong is flicked on by namesake Adam and Smallbone goes flying in but can’t get his dome on it. Mind you, the big hand in the back that he got from Byram probably didn’t help.  Who needs VAR when you’re 3-0 up?

Standing ovation at half-time and off we go and unsurprisingly there are no changes for the start of the second half. We’ve been brilliant and Leeds have been shit and haven’t been able to live with us at all. Quite remarkable considering the pre-match predictions and pre-match mood from the football punditry world at large.

The second half is obviously going to be different from the outset with Leeds having absolutely nothing to lose and Saints just needing to manage the game. The first 10 minutes are quite calm and then Ampadu tries a shot from the edge of the box which is deflected for a corner. And it comes from Summerville and it’s half cleared up in the air and the ball bounces for Struijk to bring it down with his back to goal, turn and knock it into the net. We had nine players in the penalty area plus the goalkeeper and still didn’t deal with it.

The next 10 minutes are obviously going to be crucial, and Saints look okay even though we are giving the ball away, usually around the halfway line. A ball gets played through to Piroe who has a chance to show everyone what they were missing, but his touch is absolutely shit and it runs through to Baz.

There is another opportunity for Leeds with James picking up the ball with the right, with our defence retreating and he has another chance to prove why Manchester United once paid ridiculous money for him and why Leeds did the same but it’s Dan James, - he’s shit and shanks it wide of the near post. Massed ranks of Leeds fans thought it was in, which is always amusing.  Sit down Leeds.

It’s time for some changes with Sulemana, having completed an hour being replaced with Ryan Fraser and Alcaraz is off for Che Adams. Within a few minutes, Smallbone is done and on comes Shea Charles. The general direction of traffic is still towards our goal though and Jaden Anthony gets a cross in to the box which is knocked down to Piroe, who shanks it straight at Baz.

Substitutions then get a bit surreal with Stuart Armstrong, who has had an excellent game, being replaced with Joe Aribo and James Bree comes on, on the right wing to take the place of Adam Armstrong.  Leeds are done and know they are not getting back into this and the five minutes of injury time is negotiated very comfortably, with Leeds basically playing the ball around in front of us but not providing any threat to Baz in goal.  I spend the last few minutes wondering if Joe Aribo got a touch of the ball.

What a brilliant win that is. A very short summation of the game is that we blew them away in the first half and then managed the game pretty well in the second half. The dangerous part of the second half was straight after Leeds pulled one back but there was never really any heart in mouth moments that could’ve ended with us somehow throwing away what our brilliant first half had given us to hold onto.  We weren’t brilliant in the second half by any stretch of the imagination and probably didn’t look after the ball particularly well but when we did lose it, we didn’t get stretched out all over the place and broken upon. That was a huge reason why Leeds didn’t get back into it.

The first half could not have been any better and we took the chances when they came to us. With Alcaraz and KWP combining to send Adam Armstrong away in the second minute, I didn’t see how he could possibly score from where he was but the dinked finish was something that I was pleasantly surprised to see was in his locker. Brilliant finish it has to be said.  Alcaraz starting the move was also key as Leeds probably weren’t expecting him to drop deep like that and for it to work straight away is a managers dream.

The second goal was down to some excellent buildup play by Sulemana, who showed previously unseen levels of intelligence in this game, playing at his trademark speed when he needed to but also taking his time and you won’t find a better example of this then on the second goal when it would’ve been really tempting for him just to smash the ball across but he took his time and picked out Will Smallbone’s run and Will did the rest.  Kamaldeen is the strangest player but seems to be playing with a lot of tactical discipline today.

Goal number three just showed that was really going to be our day as after another great pick out by Sulemana, Adam Armstrong again found himself through on the angle and I have a feeling this one might have been drifting slightly wider the far post but it flicked off a defender and nestled in the bottom corner again.

Having negotiated the five minutes before half-time, the second half was much more measured and though it was frustrating at times but we never seemed to get into Leeds half before losing the ball, ultimately when we did turn the ball over we were a lot better at getting back into shape and Leeds goal came from a corner.

Defensively I thought we were pretty good today, with Bednarek and Harwood-Bellis not giving the highly touted Rutter or Piroe a sniff. Considering the hype over the last few games, those two were really disappointing, thanks to the job on them done by our central defenders.

Joe Aribo Touch Map

Russell Martin have a great day today because he picked a team with some changes and made some tough decisions and it worked.  The substitutions were all made at the right time and each time, it was hard to argue with the switches being made. It’s interesting to note that whilst the substitutions were made at the right time, once they have been made, the manager doesn’t really have much control over how that player performs once they get on the pitch. I Would love to see Joe Aribo touch map because I don’t think he touched the ball in the 20 minutes he was on the pitch.  Che Adams did a decent impression of a trampoline up front and gave a pretty good indication of why he was left out for this game.  Every first touch going ten yards was not what was required.  The other subs who got significant minutes on the pitch did what they were brought on to do, Ryan Fraser got stuck in really well, as did Shea Charles.

There were a few headlines with the team selection today, with Charly Alcaraz playing as a false nine / point of the diamond, which means that the weakness of his game, tracking back and defending, is not exposed. He was decent without setting the world alight but that position suits him as long as the wingers can provide a goal threat.  Having an extra person to pass to in midfield made the whole gameplan work better, giving more options to defenders when they wanted to play out. Stuart Armstrong was also massively influential today and just adds a touch of class to the proceedings and he’s always available and most of the time, he uses the ball very well. In my opinion, he has to stay in the side.  Will Smallbone had a dodgy opening 20 minutes, got booked and was perhaps slightly fortunate not to get a second booking but settled down once he scored.  He’d obviously been told to get stuck in more and today he was more of a presence than he has been of late.  He’s been reminding me a bit of the 20 year old JWP who got frequently bustled out of games and was ineffective but was a different player once he learned to get stuck in.

The captain got his first win today and It’s getting to the stage where even though he is frustrating at times, you can’t argue with Adam Armstrong’s goal return.  Both finishes were as good as they were surprising.  Last year he would have battered both efforts at the goalkeeper but he’s the man at the moment, and long may this new confident Armstrong continue in this vein.
 
Leeds didn’t offer much in truth and never built up the head of steam I expected from them from the start, nor when they got a goal back at the start of the second half. With the strikers not getting a sniff, I was expecting more from Dan James (average as always) and Summerville but they didn’t do much either. I don’t think those who were going on about us not signing Joël Piroe, will be doing it quite as vehemently as they were before seeing him play.  Kamara and Ampadu tried to drive Leeds forward from midfield but there just seemed to be a strange lack of urgency, really from once the second goal went in. Today changed the narrative somewhat – before the game, Leeds were marching towards the top if the league and Saints were struggling.  Now, both teams are on the same number of points.  Saints fans are realising their team isn’t so bad and Leeds fans will be maybe thinking that their team isn’t what they thought it was.

A special mention also go to the referee who was an absolute clown show, especially in the second half. Leeds started to put in the foot in a little bit more as you would expect and yet there was still a constant stream of free-kicks given against us and the final booking count was four for us and one for them. Basically, he only saw tactical fouls one way. Three of ours were for that and I have absolutely no problem with those being bookings but you’ve got to be consistent for both sides and he obviously had money on Ampadu not getting booked.

Nostalgically, it was a very similar game today to the opening game of the Championship season in 2011 when we played Leeds at home, raced into a 3-0 lead and ended up winning 3–1. Both in that game and this one, we kept the momentum going from the fast start that we had. Having scored three in the first half today, I hope we kick towards the Chapel End in the first half more often. It’s not something we chose to do because Leeds won the toss and switched the team round but I’m a great believer on if you stumble over something that works, keep doing it.

It was nice to see Russell Martin’s interview after the game, in the context of having ended this run of four defeats in a row. The relief was noticeable. I do like the fact that after a win, he always points out the things that we need to do better which leaves you with the feeling that he does actually recognise what needs fixing and knows that we haven’t suddenly cracked it. This is of course the first thing you need to do before you can actually fix anything.  As I said at the start, I feel like he has been trying to address certain issues over the last couple of games but it hasn’t quite worked. Today it more or less all came together.

The games are coming thick and fast again this week with a Tuesday night trip to the Britannia Stadium in Stoke up next.  Having slightly unexpectedly won today, it would be fantastic to keep it going against a team who seem destined to be mid table this season. Bring it on and Up the fucking Saints.