Bottle Jobs
We’re in a situation now where every game is moreimportant than the one that preceded it. Oh sh*t – Flynn Downes is injured and despite receiving praise for hisperformance as a sub against Preston, it’s not natural replacement Shea Charlescoming in but Will Smallbone as the Number 6.That might be ok as Cardiff have a host of injuries so their team isgoing to be a bit scratch and a bit young so hopefully we’ll dominate the balland the lack of grit in that midfield won’t be an issue. More of the same with Stuart Armstrong again on the left, driving forward andfeeding Adam Armstrong, who cuts in and shoots, parried out by Horvath to theedge of the box where Joe Aribo is waiting and he does well to keep the shotdown and it flies past the keeper for 1-0.Come On!
With every game that goes by and every three points we add to the tally,the more the pressure grows and the more important the game becomes. After thedefeat to Ipswich and especially after the draw against Blackburn, we allassumed that we were done and the media certainly assumed that and moreamusingly, the fans of Ipswich, Leicester and Leeds also assumed that. But, we are still here and win today atCardiff and we are officially right back in the mix going in to a game againstLeicester at the King Power on Tuesday night. That is for another day,obviously.
Today we take on Cardiff City, who are safe for another year in the Championship.They’ve never really been in serious danger of dropping down the season but gotthe results they needed over the last few weeks to make sure no one wasanxiously looking over their shoulders in their part of Wales. When theyvisited Saint Mary’s earlier on in the season, they kind of just turned up, didnothing, and got beat 2-0 with a brace of goals from Adam Armstrong. Then asnow, the manager is Erol Bulut, who one way or another seems to be coming tothe end of his reign at the Cardiff City Stadium. A man with a history of not lasting too longin jobs has apparently upset the owner and every time you read anything on aforum about Cardiff, their fans are usually using words like lacklustre,boring, dull, defensive. We hoped that when we played Preston a few days ago,that they would not put up much of a fight as they had nothing to play for andwe must hope that Cardiff make our job easier today. It’s less likely when youare away from home of course but hopefully we get to see where an early goal willtake us.
It was confirmed that Gavin Bazunu‘s injury was a season-ending one andhis ruptured achilles tendon is it going to mean the best part of a year out.Whilst he’s not everyone’s cup of tea as a goalkeeper, you have to rememberthis is a 20-year-old kid who has a long road of rehab ahead of him and how yourate him as a goalkeeper is irrelevant at this point. All the best to Gavin in his recovery. Whatthis means for us in the short term is a choice to be made between AlexMcCarthy and Joe Lumley. With McCarthy haven’t been chosen against Preston andkeeping a clean sheet, I would actually be completely staggered if it wasanyone other than McCarthy in between the sticks today. Hopefully we canrestrict Cardiff as well as we restricted Preston on Tuesday night. The 11 thatstarted against Preston all deserve to start today, So let’s see.
And it Was All Going So Well
On, on – starting with McCarthy and Stuart Armstrong picks at the ball inmidfield and chips one over the defence and Aribo competes for it against thedefender and the ball breaks to Che Adams who is right in front of thegoalkeeper and in the red hot for he's in, he could’ve taken it round him or hecould’ve slotted it but instead of that he scuffs it straight at the goalkeeperin a demonstration of whatever the opposite of clinical is. Che has another go a minute later as Cardiffhave a throw on the left and cough up possession and Stuart Armstrong plays Checlean through on his left foot and we all know what happens when he has theball in his left foot… but today is different as he’s in great form…. and underchallenge from the last defender he slices in madly wide from right in front ofthe goal. f*cking hell.Again we build up from the defence and Adams plays a lovely ball aroundthe corner towards Brooks but the full-back Tanner gets there first and knocksit back to the keeper at a very awkward height. A sh*t Horvath touch later andAdam Armstrong piles in with the keeper and the ball breaks to David Brookswith the keeper on the ground but with the ball on his stronger left foot andan open goal to aim at, he moves it left and has an open goal to aim at and …. hetakes it left again past an invisible player … and Horvath gets back toscramble it wide with the final touch coming off Brooks himself so we don’teven win a f*cking corner. What is ridiculous is the Brooks at two chances toput that in the net and in the end he doesn’t even get a shot away despite havetwo open goal chances to do so.
No, Don't Shoot, Got to Make Sure
Still we carry on with Brooks feeding Adam Armstrong and he takes his time asrolls it to Smallbone on the edge of the box and he has all the time in the worldto casually wave his foot at it and pick out a spot on the advertising boardfive yards wide of the goal, and that’s what he does. Cardiff have thrown on a couple of subs, one of which is Diedhiou and he’scausing a few issues as Cardiff have their first spell of anything in thegame. Down our left they go and past KWPas he’s trying to stop two players and over comes the cross, Meite swings a legat it and it’s going wide but it goes straight to Diedhiou at the back post,unmarked and he scores easily. Would youf*cking believe it? Even with the old cliché’sof “you’ll regret missing those chances” – this one is particularly ridiculous. We’ve lost control of midfield as Smallbone, Aribo and Stu all start lookingtired and the sub is made in this area and it’s Aribo off for Rothwell, which makesus worse and will not give us any further control in midfield. Predictably, it’s Cardiff in the ascendancynow and after a Bednarek foul out on the wing, Cardiff sling the ball into themix, in comes the unmarked header, saved by McCarthy and an almighty scrambleand we get away with it because THB throws himself into the melee to block. Proper committed defending. More subs and it’s just throwing stuff at the wall time now as it’s threewingers coming on. Smallbone, Arma andBrooks are off and it’s Kamaldeen, Edozie and Wee Man on. Wee Man is in midfield so the combination isRothwell, Stu and Wee Man. So, basically,we have six forwards on the pitch. Ok then. Sulemana is on a mad one. He gets bookedstraight away for pulling back someone.Then he commits another foul and could quite easily get a secondyellow. Then he ventures into he penaltyarea gets in the way and managed to get a knee in the face off StuartArmstrong. Bednarek puts him in the recoveryposition but he manages to carry on after a few minutes, which is mental. If he’s knocked out then get him off. If he’s faking it then get him off and playwith ten. Cardiff are coming now and we’re not doing anything because no one can win theball. They switch the ball out to theleft to Ashford, one of their youth players who looks about 15 and he cuts pastSulemana’s pathetic challenge, but the Saints man does make the effort to jogalongside him. Rothwell backs off andStuart Armstrong jumps away from the challenge as Ashford hits and hopes and itflicks off Bednarek and gives Macca no chance. Wankers. One last chance as Adams gets away on the right and gets the ball over and StuartArmstrong takes a touch and then shoots and then collapses in agony as adefender blocks it. Four minutes later and he’s off on a stretcher and thoroughlymiserable end to a miserable day. On the face of it, it’s easy to blame Russell Martin for going for the Will Smallboneat six to replace the indispensable Flynn Downes but whilst that drew a sharpintake of breath from everyone, is that really the problem here today? Thebottom line is like at Ipswich, we were exceptional for the first hour of the game,totally controlling the midfield and creating and endless stream of chances forthe forwards and they missed the f*cking lot. Is it Russell Martin’s fault thatChe Adams is clean through and hits the goalkeeper when it was easier to score?Is it Russell Martin’s fault the David Brooks has an open goal to aim at butinstead of that he decides not to shoot and allows the goalkeeper to get back?Is it Russell Martin’s fault that Adam Armstrong can put a header a high or lowor just inside the post but instead of that heads into the only area of thegoal where the goalkeeper can possibly save it? No, it’s not the managers fault that thosethree (and others) pissed away every chance that we created today.
Half-time and despite missing a ridiculous amount of chances, it stillshouldn’t be an issue because Cardiff don’t look to have anything and Saints are totally in control. How many timeshave we said that though? The secondhalf starts with Bree on for Manning for what I assume is an injury. Aribo chips a ball down the right to Adams, whodigs out a superb cross fizzing along a 6 yard line and Adam Armstrong comes inat the back post and heads it from five yards but puts it in the only placewhere the goalkeeper can possibly save it, which he duly does. Anywhere but atthe middle of the goal at mid height and it’s 2-0 but you know, this is Saintson a bad one.
Wankers. It’s the hope that kills you. Having won those games to get ourselvesback into contention, we faced quite possibly the easiest assignment againstCardiff Youth and Reserves and we totally sh*t the bed. As soon as there’s a chance to achievesomething, bottle it and how very Southampton that is. I genuinely thought we were destined to keepwinning and take advantage of everyone else falling over but oh no. When will I learn?
Behold - I Give You 4-0-6
As I said earlier, I do not get it when Shea Charles gets praised for hisperformance against Preston and Russell talks him up as the Flynn Downesunderstudy - fast forward a couple of days and Flynn Downes is unavailable and Charlessits on the bench and watches us lose and kill the automatic promotion hopes stonedead. So, Charles was unused and thesubs that were used after Rothwell - Sulemana, Edozie and Fraser were allslightly differing levels of sh*te, 2 out of 10 performances from all four ofthem. These are our game changers ladies and gentlemen. They all made the team worse and we wouldhave been better off making no second half subs. A terrible day was made even worse with the possible long-term injury to StuartArmstrong who has now probably played his last game in the Saints shirt. We canonly hope at this moment but that injury is not as bad as feared but beingstretched off with your shirt over your face is never a good sign. It’s a sobering warning to players who lettheir contracts run down as well. Once again we proved ourselves to be incredibly soft. All the opposition has todo is to have a little bit of possession in our half and they inevitably score. Yes, both Cardiff goals today had a largeelement of fortune about them with the first goal being a shot that was goingwide that fell to the goalscorer and the second being a huge deflection. What did we do to make those goals difficultto score? Nothing. First goal – yes it’s lucky but he’s free in the six yard box and James Bree isball watching and KWP didn;t do enough to cut out the original cross. Second goal was of coursea big deflection off of Bednarek but Ashford should never of been allowed toget that shot in, in the first place. As Ashford makes his way across the pitch,three of our players do nothing and just watch.Where is the body on the line defending? We don’t do it. The body on theline defending was all at the other end where Cardiff earned their own likelywin by defenders and goalkeeper chucking themselves in the way of everythingand riding their luck. This was Cardiff youth and reserve team. a cobbledtogether unit that have never played together before and we f*cked it,completely. So, I blame the manager for the horrendous game management afterCardiff equalised, but the vast majority of the problem is on the players. As said, Southampton FC drag you back in and actually have you believing thateverything is going our way and things are going to work out and we were goingto achieve something amazing, only to find a way to somehow bring it allcrashing down again. Playoffs it is. Tuesday against Leicester could’ve been amassive battle with everything on the line and now it just isn’t. They managedto grind out win against West Brom today and we did the opposite, losing toCardiff Youth and Reserve team. Pathetic. The most worrying thing about today was that when the pressure is on, we can’t doit. Playoff games are massive pressure. Up the f*cking Bottle Jobs.
What is Russell Martin’s fault is the way we managed the game from just before Cardiffscored their slightly fortuitous equaliser and in the last half hour. Russell said afterwards it was absolutelycriminal not to win that game with the chances we created and that if you don’tscore then you have to defend your own box. He is of course correct. Martincannot be blamed at all for the fact that we missed a stack of chances but thedefending our own box, well, I don’t think he can really hide from all thecriticism for that. He picked a midfield that can’t tackle and when he could’veshored up, even before Cardiff scored, by bringing on the bonafide defensivemidfielder who might have given us a platform.Instead of that he brought on Joe Rothwell who is a contender for thebiggest nothing player I think I’ve ever seen. Here we have a centralmidfielder who can’t run, doesn’t tackle, has no defensive discipline and ontop of that, today he couldn’t pass the ball. He reunited the infamous Rothwell,Smallbone, Stuart Armstrong midfield sh*t triangle combination that has been provenmany times not to work. Then he made itsomehow worse by putting Wee Man in midfield. The 4-0-6 formation won't win many games.
