Source picture: Southampton FC official Facebook page. https://www.facebook.com/southamptonfc
Sunday 22nd 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 12th 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 24th 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 54th 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 59th 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 68th 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 81st 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 91st 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.
asaintsfcangel 