Premier League Match 29 - Southampton 1 Wolves 2

 

32 - the Number of Points we need from 9 games

If Saints have any realistic fear of being the worst Premier League team of all time, then they need to get to 12 points from the 9 that they are currently on.  Just the one more win and we will never have a better chance than today, against Wolves.  Of the seventeen teams in the Premier League that are ringfenced by PSR, Wolves are comfortably the worst, residing as they do in 17th place, ten points behind West Ham in 16th and five clear of the team occupying 18th, which of course is the last relegation place. After this game, we have Leicester to play away from home, which is winnable, but this is the game if we want to save our fans from the ignominy of supporting a team that is worse that one with Robbie Savage in it.

The other significant thing about this game is that if we lose it, then Wolves will be 17 points ahead of us and so automatic relegation will come around pretty quickly with that kind of gap and only nine games left after today. We all know it’s going to happen at some point, but it would be good to delay the inevitable as long as possible.

Or would it? Maybe once relegation is confirmed we can start planning in earnest for next season. Maybe we can get answers out of all of the players as to whether they want to be part of the rebuild in the Championship next season or whether they want to move on. I personally will never not find it strange that having been part of a shit Premier League campaign that has ended up with your team getting relegated, you feel you have the entitlement to be a Premier League player.  There is only really Aaron Ramsdale out of our squad who could legitimately make a case for himself.  Others will move on of course and I’d be very surprised if we have any of Aaron, KWP, THB or Tyler Dibling in our ranks at the start of next season. The rebuild is of course the remit of Johannes Spors, our new technical director, appointed around a month ago and he gave his first interview this week and came across as very confident in his own ability and made it abundantly clear that he would be in charge of all football related matters, including the appointment of managers and recruiting of players. As is always the case with these types of appointments, they always sound great before they have started and the merits or otherwise of the person in question can only be judged further down the line he did make it abundantly clear however that we almost expect to be promoted next season. Good start.

The future of Ivan Juric will be a talking point from now until either the end of the season or until he gets sacked. Personally, I find it hard to imagine him staying past the point of relegation being confirmed but you never know. Last week he picked a team that didn’t get battered at Anfield but this week is a different assignment because we have to win this game against Wolves, so playing without a striker is not really an option in my book playing with a striker would of course mean one less body in midfield which means the weaknesses of Will Smallbone, who will doubtless be selected, are more likely to be exposed.

Wolves chances of exposing anything in our defence have been weakened by the absence of Matheus Cunha, who is the only player raising their squad above the levels of the three crap teams who will ultimately get relegated. His ability has put him firmly in the bracket of someone who could play for a Champions League level club. His ability to lose his shit and get sent off has however put him in the bracket of being a complete fucking liability. His second red card of the season, earned a few weeks ago against Bournemouth, for a punch, a kick and then a head-butt at a Bournemouth player, means he won’t be bothering us this afternoon.  Wolves still have threats of course but these are severely diminished without the main man.

Wolves did look to be serious contenders for relegation earlier on in the season under Gary O’Neil, and in fact got their first win of the season against us, thanks in the main to two absolutely shambolic VAR decisions. Ryan Manning‘s goal was disallowed for an arbitrary 50-50 challenge which could’ve been given either way, after the decision on the pitch had gone in our favour.  We all know that a decision overturn doesn’t often happen and the on field decision usually carries a lot of weight, like it did half an hour later when two Wolves fouls in the buildup were not given before Cunha smashed one in the top corner from thirty yards. 

The fact that they are not in the relegation shake up is down to Cunha and their new manager bounce which they got when they sacked O’Neil and appointed Vitor Pereira. One of the first things that Pereira did when he joined was to strip Mario Lemina of the captaincy. You remember him, old #TonicLikeLemonade, who in his time at Saints was much more concerned with his social media than with actually putting any effort in. A horrific example of the modern footballer. #TonicLikeWarmPiss was an occasional hashtag I liked to use.

All eyes on the team news to see if Ivan perseveres with the back four that we had last week to reasonably decent effect at Liverpool… and of course he doesn’t. Wanker.  Looks like it’s a back five again and there’s no striker on the pitch. What’s the fucking point of this guy?  What’s the fucking point in turning up to watch this shit? And it will be shit, almost certainly, but the annoying thing about being a committed football fan is that there’s always just this off chance that it might work despite all logic screaming at you that it is not going to happen. For fuck‘s sake.  Smallbone is injured again and Bednarek hasn’t recovered from his concussion – maybe he’ll wake up thinking he’s Paolo Maldini.

It looks like Matty Fernandes is playing as a false nine and he drops into midfield to start the first move and ends up with the ball on the wing.  He plays it into Sugawara doing what he does best, which is attacking and he fires it over from the byline low, and Sulemana has a tap in but plays a fucking air shot, and so the ball bounces off his standing leg and goes away from the open goal, which is six yards in front of him.

Unperturbed Saints to keep attacking with Big Les driving into the penalty area before flicking it out to Sulemana on the left and his low cross into the box deflects out as far as Aribo who sends up a fucking balloon, high into the Northam.

Wolves have been crap so far, but they get a bit possession in our half for the first time with Doherty passing the ball out wide to Bellegarde, who under no pressure whatsoever from Manning, slings in across and Strand Larson is completely free ahead of the dozing ABK and flicks a header past Ramsdale who is wrong footed, and that’s 1-0 from their first visit into our half.  Hilarious.

The rest of the first half is wank.  There is no fight to get back in it and it highlights the glaringly fucking obvious problem of not having a striker on the pitch, as Fernandes comes deep to try and pick the ball up and then realises that he’s actually the farthest forward and so has to try and hang onto it until he inevitably loses it with neither Dibling nor Sulemana making a run to help him out.  Ivan waves his arms about but yet again, it’s fucking shit.

Having shown some promising attacking at the start of the half, Sugawara has to do some defending late on and he’s predictably shite, gazing up at the sky with no idea where anything is, whilst Ait-Nouri has seen where the ball has landed and goes forward before cracking a shot into the side netting.

Make Others Look Bad By Putting Effort In, Get Substituted

Half time in the latest Juric masterclass and let’s see what the inevitable halftime substitution is.  As the players come out there is the unmistakeable figure of Tall Paul waiting to come on, so Juric is basically admitting that he fucked it up with the original team selection yet again and now realises that we do actually need a striker on the pitch after all.  Unbelievably, the player he has chosen to take off is Fernandes, who has probably been the best of a rotten bunch in the first half and there is a very audible and prolonged “you don’t know what you’re doing“, raining down from the Northam. The second half starts, and Ramsdale pumps a ball up the middle towards Tall Paul, who doesn’t jump, and he’s beaten easily in the air. The ball is flicked on couple of passes and Strand Larson picks it up on the edge of the box and drills it through THB‘s legs and it flicks off him and goes right into the corner past Ramsdale. Once again, it’s so shit and yet another simple goal.  There are people still returning from the concourse after halftime and quite a few are just turning round and going straight downstairs again because having another pint of beer, having a piss or going home are all looking like more attractive options than watching this shit.

Having not covered himself in glory with the second Wolves goal, Tall Paul then gets involved where he should, and holds the ball up before flicking it away to Dibling on the right and the youngster seems to have come alive as he drives forward and puts a nicely weighted ball in front of Sugawara, who smashes it  and Sa is forced to make a decent save and tips it over the bar.  The comeback is on! In comes the corner from Manning and Tall Paul rises at the back post and heads it goalwards and a combination of Sa and the post keeps it out.  Two efforts on goal will probably make the end of season highlights DVD.

The Wolves central defenders had a free ride in the first half with no one pressing them and they still managed to look shit when they were knocking the ball around and they look even more shit when pressed, even when it’s the very slow Tall Paul press, lumbering around after them but the amiable giant gets a foot in which leads to Sulemana playing it through to Dibling, who takes on a couple of players on the edge of the box before his shot is blocked away for another corner. Manning swings in again and Dibling gets himself free about six yards out, but heading is not the strongest part of his game and it flies over the bar.

Archer is on for Sugawara, because what we need on the pitch is a player who really doesn’t give a shit.  After passing up these opportunities it was obvious that Wolves would get another one and they do as Les tries to play a ball into Archer who really does not look interested in the slightest and as a result, a defender walks in front of him and takes the ball. Wolves build down the left and Gomes ends up with a free shot from the edge of the box which he places wide.

With KWP now switched to the left, he picks up the ball and sets off on a diagonal run across the box and thinks about shooting abouthe same number of times he’s thought about signing a contract extension and true to form, he doesn’t do it and eventually loses the ball which allows Wolves to break quickly and that’s far too quick for Joe Aribo, who is towing not only a caravan, but also a full sized trailer and an articulated lorry.  Luckily for us, they make a complete bollocks of it and Sarabia tries to go round Ramsdale and that’s never happening and we get away with it.

Twenty to go and Tall Paul tries again, holding the ball up and spinning it out to Dibling on the right hand side and he attacks the box, hits it with his left foot and it flies past Sa and bounces out off the post and there is Tall Paul to run in the rebound.  That happens in the first half and we have no striker following in.

So what of the last twenty.  We do fuck all in the first ten as all the Wolves players simultaneously get cramp and go down. Isn’t that strange?  Downes comes on for Les and Gronbaek for Sulemana.  It’s amazing that Sulemana doesn’t fall on his arse as he walks off as that’s been more or less his total contribution today.  Downes adds some energy and Gronbaek adds some lightweight not touching the ball, and we’ve time for one more tactical masterstroke on 92 with Aribo coming off for Jack Stephens.  More abuse from the Northam as a defender comes on but what the fuck, he’s going up front.  Full time and Wolves celebrate like they’ve just stayed up. As if you were ever going to go down anyway lads, for fuck‘s sake.

Despite some spirit being shown in parts of the second half, overall, that was fucking dogshit again. A diabolical starting XI with no striker, and an admission at a half-time with a substitution that tells that he got it completely wrong again. Taking off our best and hardest working midfield player and putting on an actual striker was a classic, and totally deserving of the “you don’t know what you’re doing” raining down from the crowd. Fernandes was playing as the furthest forward of our midfield players so in taking him off, Juric was kind of hinting that Fernandes was the problem, which he clearly fucking wasn’t.  Playing a false 9 with no one running ahead of the ball was the problem, so blame the wingers or blame yourself.  The whole idea of a false 9 is to draw the centre backs out to deal with him but the Wolves defenders just stayed where they were as there was no point in following Fernandes into our half as he had no one to pass it forward to.

One more Defender Next Week I Feel

So let’s talk about the first half, which was for 4-6-0 in possession and 5-5-0 out of possession. All this against a team that is 17th in the League and quite frankly, shit. This Wolves team would not be staying up in any season in the past 20 years, apart from the last two. So, having set up like we were playing Real Madrid, we knocked the ball around a bit and looked relatively sharp on the ball and the first time Wolves got the ball, they scored when two crosses came in under no pressure whatsoever and from the second of those, Strand Larson had a free head because ABK had dozed off. For the rest of the first half we predictably did nothing and it was absolutely fucking dreadful and then the second goal straight away killed the game.

The half-time change saw Tall Paul came on and even having a striker on the pitch as limited as him, makes the team look a lot better because the central defenders are occupied and at least we have someone to play the ball forward to. Who would’ve thought it. Our goal came from Paul picking up the ball spreading it wide and then following in the shot which bounced back to him off a post.  Three goals he has this season, two of them from following in shots.  A striker with a striker’s instinct is a good idea.  It was a bit like the interesting development in the last ten minutes as well, when Flynn Downs came on and all of a sudden we had someone who could run in midfield and looked like something resembling a functioning team again. Who would’ve thought it?

If the final substitution of Ivan Juric’s Saints career is to bring Jack Stephens on up front then that would be a fitting epitaph. He really didn’t look overly impressed with being asked to chase hopeful long balls, pumped forward for a few minutes at the end.

I want Juric gone now. We are now 17 points behind Wolves with nine games left so it’s all over by the shouting so there is absolutely no point in Juric still being here. The bloke is absolutely fucking clueless, never seems to learn and there is just no point in him sticking out the place a moment longer.  Two and a half weeks until the next game – get it done.  The language being used around the club has changed with regards to the relegation “battle” that we are in.  Spors said during the week that he was purely talking about playing in the Championship and in his post-match interview today, Juric categorically said that we will be relegated. No shit Sherlock.

Once again there were some half decent performances out of there by some players with Dibling (second half) and THB probably being the standouts. Sugawara actually wasn’t that bad either but it’s all relative.   There was some awful shite as well with Joe Aribo being particularly off the pace and Kamaldeen Sulemana doing a passable impression of someone playing in a pair of roller skates.  It apparently was Aribo’s 100^th game for Saints today and in some ways that’s an achievement but in others it’s symbolic of how far we’ve fallen.  In recent times in the Premier League we’ve had James Ward-Prowse, Oriol Romeu, Romeo Lavia and Pierre Hojbjerg in Aribo’s position and they are light years ahead of him.  Go back further and you find Steven Davis, Victor Wanyama, Morgan Schneiderlin and even the like of Jordy Clasie.  It shows how far we’ve plummeted. 

It's a gloriously long two weeks and three days before the next game, which is Palace at home.  With it being a home game it certainly promises to be a toxic one in the ground unless there is someone else in charge by then, as opposed to Mr Five-Five-Zero but when have Sports Republic ever done the obvious thing.

Up the Fucking Johannes Spors Saints Rebuild..

Premier League Match 11 - Wolves 2 Southampton 0

 

Jack Weighs Up What Ban He'd Get if he Called the Ref a C***

It’s always a bit of an occasion when you are 19th out of 20 in the league table and you get to play the team that is in theory, worse than you are. Today we get that scenario as we make the trip to Molineux to play Wolves, managed by ex-Skate legend Gary O’Neil.

As there always is, there is a lot of talk in the football media about the sack race, which is of course about who will be the first manager to lose his job. In the Premier League, that title was of course taken by Erik ten Hag but today sees the meeting of two other managers who are pretty high on everyone’s list to be next. Russell Martin has kicked the can down the road a week, with our win against Everton but Gary O’Neil is still waiting for his first three points of the season having had just three draws in Wolves opening ten games. He also only had one win in the last ten games of last season as well so on the one hand, it is quite amazing how he is still there.

O’Neil and Wolves would’ve been hoping for a win in their last game which was at home to Crystal Palace where they were 2-1 up with five minutes to go, ended up drawing 2-2 but in truth, were fortunate not to lose. The only crumb of comfort they have is that their fixture list does seem to have been ridiculously frontloaded with the best teams in the division with six of their seven defeats coming against Manchester City, Liverpool, Villa, Newcastle, Arsenal and Chelsea.

The main threat is provided by the excellent Matheus Cunha, who plays as an attacking midfielder and Joao Gomes seems to be a decent player as well. They also have of course, a player that we know well in Mario Lemina and to be honest, it should’ve been a sacking offence for O’Neil to even consider making Lemina the captain, given how flaky he is, but that’s what happened at the start of the season. There have not been many players over the years that have made me as angry as Lemina did in his time at Southampton where he clearly had the ability and clearly did not give a shit. He was part of that famous triumvirate of shit recruitment alongside Wesley Hoedt and Guido Carrillo.  The last time Lemina played against us, he got sent off at St Mary’s when Wolves were already 1-0 down. Despite having the mercurial Nathan Jones as manager, we managed to lose that game because it’s more difficult to play against 10 men when you are already 1-0 up. Twat.

For the past few years Wolves have always had this very suspect recruitment model of getting their players almost exclusively from one agent. I always felt that it was going to come crashing down at some point but was not particularly expecting it to happen this season. It goes to show that anyone who is not one of the big boys can plummet if they take their eye of the ball even slightly.  However they recruit, they still have a squad that should not be where it is in the table.

Russell Martin has to be sending out the team to go and win this game today. Any away point is valuable but we’re not going to get a better chance than today, this season to get three on the road. I suspect he is going to go down the same route that he has done in the last few games and pick a team to keep it tight in the first half and then look to the likes of Tyler Dibling to come off the bench and make a difference.  Not sure I agree with that given the opposition today, who average three goals a game conceded.  Surely we want to get at them and Tyler is our best attacker.  Anyhow, unchanged it is…. Only it isn’t as Flynn Downes has dropped out and Aribo starts, giving us a midfield with no real legs in it.

Away we go and the first time we let Wolves have the ball, Dawson brings the ball out to Toti, who tries to play it forward but it’s straight to KWP who decides not to head it out but to try and cushion a diving header down to THB.  This high-risk effort instead just presents it to Cunha.  Cunha sets off on a diagonal run from the left wing by the halfway line and gets to the edge of the penalty area totally unhindered by any of our midfielders or defenders, before sliding in an excellent straight ball to pick up the run of Sarabia who is coming off the right and he takes one touch around Ramsdale and slots into the net. Two minutes gone and fucking shit. Nice start lads.

We respond and win a corner and straight off the training ground we work it to Adam Armstrong who is coming towards the ball on the edge of the box, but his first time effort flies about a yard wide. Decent effort to be fair.

Another attack and Armstrong finds Aribo who finds KWP. His cross is flicked away by Dawson as far as Manning at the back stick and he tries to tee up Fernandes for a shot which is blocked, and over goes Fernandes as he tries to get the rebound.  Surely a penalty but no worries as the ball goes back out to Manning who lashes it in the top corner to notch his first Saints goal. Go on Rhino… There are a few token gestures from Wolves defenders but we’re off to VAR anyhow.  Surely they’re not going to give us a penalty?

Maths Teacher Does What He's Told

“Hi Tommy Bramall, this is Chris Kavanagh on VAR”
“Hi Chris – what’s the issue.”
“The blatant foul by Fernandes?”
“I saw that – coming together, no problem – that’s why I didn’t give it as I was looking straight at it”
“Listen you Maths teaching twat, I’m the senior referee here”
“But we’re not supposed to change decision unless it’s a howler.”
“Fuck all that high bar shit – clear foul”
“But it isn’t… six of one, half a dozen the other”
“Listen you prick.  It’s bad enough you’re refereeing instead of teaching maths and I’m up here.  I need to make my mark. Sending you to the screen.  Making it look like it’s your idea.”
“But this is just wrong... Semedo is looking to go down, moves in front of him and collapses and it’s never a foul”
“Fuck off you little turd.  Learn how all this works” 
“OK Chris… don’t tell Howard I argued.”

Absolutely fucking ridiculous.  The next 20 minutes pass me by to be quite honest because I’m wondering what the fucking point is.  If they are going to get involved and decide that that is definitely a wrong decision by the referee when it’s clearly a 50-50 challenge which is open to interpretation. What’s the fucking point?

Meanwhile, there’s a lot of pretty football about thirty yards out and we do create one opportunity as some intricate play between Manning and Lallana tees up Fernandes to take a swing from the edge of the box but it hits Dawson and goes for a corner. Fernandes corner is in the right area but THB, off-balance, can only head it wide of the post.

Half time and putting VAR aside, we’ve created very little but Wolves are unquestionably there for the taking.  They are shite but as usual, we’ve not created enough issues for their piss poor defence.  Russell’s answer is to take off Manning for Dibling as he realises that we might actually need a player on the pitch who can go past people. As the half wore on, it became apparent how fucking useless Adam Armstrong and Cam Archer have been against a deep defence but they get given another opportunity and Manning, who has been one of our better players, goes off. Do we really still need three central defenders on the pitch?

We start the second half by pissing around with the ball in our own penalty area and a THB pass gets blocked and picked up by Lemina, who sets up Gomes on the edge of the box and his low, drilled effort is comfortably saved by Ramsdale.  More passing around the back but more controlled this time and Ramsdale tries to pass the ball into Fernandes feet in midfield but he shoved off it by Wolves player and the ref ignores it and the ball has gone to Archer who gets manhandled off the ball by Dawson but once again, the maths teacher doesn’t think that’s a foul either. Dawson knocks it into Lemina, who passes it to Cunha 30 yards out and he takes a touch into space before lashing a brilliant shot over the top of Ramsdale and into the top corner. 2-0, game over but surely this will be disallowed for either one of the two fouls?

No Foul There. That's How Our Shirt is Supposed to Look

“Hi Tommy”
“What’s up Chris?”
“Well I see that you’ve given fuck all again”
“Yes but you’ll help me right?”
“Why would I do that.  I’ve had Howard on the phone tell me that he’s going to have to apologise to fucking Southampton over the first goal, so now he wants us to go light touch.”
“So, no foul by Dawson then?”
“Well, he’s grabbed the collar of Archer’s shirt and chucked him on the deck but I’m sticking to the brief and not re-reffing it.”
“So, Southampton get fucked again?”
“Yep… no worries, I’ve got them between 5 and 10 points for the season on a spread bet.”

Goal.

Well what do you fucking know? Might as well blow the final whistle now ref and go home and study some algebraic because this game is done. What’s the fucking point?  Yes we are shit but we are playing against VAR as well.  Utter waste of fucking time. Thank you, Chris Kavanagh and Thomas Bramall.

In keeping with this game being a complete waste of time, we decide to be bring on Ben Brereton Dustbin along with Yuki Sugawara and off goes Jack Stephens who should’ve gone off at half-time, and Joe Aribo who has really been off the pace. Within a few minutes there’s two more with Lallana, who has got gradually more ineffective as the game has gone on and Cameron Archer who has done nothing, and they are replaced by the big lads, Les and Paul.

The only chance we create between this point and the end of the game is Ramsdale passing the ball straight to Wolves player Bellegard on the halfway line he tries a shot first time which goes closer to the corner flag than the goal.  There’s another chance coming down the Wolves left as Gueddes fires a ball across the box and the sliding Bellegarde misses it.

Well just fuck off. That was an absolutely pitifully, painfully bad performance, especially when you consider the magnitude of the game. Yes, we got fucked by the officials both on the pitch and at Stockley Park, but from the moment Manning’s goal was disallowed until the final whistle, we created nothing. No shots on target, no saves for the goalkeeper.

The start of the game was atrociously bad with Wolves breaking through a Flynn Downes sized hole behind our midfield and Sarabia opened the scoring.  The chance came from a ridiculous decision by KWP to not head the ball off the pitch and try to someone cushion a header down for us to win possession.  We then settled into the game and equalised, or so we thought before we picked up one of those VAR decisions that just makes you think the whole game is completely bent or that all of these officials are completely incompetent. I lost my concentration for most of the rest of the first half in a “what’s the fucking point” mood, that I was thrown into by the goal being disallowed.   In the second half, despite the introduction of our best and only decent attacking decent player in Tyler Dibling, we created fuck all, with just the Wolves second goal to get angry about, because there were two fouls in the build-up that were both worse than the alleged foul that Fernandes committed to get our goal disallowed.

Dragan: Not This Shit Again

Speculation is going to be huge again regarding the future of Russell Martin and it’s hard to make an argument for him. That was pathetic today. We have no idea of how to turn possession into shots on goal and that has not improved all season. He recognizes it but does nothing about it.  Once again here today, he picked an extra defender for the first half which enables us to dominate possession but does nothing for attacking play.  When we changed things in the second half, you then realise quite how bad the options are. Cameron Archer has shown promise in some games that he was absolutely woeful today, giving up possession every time it went near him.  Adam Armstrong was an absolute void today – no idea what to do when the ball comes to him unless it’s a simple lay-off.  Zero creativity and can’t beat a player at all.  I can’t even be bothered to say anything about Ben Brereton Diaz, other than he’s just shite and once again, we bring on Tall Paul and don’t give him any crosses to attack.

We have no idea of how to create chances and that is down to Russell Martin. Even when we’ve got the 6 foot 8 guy on the pitch, we have no idea how to get the ball to him to make him a goal threat and let’s face it, it’s not exactly rocket science. You get it down the wings and you get crosses in. If you use him as a target man, you get other players around him. It’s not difficult.  Do we even train to learn how to play with Paul on the pitch or do we just do fucking rondos endlessly?

As we know, Russell Martin prioritises possession above chances and therefore we pick an extra defender or an extra midfielder and leave out the only guy who can take on a player and we do nothing.  Make no mistake though, all of the strikers are average to shit and anyone would struggle to keep this team out of the relegation zone with that selection of forwards. Today we played against a Wolves team that concede an average of three goals a game and our forwards made them look like prime Baresi and Maldini at AC Milan.  This is why I can’t get my head around Tyler Dibling not starting. This was a vital game and as our best attacking player, he really does have to start, especially when you consider that the alternatives are a complete shit show. I know that he can’t play every game, so he really should be missing the games where it’s incredibly unlikely that we are going to get anything from, like Manchester City away. All home games and away games against the bottom half, should see him on the pitch for as close to 90 minutes as possible.

Our squad is going to be a massive issue if we do pull the trigger because what a manager of any pedigree is going to look at the selection of strikers that we’ve got available and think he can get this team out of the relegation zone. Absolutely no chance.  We have recruited in line with Russell’s philosophy, which is why we don’t have any physicality in the team, why we don’t have much pace in the team, why we don’t have anyone else who can take on a player.  Russell Martin has gone into this season thinking we can pick a team of nice footballers and that would do it.  Naïve in the extreme, thinking that this approach would work in the Premier League. 

At Premier League level, it’s not enough to dominate position forty yards out and try and pass the opposition to death.  Defences don’t lose their concentration like they do in the Championship. In the Championship, you could pass the ball around and have possession of 80% and eventually, the centre backs would doze off, or you’d cross the ball into the box and someone would slice of clearance because they were tired, and the ball would hit Adam Armstrong on the arse and go in the net. A lot of Championship sides aren't used to playing against possession based teams. It doesn’t work like that at Premier League level because teams in the Premier League have got used to playing against the likes of Manchester City over the years so they know how to sit tight defensively and make it difficult for a team like City to score. Yes, they aren’t always successful because City have brilliant players but guess what? We do not and our style of football, with the players we have, is remarkably easy to defend against, even for teams like Wolves who have been shipping an average of three goals a game.

Wee Man the Last Time He Took a Player On

Russell Martin seems to acknowledge a lot of the issues but then does he really?  He says we lack physicality, but he won’t pick Big Les or Tall Paul.  I know they’re not very good but don’t complain about a lack of something in your team if you have the option to pick someone who provides it.  Yes we'd lose something from the possession if we played these two but it's about balance isn't it? He says we lack players who can take people on, yet he leaves out Dibling for a 19^th vs 20^th game and then says that we miss Wee Man in this regard.  Wee Man hardly ever takes on a player, let alone beats them and get a cross over.

The VAR calls will take a lot of the headlines today and that's all the national media will be talking about, but even if you take them away, we still did fuck all. Yes, goals change games and if our equaliser had been allowed, then it may have been a different outcome.  If Wolves second had been disallowed as it surely should have been, we still would have lost 1-0.  I was appealing for a penalty for a foul on Fernandes before Manning lashed into the net and if Manning hadn’t scored, it probably would’ve been reviewed to see if it was a penalty or not. As it is, Manning scores and somehow, VAR thinks the referee has made a clear and obvious error and then the referee has gone to the monitor and decided that he did make a clear and obvious error, which is absolute bullshit because that challenge could’ve been given either way.  Semedo doesn’t try and play the ball and makes contact with Fernandes, so that’s a penalty but then you could argue that Fernandes runs into Semedo, so that’s a foul the other way.  If you can argue both those points of view then it’s not a clear and obvious error and therefore, they were looking for a reason to disallow it rather than referee it objectively.  This was compounded of course by the Wolves second goal which had two fouls in it, both clearer than the alleged foul by Fernandes.

We now have another international break and Saints go into it bottom of the league with just four points from 11 games. Do Sport Republic have the finances and the will to make a change? Are they at the point where they think this is never going to improve enough to even give us a chance of staying up? Do they give Russell Martin the transfer window and the funds to bring in some decent forward players and give us a more physical presence? Would he even pick them if we had them or would he still obsess over possession and ‘nice’ footballers?  At the moment (and this changes all the time) I feel that they either have to make the change now to give us the best chance of getting a decent replacement, or we have to stay with it until the end of the season but at the moment, that looks odds to end with being relegated horribly and finishing with about 15 points.

Up the fucking depressing Saints.

Premier League Match 22 - Southampton 1 Wolves 2

 

Maybe Bringing Janny B Back Wasn't the Best Idea

Wolves decided to replace the manager Bruno Lage at roughly the same time that we decided to do  the same with Ralph Hasenhüttl. The difference is that Wolves appointed a proper manager and Saints didn’t.

Since then, only one team has been heading in the right direction and it’s not us.  However, despite moving off the bottom of the league and putting ourselves there and moving up the table, Wolves are still in danger and or of course one of the teams we need to try and drag down, so today is yet another six pointer against a team around us.  Nathan Jones of course doing his best to use up all of these winnable games and I would find it amazing if he doesn’t win this one and he’s still in a job by the end of Monday.  For now though, we just have to hope that he gets it right today and given his word-salad at the end of the game last week, I anticipate a very attritional, very meat and potatoes Saints side out there today.

Over the past few years, especially since the injury to Raúl Jimenez, Wolves have always been short up front and struggled to score the goals that their usually excellent midfield warrants being scored.  They have signed a couple of new strikers there in this transfer window in Sarabia and Cunha and immediately went to work on Liverpool last week and won 3-0. They still have the excellent Ruben Neves in midfield and have supplemented the defensive unit by signing Craig Dawson to partner Max Kilman. Dawson of course is an unspectacular player and he did try and kick Che Adams head into orbit but he undoubtedly makes their defence better, replacing as he does the erratic Nathan Collins.

Another player Wolves have signed as a course of the legend in his own mind that is Mario Lemina. Mr Tonic like Leminade himself. Utter prick. You know, the worst kind of player who has all the ability in the world but is an absolute fucking waster. Apparently he played well last week against Liverpool so we will see how he gets on today on his big return to St Mary‘s.

This promises to be a very weird atmosphere today. You could easily be forgiven for taking the defeat today as long as it got rid of Nathan Jones. On Saturday at 3pm though, every one of us of Southampton persuasion in St Mary‘s will be hoping for that win to kick-start a highly unlikely looking escape bid.  That could happen of course but I would say it’s much more likely that we go behind at some point and we are in for another fucking grim afternoon. It will be interesting to see how Jones’ promise of going back to his own style will play out. If this is anything like the Nottingham Forest game I can see me walking out after an hour.

Personally, I think that if you’ve got to the stage where a manager’s job depends on one game, you already really know that he has to go.  Ironically, everything in Rasmus Ankersen’s vision is about the longer term but if you’re going to make a decision based on what happens today, you must already know that the long-term is fucked with the current set up.

Team news, looks like 5-3-2 with Maitland-Niles on the right with Bree as a centre back, preferred to both Caleta-Car and ABK.  Tall Paul is in, as is Kamaldeen Sulemana, I assume as the front two. The bench is weird, containing Caballero and Lyanco, along with seven attacking midfielders, wingers and strikers - Aribo, Stuart Armstrong, Mara, Adams, Adam Armstrong, Edozie and Walcott.  Batshit.

Even stranger, AMN is a right sided centre back with Bree at right wing back.  Anyway, a positive start with Sulemana bursting down the right flank and putting the ball across which goes all the way across to Perraud.   As per usual, he gets it on target but it hits Craig Dawson who clears it well.

Wolves first attack wins a corner on the right hand side but when it comes in it’s cleared up in the air and Alcaraz tries to bring it down on the edge of the box but he’s taken it out by Lemina who stands on his ankle. Tonic like a yellow card and deserved too, with only 6 minutes gone.

It’s pretty basic but we are looking a handful, with Wolves struggling to cope with Tall Paul up front.  You can tell that the defenders are not used to playing against someone quite that big.  He gets his head on a Perraud across and causes some chaos and from the resulting cross back to the edge of the box, Sulemana tries a snapshot which is just wide.  The new guys are looking good.

Wolves are certainly not shy of sticking in the foot in and Semedo leaves one on Perraud which brings another yellow card from Jarred Gillett.  In comes are free kick from JWP and Tall Paul makes a nuisance of himself with the ball eventually dropping to Alcaraz who has a swing and when it bounces back off a defender and comes back to him, he hits a first time snapshot which flies through the crowd, hits the inside of the post and nestles in the opposite corner.  Fucking hell, we are ahead. What the hell is Nathan Jones going to do with this unknown scenario?

This Boy is Gonna Be a Star

No need to change anything for now... just hit it up towards Tall Paul and then fight like mad for everything.  As one such ball drops, Lemina tries to run it out of defence with JWP and Lavia snapping at him.  We win it back and Perraud’s cross is cleared.  Neves and Moutinho are bitching around the referee and Mario comes running over and has his say, probably to get a picture looking like he cares on instagram … and gets a yellow card.  Hilarious.  Tonic Like a Red Card.  Looks harsh to be fair but off you go, dickhead.  However it has come about, we are now 1-0 up after half an hour against 10 men. The first thing to ensure is that we don’t end up with 10 men as well.

Whilst Wolves are still trying to adapt, we put a bit of pressure on as the half comes to a close with Perraud’s cross being half cleared and Bednarek shooting and seeing a shot deflected for a corner.

Half time and have to be happy with the position hat we are in.  Now we have to manage the game whilst still maintaining a threat and of course, don’t let them have a sniff.  They haven’t got near our goal so far with Baz’ involvement restricted to launching bombs up to Tall Paul or for variety, out to James Bree on the right to get his head to it.

Greased Up Body Building Sprinter Adama Traore is on for the second half and it starts encouragingly as Kilman‘s pass forward is intercepted and Saints break through Maitland-Niles. He tries to put Sulemana through but makes a mess of it but Kilman subsequently makes a mess of getting it back to the goalkeeper and Sulemana gets in and chooses to try and skip round Sa, who pulls off an excellent block with his hand.  The incident is right in front of me and the bloke behind me, who is a fucking moron on a weekly basis, actually makes my ears pop appealing for a penalty for what was a very clean challenge.

Dunno who this player is we’ve got instead of Maitland-Niles but he plays a great ball down the side for JWP whose pull back finds Sulemana and he throws himself at it and heads wide.

With that the game just begins to turn a bit.  We seem to take a step back towards our own goal and let Wolves have the ball.  They suddenly look more comfortable and our long balls forward are not connecting and we’re just giving them the ball back.  On 70, Bruno goes down the Wolves left and easily makes himself enough space against Bree to fire over a low cross.  Absolute carnage with Diego Costa trying to kick fuck out of everything including the ball and it eventually breaks to Adama Traoré who scuffs it goalwards there is Jan Bednarek to block the first effort and then do some wanky dance moves around the ball before knocking into his own net.  Need a goal, just get it in there and let Bednarek do it for you.  Fucks sake.

Bednarek Does The Wanker Dance

Jones make some substitutions at this point and it’s absolute fucking chaos because he’s taken Perraud off and brought on Lyanco but no one seems to know who the hell is playing.   The intention is for Salisu to go left back and AMN to move across and play four at the back but we wnd up with four centre backs and a right wing back as Wolves go down or left through Diego Costa and his low crossfield ball is met by Sarabia who can only put it wide but he looked miles offside anyway.  Everyone is looking at eachother and at the bench and performing the universal ‘WTF’ signal.

Looks like Bree is now right wing but he comes off along with Alcaraz, to be replaced by Aribo and Edozie. Sulemana is still our main threat down the right hand side and skips across the top of the penalty area before hammering in the shot with his left foot which goes just wide. The boy’s electric.

It’s a rare moment of intent from us though as there now only looks like one side that might win it and it’s not the team with one more player.  Wolves lob a hopeful ball forward, which Bednarek, under pressure from no one just cushions down into the midfield. Maitland-Niles and Sulemana end up facing each other and neither go for it, Wolves win it back through Gomes.  His first effort is blocked by the turned back of Bednarek but the rebound drops kindly for him to cushion volley into the net. For fuck‘s sake.

We have nothing.  Our one attacking play of ‘launch it to Tall Paul’ is no longer possible and Jones has moved Sulemana out wide.  We have one chance in the last few minutes as Che Adams is chopped down on the edge of the box.  It’s right on the edge, to the left of centre and it’s JWP time.  It does look a little bit close but it’s never stopped him trying from there before but unbelievably, he passes it to the right to Maitland-Niles who tries to feed it into the middle and it gets cleared.  Mind blown.

Just when you think you’ve reached the bottom and you can’t possibly go any further, we manage to dig another layer down into the dirt. 1-0 up and playing against 10 men for an hour, courtesy of some mad refereeing and we still manage to fucking lose.

The first half was decent. Tall Paul was a complete nightmare for the Wolves defence to handle and Sulemana was all over the place and no one seem to know him was supposed to pick him up and even if someone did, he just sprinted away from them. The midfield three of Alcaraz, Lavia and JWP snapped into everything and the defensive unit was solid enough and meant that Baz didn’t have a save to make. Lemina getting sent off for what on the face of it, didn’t seem very much, certainly loaded things in our favour and of course we were already ahead by then due to Charlie Alcaraz’ first goal for the club.

Sent off for being the 3rd Player Round the Referee.  Mad.... but funny.

At the start of the second half, Lopetegui made a couple of changes and Wolves looks a lot better and began to look slightly more threatening, even though they weren’t peppering the goal or anything like that. We seemed to sense this and dropped back towards our own goal and from their first incisive attack, Bednarek end up doing the fucking wanker dance and putting it on his own net.  It’s only taken him three games back from his loan spell to do that to be fair.  That goal was built up down our right hand side and the full-back made space against James Bree far too easily to get the cross in that caused the chaos in the box.

At that point Nathan Jones absolutely shit himself and the changes he made just made us immeasurably worse and the last 20 minutes were an absolute abortion of a performance which of course contained the winning goal for Wolves. Did I mention they only had 10 men?

Then a clusterfuck of a second goal, all set in motion by good ol' Janny B and his shit header.  How ironic it would be if the player no one wanted except for Jones, is the player whose fuck ups ultimately cost him his job.

Everyone who knows anything about football knows that the key to playing against 10 men is to pass the ball and make them run and starve them of possession as best you can.  Make them run, wear them out.  We of course are set up to go direct with no regard for possession so Wolves couldn’t have picked a better team to play against with 10 men.  You often hear about teams practicing against 10 men in training, making the pitch as wide as possible, moving the ball quickly, keeping possession and all that.  Do we practice it? – I bet we don’t.  With Jones making an absolute bollocks of the substitutions, compare and contrast with Lopetegui, who made two changes at half-time which completely changed the performance from Wolves and Adama Traoré and later sub Gomez were responsible for the two goals.

Jones’ substitutions were of course limited by Jones‘ choice of substitutes in the first place, having as he did seven attacking players on a nine man bench. This is why he ended up bringing Joe Aribo on as a number six when the game was slipping away from us. The mad selections on the bench were also compounded by weird selections from the start. Maitland-Niles playing as a centre back instead of Caleta-Car was interesting but to be fair the Arsenal loanee did really well until the second goal. James Bree at right wing back is in the team solely because he is good in the air and can head down all the diagonal long balls that around towards him. He doesn’t offer much as a defender (3 goals at Brentford and one today down his side) and he offers even little as even less as an attacking right back with his crosses never reaching and just scudding along the deck. He looks like he would be a decent backup player but no more than that without a lot of improvement.

There were some positives today in the way we played the first half. Tall Paul Onuachu was decent upfront and has a decent touch and Kamaldeen Sulemana was electric and caused no end of problems but he needs to get some end product in his game of course.  The midfield three looked excellent as well.

I’m sure there is part of Sport Republic that would’ve liked Jones sacked before he faced another interview but that didn’t happen so we had to put up with him coming out with the usual bollocks about how playing against 10 is difficult. Yes mate, it’s difficult if you don’t keep the fucking ball.  He repeated his usual line about us being front-footed… yep, until we started running backwards towards our own goal.  Moron.

There is a decent team lurking within the Saints squad but it’s never gonna come out with this manager. We all know what our weakest link is and it’s time to say goodbye.  As I said at the top, Wolves appointed Lopetegui, the same week that we appointed Jones. They were one point behind us and now they are 8 points in front. Bottom line is, if we had appointed Lopetegui, we would be mid-table by now and if Wolves had appointed Jones, they would be flat last.

Sleep, Wake Up …. and he’s gone…along with Alan Sheehan and Chris Cohen. 

“Celebrate Good Times, COME ON”

Ruben Selles takes charge against Chelsea next week.  Well thank fuck for that.  I wouldn’t normally rejoice in three people losing their job but I’ll forgive myself here.  Jones has a little bit of every shit manager we’ve ever had.  The football philosophy of Branfoot, totally out of his depth like Wigley, Poortvliet and Gray and the delusion of Redknapp.  Like with all those guys – thank fuck he’s gone.

We are getting towards “needing a miracle” territory to not get relegated this season. It doesn’t look too bad in terms of points but somewhen very soon, we are going to have to string together a three or four-game winning streak or something like that and with the way we are going, that would actually qualify as a miracle.

This is shaping up so much like the 2005 relegation season in that we are using up all the games that we should be winning at home and the more difficult fixtures are coming now, starting off with Chelsea away next week. We will soon be on our third manager as well which is another parallel with that season

I don’t know who would want the job or who we could attract given the shit that we are in. I have a feeling now that Jones’ fate was decided by the Brentford interview and that Rasmus Ankersen has been working since then to tie down whoever is next, hopefull with a bit more thought than who looks good on a spreadsheet.  Let’s hope he gets it right this time after the unmitigated disaster of this appointment.  When Ralph left (and he needed to go) there was always the danger that we would get someone worse and we did but surely no one could be worse than Nathan Jones and even if they are, no one is going to point out anyone other than Jones, and the decision to appoint Jones as the reason we got relegated.

So, Chelsea away next week and the game against the team who are still attempting to gel following their splurge in the January transfer window. In the words of the late great Joe Strummer, the future is unwritten.

Premier League Match 6 - Wolves 1 Southampton 0

 

Speechless

A trip to the Midlands and Boring Diving Time-Wasting Wolves at Molineux with their spirit crushing style of play and spirit crushing manager Bruno Lage. Every time we play them, I look at their team and think it’s a good opportunity for three points but it never happens and in a wider context, I always think they are going to struggle but they always manage to win enough games 1-0 to keep their head above water and indeed push into the top half of the table. It’s one of those things I will never quite understand.

Over the last few years they have had a team that has been built on defence and built on the organisation of Conor Coady who is one of the best at organising a back three. Coady has now moved on to Everton, so now it’s down to the likes of Max Kilman.  Leander Dendoncker has moved on this transfer window as well, probably something to do with the fact is Belgian and not Portuguese. They have signed a couple of forwards in Guedes and Matheus Nunes who are unsurprisingly Portuguese and Sasha Kalajdzic, a 6 foot 7 striker who amazingly, is not Portuguese.

Every time we play Wolves I always mention their Super Agent approach to recruitment that they have where virtually every player is Portuguese and every player comes in through Jorge Mendes. Every so often they sign someone for a ridiculously over inflated price or they do the same when selling, and every time I think it’s very questionable. Let’s leave it there.

Since the last game we had the closing of the transfer window and deadline day, or as it should be known, “Dildo in the Ear day“. To cut a long story very short, DITE Day saw us recruit Juan Larios, Sam Edozie, Ainsley Maitland-Niles and Duje Caleta-Car. Going the other way permanently were Yan Valery and Oriol Romeu and out on loan for the season went Jack Stephens and Jan Bednarek. Some very exciting talent and some pragmatic signings coming in during this transfer window and we have got rid of a load of players who were very questionable when it came to what their contribution was going to be over the following season.

Iconic

The first outgoing was Oriol Romeu who was sold to Girona, in the heart of his Catalonia homeland. It looks like Saints bent over backwards to allow this move to happen for him as a reward for the seven-year service that he had given to the club and exemplary attitude he displayed throughout.  What a guy and it’s genuinely sad when a player like him leaves but if you look at it brutally from a playing perspective, he’s lost his place this year to an 18-year-old and though he would’ve undoubtedly have played 10 to 15 games this season, he wouldn’t have been first choice and that, combined with a desire to go back to Spain and particular to Catalonia, made this a good move for all parties. How Oriol never got sent off plan for us is one of life‘s mysteries but he has had some fantastic moments in a Saints shirt. The three incidents that spring to mind are the Jack Grealish incident from the game against Manchester City last season, when little Jackie apparently waited for him in the tunnel, the Raphinha tackle which he made at full pelt after a 50 yard recovery run and when everyone outside of Southampton thought he was public enemy number 1 for a particularly bad tackle on Mason Greenwood, which I think everybody would now be applauding. Ori left a particularly classy leaving message and there shouldn’t be a single Saints fan anywhere that begrudges him his move and I hope that we invite Girona over for a pre-season friendly next season so people can show appreciation for what the man did for the club. One of the good guys at a time when there are not many good guys in the game.

When Yan was The Man

Yan Valery was in the last year of his contract at Saints and unlikely to get another one. He wanted to play at right-back but Ralph clearly didn’t want him to play at right back and though he had a chance of minutes when we were playing a back three, now we are not and basically there was nowhere else for him to play. Again, this strikes me as a move that suits all parties and he too has returned home this time to Angers, near his home city of Paris. He too has had some good moments in the shirt, particularly the long-range missile that he caught David de Gea out with at Old Trafford.

I Be the Cornish Maldini and You can Fuck Roight Orff mate!

Out on a season long loan to Bournemouth went Jack Stephens. To be honest, the way Bournemouth have started, he will improve them if given a run of games. It makes me laugh when I read Bournemouth fans saying that they think Chris Mepham is better. He isn’t, because he’s shit. Jack is one of those guys that you wish no ill will to and I hope he goes there and does really well but it will ultimately be in a losing cause as looking at their squad at the end of the window, they have absolutely no fucking chance of staying up regardless of who they appoint as the next manager.

Bednarek Leaves Staplewood on Deadline Day

Also out on loan went Jan Bednarek. I couldn’t quite understand why we let him go on loan to Aston Villa to cover for the injured Douglas Costa for a season. Surely, we should’ve said buy him or fuck off. However, there have been a few rumours about his attitude and the fact he didn’t really want to be at the club this year and the fact that he refused to play against Manchester City in the FA Cup quarter-final last season did seem to be a bit of a turning point. Another turning point was that basically, when we abandoned playing with three at the back and took him out of the defence, the defence improved massively so the writing was on the wall and he was likely to spend most of the season with us on the bench. He has been going downhill for the last year or so and has become a very passive presence in the defence and had started this season in the same crap form he ended of the last one in. Never one to lead the defence, even when he was the most experienced player in it and I can’t imagine he’ll be missed.

After four years at the club though, there really was no need to make the absolute fucking knob headed statement that he did make saying he was delighted to be moving to a bigger club and it was important to him to go to a place where he could improve. Absolute prick. First off Jan, you are only on loan so they are going to see you play and if you play like you’ve played for us for the last year, they will be sending you back without a second thought. Then you will have to rebuild some bridges that you’ve just burnt down. I can understand people having a pop if you leave a club permanently but not when you’ve only gone out on loan. Fucking idiot.  I guess this shitty attitude was one of the main reasons why we booted him out the door though I do admit that Villa are probably a bigger club than our Carabao Cup XI where Jan would be getting a game.

Incoming…. Ainsley Maitland-Niles. I’m on record as saying that I thought this wouldn’t happen because he turned us down once before but we have decided to offer him a second opportunity and this time he has taken it. A full England international let us not forget, capable of playing in both full-back positions and in the centre of midfield, so in terms of positional profile, he is absolutely ideal, covering for both the departed Romeu and also for the injured Livramento. It’s a season long loan with an option to buy so it’s up to him really. He’s at an age now, 24, where he really has to make it happen.

A further raid on the Manchester City Academy brought to two more youngsters south in the shape of Sam Edozie and Juan Larios. Edozie is primarily left winger and Larios a left back. All we are hoping is that they are anywhere near as good as Romeo Lavia and if so, Larios will certainly give Perraud competition for the left back spot and Edozie has a real chance of staking a claim in our problem number 10 positions.

Right on 11 o’clock, having booted three centre backs out of the door, we had one coming in the shape of Duje Carleta-Car, a Croatian international who performed well at the Euros. He is another big unit standing 6 foot 4, with a decent turn of pace so on the face of it, he sounds like a similar profile player to ABK and Salisu to play in the centre of defence. There is a school of thought that having found a centre back partnership, why do we need another high-profile one like this. Well, the injury to Lavia shows you that you can’t over play these young players, so you need to have a good option for rotation should ABK or Salisu need a break at any point.

It has been a massively busy transfer window for us and one which we emerge from with a much stronger squad in terms of quality. A number of stagnant players have been shipped out and replaced with young, hungry players. Yes we could probably have done with the striker/winger that we needed and there is an obvious issue if Che Adams gets injured. We desperately needed a clear out and this has been amazing effort for one window and I can’t imagine many have any issue with any of the players who have left.. Nathan Redmond and Theo Walcott are still around and won’t contribute much, but everyone else is gone, either permanently or for the season. What we end up doing with the likes of Thierry Small, Dynel Simeu, Will Smallbone, Nathan Tella, Jack Stephens and Jan bloody Bednarek at the end of the season, is anyone’s guess.

Back to today and no real surprises in the team news with Aribo coming in for the injured Lavia and JWP dropping back next to Diallo.  Our bench includes three of our very new signings with Maitland-Niles, Edozie and Larios all included.  Caleta-Car’s international clearance has apparently not come through yet.  Wolves have indeed given a debut to the new giant striker Kalajdzic in place of Raul Jimenez.

The game starts in the usual way that it always does against Wolves with the first physical challenge of any nature whatsoever leaving a Wolves player rolling around in agony before getting back to his feet and being perfectly okay. Wankers to a man.

The first goalmouth action is all of our own making but in a bad way as Adam Armstrong sells Diallo a bit short and Diallo gives it away in midfield.  Wolves attack quickly on the right hand side with Perraud out of position having run forward and Nunes picks out Neto and we are waiting for the inevitable goal  but he drags it wide.

Aribo is making some good breaks forward from midfield and his cross from the left is deflected by a Wolves hand out as far as Adam Armstrong on the edge of the penalty area and he bends one wide of the far post. Not a bad effort and now Saints are looking better with Elyounoussi putting Adams away on the right hand side and it gets to the line and belts it across and Aribo’s flick is blocked by Neves.
 
Saints are having a good little spell now with Aribo and KWP combining down the right hand side which allows KWP to get the cross over, which is blocked by the knee and then arm of Nathan Collins but as we all know, we aren’t getting a penalty for that even though the ball coming off his arm from his own shit touch, stops the ball going through to Adams at the back post. We do get a corner though and we should go from there as JWP is delivery perfectly picks out ABK 15 yards out with a free header but he nods it wide.

Wolves do actually look better going forward than they usually do with Nunes and Neto causing problems. When they win a corner, the problem is the giant Kalajdzic, and he heads wide from one in the typical fashion of a player who is not used to having to jump.

At the other in Neves gives it away in midfield and we break with Elyounoussi with Adams ahead of him but in typical Moi fashion, he takes too long to release the ball, so Adams has to check back to stay on side and when he does eventually release it, all the angles have gone and the attack dies.

Half time approaching and a Saints attack breaks down as Elyounoussi tries to flick it through to Adams and Wolves break fast down our left. Perraud closes down the ball carrier Neto, but Diallo has not tracked his runner Nunes, who gets down the right-hand side delivers a low cross which meets the run of Podence at back post,... a run which has not been tracked by anybody, and he bobbles a finish over Bazunu and into the net. Lucky bastard. If he’d heard it properly then Baz would’ve saved it. Fucks sake.

Even with half time only a minute away, we create another chance as Adams muscles a defender off the ball and via Adam Armstrong and Aribo, the ball gets laid back to Ward-Prowse to have a shot from the edge of the box and with unerring accuracy, he picks out Che Adams arse with the shot.

Half-time.  Here we fucking go again and I expect we’ll get about 15 minutes of actual play in the second half as they roll around and shithouse it.

The first 10 minutes of the second half don’t amount to much so Ralph and the Brains Trust goes to the bench and we take off our two worst performing players in Diallo and Elyounoussi, for Moussa Djenepo and Stuart Armstrong. 

We immediately start putting pressure on with Stuart Armstrong to the fore, running at the defence and playing Aribo through on the right.  He smashes it across and Jose Sa makes a complete bollocks of it and palms it up in the air and it comes down about a yard out to Che Adams who can’t miss and he knocks it into the net in untidy fashion.  Doesn’t mater… get in!!!.   Oh shit, it does matter - disallowed.  What the fuck?  Oh fuck me, he’s missed it with his head and bundled in with his arm.  Dear Oh fucking Lord.

Unperturbed, Saints come again with Stuart Armstrong having a cross blocked and then volleying a second one over and Adams gets up brilliantly above Ait-Nouri and thumps a header on to the bar. Fuck me, this isn’t happening.

We’ve gone 4-2-2-2 now with Sam Edozie, Ainsley Maitland-Niles and Sekou Mara all on with Perraud, Adam Armstrong and Aribo making way.

Wolves are still dangerous on the break with Guedes sprinting into the box and being muscled out of it by ABK and collapsing like a sack of shit.  The referee doesn’t want anything to do with it but he does want something to do with Rúben Neves a second later, who hacks Edozie down after he went round another Wolves player and picks up the most deserved yellow card you’ll ever.  It’s the sort of challenge that I would absolutely have no problem with people getting sent off for because it’s totally premeditated and you are just wiping someone out. In a classic case of whatabouttery, Neves is pointing to the other end of the pitch and the ABK challenge – as if that’s relevant you fucking twat.

Edozie isn’t bothered and the next time he gets the ball, he nutmegs Neves and burns the full back and gets the ball in but we’ve got no one in the box, which considering we’re 1-0 down with a couple of minutes to go, is ridiculous.  Full time.

And it’s happened again, another fucking defeat against the play-acting, time-wasting Wolves team. Also today of course, they have the luck on their side with the finish by Podence being a complete fluke and us and Che Adams conspiring to miss two of the clearest, simplest chances you will ever see.

The bottom line is we deserved the point from that game and we created two gilt-edged chances to get a point. Hitting the bar from 5 yards with a header was bad enough but the one where he only had to nod it into an empty net and managed to handball it was on a different level altogether. It’s such a shame that for all Che’s improvement this year, sticking the ball in the net is still a bit of an issue.  It was good to hear Ralph backing him afterwards, mentioning his improvement and also that it was the first bad miss this season.  His importance to our attacking play this season has been massive and this doesn’t change because of one off bad day in front of goal.

ABK and Sali Show How To Handle The Massive Bloke

The positives today were another really good performance by the centre back pairing of ABK and Salisu. JWP had another good game in midfield and a couple of the substitutes in Stuart Armstrong and Sam Edozie really added something for the time that they were on the pitch.

We really should’ve scored in the first half as well but Elyounoussi butchered a couple of breaks simply by being too slow to do what he needed to do, like he always is. This is never going to change with him, and Ralph and the coaches need to accept this.  Diallo didn't take his opportunity to step up in Lavia's absence and I full expect Maitland-Niles to start next week.

I don’t blame Ralph for being totally pissed off with the fact that we lost today. I don’t think he personally did a lot wrong but the inexplicable misses in front of goal change the whole picture and change everyone’s view of the game. If those chances go in then no one is complaining about anything in the starting line-up and no one is complaining that we didn’t sign another striker in the transfer window. I’m afraid today is one of those that we just have to put down to one of those things however cliched and fucking annoying that sounds.

A hectic week which has been mainly positive ends on a sour note with our usual defeat against an incredibly irritating Wolves side. Onwards to the next game at home to Brentford, who have started this season pretty well and have just stuck five goals past Leeds. Bring it on and up the fucking Saints.