EFL Championship Match 29 - Rotherham 0 Southampton 2

 

Protect Wee Man At All Costs

Rotherham, bottom of the league, away from home at the interestingly named Asseal New York Stadium.  Turns out that years ago, New York was an area in Rotherham where the stadium was built… no different to St Mary’s then really.  Arctic Monkeys have a song which has a line about “You’re not from New York City, you’re from Rotherham”…. Turns out you can almost be from both.

The return game was three games into what was the beginning of our unbeaten run which still continues to this day of course. That game is a bit of a Ground Zero because we tore them apart and went one up, then played walking football for half an hour, then conceded from their only shot and then panicked and couldn’t find a winner. Despite the fact that we had won the previous two games against Leeds and away at Stoke, quite a number of the fanbase decided after the Rotherham game but they were going to voice their displeasure at what they saw as Russell Martin’s tippy-tappy football that wasn’t what they wanted. They didn’t want Ralph-ball, they certainly, statistically didn’t want Jones-ball and I’ll be amazed if anyone wanted Ruben-ball but they knew they wanted something different and they knew that this wasn’t it.  It was also a game that haunted Russell Martin because he couldn’t believe that we could dominate a game that much and draw 1-1 and it absolutely offended him. I am sure he will be looking to put that right today.

Dropped by Southampton, Move to Juventus, Obviously

So, we have to win today and we’ll have to do it without Charly Alcaraz, who has left the club on a loan deal, surprisingly to go to one of the biggest clubs in Europe in Juventus. It’s a loan to the end of the season with an option to buy of around £45 million mark.  I would say there is absolutely no chance of Juve triggering that because if we are led to believe about Italian football is true, they are never going to have that amount of money.  Apparently, we have a £4 or £5 million loan fee for the rest of the season which on the face of it is good business for a player who is not in our starting 11.  With the pile of fixtures we’ve got coming up in February though, it might not be the smartest move but the Joe Rothwell signing didn’t look particularly smart, until Charly left.  Rothwell suddenly has more pressure on his shoulders to show a hell of a lot more than he has shown so far.

Just before Alcaraz left, David Brooks arrived on loan from Bournemouth. It looks like we were pursuing both Brooks and Manuel Benson from Burnley but with Burnley being tinpot and moving the goalposts at the last minute, we eventually told Alan Pace and his #FreeTella daughter to fuck off and we went for Brooks, a 26-year-old Welsh international who made the headlines a couple years ago from having cancer, which he thankfully has fully recovered from.  Brooks has done well at Premier League level in the past so has impressive pedigree for a loan signing and he is a natural in the right wing position. I like the quote from his first interview where he said “I am here to try and get some game time“ the word ‘try’ is important because it shows that he knows it’s not a given and that he is going to have to work for it.  Of course, he will get minutes at some point but it’s hard to see where Brooks would fit in the team at the moment. If he takes the right-wing berth then Adam Armstrong moves inside which means Che Adams gets left out and he’s scoring goals and playing well at the moment.  If you move out of Armstrong to the left then you leave out Ryan Fraser who is arguably our best player at the moment. The bottom line is that as long as the players are happy, you can’t have too many good ones and Brooks is definitely a high-quality signing for a team in the Championship.  I bet some of the more petty Bournemouth fans are spewing.

The arrival of Brooks meant of course that we had six players on-loan as he joined THB, Downes, Fraser, Rothwell and Holgate. Out of those six, only five can be in a matchday squad and the one we were always going to want to get rid of was Mason Holgate and our wish came true as Sheffield United basically took over his loan agreement with Everton, freeing up a lot of money in wages for us and freeing us of a talented but massively inconsistent player.  His last appearance showed what he was about by being absolute garbage in the first half and then looking like a proper player in the second.   I always felt that with Holgate, we signed him before we knew we could sign THB and as soon as that deal was complete, Holgate became a bit of an expensive spare part.  If we were loitering around upper mid-table, looking for a playoff place then Holgate’s up and down performances would probably be okay but as we are going for the top two, you can’t have a defender like that, who is just as likely to make an almighty bollocks of something as to put in a consistent performance. All the best to Holgate, who came with the best intentions, but it didn’t quite work out.

Thus endeth the transfer window.  KWP stayed, as did Che Adams, Rudi Skacel was done on a deal sheet and Matt Holland was seen in West Quay.  Now to go and get promoted, starting with three points today at Rotherham.  Nothing less will do.

Team news and exactly as expected and the same line-up as the last league game.  Brooks is on the bench instead of Alcaraz and that’s the only news.  Russell Martin’s determination to win this game is apparent from the first whistle because we’re not doing our usual kick-off and Stuart Armstrong slots a ball through straight away and Che Adams is clean through but he has been a bit eager in the flag has gone up for offside… and he missed anyway as the shot was pushed away by Johansson.

More pressure and three minutes gone and Wee Man wins a corner.  It’s an in-swinger from Stuart Armstrong and after a couple of deflections, it sits up and Bednarek nods powerfully into the top corner and give Johansson no chance.  Get in.

With Rotherham’s game plan of defending the fuck out of it for a draw in a 5-4-50 yards-Big Donkey formation, now out of the window after four minutes, they do actually attack with Kiosi playing a decent ball in from the right hand side and the donkey Hugill meeting it first time but he’s not good enough to keep it down and launches it over the bar.

THB lobs a ball forward towards Stuart Armstrong which is cut out but Saints win it straight back through Downes, who gives it short to Wee Man and he cuts and smashes it with his right foot, past the keeper and off the inside of the post and away. Fuck.

Saints are now playing at such a pace that Rotherham can’t even get close to them.  Another flowing move at the left-hand side ends with Adams brilliantly playing Stuart Armstrong through but Johansson is out well to smother the shot.

It’s a temporary reprieve though as THB scoops one over the top to meet the run of Wee Man coming off the left as he gets closed down, a back heel it into the path of Adam Armstrong who shoots left footed and it goes under the keeper and squirts into the corner of the net. 2-0 and this is done after twenty minutes, lesson learned, ghost of that game at St Mary’s buried.

On, on and Smallbone gets on a run down the right, finds Adam Armstrong out wide and continues his run into the box and meets the cross from 6 yards, meets it well and fuck me – how has he saved that diving to his right. This fucking goalkeeper.

As we approach half-time, Rotherham go route one, usually from the goalkeeper and after a couple of headers are won in midfield Revan brings a decent save out of Baz with a cross shot. Honestly it’s laughable. Smashing it up the pitch towards Hugill, who doesn’t win much but make sure he dies on the floor any time any defender comes near him. Rotherham are actually playing for throw-ins because they’ve got a centre back who lumbers up to both sides of the pitch and launches missiles into the penalty area.  Luckily, we have two centre backs who are not frightened of stick in the head in and getting it away.  Complicated stuff that Pep Guardiola could learn from.

Half-time and we could score as many as we want to. I’m glad the second goal has gone in because that negates the bolt from the blue but honestly, this lot are like a pub team and then might as well start preparing for League 1 already.

Rotherham come out with a bit more purpose in the second half but it’s Saints that create the first decent opportunity as Smallbone spots a run from right to left by Adam Armstrong and flights the ball over perfectly but the skipper’s touch lets him down and it runs away from him and Johansson again manages to smother it.

"That fucking Goalkeeper", Again

To be fair to Rotherham, they are working hard and now are pressing higher up the pitch but they’re not good enough to do anything with it if they do win it. Most of the attacks are being started by Stuart Armstrong dawdling on the ball and losing it and it’s a bit of a surprise when it’s not him that gets substituted with the Bournemouth loan pair David Brooks and Joe Rothwell coming on for Flynn Downes and Che Adams. Within a few minutes it’s Make-A-Wish time with Mara coming on for Wee Man.

Mara does in fact work the goalkeeper straight away, picking up Smallbone’s pass before drilling it straight at Johansson from the edge of the box.  Smallbone again turns creator as his diagonal ball is half cleared and picked up by Brooks and his cross goes just in front of Mara and Adam Armstrong gets to it before Johansson again is out smartly to save once more.  We could have caught up the goal difference n Leeds today if it wasn’t for this guy.  It’s a damp squib of a second half with a distinct feeling of ‘game management’ about it – the job is done.

On the face of it this game is very similar to our last league game at Swansea.  Blow them away in the first half and then manage the second.  We did the game management thing a lot better today than we did at Swansea.  Like the game at St Mary‘s, if it wasn’t for Viktor Johansson in the Rotherham goal, then it would’ve been five at least.

If we had scored five then it would’ve been a fair reflection of the quality of the two teams. Rotherham are like the fucking Dog and Duck with the World’s best goalkeeper playing as a ringer.  Even in the Championship you don’t get any teams who play so little football and are basically that limited. Long ball smashed up the park to the big centre forward and the big centre back launching in missile throws from either flank. Proper throwback stuff. When you get to a certain age you think back a lot and generally think the football was better but football like Rotherham produce isn’t better. That was Tranmere, Stockport, Wimbledon dark ages shite.

There were a few standout performers for us today with Ryan Fraser and Stuart Armstrong bossing the first half down the left.  Fraser’s vision for the second goal was exceptional and the right back basically gave up the ghost trying to prevent him doing whatever he wanted.
Especially with the fact that Alcaraz is no longer available for us, we are going to have to keep an eye on Stuart Armstrong over the next month, with us having so many games to play. He got progressively more tired and slower after half-time and continually gave the ball away for Rotherham to start attacks. By attacks, I mean play a couple of passes and then smash it and hope for a throw-in, but he certainly gave the ball away a lot today even though it didn’t ultimately lead to anything. The most obvious replacement in the squad now is Rothwell who was a little better today and at least showed some driving running with the ball.

There was the debut today for David Brooks, who showed a couple of lovely touches over on the right wing and glimpses of the obvious quality that he will bring to the team.  He is used to the CHampionship so won't have been surprised when he megged a player and then got immediately trashed.

The centre backs stood up well to the bombardment with the sad figure of Hugill putting himself about, when he wasn’t rolling around on the floor pretending to be injured.  Apparently it was Jan Bednarek’s 200^th appearance for the club today and he of course, marked the occasion with a goal.  The partnership with THB, both from a defensive and creative point of view, is one that wouldn’t need changing if we do make it to the Premier League.

With Ipswich narrowly failing to come back from 3-0 down at Preston, we end the weekend in second place and in the automatic promotion spots, for the first time this season. This must be a nice feeling but ultimately meaningless if we don’t maintain our form. Leeds are matching us win for win at the moment and are one point behind having played a game more. It is just going to be relentless over the next few weeks.

Next up is a chance for the fringe players as we play Watford once more in the replay in the FA Cup 4^th Round, with a dubious prize of playing at Anfield the reward for the winners. Up the fucking Saints.