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.