EFL Championship Match 33 - Southampton 1 Hull City 2

 

Fabio Makes the Most of His Guaranteed Game Time

Onwards, ever onwards and four days after the last one, yet another game in the championship with the visit of Hull City to St Mary’s.  Hull have been pretty busy in the transfer window just gone and for me, should be doing slightly better than they are, residing on the fringes of the playoff race.

There was a lot of talk in January of Fabio Carvalho from Liverpool joining a Championship club on-loan for the rest of the season but if the media are to be believed, and we all know that usually they aren’t, Liverpool wanted some sort of guaranteed gametime which he was never going to get at Saints, so Hull stepped in. To date, he has been a bit underwhelming but he will be a dangerous presence this evening as well Jadon Philogene, who they signed from Aston Villa in the summer and who decided to rival Joe Rothwell for goal of the season a couple of weeks back with a ridiculous rabona finish into the top corner, which was absolutely filthy.

Their main striker this season is Liam Delap who scored against us at the KC Stadium but Delap is injured so at the moment leading the line last week was the one and only Billy Sharp, now 47 years old but still around.  I have to admit that I forgot about him when he semi-retired at the end of last season and going to play in the Micky Mouse League in the States.  Billy will always have a place in our hearts for his role in our last promotion so let’s hope he plays no part in deciding the outcome of this promotion campaign for us.

There is still a question over Flynn Downes for this game but Che Adams is reported fit and well and it just remains to be seen who gets picked, with Mara having done reasonably well as a central striker against West Brom and Adam Armstrong’s best position undoubtedly being on the right hand side. There is also the question of David Brooks and whether he starts after his goalscoring cameo against West Brom on Friday.

An hour before kick-off and the team news drops and ….. what the fuck is Russell Martin doing?  He’s picked “that” midfield again for fuck‘s sake…..  you know, the one that lets in all the goals. Smallbone is the defensive midfielder, flanked by Stuart Armstrong and Joe Rothwell.  Fucking hell. Has he forgotten the Bristol City and Huddersfield games? Well let’s just hope that they take a leaf out of the way the midfield played against West Brom and stay compact. The rest of the team is pretty much as you’d expect with Mara keeping his place and Edozie starting instead of Wee Man.

Right from the start you can see this is going to be difficult because Hull are pressing really high with four players. They are also closing down our midfielders and there appears to be no easy out ball for us.  We take some ridiculous risks around our 6 yard line and just about get away with them. Hull are of course going to try and play from the back as well and do so to good effect down our left before switching it to the other side and Zaroury tries an effort from long-range which flies just wide.

We switch to the other end and Allsopp plays a risky one into Seri who is tackled by Smallbone. The ball bounces free to Rothwell who just has the goalkeeper to beat but he tries to slide it through his legs and more by luck than judgment, Allsop blocks it aweay for a corner. It’s a bad miss.

Hull are doing the same thing that Saints usually do in that they are being calm in possession, especially the goalkeeper and his waiting for the free man which in this case is the left back who has got away from Adam Armstrong who has dozed off. One long ball catches out our entire front six with all three of the midfield absolutely nowhere. They work the ball to the edge of the penalty area and Philogene has a blast which Baz parries out but it’s straight to Zaroury who runs into the net.  Fucks sake. Saints defence all stand around pointing at each other.  No one points at the midfield because no one can point that far as they are fucking miles away.

Once we restart, there is very little response from Saints. We still can’t play the ball out of the defence and resort into banging it up the pitch. We do manage to get the ball to Stuart Armstrong in midfield but he turns and gives the ball away and Hull work it to Philogene on the right who skins Ryan Manning before blasting it at the near post where Baz blocks it, with his head.  Only one team looking dangerous here.  Another ball from Baz into Rothwell's feet and he has no idea what to do with it and Seri nicks it and lashes over the bar.

We really should be changing something here because it’s not working at all and there is nothing to remotely suggest that it will.  Saints are knocking it around with between the defence and goalkeeper and no one ahead of them wants the ball. Rothwell has his back to play and Smallbone is marked and not moving, whilst Stuart Armstrong is fucking nowhere and eventually Rothwell shows for it, Baz plays it into him and he takes a horrendous touch and then tries to run it past Philogene, who wins the ball and then Rothwell completely fails to react as Carvalho runs off him to pick up the pass right in front of Baz and knocks into the net and all fifteen travelling Hull City supporters go mad again.

We’re struggling to even deal with basic defending now and a big punt forward goes straight to Manning with nowhere near him and he tries to knock it back to Baz but it’s a 50p head effort and Baz has a head away himself from outside the box and it drops to Zaroury who luckily for us, lobs it wide.  A surging run by Coyle, the right back across the pitch and through the are where our midfield should be before find Zaroury once more and we get lucky as he drills it wide of the far post.

We have half a shout for a penalty as Coyle clearly slaps the ball away following a Stuart Armstrong cross but the ref takes the easy decision and give the free kick against THB for a slight push, which in no way caused Coyle to take off with his arm up.

Half-time and that was fucking shit - should probably be four goals down. Russell could honestly make five substitutes and no one could complain. All of the midfield and the forwards could go as they’ve been horrific.  No effort, no intensity, nothing.  As it is it’s only three subs are made with the axe mercifully falling on Adam Armstrong, who has done fuck all, Mara, who has done even less and Joe Rothwell who has been at the heart of everything shit that’s been going on. On come Joe Aribo – complete with captains arm band, David Brooks and Che Adams and they cannot possibly make it worse.

Russell Ponders His Midfield Selection

Brooks immediately creates a decent chance after only five minutes, meandering across the pitch before finding Edozie, then picking up the return pass and then finding Manning in the box and his right footed effort is just wide of the far post.  The point is that we connected through midfield and created a chance.

Aribo is showing great strength in midfield and puts Brooks away again who feeds Adams and his first-time effort goes wide of the near post. It’s better but not working the keeper at all.  It’s time for Wee Man who replaces Edozie.

Wee Man makes ground down the left and plays infield to Adams who falls on his arse but the ball finds Aribo. Aribo was trying to get it onto his left foot but in front of his left foot he finds Adams lying on the ground blocking him, so he can’t shoot straight away and has to keep wriggling till he finds an opening and his eventual shot sees the ball spoon up to David Brooks and his volley lands on the roof of the net

87 minutes and like he’s been doing since he came on, Brooks is buzzing all over the pitch trying to make things happen and he floats in a cross from the left which Che Adams throws his head out and it’s blocked but he works the ball back to Aribo and the big man crashes it into the net to make it 2-1 but there are only three minutes in normal time to go

Cue 80s Music

If we are expecting an avalanche, it didn’t really happen and when Aribo makes a rare mistake in the left back position, Hull break forward again with two shots coming in and two committed blocks, one each by Bednarek and THB.  And that’s your lot – game lost when he team was picked.

Well, we had a go in the second half and it was much better but we gave ourselves too much to do after Russell’s team selection and an absolutely shocking opening 45 minutes. I cannot for the life of me understand how you can pick those three in midfield and expect it to be any different to how it was against Huddersfield and Bristol City. With those three in midfield, by half-time we had let in eight goals in just over a game and a half. Individually they were shocking and collectively they were even worse.  We should have taken the lead of course with Rothwell missing that chance but you can’t afford to go two down against decent sides and expect to get away with it. We got away with it against Huddersfield, but Hull are considerably better than them.

Every manager has their blindspots and I can’t criticise Russell Martin too much but he had one earlier on this season where he had to get Jack Stephens in the team and he has one about Joe Rothwell because he’s a new signing.  After seeing all of his appearances, all we know that Rothwell does well is shoot and make runs ahead of the ball.  He can’t do anything else, so the midfield positions in our team do not suit him.  Is he a six,,,no, is he an eight… no.  He's a 10 or he’s nothing and should only play in that position as a rotation option for when Stuart Armstrong can’t manage two games in a week.  One thing I definitely do know is that’s that he has absolutely no idea what he’s doing in Russell Martin style of football as he had no idea what do when receiving a pass from the central defenders or the keeper and he has upset the whole balance of the midfield in the squad, let alone the team. What gets me is that playing him in the same midfield as Smallbone and Stuart Armstrong has been proven not to work very emphatically before this game. 

One reason that we played well against West Brom was Stuart Armstrong working incredibly hard to keep himself close to Smallbone so he didn’t get isolated.  He either couldn’t be bothered to do it today or more likely, just physically couldn’t do it twice in four days. He spent most of the first half loafing around in a kind of left-wing position, which may have been part of a tactical plan but he just looked disconnected from the other two midfielders who were really struggling.

Because the midfield was shocking, the defenders had no one to pass the ball to so we couldn’t build up through the thirds. Hull were very good and pressed us in our own half so with the midfield not functioning and not moving, we were left with trying to hit the strikers and with Mara and Adam Armstrong both being varying degrees of shite and neither being able to hold the ball up, it just didn’t work.

After Hull scored their first goal, it was blatantly obvious that change was needed and we needed to make a substitution at that point and not wait till half-time. You’ve either got to make subs in the first half if it’s that bad or you change style to get through the difficult spell and be a bit pragmatic and maybe make sure you’re only one down at half time.

None of the midfield or strikers could complain if they got hooked at half-time but Russell did at least hook the most deserving with Mara, Adam Armstrong and Rothwell coming off. Mara once again was given an opportunity and absolutely stunk the place out. Yes he didn’t get many passes but there was a distinct lack of effort. Adam Armstrong also suffered from a lack of service but it was he who totally dozed off to allow the build up for the first goal and he has gone right off the boil in the last four or five weeks and probably needs a spell out of the team.

The players who came on in the second half all did themselves a lot of good with regards to starting on Saturday.  David Brooks, Ryan Fraser, Che Adams and particularly Joe Aribo were excellent. Aribo is a different player to last season. He seems more determined, more dynamic and he looks fitter, which I think is the key thing. Though Sam Edozie was our best attacker who started the game (which is a very low bar), Fraser added a massive amount of dynamism and running which given a bit more time, could’ve earned us an undeserved point. All Che Adams had to do was look better than Mara and he did that just by looking interested.

Well shit. The undefeated run has gone and now the home run has gone so no excuse for any complacency or stupid team selections or not being on it.  We have proven we’re not invincible and with both runs over, everyone knows they have to up their game, starting with Millwall on Saturday at home.

Yes we were shit…but up the fucking Saints.