Everton v Southampton – The Toffee Men Are Too Sticky For The Saints

Source picture: Southampton FC official Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/southamptonfc

The last game of 2013 for Southampton FC is against Everton FC at Goodison Park. Mauricio Pochettino has made some changes to his team again. It looks like Kelvin Davis is fit enough to play a full game now after his injury, since Pochettino decided to let him start this game. This means that Paulo Gazzaniga is forced to sit this match on the bench. I’m wondering if this is a smart move by Pochettino since last game was Paulo Gazzaniga’s best game so far and he kept a clean sheet. Dropping him to the bench might not be the best move for his confidence. Plus Kelvin Davis has a habit of letting the ball fall out of his hands or letting it roll between his legs. I am afraid that, with this change, we are already doomed now to lose those 3 points.

Then there is also the fact that Kelvin Davis gets to wear the captains armband this match. I understand he is older and he used to be the captain before when he was the starting goalie, still I don’t think it is fair towards Adam Lallana. Lallana has been a great captain for the Saints, while Davis hasn’t been in the goal for weeks. Looking at this I would say Adam Lallana would have a better football insight into the Southampton team and he should have been wearing that armband.

The more positive changes are Dejan Lovren who is better now and ready to play the full 90 minutes. This does mean that Maya Yoshida is moved to the bench, but this also means that we have a better reserve defender who can be used as a substitution. Nathaniel Clyne has recovered from his hamstring injury and is back on the bench for the first time in weeks. Looking at the Saints bench and seeing these two talented back-up defenders, gives me a bit more hope for this match.

The game starts slowly with both teams not really creating any chances yet. But this doesn’t last long. In the 8^th minute Seamus Coleman runs up towards the Kelvin Davis goal and is looking around for assistance, which he can’t find so he decides to give it a try himself. He shoots the ball into the top left corner and scores as his shot hits the net. What a goal. Davis was not to blame for this goal, since there was no way he could have touched it. But where was Luke Shaw? This is the bad thing about having wing defenders who run high up and down along the side of the field, sometimes they’re not back in their spot in time to prevent a goal like this.

Dejan Lovren makes a good block in the 23^rd minute, which results in a corner for Everton. It is good having Lovren back on the field and to see him make blocks and tackles like this. The corner is taken and miraculously Kelvin Davis actually catches it and clears the danger.

The ball goes forwards again and Adam Lallana claims it. He makes a great run with it and decides to play it to Rickie Lambert. That turns out to be a wrong decision since Lambert gets called offside. This is already the third offside call for the Saints within the first 30 minutes of the game. They really need to pay attention to their position while playing forward if they do want to create a goal of their own.

Jack Cork has been great so far. He has been running everywhere either blocking the ball and winning it back or creating chances. Mauricio Pochettino decided to play with a 4-3-2-1 formation today, meaning that Jack Cork is in midfield with Steven Davis and James Ward-Prowse on his left. But somehow we haven’t really seen those last two players near the ball while Jack Cork seems to be touching it constantly.

With 6 minutes left to play in the first half, Adam Lallana creates a great chance for himself. The ball flies through the defenders towards Joel Robles’s goal. Unfortunately Robles doesn’t have to do much about this chance since Lallana’s touch was a bit too hard and shot goes wide of the post.

A nice fact to know is how José Fonte has been promoted with Southampton all the way from League One to the Premier League and he has managed to keep his starting position. He left Crystal Palace when they were in the Championship and stepped down to League One to play for Southampton. Southampton were then he promoted twice in 2 seasons and now they play in the Barclays Premier League. This shows José Fonte is a player of good quality since he is still a starting defender for the Saints.

At half time it turns out the Saints have had the most possession with 52% even though it doesn’t feel like we have had the ball more. Maybe this is because Everton was more attacking when they did have the ball. But the second half looks more promising as Southampton looks more attacking at the start of it.

5 minutes into the second half Calum Chambers gets roughly swiped of his feet. Bryan Oviedo tackles Calum Chambers so hard he could have broken his ankles. This foul is so bad you might almost start to think Oviedo did it on purpose to injure Chambers and get him out of the game. Oviedo gets shown a yellow card and he is lucky with that as he might as well have gotten a red card.

Mauricio Pochettino makes a shocking substitution in the 64^th minute when he decides to take Jack Cork off and replace him with Gastón Ramirez. I understand he wants to bring Gastón Ramirez on to create some more chances for the Saints, but he would have been better off replacing Steven Davis or James Ward-Prowse as neither of them have been near the ball as much as Jack Cork. It almost looked like Cork was playing in three positions at the same time, he was being a defender, a defensive midfield player as well as being a attacking midfielder. In my eyes he definitely was the man of the match as he was everywhere at the right moment. I am afraid that this substitution will definitely make us lose.

Gastón Ramirez is only on the field for 6 minutes when he gets his first chance. Adam Lallana passes the ball to Ramirez who is outside the box, Ramirez has a good look and shoots the ball with his left foot to the high centre of the goal. The ball flies straight through Joel Robles’s hands and it is a goal. And what a goal it is from this Uruguayan player, this is probably the reason Southampton purchased him last season. Ramirez decides to celebrate his goal by taking of his shirt, then he hands his shirt over to a disabled Everton fan but still gets rewarded with a yellow card.

Southampton’s happy spirit only lasts about 3 minutes when Everton decides to take back their lead. Romelu Lukaku finds himself at the centre of the box and shoots the ball with his left foot to the top left corner. Again that top left corner results in a goal. It was a good goal which was again out of reach for Kelvin Davis.

Not much is happening in the game anymore after this goal. Mauricio Pochettino makes to more substitutions, James Ward-Prowse goes off in the 82^nd minute to give Sam Gallagher some playtime. And Nathaniel Clyne comes on in the 87^th minute to take over Calum Chambers spot.

3 minutes extra time are added on at the end of the second half. This is when the Toffee Men decide to defend full on as they are so determined to win this game and let the visitors leave empty handed. And that is how it ends, Everton takes the 3 points.

Even though the Saints have had more possession, 55%, I still think Everton were the stronger team and they deserved to win. The Toffee Men looked like they were a better coordinated team. All we can hope for is that 2014 will be a better year for the Saints and that they will start the year with a win over Chelsea.

One note I would like to make is that, the more the game progressed, the more annoyed I got with the Everton fans who just kept on booing at everything. What kind of fans are they, thinking their booing would support their team and lead them to the win? It might be hard to find fans which are as cheery and supporting as the Southampton fans who are just singing songs all the time to show their support to the players. I still think the Everton fans could have learned something from them and make up their own song so they can support their own players. Besides that I would also like to say that I don’t think Mark Clattenburg was being completely fair towards the Saints.

Cardiff City v Southampton – Southampton Gets Back Into Their Winning Spirit

Source picture: Southampton FC official Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/southamptonfc

This Boxing Day, Southampton was travelling to Cardiff City Stadium. Looking at the starting eleven, it looks like Mauricio Pochettino has learned from the loss against Tottenham Hotspur. He has changed the backline. Luke Shaw is apparently better since he is starting this game. Next to him Maya Yoshida and José Fonte are also back on the field. This was a good surprise. After looking at who is on the substitute’s bench I have to assume that Dejan Lovren is sick since he is neither on the field nor on the bench.

Those little changes seem to have given Southampton back their confidence. Right from the start the Saints were on an attacking streak. In the 12^th minute Adam Lallana passes the ball to Jay Rodriguez who is running ahead of him. Rodriguez takes the ball but shoots too high.

One minute after this, it is actually working out better. Adam Lallana and Jay Rodriguez are running up the field together, Lallana has the ball and passes is to Rodriguez, who takes the ball and scores. Great teamwork that was, Adam Lallana and Jay Rodriguez play so well together. The arms of the Cardiff defenders are going up but it wasn’t offside.

It only takes 6 more minutes after this first goal, for the Saints to score again. Rickie Lambert gets the ball in midfield and has a good look forward before he passes the ball on. There he spots Jay Rodriguez on the left side, shoots the ball forward and Jay Rodriguez gets the ball right in front of his feet. He sure knows what to do with it – a goal it is. What a great football insight from Rickie Lambert to play the ball to Jay Rodriguez.

In the 26^th minute Southampton receive a corner. They pass the ball instead of shooting it towards the box and that is how the ball goes back to midfield. From there, they kick the ball towards the box. Rickie Lambert is ready for it, he claims the ball and of course he scores. So early on in the game and Lambert already has an assist and a goal to his name.

Not even half an hour into the match and already 3 goals for the Saints. It is obvious they found their winning spirit back and are ready to show it off to all the fans and anyone else who wants to see it.

Southampton’s defence definitely has improved after the loss against Tottenham Spurs. Maya Yoshida has been impressive in the backline and has made some great tackles and blocks. This makes me wonder why we haven’t seen him showing off his skills for so long. Paulo Gazzaniga is in good shape too in this game: he seems more confident with his saves and even manages to hold a couple of catches.

Calum Chambers and Luke Shaw have been good so far as well. Both these young players are strong on many different aspects. They are both good at blocking attacks and winning the ball back. But they also have good attacking skills and are running up along the sides of the field pretty often. Seeing these Southampton Youth Academy Graduates makes me wonder what other great talents are still in the Academy waiting to graduate.

After halftime Cardiff City started to show a change in their play. Something must have happened in the changing room during the break or maybe it was bringing on Danish international Andreas Cornelius at the start of the second half. Either way, the Bluebirds seem more confident. They are attacking more. Fraizer Campbell is putting more pressure on Paulo Gazzaniga, but luckily he doesn’t crack under this pressure.

Mauricio Pochettino makes his first substitution in the 79^th minute. Surprisingly he decides to take captain Adam Lallana off the field for James Ward-Prowse. Lallana passes his captain armband on to Rickie Lambert. I just can’t wrap my head around this decision, why would a manager take of the captain of his team? Of course I agree with giving James Ward-Prowse some game time, I just don’t think that taking off your captain is a good move by Mauricio Pochettino. This could give the teams confidence a dent since their coach is taking off their captain. Plus Adam Lallana has been playing really good this game so he surely deserved to play the full 90 minutes.

With about 10 minutes left of the game, Cardiff City fans start to flow out of the stadium. Seems like they have seen enough of this defeat and decided that it is better to beat the rush and get out of the stadium.

Jay Rodriguez misses out on his hat trick when Mauricio Pochettino takes him off in the 85^th minute for Gastón Ramirez. Another substitution I can’t get my head around. Why would a manager take of the best two attacking players of this match?

3 more minutes get added on as extra time. Not much happens in those last three minutes of the game. With one minute left of the extra time Mauricio Pochettino takes Rickie Lambert off for Sam Gallagher. This is probably more a move to waste time than a tactical move. Soon after this substitution Andre Marriner blows his whistle to indicate the end of the game.

The second half of the game definitely was less exciting then the first 45 minutes of match time. Even though both teams did try to create chances in the second half, neither of those chances were as big as the 3 chances in the first half which ended in goals.

It looks like Jack Corks inspiring words of this week became reality, so it is more than fair to say that the whole Southampton squad was in great shape this game. All the players have been playing great. In the last 6 games Southampton hasn’t been able to win, which makes this win right after Christmas even sweeter. A well deserved clean sheet for Paulo Gazzaniga, that must be a great boost for his confidence.

Such a great decision it was by Mauricio Pochettino to leave Jos Hooiveld out of the starting eleven. See what happens when Hooiveld isn’t playing, the whole team seems to play more confidently and the defence line is definitely way stronger without him. Jos Hooiveld was still keeping a spot warm on the bench, but that might be to blame on the injuries in the team. At least Pochettino didn’t allow Hooiveld to get on the field. Seems like Pochettino found his football insight again.

The coming games will be tough ones for the Saints, with Everton and Chelsea being the first teams on the list. All we can hope for is that they will stay in the high spirits of this game and keep this winning feeling in mind while playing those coming games. Come on you reds, you can do it. I am sure we haven’t seen the last of you.

Southampton v Tottenham Hotspurs – Hooiveld Lets Southampton Down Yet Again

Source picture: Southampton FC official Facebook page. https://www.facebook.com/southamptonfc

Sunday 22^nd December 2013, Southampton FC is hosting Tottenham Hotspurs at St. Mary’s. The starting line up for the Saints looked promising. Adam Lallana is back among the starting eleven as is Morgan Schneiderlin. This should be good since those two players made a big difference when they came on the field as substitutes in the previous game. It is good to see Adam Lallana wearing the captains armband again.

Dani Osvaldo is out since he received a knock against his leg in training this week. Luke Shaw is also injured which is why Danny Fox is starting left back in this game. José Fonte is on the bench for the second week in a row which means Jos Hooiveld starts in the left centre back position. This made me wonder if this is a smart move on behalf of Mauricio Pochettino, unless he wants Jos Hooiveld to take Emmanuel Adebayor on.

Calum Chambers is starting again as well. It is good to see him starting again since he is a great talented player. Yes, it is a shame to miss Nathaniel Clyne in right back, but since he is still injured this is a great opportunity for Calum Chambers. A nice fact to know about Southampton is that most players from their youth system are of English heritage, which is very unusual in the Premier League.

It doesn’t take long for the Saints to take the lead. In the 12^th minute Adam Lallana scores a wonderful goal. Danny Fox saw it well when he passed the ball forward to his captain. On his turn, Adam Lallana shot the ball low into the left corner of the goal. There was no way for Hugo Lloris to stop this one.

10 minutes later there is a new big chance for Southampton. Adam Lallana gets the ball and quickly decides to play it on to Jay Rodriguez event though he probably could have taken a shot himself. Jay Rodriguez takes the ball but unfortunately shoots too high and misses the goal.

Just one minute later, in the 24^th minute, the Spurs manage to get the ball past Paulo Gazzaniga. Tottenham used this chance to the fullest when they passed the ball to Emmanuel Adebayor in front of the goal. Paulo Gazzaniga decided to stay on his line since Jos Hooiveld and Danny Fox were siding Emmanuel Adebayor. Either one of those defenders should have stepped up and tried to stop him, but since neither one did, Emmanuel Adebayor scored. And a great first Premier League goal this season for Adebayor in only his second Premier League appearance this campaign.

At half time Southampton has been the better playing team which has had the most possession. It is a shame they couldn’t manage to get ahead since Tottenham has been playing pretty poorly.

The second half isn’t even 10 minutes on the way yet, when the game takes a dramatic turn. In the 54^th minute Jos Hooiveld puts his foot against the ball and (accidently?) kicks it into Paulo Gazzaniga’s goal. Hooiveld has fallen back into his old ways. He shouldn’t even has touched that ball, just should have left it for Paulo Gazzaniga who was right there to catch the ball but didn’t expect Jos Hooiveld to do what he did. This is the moment in the game where the tables turned and Southamptons defence received a big dent in their confidence.

Two minutes later Southampton receive their first corner of the game. Jos Hooiveld is near the goal close to heading it. Probably trying to make up for his big mistake from just before, but he definitely has to try harder to make up for his big error.

Adam Lallana shows in the 59^th minute why he deserves his captain armband with his great football insight. Adam Lallana makes a great run towards the goal trying to make Hugo Lloris come out of his goal to stop him. His plan works as he is passing the ball backwards to Rickie Lambert, who was following him. Lambert is then in front of an open goal and scores a wonderful goal. At least the forwards are trying to fix Jos Hooivelds mistake.

With 28 minutes left to play, Mauricio Pochettino makes a shocking decision. He decides to take Jack Cork off the field. I still haven’t figured out why he made this decision since Jack Cork has been defending way better throughout the game so far compared to Jos Hooiveld. James Ward-Prowse comes on the field, which is the only positive side to Pochettino’s decision since James Ward-Prowse is a very talented young player who can show some great skills.

The whole Southampton team seems to be out of their focus after this substitution since it only takes one minute for Tottenham to score again. It is Emmanuel Adebayor’s lucky day as he scores his second Premier League goal. It was poor defending on the Saints side. Dejan Lovren even let the ball slip through his legs so it could make it’s way to the goal.

From that moment on the Spurs take the upper hand in the game. Creating three great chances in the five minutes onwards from their goal. Southampton seems to be unable to stop them running right through their defence.

Mauricio Pochettino decides to replace Steven Davis with Gaston Ramirez in the 68^th minute.

Ten minutes after his last substitution, Mauricio Pochettino decides to change the whole team around. Off comes Danny Fox and on goes Sam Gallagher. Calum Chambers moves to left back to take over Danny Fox his position. James Ward-Prowse moves into defence and starts playing right back. Sam Gallagher goes up front as a striker. And so Southampton has changed their formation to a 4-4-2 formation.

I don’t understand Pochettino’s way of thinking. Firstly I would have probably substituted Jos Hooiveld for José Fonte after he scored his own goal. But seeing all the changes now, Mauricio Pochettino should have never taken Jack Cork off the field. He could have taken Danny Fox off for Sam Gallagher like he did. Then move Calum Chambers to left back and Jack Cork to right back. That way he would have had one spare substitution to replace Jos Hooiveld, the weakest link in the whole team.

Bringing Sam Gallagher onto the field seems to be like a good decision. In the 81^st minute he gets a chance to shoot at goal. Just unlucky for him Hugo Lloris is in his way and the ball stays out.

With a minimum of 5 added-on minutes, Southampton gets their last chance in the 91^st minute. James Ward-Prowse takes the corner, at which he is great. The Saints miss heading the ball and somehow the ball gets played backwards to Rickie Lambert. He takes on the ball but unfortunately shoots too high, wasting the last chance for Southampton to end the game in a draw.

In the end Southampton didn’t deserve to win this game, since they have been playing hopeless in the second half of the game. Mostly Mauricio Pochettino is to blame for this poor result if you ask me. I do understand that it is hard to find the right players to play, especially when you have at least two injured defenders who usually start. But I believe that Jos Hooiveld has proven game after game that he can’t be trusted in front of our goal, so I can’t see why Pochettino chooses him over José Fonte. I am not going to blame Paulo Gazzaniga for his performance in this game, because I would get insecure too with a defender like Jos Hooiveld right in front of me. So I can see why Paulo Gazzaniga decided to stay on his line most of the time so he would have a last chance to try and correct Jos Hooivelds errors.

All we can hope for now is that Mauricio Pochettino finally has learned his lesson and he will drop Jos Hooiveld to the reserves team for good. Hopefully Pochettino will show better football insights and a stronger formation against Cardiff City FC coming Thursday.

Newcastle United v Southampton FC

Source picture: Southampton FC official Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/southamptonfc

Last Saturday Newcastle United were hosting Southampton at their home ground, St. James’ Park. The starting line up for Southampton is kind of surprising. Firstly why is Jos Hooiveld starting instead of José Fonte? Fonte is on the bench and now news has reached us about him being injured, which makes me question if this was a good move by Pochettino. Morgan Schneiderlin is also on the bench, probably because he isn’t fit enough yet to play a full game after his groin injury. But most surprisingly, why is Adam Lallana sitting on the bench? Surely he hasn’t shown any play bad enough that the former captain deserves to start on the bench.

This is the first game since October that both Rickie Lambert and Dani Osvaldo are starting, with Rickie Lambert playing behind Dani Osvaldo. This is the second game in a row this season that Jack Cork is starting since Victor Wanyama is injured, based on his performances last week, this should be promising. Also Calum Chambers is starting again in the spot of the still injured Nathaniel Clyne. It is good to see how Pochettino is handling all these injuries. He doesn’t complain about it, he just moves on and tries to make the best team with his remaining players.

Around the 11^th minute the Saints players are waiting for a flag which will never go up. They stop in their play waiting for the offside call while Newcastle just keeps on continuing. Paulo Gazzaniga gets outplayed but luckily academy graduate Calum Chambers was the only player awake enough to rush over to the goal line and block the ball from crossing it.

Unfortunately it only takes up until the 27^th minute for Newcastle to definitely break through the Southampton’s defence and score a goal. Jos Hooivelds first reaction definitely wasn’t his best as the right footer tried to block the ball with his left foot. But instead of blocking it, he played it right to Yoan Gouffran who used this opportunity to the fullest which resulted in a goal.

Last February Jos Hooiveld actually made an own goal at St. James’ Park, according to the commentator he is willing to look for better memories today. That didn’t completely happen since he messed up which resulted in a goal for Newcastle, but at least it’s a step up from scoring an own goal. Hopefully next time he will actually be able to stop the ball.

At half time all we can say is how Southampton have been far from promising so far. Even though they have had possession almost twice the amount of time Newcastle has had it, Newcastle has been the more attacking team. The Saints seem to get more pleasure out of playing the ball backwards since there weren’t any good opportunities to set the forwards up. Newcastle has been able to break through the defence of Southampton and have actually been face to face with the goal several times, while the Saints don’t even seem to be able to break through the hosts defence. And when they do break through, Dani Osvaldo gets called offside.

The second half starts surprisingly with Adam Lallana replacing Dani Osvaldo and Morgan Schneiderlin replacing James Ward-Prowse. With these substitutes Jay Rodriguez moves up front into Dani Osvaldo’s position, Rickie Lambert moves to the left wing and Adam Lallana gets in behind Jay Rodriguez. It’s surprising that Mauricio Pochettino has used two substitutes so early on in the game, but on the other hand it shows that he realized his formation wasn’t working and he had to adjust it. And better to adjust it sooner rather than later. Mauricio Pochettino seems to have enough faith in Jack Cork to continue playing the rest of the game since Morgan Schneiderlin came on for James Ward-Prowse.

These changes prove to be the right decision as soon as the second half starts. With Jay Rodriguez getting a chance in the 50^th minute but unfortunately his shot goes wide. In the 61^st minute Adam Lallana is running towards goal, the only assistance he gets is from Luke Shaw running up the side but Lallana can’t find him. Shortly followed with Steven Davis creating a chance for himself which results in the ball hitting the post.

In the 64^th minute Adam Lallana gives a good pass forward towards Jay Rodriguez, who receives great support from Steven Davis. With Jay passing the ball towards Davis and Davis passing it back to Jay to get past the last defender, it sets Jay Rodriguez up with a great chance resulting in a stunning goal. This proves how important those earlier subs were, they turned out to be game changing.

In the 71^st minute the tables almost seem to turn again when Paulo Gazzaniga can’t hold the ball. It looked like Loïc Rémy was getting too comfortable with this chance, which could have easily been a goal, but his shot went wide.

After a long 96 minutes referee Michael Jones finally blows his whistle for full time. It has been a good second half for the Saints and the draw was well deserved by both sides.

It is good to see Southampton using their younger players on the field too. Calum Chambers has been great throughout this whole game. He has been everywhere in the game and even made a great clearance off the goal line. At only eighteen years of age he will be a very promising player and we will be sure to see a whole lot more of him.

Paulo Gazzaniga seems to have grown as a goalkeeper compared to his skills last season. He seems to be more confident when it comes down to making saves and is actually able to hold the ball a lot more now.

It is also good to see Jack Cork back on the field. The time spend on the bench doesn’t seem to have discouraged him in his game play. He has had two full games to play now and he has used them to the fullest. Showing what he is capable of doing and hopefully convincing Mauricio Pochettino to consider keeping Jack Cork in the starting line even when Victor Wanyama is fit again.

Even though the Saints have had a few bad results in the last couple of games, the season isn’t over yet and they seem to get their grip back on their game play. It is safe to say that we haven’t seen the last of Southampton yet.

The Ugly Inside

I’m sorry I haven’t updated match reports about the last couple of games! Due to holidays I wasn’t able to watch the game against Hull City. I did make time in my holiday to watch the Arsenal match since I found this would be an interesting one, unfortunately I didn’t have time to write a report on it. Then, due to bad planning, I missed out on watching Chelsea and Aston Villa game. I feel like a bad fan now. However I was able to watch the second half of the Manchester United game, but this wasn’t enough to write a report about. Specially since both goal happened in the first half. How I wish I could have watched all of this great draw! Ha, I even predicted the Saints to draw against Man City and so they did! The good news is though, that I watched the full game yesterday and, for the very first time, even took notes during the game. So I can promise you that a match report about Newcastle United – Southampton FC is in the making. Again I predicted our favourite Saints to draw, and I was right!

While you are waiting on this match report, I would like to put a website in the spotlight and to share this inspiring article with you:

http://tui.fansnetwork.co.uk/news/33511/the-ugly-inside-saints-man-of-the-week

I won’t hide that I am a big Jack Cork supporter, therefore I was pretty disappointed when the new asset Victor Wanyama took over Jack’s starting position. On one hand I do understand it, as when you pay a lot for a player you want him to have a starting position. You don’t want to pay big for players to sit on the bench or being stuck in the reserve team, take Gastón Ramirez, Vegard Forren or Guly Do Prado. But then on the other hand, why would you spent heaps of money on new players when your existing team is already good? The greatest buy lately for Southampton is Dejan Lovren because we did need an awesome defender and so we got one. But I don’t believe the team desperately needed a new defensive midfield player or a striker.

Since Victor Wanyama got injured and Jack Cork took back his starting position, he has proven what he’s worth! The last two full games, including yesterdays, Jack has been playing great. Instead of being sad for being dropped to the bench for so long, he decided to take his chance and show Pochettino what a mistake he is making by leaving him out. I do believe Jack Cork should stay in this starting position, even when Victor Wanyama is fit again. Because I do believe Jack Cork is a bigger game changer than Victor Wanyama. Wanyama has committed the most fouls in the whole of the Premier League and, let’s be honest, more than half of those fouls were definitely unnecessary and not very subtle either. While Cork has been showing quite some good defensive skills in the last two games. In yesterdays game Jack Cork his name was one of the few names I kept on hearing throughout the whole game. I hope Cork managed to convince Mauricio Pochettino now and that we will be seeing a lot more of Jack Cork his skills in the coming games.

Here is another interesting feature on the website:

http://www.fansnetwork.co.uk/football/southampton/match-ratings/match:8111

After each game the Saints play you can give each player who has played a rating out of 10 stars. You do have to make an account first, but it is worth it just so you can give your own opinion about how you would like to grade each player for their game play.

So yes, when you have time and you are interested, this website is definitely worth checking out.