Premier League Match 38 - Southampton 1 Arsenal 2

 

Ross Stewart - More then Just a Concept.

And finally, we come to the final act of this sorry bag of shite that is masquerading as the Southampton season of 2024/25. I don’t think there will be anyone, not Simon Rusk, not any of the players, and certainly not any of the fans, who will be sorry that this season is finally ending. Out with the old and in with a new but first we have to do negotiate today’s final game against Arsenal at St Mary’s. Whilst it would be amazing to sign off with a win, the one when we’ve had all season at home, suggests that it’s very unlikely and this is before you get into the fact that Arsenal are in fact, quite good.

So, second place for Arsenal and there is the unavoidable feeling that they should’ve done better this season. Liverpool have not been amazing, but Arsenal have not been anywhere near them in terms of challenging for top spot in the Premier League. The highlight of their season was an excellent win over two legs against a very fractured Real Madrid side, but all that did was got them to a Champions League semi-final where they were relatively comfortably beaten by PSG. Mikel Arteta has a habit of talking absolute shite and never more when they have lost a game. He tried to gaslight everyone that they were the better side against PSG.  The truth was that it was quite something seeing Arsenal resembling a Wimbledon side from the late 80s, relying on free kicks and long throws to pose any threat. That’s the way it’s been for Arsenal this season with a remarkable record of scoring goals from corners, which in the main were converted by Gabriel, who is out for the rest of the season.  It shouldn’t be the case when you’re a top side, that losing a central defender takes away about 50% of your goal threat.

Against teams like us though, they have more than enough goal threat with the likes of Saka, Marino, Martinelli and Trossard… and that’s before you even get to the midfield of Odegaard and Rice.  Still, the funniest thing that’s happened at the end of Arsenal’s season is Spurs winning a European trophy. Seeing the mental gymnastics from Arsenal fans trying to convince themselves that they have had a better season than Spurs is quite amusing. The bottom line is that even though we’re in this era in football, where finishing fourth as seen as being better than a trophy, it really fucking isn’t and no one will remember Arsenal‘s 24/25 season whereas every Spurs fan will remember their win in the Europa league, for the rest of their lives.  Anyway, I wish we had their problems.

But enough of the North London shenanigans. We have going to get through and it seems that some of our players fancy an early holiday. We strongly suspect that Jan Bednarek will be joining KWP straight out of the exit door and neither of them are going to play today. Simon Rusk has mumbled some word salad bollocks about very slight injuries, but we all know the truth. THB did pick up an injury last week but he won’t be around either, so we might actually have to deviate from the five at the back template, simply because we haven’t got enough central defenders with Jack Stephens and Nathan Wood the only two available, if you don’t count ABK and as a rule, we don’t because he’s an arsehole. Knowing Simon Rusk however, he will probably play Jimmy Bree as the third central defender.

Today will be a sad day in many respects because we’ll probably be seeing the last game for some of or maybe all of Aaron Ramsdale, Mateus Fernandes and Tyler Dibling.  On the opposite side of the coin, it might be the last time we ever have to watch some of the shit players…. Take your pick.

Will Still - Hopefully won't be listening to the penis on his shoulder.

Having been busy all morning, I’ve not been paying attention to the news and it’s not until I get to the ground that I become aware that we have appointed Will Still as our new manager for next year and that he will be in the ground today. I wonder what he will make of some of the players who are going to be here next year but it’s good news that he’s in the building early.  Maybe he can have a word with one or two and try and convince them to stay.

I feel that Simon Rusk needs to get Saints to put on something approaching and an entertaining performance today. For once, it’s probably more important than the result. We expect to lose of course as we are one of the teams playing today.  Also, it’s Arsenal and we are on course to set a Premier League record of thirty defeats in a season.  When the Rusk team news drops for the last time, it’s a bit fucking mental. There are starts for Charlie Taylor, Nathan Wood, Jay Robinson, Yuki Sugawara and Ross Stewart. What the actual fuck? There seems to be a lot of tactical injuries with Tyler Dibling and Jack Stephens joining those we expected to be missing. It turns out that Captain Jack has broken his wrist in training, probably punching a picture of Cucurella that someone pinned to his locker.  Jack aside, isn’t it strange that some of those missing have hardly missed a game in their entire Saints career and here they are with a move on the horizon and they have the all encompassing “illness”. I don’t know why the club can’t just tell the truth because I’d respect that more than some bullshit explanation and treating me like I’m a fucking idiot.

So, it looks like a back four with three of the four being somewhat amusing selections. None of the missing players are even fit enough to sit on the bench, so we have a youth team player called Moore on there, and I have to look up what his first name is because I’ve never heard of him. Jayden Moore. Welcome.  Arsenal are resting a few as well but the difference is, the likes of Saka, Havertz and Odegaard are on the bench. Even if by some miracle the game is close as we go into the final 20 minutes, I would expect Arteta to bring on the big boys whilst we are bringing on players from the crèche.

For once, the first incident of the day is a Saints attack, with a corner swinging in by Fernandes and headed out as far as Sugawara who absolutely drills it and it hits Declan Rice on the hand and surely to fuck that’s a penalty.  Even our collection of soft arses get animated and surround the referee.  Off we go to VAR for what could be the last time for a while….

Hi there Stockley Park... is that Scotty?
Yes... What do you want Darren… there are 10 games going on today and yours doesn’t matter
I know but they surrounded me
Who did?
Southampton!
What – they never complain about anything, just meekly accept it cos they’re shit
I know, but this really looked like a handball
So what, they’re going down
I know Scotty, but we’ve fucked them over all season and I thought it would be nice.
We fucked them over cos we all had money on them being more shit than Derby, Darren
Oh yeah, I lost a few quid, thought it was a cert
Ok I’ll bloody check… ok I’ve got a decision for you
And...?
Does it strike his hand … yes, away from his body… yes… proximity… not a factor
So a penalty then?
Nah…. Not enough consequence.
Why not?
Because Southampton are shit.
Fair enough… play on.

What a surprise, no penalty. What’s the fucking point?  Bring on next season.

Despite being makeshift, Arsenal are still extremely dangerous and work the ball out to the left wing to Martinelli.  He drops the shoulder to get a yard against Sugawara before standing up across to the back post, which Merino jumps to meet and it can only flick it off the bar. Rambo had it covered, however.

Saints are giving a give a good account of themselves, however, and Wellington is making stuff happen at the attacking end of the pitch as he bursts past Love Island’s Ben White before pulling the ball back into the middle. It comes to nothing until Fernandes wins it back and crosses it back in and Stewart barges past fellow jock Tierney, but can only head wide.

Our back four has not done anything really dumb as yet but then one long ball from Tierney and our central defenders suddenly ten yards behind Martinelli, who has sprung the trap and he’s got the ball.   He just has former team mate Ramsdale to beat but only one winner as  Martinelli takes it early and Rambo saves well.

More Arse pressure as we approach half-time and they win a corner on our right which comes in and we fail to clear properly and then don’t get close enough to Arsenal as they build an attack down our left with White overlapping Martinelli and getting into the box untracked before firing over a low cross which sees Tierney winning the Jock-War, getting in front of Ross Stewart and knocking it into the net. Fuck.

Arsenal sense a second goal before halftime but Saints clear the danger through Taylor and Sulemana bundles past a challenge and has sixty yards to run into.  Usually he stops and turns back but this time he keeps going before inevitably stopping but at least he tried a shot, which gets blocked up in the air and comes down for him to shin roller it into the side netting. That guy is destined to have no end product for the rest of his life at Saints, but at least this time he actually had a shot.

Half time and we haven’t been bad and don’t really deserve to be behind given the penalty farce and the general play.  J-Rob has been decent so far if a little lightweight and the back four were pretty solid once Taylor stopped trying to play left back and settled down a bit.  No changes at half-time and we start the second half relatively well with Robinson being chopped down on the edge of the Arsenal box. Fernandes has been excellent this season, but he is no JWP when it comes to free kicks and it hits the wall.  From the resulting scramble J-Rob picks up the ball and jinks his way past a couple of players before hammering in a shot which Raya has to push away for a corner. Decent from the youngster.  Fernandes may not be JWP with free kicks but he’s getting there with corners and in it comes and up goes the Loch Ness Drogba to flick in a header past Raya and into the net. Fucking hell we’ve scored and Ross Stewart is more than just a myth or a vague concept, he’s actually a goal scorer at Premier League level.

With half an hour to go, it’s all gonna be about Arsenal‘s positive changes from the bench and Saints inevitable worsening of the team. Before that though, Nwaneri plays a delightful ball inside Welington for White to run onto and his low cross is going in off of the combined touch of Rice and Taylor, before Sugawara appears from nowhere.  True to form he just panics and leathers it but it’s away from goal and into Declan Rice and off for an Arsenal corrner, of course, because the referee is a prick.

Rice is getting more involved now and trying to make things happen and he bundles his way into the box and eventually ends up volleying at Ramsdale from about eight yards but Rambo is equal to it again and it’s another blinding save, which unfortunately pops up for Saka to head into the net but the flag has gone up straight away but that still means we have to go off to VAR.

Hi there Scotty at Stocky Park
What do you want again – I thought I told you last time?
It's an Arsenal goal though
OK, best have a look… flag is up though
I know, I thought we could send Saints off with another shocker, just for the lols.
OK, Rice shoots, Saka is miles offside, Ramsdale saves, still offside.
So, can’t overturn that one?
Not really, Saka is smiling as well and apologising – what a nice man
Lovely man.
By the way, you should see the decision we’ve just given Man United….

It’s time for Simon to weaken the team with Robinson and Sulemana going off to be replaced by Archer and Smallbone. It’s not as bad as I fear because Smallbone has gone to where Fernandes was and Matty has gone out wide.  Five minutes later though and there’s another change and this is Rusk doing what he always does and bringing on another defender.  Why the fuck… we’ve been defending well as a four.  Kayi Sanda is on for the limping Big Les.  What this all means is the Smallbone is now in a midfield two with Downes and that as we all know, it’s always a fucking nightmare.  I’m telling anyone who will listen around me that he should’ve brought Aribo on as a straight swap for Les (lesser of two evils), but no, Simple Simon refuses to do things simply and Simon says to bring on another defender and put Will in midfield.

90 minutes up and Saints are on the attack and pushing Arsenal back and the referee and the linesman between them decide to give Arsenal a free kick for absolutely fucking nothing.  They take it quickly whilst we’re arguing and Odegaard, who has been on for fifteen minutes or so, swaps passes with fellow sub Trossard before being faced up by Smallbone, and the Arsenal captain literally walks around the most powderpuff challenge you’ve ever seen and has a free shot from 18 yards which he buries in the bottom corner. For fucks sake. Well done Keep it Simple Simon.

Smallbone, Tired after ten minutes of action, lets Odegaard Walk Round Him.

There are nine minutes of injury time to go and even though we launch some optimistic balls towards Tall Paul, there’s not really any danger for Arsenal and they see the game out like you would expect them to.

And so a predictable defeat in Simon Rusk’s last game and no one should be surprised that we let in a late goal to lose it after a decent and spirited performance.  There are three reasons why the winning goal happened. The first one was the stupid substitution by Rusk, to change the formation that was working and go to a three at the back. This dragged Smallbone back into midfield and we all know what happens when he’s there – he’s a liability in our half.  Everyone knows but we do it anyway.

The second thing was that Flynn Downs got caught up the pitch getting carried away as we attacked. Bearing in mind his partner is now Smallbone, he has to have the brain to stay put, though it’s not his fault the referee and linesman decided to magic up an Arsenal free kick out of nowhere, which was the third reason  Will’s recreation of the Diallo training cone impression against Arsenal, was absolutely pitiful.

When the team was announced, I was dreading us getting beat by five or six but a combination of Arsenal being in beach mode and surprisingly resolute defending meant we were still in the game after an odd opening 10 minutes when it all looked like it was going to be a bit sketchy.  Nathan Wood and Charlie Taylor looked decent in a four because they had to take responsibility and an even bigger surprise was that Yuki Sugawara didn’t look like a train wreck and justified this selection ahead of James Bree.  He was helped when Raheem Sterling was on his side as he has absolutely forgotten how to play football.  Welington on the left, dug in strongly when he had to and he also tried to play going forward and is looking like someone who could well be a mainstay in the team next season.

The watching Will Still would’ve been encouraged by some of the things he saw, not least the performance of Ross Stewart. It was brilliant for him to get a goal and to look a handful. He gets knocked off the ball a little bit too easily but there is certainly a striker there but still can work with next season. The full debut for Jay Robinson will not have been missed by the new manager either and he can be very pleased with his performance.

Though it was very much an end of season game, there was certainly some “what ifs” springing to mind.  What if we had played four the back for the entire season? What if we had Flynn Downs and Big Les in the centre of midfield all season? What if Russell Martin had prioritised some sort of compromise on his playing out from the back principles? Even with all those things being in place, we probably would still have gone down but it wouldn’t have been the colossal shitshow that it ended up being.

Rambo Waves Goodbye

Having seen today’s game, I’m sure that Will Still will be hoping to keep Big Les, Aaron Ramsdale and Matty Fernandes for next season but sadly, it’s looking more and more unlikely than any of those will be around, the first two in particular.  Maybe Will can have a word with Matty and get him to promise us one season in the Championship.  I was pleased that Rambo had a good game today against his former club of course.  As said, I was fearing the worst and that he might ship five or six, so just the two with neither being his fault, is a decent last game.  Two blinding saves from Martinelli and Rice as well for a guy who is without doubt our best goalkeeper, probably since prime Fraser Forster under Ronald Koeman. 

I didn’t stay for the Lap of Defecation.  I couldn’t be bothered.  This season is done and dusted at long last - thank fuck - and it’s all about next year in a different division, with a new manager and a load of new players.  Lots of change coming our way in the next ten weeks and in the words of Joe Strummer (look it up youngsters) – The Future is Unwritten.

Up the Fucking Will Still’s Red and White Army.

Premier League Match 37 - Everton 2 Southampton 0

 

Rusk Cooks Up Another Cunning Plan

When the fixture list came out at the start of the season, there was one game of special interest because it became apparent that Saints would be playing in the last ever game at Goodison Park before Everton moved to their new stadium, and the worst away end in the Premier League got bulldozed to the ground. The bit about it being bulldozed to the ground was an assumption that everyone was making until about three days ago, when Everton announced that they wouldn’t be knocking down their old ground at all, but instead, using it as the home ground for their women’s team, who last season had an average gate of about 2300.  If they housed those 2300 people in what passes as an away end for the men’s team presently, the women will want to be moving back to whatever ground they are currently playing at.

It is of course very unusual for the land of an old ground to not be redeveloped for housing, when a new ground comes along. There have been many occasions in the past where I wish we had kept The Dell for teams blow our first team to have played at, but mainly for nostalgia reasons. Even I can’t bring myself to blame Rupert Lowe for not going down that route even though he was a massive twat, however, and he still is of course.

Everton have been their usual selves this season, starting this season dreadfully and looking like a relegation side, before rescuing themselves quite comfortably.  They thought they needed a change of manager mid-season in order to achieve that this year, with Sean Dyche being replaced with David Moyes, whose arrival has brought a huge upturn in results and they could even make a late bid to finish in the top half before moving to the Bramley Moore Dock next season. They didn’t need to replace Dyche to survive of course, being one of the ring fenced Premier League 17, but that’s another story.

David Moyes Everton of 2025 is much like the David Moyes Everton of 20 years ago in that that they are physically tough and they get the ball into dangerous areas and play the percentages effectively enough to win enough games. Playing the percentages isn’t for everyone however and we of course, don’t do it. We don’t get the ball or bodies into the box and it remains to be seen if we can do so today.

Our performance last week against Manchester City might have been a blueprint for how to play against the better sides in the league, but we are going to need a little bit more than that today, like we needed a little bit more against Leicester two weeks ago and totally failed to deliver.  Yes, we’ll have to do some defending today against the likes of Beto and Ndiaye, but we have to have something about us to put some pressure on Jordan Pickford in the Everton goal.  Despite the whole “Goodison not being knocked down” thing, this is going to be a massive occasion for Everton and their fans and there will be some nerves around so we have to play on that. We have to not give them anything and see if they make mistakes.  It’s not a lot to go on, but there is fuck all else riding on this game apart from the fact that Saints owe their travelling fans a performance after the shit show at Leicester last time out.

Simon Rusk hasn’t warned us during the week of any issues with any players apart from the fact that KWP might not quite make it and sure enough he didn’t, and nor did Jan Bednarek, who has been reported to have some issue or other. I have a feeling that the issue with both KWP and Janny B, is that they have moves sorted out at the end of the season and don’t want to risk anything in what is for us anyway, a pretty meaningless game. On the one hand, I can see their point of view but on the other hand, they are being paid to play for Southampton and  it’s not a good look.

So, team news and it’s Nathan Wood for Bednarek and Joe Aribo has been rewarded for his decent 45 last week, with a start in place of Big Les.  I’m not sure that taking the more combative Lesley out of the starting line-up is a good thing, especially given that this is a completely different assignment to last week.  Sulemana is up front and though there is always hope, I bet that he will be shit.

Everton immediately are the first team to show as Saints look their usual passive selves.   There is none of the intensity of last week n display and I immediately have the feeling that our biggest contribution to the day will be that “Everton versus Southampton” is printed on the scarves that Everton have given to everyone as a memento of the day.

Stephens concedes an early corner to stop Coleman‘s break and when it comes in, there’s a free volley for Mykolenko at the back post and absolute carnage in the box with Beto taking a swing and Ramsdale having to pull off a point blank savee to prevent us going 1-0 down in the first minute.

It doesn’t take long enough for Everton to get the party started with Ndiaye picking up the ball on the edge of the box, lending it to O’Neil, who walks through a challenge from Sulemana and with Ndiaye easily getting away from Aribo, he then has all the time in the world to pass it into the corner of the net from the edge of the box. Fucking pathetic.

It’s nearly two, a minute later as and Ndiaye finds Beto in the penalty area on the left and he opens up his body and sidefoots wide the far post with Welington making sure it’s going off by smashing it off for a corner with no one anywhere near him. It’s a predictably free header for Brathwaite at the back post when the corner comes in, but he can only put it into the side netting.

There’s a minor heart attack as a back pass to Ramsdale puts him under a bit of pressure, but he takes too long to clear it and Beto gets a foot in, but luckily we scramble well to save Rambo‘s embarrassment.  Unbelievably, we then have an attack, and it comes to a predictable end and Everton break and one pass later and they are clean through our midfield, running at our defence. It goes out wide and then into the middle and Beto slams it into the net but fortunately he is a little bit too eager, and despite Beto‘s finger wagging at the linesman, it is clearly offside.

Tyler Dibling is clearly getting frustrated out on the right wing and he flattens Ndiaye and gives away a free kick which is played into the box, not dealt with and Everton, with a series of pretty nifty one touch passes, work it out to Ashley Young on the right and his cross is acrobatically headed into the net by Beto but he has once again gone early and he’s offside once again.

We survive until just before half-time, whilst predictably offering fuck all in the Everton half and then McNeil pokes a first time ball through the inside left channel, where THB should be, and Ndiaye finds himself clean through against Ramsdale and he jinks round him before slotting it into an empty net and finally Everton have the second goal that they deserve. We however, are beyond embarrassing.

As Sure as Night Follows Day

Half-time and I note that our stats are zero shots at goal, an xG of 0.0 and we have had two touches in the opposition penalty area. Impressive stuff from the .  Absolute shower of cunts. Everton could not have wished for better opposition to play their last game at Goodison.

The second half starts with us having made no changes because obviously, the first half performance was so good and to the amazement of everyone, it’s Everton who have the first shot with Garner being given the freedom to be able to smash it at Ramsdale from well within the penalty area but luckily, it’s straight at him and pushed away. They cross it back into the mixer and Beto is once again up above our defence but this time he heads it over. Putting the ball in the box in dangerous areas and competing for it. It will never catch on. As I’m thinking about that, Ashley Young puts in another superb delivery from the right wing and this time it’s Doucoure who goes flying in but he can’t get a clean contact on it and it’s wide for a gold kick.

On the hour mark even Simon Rusk can see that his tactical master plan for the day is not going to work and it’s triple substitution time with Smallbone, Archer and Stewart coming on for Aribo, Wood and Sulemana. It looks like we’re going to a back four in what amounts to tactical innovation.

Straight away, Stewart completes with Branthwaite in the air and it causes a bit of havoc in the Everton defence with Young accidentally hooking it across his own goal and Stewart has a chance which he gets on target but Pickford gets down well to save. With that, Rusk decides the substitutions might change things and off comes Dibling for Robinson.

With us putting a bit of pressure on, we actually win a corner which of course is crap and a chance for Everton to break, which they do and the ball eventually gets played across to Calvert-Lewin and unbelievably, Cameron Archer has tracked back seventy yards to shepherd the ball back to Ramsdale. Am I living in a fucking parallel universe or something? Genuinely, that is more distance than Archer has covered all season and it’s an absolutely brilliant bit of play but it raises more questions than answers.

Fernandes has come to life now and weaves his way past three challenges in midfield before the ball finds its way to Robinson on the right, who pisses past the full back and pulls it back into the middle where Archer connects and Pickford spreads himself to pull off a really good save and Smallbone can only hit the outside of the post with the rebound.

Smallbone then obviously decides to disregard instructions and puts an early cross into the box which Stewart meets and heads narrowly over the bar. It’s fucking amazing what happens if you put the ball in the opposition penalty area and put pressure on.  Too fucking late though and on 94 minutes, the Everton party can get fully under way once the guests from down South have gone home.

Well that was absolutely shit, again. Turned up passive, conceded after five minutes, had no intensity in any area of the pitch for the next forty minutes, got lucky as Everton had two goals disallowed and then finally managed to concede a second on the stroke of half-time.  All of this whilst not looking to pass forwards, let alone having any sort of effort on goal. It’s fucking embarrassing, like a limp dick in a brothel.  In the second half, we did just enough not to get embarrassed as Everton went into testimonial mode and settled for their comfortable win. We were a little bit better once we made some substitutions in the second half, but he doesn’t really count for anything because for all the time that this game actually mattered, we were absolutely pathetic.

So let’s go back to the part of the game when it was still a contest. Joe Aribo was selected ahead of Big Les and after five minutes he showed his ability to lose his man, which would be great if he was attacking, but when you’re defending, it’s not great. He was the man picking up Ndiaye when he first got involved in the move in the fifth minute and he was absolutely no fucking where near him a second later when he passed the ball into the corner of the net under no pressure from anyone.

Aribo was also the victim of people not losing their man in the first half when on one occasion he picked the ball up 30 yards from goal and though Sulemana, Dibling and Fernandes were all in front of him, none of them fucking moved and so we expertly worked the ball back to the halfway line so Everton now had 11 players behind the ball. You could argue that Joe couldn’t pass it forward because there was no one moving and you could also argue that he was never going to pass the ball forward anyway because we haven’t been doing that all season, so even if someone makes a run, they aren’t getting the ball.  The only reason Everton weren’t further in front was because of two goals being disallowed for offside.  I’d like to say this was because of our disciplined defensive line but that would be a lie because Beto, for all his improvement this season under David Moyes, doesn’t know the offside rule but at least he’s making runs and trying to get into the danger area, unlike all the fuckers in yellow.

Wag Your Finger All You Like Mate - Learn the Rules.

I used the term ‘disciplined defensive line’ in the paragraph above.  The second goal happened for partly the same reasons that Leicester’s first goal happened two weeks ago. THB came bolting out of the defensive line and didn’t get the ball so there was absolute carnage in the space that he was no longer in, because once he’d bolted and achieved nothing,  he was twenty yards out of position. You could argue that Ramsdale should’ve been stronger in the tackle as Ndiaye walked around him, but Ndiaye is too confident and too good to miss one on one with the keeper.  Back to THB though - if you come bolting out of the defensive line, then you have to get the ball or as a backup option, you have to clatter someone to stop the game. Doing neither just absolutely fucks everyone else.  Dreadful defending.

In the second half, we had the bizarre incident where Cameron Archer, raced back seventy yards to stop a counter attack, like a proper footballer would. Fair play to him - it was brilliant but why is it happening in the 37th game of a 38-game season and he’s barely been able to raise a jog for the previous 36 games?   He also had our best chance and brought a decent save out of Pickford.  The cynic in me would say that his agent had other teams watching him today. Ross Stewart again looked lively in his cameo but then anyone would look lively after what had gone before and at least he had a couple of shots that were saved and blocked respectively.

People will look at the performance when we changed formation and went to four at the back, and say that we should’ve started that way and they could well be right, but the point is the it doesn’t matter what formation you have if you’re going to a game with no attacking plan and you put in as little effort as we did in the first hour.  The best formation and the best manager in the world won’t make any difference if you play with that little effort and that little intensity.  Oh for a Francis Benali, a Jason Dodd or Matt Le Tissier to tell these feckless fucking players what it means to represent the city. Who has been driving the standards all season? No one, would be my guess.  How many of those players today, actually gave a shit about the badge on the shirts and about the supporters who travelled miles for a shit kick off time to watch that gutless pathetic pile of shit, trying to masquerade as a Premier League football team. Wankers.

After the performance against Manchester City last week, which took 100% effort from everyone, it was absolutely typical that the team could not back it up because that’s what we’ve had in our last two seasons in the Premier League, a bunch of players who can do it for one game when they want to, but have absolutely nothing when it comes to the levels required to be a consistent performer in the Premier League.  It’s that old thing that I’m always banging on about - how many of our players are capable of a run of three games where they play well at Premier League level? I’d love to know the responses from the players if they looked in the mirror and asked themselves honestly if they were capable of it.

Maybe We Should Pick a Forward Simon?

  
Simon Rusk is in that boat – he did well last week but had another shocker today, I’m afraid. The game plan had to go out of the window as soon as we conceded the first goal but he didn’t do anything until the hour mark, and leaving it that late just highlighted the fact that we went into the game with no attacking plan whatsoever apart from maybe hoping that Sulemana could mis-control the ball in the right direction.   Dibling and Fernandes need to be given the ball in the attacking half but they spend all game scrapping for it in the defensive third.  Fernandes in particular, finally came down to the level of everyone else today. I forgive him for that because of his consistency so far this season.

Just the one game to go and it’ll be another backs to the wall effort against Arsenal.   We’ve laughably been told that we’re not allowed a pitch invasion afterwards.  Hilarious.  We might get a point but it’s one of those games where I’d rather have a go and lose, than set up with no strikers and no attacking plan. Over to the Rusk / Lallana dream team to try and make it happen. I’m not expecting it.

The name of Will Still has been mentioned a lot of the media over the past couple of days as potentially being our new manager. Because this is all been doom and gloom I will finish with the joke and say that if he is given this group of players, then we will still be shit next year.  Thank you very much - I will be here all week.

Premier League Match 36 - Southampton 0 Manchester City 0

 

"It's better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you are a fool than to open it and remove all doubt" - Mark Twain

Tune in for the latest edition of the popular new game show “What’s the Fucking Point?“. There are some people out there saying that Manchester City have had a poor season. Yeah, interesting one that. It’s all relative I suppose to be fair, I haven’t seen many Manchester City fans screaming and crying in social media videos so I guess at the moment they are fairly calm about the fact that they haven’t actually won the league this season, but instead they’ve had a bit of a transitional one but even in their worst season, City are still favourites for a Champions League spot.

The usual hope, when you play City at this time of the season is that they have already won everything and have nothing to play for, but this year, everything is sewn up for everyone apart from the chase for the European spots and City have hit form at just the right time to try and ensure they qualify for the Champions Big Money League next season. Put it this way - they will not be taking it easy today.

Over the past few seasons when we’ve played them, Saints have quite often given City a relatively tough game in that we have not completely rolled over and died on many occasions, but died we have most of the time. Earlier this season when Russell Martin was the manager, we went to the Etihad and played pretty well despite going 1-0 down early on. It was one of those rare occasions where we didn’t give away shit goal and kept possession pretty well for the whole game and gave City a tough time, even though we of course eventually lost. Pep Guardiola even said that he would learn things from Russell Martin and Saints, which must have been the highlight of Russell’s life but unfortunately, the main thing Pep learned was how to lose five games in a row which really derailed their season as far as winning any trophies was concerned.

Pep Guardiola is a genius of course and when the book of football is written, he will go down as one of the true innovators but there’s always a caveat and the caveat is that he has always managed the best clubs with the most money and the best players. His style of play is amazing if it works and in our own small way, we prove that it worked last season, keeping the ball, keeping possession and in the main Russell Martin was a pound shop Pep because our players were better than the players that we were playing against in the Championship. Fast forward a few months into the Premier League and we proved categorically that you cannot be successful playing that way when the opposition players are better than yours.  Pep developed his style at Barcelona with players like Xavi, Iniesta and Messi. With all due respect, he didn’t try and do it with Smallbone, Aribo and Adam Armstrong. Having spectacularly proved that you can’t do it with inferior pliers, we still occasionally see those ways creeping into our play now in the way we work the ball into crossing positions and then don’t cross it and slowly go and look for a better option on the half way line.

Even Pep goes direct if Erling Haaland is fit. He is fit now typically, which is great news for our prospects today (said with extreme sarcasm). They also go long from the goalkeeper quite often and in Ederson they have a goalkeeper who can ping the ball 80 yards to set up a goal and has done so on four occasions this season which is more assists than any of our players have managed, let alone our goalkeepers, though Joe Lumley and Alex McCarthy have provided a few assists between them, just not at the right end.

Russ-ball is different to Rusk-ball in that we take a lot less chances in defence but there is absolutely no danger of us giving City the amount of problems that we gave them at the Etihad, barring a miracle. Now, like then though, we seem to have no way of getting the ball into our forward players to actually have shots on goal and if nothing else in the remaining three games of the season, Simon Rusk needs to attempt to fix that. We need a bit of bravery about ourselves and I can’t see going into today with the 3-4-3 formation or as it always ends up, the 5-4-1 formation, is going to fix that lack of goal threat.

Team news and KWP is out to be replaced by James Bree, which does not fill me with masses of confidence. We don’t appear to have a striker on the pitch as neither Ross Stewart or Tall Paul are involved so the front three appears to be Fernandes, Dibling and Sulemana. I guess Sulemana could be the centre forward or else we’re doing some sort of false nine bollocks, which of course, has always been massively successful for us in the past.

City kick off and it’s hilarious. They knock it back to their central defenders who then pass it back to the midfield players and we’ve all fucked off back to our defensive third.  If ever the opening 30 seconds of a game set the expectations for what was to come, then that was it.

The same pattern continues as City dominate the ball of course but our massed defence digs in well and City don’t seem to have that much urgency about them.  We concede a free kick on the edge of the box which De Bruyne (on his farewell tour of course, swings in and Downes gets there before Bernardo to give a corner away, which we defend well.

De Bruyne is at the centre of things and hits the deck not long after and it’s Big Les who has committed the foul in the D of the penalty area and somehow gets gets away with it before De Bruyne curls the free kick narrowly over the bar and I lament the bygone days of “you’re shit, ahhhhhhhhhhh”

Kovacic gets away in the middle  as we allow them a rare bit of space, and this time, Lesley is definitely getting booked for the tactical foul.  Once again, City line up the freekick and once again De Bruyne takes it and once again it’s shit and straight into the wall.   In it comes in again, but it’s all pretty unscientific from City and we defend it well.   As half time approaches and with Lesley having already been booked, it probably isn’t the best idea for him to walk in front of a free kick that City were attempting to take quickly but the referee let’s us get away with it thankfully.

Half time and an appreciative round of applause from the St Mary’s faithful who are not used to seeing their team play with this much application. Simon Rusk clearly feels that the biggest threat to us is Lesley getting sent off so he doesn’t emerge for the second half and on comes Joe Aribo who in my head, is the better option than Will Smallbone for this assignment.  City have brought on Doku instead of McAtee who has done very little

Foden‘s mishit shot gets the second half on the way and it finds Bernardo in the middle but once again Saints get loads of players around the ball to smother the opportunity.  If he did us a favour in the first half by not sending off Lesley, then the referee has absolutely fucking done us at the start of the second half as Fernandes wins the ball off of Foden and he takes a good few seconds before giving city the free kick on the edge of the box. Foden eventually curls it in with his left foot and the previously anonymous Haaland throws himself at it at back post but it goes off for a goal kick.  Rambo takes to opportunity to have a shoulder injury, which no one is particularly worried about.

He Could Have Been Killed

Doku is causing problems out on the left but Bree is sticking to his task well.  It’s inevitable though that Doku will get past him occasionally and on this occasion, he squirts the ball back to Bernardo who knocks it past Ramsdale but Stephens gets back to aim a wild slice at the ball and somehow manages to get it over the bar. That really could’ve been an own goal and the time-honoured puffing out of the cheeks tells you all you need to know, basically “fuck me, that was close”.

Dibling has had a half decent game but he is replaced with Cameron Archer.  This prompts a rare Saints attack as Bree slings in a cross, Fernandes heads it down to Archer, it bobbles back to him and his shot is blocked.  The problem with venturing that far up the pitch of course, is that you leave yourself short when you lose it, which we do and City break with Doku played in behind THB but Ramsdale anticipates superbly to come flying out of the goal to grab the ball before Haaland gets to it.

I’ve been watching the game, as I always do against the Super League clubs, and thinking about the ten minute markers.  We’ve now reached 70 minutes and the fact we are still at 0-0 is a good feeling. However, we were here against Aston Villa and managed to lose 3-0 so let’s not get too excited just yet.

A corner from Foden and header from Akanji, and Ramsdale has to make his first save in the afternoon, comfortably pushing it away.  City are beginning to create more chances now and Haaland gets through on the inside left channel. Bednarek manages to stay with him but Haaland pokes the ball across and City subs O’Reilly and Silvinho can’t add the finishing touch as they pile in with Welington.  The City tactic of crossing deep to the back post has seen many balls go straight out of play but De Bruyne gets one right and Haaland keeps it in at the back post and Silvenho brings a save out of Ramsdale, but in truth, it was probably going wide anyway.

Another 10 minute marker goes by (80), and another (90) and the fucker with the board holds it up and it’s got a big red 7 displayed on it.  On first viewing that looks harsh but there has been a lot of substitutions and we’ve been wasting time like bastards since half-time.  We’ve all got used to the pattern by which we make substitutions and make the team weaker and at this stage there seems very little need to make any more changes but we do with Sulemana coming off for Stewart and Welington being replaced by Manning.  De Bruyne tries to slide a ball through to Silvinho but it gets cut out by Fernandes who then seems to cramp up and collapse and the ball drops to city substitute Marmoush, who hits an instinctive snapshot towards the back post and it crashes off the bar and away. Fuck me that was close.

Fernandes has cramp and has to go off and Smallbone comes on for the final couple of minutes.  His first involvement is to win the ball out on the right hand side and knock it forward to send Archer scampering into the penalty area and as we dream of the last minute, total shithouse undeserved winner, Archer can only shoot tamely at Ederson, who pushes it wide. Just when we get excited about potentially having a corner, of course it’s offside.

The seven is up but the wanker won’t blow and he’s going to let City have one more attack. De Bruyne has the ball in the centre circle and knocks it forward and Ramsdale grabs it. That should be enough. Rambo launches it and still we go on but one more challenge and that’s the end. Fuck me, we got a point.  The release of tension from the crowd is huge and in the context of this absolutely appalling shite season, this result is massive.

Ruben... I'd Have Had More Chances Wearing This Shirt

And relax. Brilliant. Finally, the team played with pride for the badge and worked hard for 97 minutes and got what they deserved in the end. Brilliant stuff. That’s all I’ve wanted all season really, for the team to play from the first whistle to the last and not given an inch. Yes, we offered absolutely fuck all in the way of attacking threat and more on that later, but when you’ve only got 11 points and you’re playing against Manchester City, then it’s not really about your attacking threat. It would be nice to have some, but unless you have that hard work and that diligence and that willingness to defend, then you’re going to have a fucking bad day.  No one would’ve predicted that Saints could’ve stuck to a game plan and got to the end, especially with having to empty the bench.

Not What We Wanted to See: Doku vs Bree 1v1

I was rolling my eyes in my head when I saw James Bree’s name on the team sheet but though he had some dodgy moments, he stuck with his task incredibly well, especially in the second half against the very dangerous and tricky Jeremy Doku. Jack Stephens put behind him his absolute mare at Leicester last week, as did THB and Bednarek got stuck in strongly against Haaland who was largely anonymous, both through Jan’s efforts and through lack of service.  Welington‘s performance at left back begs the question why the fuck he hasn’t been playing. Yes, Ryan Manning has done okay but Welington is better and hopefully he’s going to be a big player for us next season.

Simon Rusk got the early substitution of Lesley Ugochukwu completely right because he was cruising for a red card and giving Joe Aribo half a game is much better than giving Joe Aribo fifteen minutes at the end when he never gets up to the pace of the game. Flynn Downes was again combative and exactly what we needed in the centre of midfield and Fernandes and Dibling both worked hard with very limited possession and very little scope to dp anything with the ball.  Sulemana was there as well.  To be charitable, he was not great as a central striker. As a winger, he doesn’t have to make that many decisions but he still, always makes the wrong one.  In the middle of the pitch however, you have too many options and too many decisions to make and it just showed him up as someone who really has no football intelligence whatsoever.  Once in the first half, he got isolated against Kovacic, City’s slowest player but instead of taking him on he turned backwards and shied away from the dream scenario.  We looked so much better when Ross Stewart came on, when a couple of things connected up front and City actually had to worry about us, if only for a bit.  Rambo in goal didn’t have much to do to be perfectly honest until the last 10 minutes when he made a couple of routine saves and also showed really good anticipation to see off a couple of situations, with City bearing down on goal.

Bye-bye Ruben

The headlines after the game were made by Ruben Diaz who basically made a complete prick of himself by complaining that Saints didn’t try and play and wasted time and all that shit, like we were supposed to compete with our Championship level players against their billion pound squad with 115 charges and play an open expansive game get absolutely fucked over. Go fuck yourself Ruben. This is from a guy who plays for a team that practically invented the break-stopping tactical foul, and he also plays for Portugal, who are right up there in international football terms when it comes to diving about and basically cheating.  This was also from a guy who praised us earlier in the season after we got beat at the Etihad.  They respect you if they beat you. There has been a pretty universal outpouring of ridicule for Mr. Diaz since his comments were made. Basically anyone who is not in the Manchester City fan Bass thinks he’s a twat and those City fans who remember getting relegated to League 1 in the 90s will also think he’s a twat. I even think there will be members of his own family who think he’s a twat.  

So, having secured the POINT OF DESTINY, we now have 12 points - onwards and upwards. Yes it’s fine to make sure that Robbie Savage keeps his record but with us being relegated for ages, it is all about moments and individual matches and we pulled it out of the bag today. Fair play to the players and manager for getting something out of this game and giving us as supporters something to be proud of.  Yes, some sections will criticise us celebrating getting a 0-0 draw and only being on 12 points but it’s not about that, it’s about the team giving us something tangible and a bit of pride back, after a shitshow of a season.

Everton away up next and there is a parade to be rained on.

Up the fucking Saints.

Premier League Match 35 - Leicester 2 Southampton 0

Rambo and Vardy Discuss Not Being in their Respective Shitshows Next Season

Leicester got promoted to the Premier League last season and a blaze of arrogance and a belief that even though Enzo Maresca had left (they didn’t like him much anyway), that they would adapt with no problem to the Premier League and finish around mid-table. Maresca‘s replacement was the experienced Steve Cooper and he had the Foxes in about 16th place but this wasn’t enough and the fans all kicked off, which seemed to sit in motion the series of events that led to him being relieved of his duties. Replacing Cooper may not have been the wrong decision but appointing Ruud van Nistelrooy certainly was.  Big name though, isn’t it?

Apart from the fact they got relegated not long after us, the main feature of Ruud’s tenure has been the fact that it is nine home games since they last scored a goal. I remember us going five home games without a goal under Claude Puel at the end of his tenure and ironically, he then went to Leicester after we’d sacked him.  It is very much the usual state of affairs for any player who has a long run without a goal or any team who has a long run without winning, to welcome to Southampton with open arms. We will see. Leicester‘s form has arguably been worse than ours over the past couple of months, but they are still seven points ahead of us and even if we win today, we are not going to catch them.

Leicester of course won the Championship last season and they beat us twice, very convincingly. This season at St Mary’s we were comfortably ahead until we got our first case of referee wanker and VAR shambles. 2-1 one up with 20 minutes to go and Anthony Taylor was an unobstructed five yards away, looking directly at Jordan Ayew hitching a ride on Tall Paul’s shirt for a good five seconds, and he didn’t give it and VAR didn’t either. Absolute fucking joke and a few minutes later we had lost the game. The main architect of us losing that game, apart from Anthony Taylor in the VAR, was Russell Martin who brought Will Smallbone on in the centre of midfield and Ryan Fraser on the left-hand side to help Ryan Manning deal with the threat of Abdul Fatawu, who had scored a hat-trick the previous time he played against him. That particular rematch which Russell set up, totally fucked us in that game so, we have lost the last three games against Leicester, but we might even be going into this game as favourites, especially as Leicester have four injuries from last week with Hermansen, Perreira, Docordova Reed and Buononotte all missing.

Leicester were of course, very very dodgy financially in the year they got promoted along with us from the Championship, and that may well be the case that the EFL are waiting with some charges when they get relegated. They got away with their financial impropriety by basically arguing with the Premier League that they had no jurisdiction because they committed the offences whilst in the Championship. Having used that defence, surely they are admitting that they committed offences in the Championship.  One thing they have done to possibly try and add some of this off is released their highest earner with Jamie Vardy having just four games left for Leicester which means he has four games to get the two goals he needs to make it 200 in a Foxes shirt and as I said earlier, which opposition do you want to play when you are desperately seeking a goal? No one really seems to know whether Vardy is being released or whether he is leaving of his own accord or whether he is retiring. One issue which you may wish to consider if he decides to retire is that he will have to spend more time at home and for a number of reasons, I can’t imagine he’d want that.

The vultures have started circling around our players, or have they… or is it the silly season and agents are getting busy… or is it that people are just making up shit for clicks. Jan Bednarek apparently has a £6 million release clause, which is a strange thing for someone to casually drop into a conversation. Needless to say, there are a lot of our players who I don’t give a shit about, with regards to whether they stay or go (https://leagueoneminus10.blogspot.com/2025/04/the-great-l1-10-player-review-of-202425.html).

Team news and we are unchanged, so Ross Stewart starts again, with Tall Paul on the bench.  Other news is that we’ve got another virgin referee, with David Webb doing his first Premier League game.  I wonder if he’ll get a trophy with El Crappico written on it.

There’s an early Leicester chance, gifted to them by the linesman not noticing a clear hand in the back of Ryan Manning but McAteer’s cross avoids everybody at the far post and drifts out of play.  Saints then begin to look like the better side in the early stages with a corner coming in from Fernandes which is met by THB and headed down powerfully down but saved by the Leicester keeper with the unpronounceable name.

Vardy Is Amazed by the Amount of Space He's Got

Much had been made of Leicester’s non-scoring at home but then the inevitable happened on 15 minutes as they neatly move the ball neatly down the right, playing a 1-2 around the outnumbered KWP and the ball comes in from El Khannouss and Vardy is completely unmarked by all three of our central defenders and smashes it into the roof of the net from about ten yards.  Fucking joke defending.  Three centre backs and he’s all alone.

Five minutes later and Jordan Ayew manages to run past the debutant referee and smash him in the side of the head with his .Vardy takes the role of chief shithouse and blows the whistle which is in the prone referees hand. Never a dull moment.   Can we abandon the game as a draw?  The referee is clearly fucked and is looking to be spared from watching the rest of the game.

The Closest THB Got To a Leicester Player All Afternoon

Ten minutes go by,  a new referee found in Samuel Barrott, which takes ages because of all the pissing about with the technology that makes the game worse.  The game restarts and Saints are still horrendous with Jack Stephens giving the ball away with a five yard pass straight to a Leicester player and he then smashes a back pass at Ramsdale that’s impossible to control, and it bounces off for a corner.  Stephens then gives the ball away again in midfield and Fernandes brings down El Khannouss about twenty yards out.  Ayew’s free kick is shit and straight into the wall, but bounces back to him and he drills it straight into the net . It’s lucky in that it’s bounced straight back to him but it’s a good finish. We, on the other hand are fucking embarrassing.

The rest of the first half is shit.  We work ourselves into a decent crossing position with KWP on the right hand side, and we have our 6 foot 3 forward in the middle but we don’t cross it of course, we go back to the halfway line.  It’s absolutely enraging.  What are you waiting for, the perfect fucking goal?  Leicester meanwhile get McAteer in on our left but he drills it at Ramsdale rather than trying to cross it and then El Khannouss easily beats THB and stands up a cross which bounces off the top of the bar.

In my head I’m making four subs at half time and changing to 4-2-3-1.  Stephens has to come off, so he can recover from his big night on the lash and Dibling comes on and whilst I’d also bin off THB, Manning and Sulemana, it’s Ross Stewart who departs to be replaced with Tall Paul.  We have gone to 4-2-3-1, so that’s a positive but it won’t matter a shit if we don’t up the work rate and actually try and get to ball and some players into the box.

Ten minutes go by and El Khannouss then makes THB look a mug for about the tenth time today and megs him on the edge of the box before shooting over. THB has honestly been 2 out of 10 at best so far.  We finally cross the ball into the box as Sulemana gets one in from the left with his right foot and Tall Paul rises and heads it goalwards. It comes back off the keeper, hits Fernandes and bounces into the net but up goes the bastard flag.

Hi there Sammy Boy, Stockley Park here
Hi there chaps – potential offside then
Yes Sir, headed by the giant fucker who was onside
I’m sensing a but….
But at the point he headed it, Fernandes was offside and he scored after it came back off of the unpronounceable keeper.
So, no goal then.
Nope, miles off.
They’re shit aren’t they?
Oh proper shit.  Make the most of the comedy Sammy Boy cos we don’t get to do them next season.
Who are we going to blood the virgin refs against next season?
Bristol City mate – today’s virgin took a dive didn’t he?
Yes mate – ask Howard for more money. 

Another two substitutions upcoming as J-Rob comes on for Sulemana and fuck me… Smallbone is coming on for Fernandes. Fucking baffling to take off one of the players who’s actually trying and leave shit like THB and Manning on the pitch. THB because he looks like he doesn’t give a shit and Manning because he’s putting in an absolute League of Ireland performance. So, we are a team that needs more urgency and pace in it and we bring on Smallbone.  “Matty, Matty Fernandes goes the Saints end and the chant is building momentum, unlike the team.

Leicester make a substitution is to take off Ayew and bring on Jeremy Monga who is apparently 15 years old. 15 for fuck‘s sake. He’s not old enough to have the gambling sponsor on his shirt for fuck‘s sake. He’s up against Ryan Manning so at least he’ll be able to prove that he can play at League 2 level.  Fifteen to go and Fernandes chants are still going strong and Saints produce a decent break break up the left and it ends with Smallbone gets outpaced by Oliver fucking Skipp, himself named after a massive metal bin that doesn’t fucking move.

Just the four minutes of normal time pain to go through. Maybe we’ll start showing some intensity and desire to score a goal in a minute, you never know. Archer is on for Big Les in the very definition of a time-wasting substitution and Tall Pall is walking around up front, allowing Leicester to play out really easily.  Smallbone is now in a deeper midfield position, dictating the pace the only pace he knows. Having caused outright panic and having a goal disallowed after a cross into the mixer, twenty five minutes ago, we finally try another and THB’s ball sees Tall Paul cause chaos and win a corner.  In it comes and another Paul header deflects wide.  93, 94 and thank fuck that’s over.  Wankers.

At the start of that game, we looked slightly the better of two very poor sides until we conceded the opening goal, which in itself was absolutely abysmal. I have no idea where THB was but once Leicester played the 1-2 around KWP, THB as the right sided centre back should’ve been out there covering but he was fucking nowhere so Bednarek tracked across and Stephens tracked across but neither of them picked up Vardy, who smashed it in from about 10 yards. Three central defenders, one striker and he is completely unmarked about ten yards out. Fucking embarrassing.

The incident with a referee getting knocked out then gave us the excuse to be absolutely shit for the rest of the first half.  I think it’s quite possible that the distance our players were covering and the effort they were putting in, didn’t actually go down whilst the referee was unconscious.   Once we restarted it was soon 2-0 and we basically give up.  Yes, Jordan Ayew got a bit lucky with the shite free kick bouncing back to him, but that was it as far as we were concerned.  No urgency, no plan of how to get a goal, bizarre substitutions, absolute fucking shit. I nearly forgot, we did one thing in the second half, which was to bang in a cross from deep to our 6 foot 8 centre forward and we nearly scored from it. Did it occur to anyone else to do more of that after that goals got disallowed? Did it fuck? That would’ve been common sense.

The Average Pace Stays the Same to the End.

There was a basic malaise, apathy and lack of effort about today.  If we’d put as much effort in as we did against Fulham, then we probably win this game but the basic heart and desire to play with any intensity, just wasn’t there. Wankers.  I can only assume that with the effort levels being much lower than in previous games, that there was something about the players that thought they could just turn up and win this game because Leicester have been that bad. Absolutely fucking useless.

There were some players out there who were an absolute disgrace today. THB played like he completely didn’t give a shit. Jack Stephens played like he was a Sunday morning pub player after a big one the night before.  Same old Jack – no consistency – plays well for a few games and then abysmal.  Ryan Manning put in in a League Two level performance and Sulemana was himself, buzzing around to absolutely zero effect whatsoever.  All four of those would have been gone at half time if I’d been in charge.

Simon Rusk decided it was a good idea to take off Ross Stewart, who had not been given one single ball to compete for and then compounds it by taking off Fernandes, easily our best player and one of the few who was actually visibly trying.   He then acted surprised at the reaction from the crowd.  An absolute fucking shit show from players and management from start to finish. I would excuse Ramsdale because he had no chance with either of the goals, Downes because he seemed to be fighting a lone battle out there and Fernandes of course.

Leicester were shit, but they were much better than us. We made El Khannouss look like a world beater and we allowed a 38-year-old to score against us and a 15-year-old to briefly make us look like mugs.  Someone should’ve put him over the fucking advertising boards in the first minute that he stepped onto the pitch, if only to prove that we gave a shit about them feeling that we were so shit they could bring on an actual boy. We don’t do things like that because we are a big bunch of soft arses. As usual, we had zero attacking intensity, even when we were behind and it really takes something to be embarrassing in the context of this season, but that was it.

Well that’s the end of the chances of getting more than eleven points for the rest of this season because there’s no way we’re getting anything out of the home games against Manchester City and Arsenal and Everton away will be an absolute shit show where I guarantee we will be a three down at half time.  The only thing that wasn’t apathetic about that performance today was the fans chanting for Matty Fernandes for half an hour after he’d been substituted.

Next up Manchester City, who are still chasing a Champions League spot and Erling Haaland is now fit. Oh good.