Southampton v Arsenal – Stronger Saints Lose Two Points To Lucky Gunners

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

Last night Southampton were hosting Arsenal at St. Mary’s, on a rainy Tuesday night. Because of several injuries on the Saints side, their starting eleven would be a surprise for the fans. With Dejan Lovren and Gaston Ramirez both still out because of ankle injuries. Rickie Lambert apparently hurt his hamstring, so he is out for this match as well. As is Dani Osvaldo who has been suspended by the club for two weeks.

This leaves three strikes for Mauricio Pochettino to choose from. We all know that Jay Rodriguez hasn’t been doing to well playing up front by himself and is in a better position playing on the left wing. Then we have Guly Do Prado and Sam Gallagher left, who both have only scored one goal this season.

Pochettino has chosen to give Sam Gallagher his debut start in the first team in this match against the League leaders. I don’t know what it was that made Pochettino decide to let the 18 year old start this match against the top team, but lets be honest, Mauricio Pochettino didn’t have much choice. And it is good seeing the manager put his faith in this young striker to take on the defenders of Arsenal.

Maya Yoshida has taken up Dejan Lovren spot in the centre back. On the bench we see Jos Hooiveld, Guly Do Prado and Lloyd Isgrove. Victor Wanyama has returned to bench as well. Looks like the hairline fracture in his leg has healed and he is ready to start playing again. But to be honest, I am glad that Mauricio Pochettino did leave Jack Cork on for this match. He has definitely proven himself worthy of his spot and has shown us his top form.

Not much happens in the first 20 minutes of the match. Southampton does have more possession with 63% but neither side have created any meaningful chances yet. But just as I was about to write down nothing was happening so far, something real exciting happened.

Luke Shaw crosses the ball towards the box. I must say it was a great, accurate cross. José Fonte meets the ball at the end of this cross, he heads it and scores! Last week he got head butted in training, now he head butts the ball and scores! I am still wondering what Fonte was doing all the way up at the box, but it was a well deserved goal. For Southampton since they have been the stronger team so far and for José Fonte to show the fans it takes more than a bruised eye to stop him from playing.

After this goal seem more consisting in keeping those three points. They are putting even more pressure on their visitors. In the 25^th minute Sam Gallagher gets the ball, we can all see he is offside, but the assistant referee let him run on causing Wojciech Szczesny to run out of his goal to challenge Gallagher. The assistant referee should put up his flag as soon as he sees it is offside and not wait for it to get this far, a one-on-one challenge, before he makes his call, because this could have caused serious injuries for both sides.

Before half time, Sam Gallagher gets two changes to make a second goal for the Saints. Both times Gallagher just doesn’t seem to touch the ball right. First chance comes when Calum Chambers passes him the ball. Gallagher shoots the ball from the centre of the box but it misses to the left. But at least Sam Gallagher was waiting at the right spot. The second chance comes when Steven Davis passes him the ball. Gallagher tries to shoot, although the ball seems to come of his calf and gets blocked. Looks like Gallagher just has to practice a bit more on finishing off his chances, he is young enough and has years more to develop his skills.

Arsenal biggest, and probably only, chance of the first half comes just two minutes before half time. Per Mertesacker head passes the ball to Laurent Koscielny. Koscielny shoots the ball from close range to the centre of the goal where Artur Boruc saves it.

At the end of the first half all I can say is that Southampton definitely is the stronger team and probably should have already been up to 3-0. Arsenal has been playing really slack, they don’t even try to win the ball back after they lose it to the Saints. It looked like they were only doing a warming up at the first 40 minutes, not playing a proper football match. After watching Arsenal play, you can’t even call it ‘play’, like this, I honestly can’t believe the Gunners are at the top of the Premier League.

The second half starts off quickly when Arsenal make their first goal only two minutes into it. Bacary Sagna has the ball and he tries to make his way past Jay Rodriguez. A little trick on Sagna’s side creates just enough space between him and Rodriguez so he can move past the Saints player. He shoots from close range to the bottom left corner and scores. It was a good created chance by Sagna and Rodriguez probably should have tried that little harder to stop him. After having repeatedly watched this goal, I am not sure though why this goal goes to Oliver Giroud, leaving Bacary Sagna with the assist. Giroud didn’t even look like touching the ball.

Only 5 minutes after making their first goal, the Gunners strike again. It looks like they finally have gotten the hang of this game. Santiago Cazorla curls the ball from outside the box to the bottom left corner. Cazorla used his chance well to get Arsenal ahead. The assist goes to Mesut Özil. All I can say is that the Gunners seem to use their chances more accurate, but they still don’t deserve to win this game as they haven’t shown much skill at all so far.

The lucky thing for the Saints is that they have Adam Lallana on their side. He shows what he is made off only 1 minute after Arsenals last goal. Jay Rodriguez makes a great pass when he plays the ball through the legs of an Arsenal defender. Adam Lallana is waiting on the other side of this defender for the ball. He shoots the ball from the centre box to the centre of the goal and score! This was a perfect finish by Adam Lallana, showing us once more why he fully deserves to play in the England team.

Now that the Saints got even again with the Gunners, they seem even more determined to win this game and keep all three points. They keep on running forward, attacking the Arsenal defence to look for their third goal.

Sam Gallaghers first team start comes to an end in the 69^th minute when Mauricio Pochettino replaces him with James Ward-Prowse. Honestly I would have taken Sam Gallagher off earlier. Yes he is a young player who shows heaps of potential, but taking on the top of the table Arsenal might have been a bit too much for the young striker. After he missed two pretty big chances at the end of the first half, he should have been replaced at the start of the second half so the Saints could try to keep their win.

Mathieu Flamini makes the most stupid challenge possible in the 80^th minute when he slides in with both feet aimed at Morgan Schneiderlin. Any soccer player would know this is absolutely not done and won’t be appreciated by the referee. Even though it is just plain stupid to go in with two feet, it is even dumber to it right in front of the referee, which is exactly what Flamini did. His protests towards referee Lee Mason go unheard when Mason pulls out his red card to send Flamini off. This was a very good call by Lee Mason. And lucky for Southampton, Schneiderlin doesn’t get injured in this challenge.

With two minutes left in the second half, Mauricio Pochettino brings Guly Do Prado on for Steven Davis. Even though the whole Southampton team has been playing great, I would have brought Guly on a bit earlier to give him decent game time which he absolutely deserves after the match he played on Saturday.

6 minutes of extra time get added on after the 90 minutes. Southampton is really trying to make their third goal and win the match now that Arsenal has lost a player. But with only 10 players left, the Gunners seem determined to defend stronger to not lose this one point they could take home.

That is how this match ends, in a draw 2-2. Honestly said, Southampton did deserve the win. They have been the stronger side throughout the whole game. The first 45 minutes they completely owned the match while Arsenal weren’t even putting in an effort to get the ball. And even though the Saints started the second half off a bit less strong as the first 45 minutes, letting in 2 goals in 5 minutes, they came back stronger and even more determined after that when Adam Lallana scored their second goal. Arsenal was very weak in this match and should be so grateful for the one point they got to keep home, as it would be more deserved for them to leave empty handed. I can’t believe a team who starts of playing so weak in the first half is actually on top in the Premier League.

Camera’s also showed, during the match, that owner Katharina Liebherr was attending this match. A broad smile on her face also gives us the indication that she fully enjoyed her team play.

Please don’t forget to rate the players if you have watched the full match: http://www.fansnetwork.co.uk/football/southampton/match-ratings/display/match:8180/southampton-v-arsenal

Southampton Move Into 5th Round FA Cup

Unfortunately I wasn’t able to write a match report on Southamptons match against Yeovil Town in the FA Cup last Saturday. As I am not living in the UK nor have Fox Sports on tv and since this match was just a FA Cup match, it wasn’t live streamed on the website where I usually watch the Southampton matches.

However I would like to share this video with you in which you can watch the 2 Southampton goals: http://wall.saintsfc.co.uk/Event/Saints_Wall/103280820

It is inspiring to see the whole team put their faith into Guly Do Prado and they let him take the penalty. Guly Do Prado has been booed by fans before, which certainly didn’t help to improve his confidence. His last goal was in January 2012, meaning that the fans really want to see him score again. Jay Rodriguez and Adam Lallana seem to have sense this since Rodriguez handed Do Prado the ball to give it a shot.

Guly Do Prado made the opening goal with this and was rewarded by the cheering of the home fans. Hopefully this has restored Guly’s faith in the fans and restored the supporters faith in the Brazilian striker.

The second goal of the match was for young forward Sam Gallagher. He sure deserved to finally make his first goal in the senior Southampton team.

Here is a video in which you can watch all the highlight of this match: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5KGzd2VDSrU

With this win the Saints moved into the 5^th round of the FA Cup and they will take on Sunderland in the weekend of 15^th/16^th February.

Short Temper Might Mean Exit For Osvaldo

Source picture: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2544554/Osvaldo-banned-Southampton-two-weeks-training-ground-clash.html

Dani Osvaldo’s temper may have ended his career at Southampton. Osvaldo reportedly head butted José Fonte at training on Thursday. Because of this incident, Osvaldo has been suspended for 2 weeks by the club.

During training Fonte and Osvaldo had been niggling which caused Osvaldo to get aggressively into Fonte’s face. Before their teammates managed to pull the two apart, Osvaldo already aimed a head butt right into Fonte’s face. This incident caused Mauricio Pochettino to end the training immediately.

Despite articles claiming that Fonte sustained a black eye, broken nose and that blood was running everywhere. José Fonte has posted a picture on his instagram stating that it will take a lot more than a bruised eye to stop him from playing and that he will be playing tomorrow.

Here is the post incident picture José Fonte posted on his Instagram. Picture source: http://web.stagram.com/n/f6nteofficial/

The starting team reportedly have made clear that they no longer want to play with the Argentinean born Italian international. Because of these current circumstances Mauricio Pochettino is keen on selling Osvaldo in this transfer window.

The club won’t be taking action against Fonte and have not laid any kind of blame on him. The centre back fits in good with his other teammates and was actually one of the players who helped Osvaldo settle in at the south coast last summer.

Dani Osvaldo has a history of causing problems with his short temper. Former club Roma had suspended and fined the Italian international after he allegedly punched Erik Lamela back in 2011.

Besides that, Osvaldo was scheduled to return tomorrow after serving a three-match ban after the FA found him guilty in a touchline altercation with violent behaviour in the draw against Newcastle in December  They also fined him 40,000 pound.

This incident might have been the straw that broke the camel’s back and Osvaldo might be on his way out of the Southampton Football Club after only having been there for 6 months.

Katharina Liebherr Gives Southampton Her Full Support

Katharina Liebherr has written an open letter to the Southampton fans to show her full support to the club and on how she sees the clubs future.

To our fans:

The past week has been a period of transition for the club. I wanted to address you directly to clearly set out my position and expectations for the immediate future. After the developments of last week, my priority now is to bring some stability and calm to the workings of the club; perhaps a few smiles too.

Having inherited Southampton Football Club following my father’s untimely passing, I am delighted and proud of the exhilarating period of success that the team and the staff has enjoyed these past few years, buoyed by the unstinting support of the fans.

I am absolutely committed to ensuring that the club continues this success. I have met our manager Mauricio Pochettino and have given him my complete support to build on the good work that has already been achieved. We have also said that we have no plans to sell any of the squad during the January transfer window. Yesterday I met the rest of the staff and gave them the same message of support.

We are now in the top half one of the most competitive leagues in the world, playing attractive football with a young and ambitious team, and poised to move into world-class training facilities. We have much to be thankful for. I am particularly excited that the Southampton tradition of nurturing and providing young talent with first team opportunities is set to flourish with the strong academy foundation we have put in place.  

Off the pitch, my priority is to establish the proper running of the club at the top. I also have a strong team of advisers around me as we plan the way forwards. As soon as we have more news to share, we will do so.

We are looking to the future with a determination to create a culture based on open communication, respect and hard work.

Finally, let me say this. I will ensure that all decisions made about the future of the club will be in the best interests of its staff, players, management and fans and will be taken with the prime objective of honouring and maintaining the club’s heritage and tradition in the Southampton way.

Katharina Liebherr

Source: http://www.saintsfc.co.uk/news/article/statement-from-katharina-liebherr-1308712.aspx

Sunderland v Southampton – Unlucky Draw For Southampton

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

For Saturdays match Southampton travelled to the Stadium of Light to play against Sunderland. Mauricio Pochettino only made one change to his team, Calum Chambers is starting in right back which means that Nathaniel Clyne has been moved to the bench. Chambers wasn’t available last week due to illness but luckily he is fit enough to start again this match.

Danni Osvaldo is sitting out the last game of his suspension, so he will be available again for the next match.

Southampton manages to get a good early possession on the ball and they also posses the capability to keep the ball in their possession.

The match is only 3 minutes old when Morgan Schneiderlin head passes the ball to Jay Rodriguez, who shoots the ball straight through the defensive players, right into the bottom left corner. What a great finish this is by Jay Rodriguez to make his 50^th League goal. This is a fantastic start of the match for the Saints.

Only 7 minutes into the game and Southampton is already dominating with 81% possession of the ball so far.

Eleven minutes after his goal, Jay Rodriguez creates another chance when Jack Cork passes him the ball. Rodriguez runs all the way up towards the goal and tries to shoot, but his shot gets blocked.

The Sunderland fans look pretty down so far into the match since their team has barely shown any play so far in the game. On the other hand, the loyal Southampton fans seem in good spirits after having made a 5 hour trip to witness this match.

The Saints seem to be creating chance after chance. Firstly in the 16^th minute when Luke Shaw gets the ball after a corner. He shoots the ball at goal – it is an accurate shot which just hits the post because of a slight deflection off defender Sebastian Larsson.

Four minutes after this chance, the Saints break forward again. Adam Lallana passes the ball to Rickie Lambert, Lambert passes the ball to Morgan Schneiderlin who quickly plays it back to Lambert. Lambert takes a good shot on the ball but just misses the goal. This chance shows though how fantastic Southamptons pass play is.

In the 25^th minute we get to see which five Southampton players have completed the most passes so far into the game. Showing us the passing statistics of Sunderland wouldn’t be worth it since they have barely been touching the ball. For the Saints it is Jack Cork who has completed the most passes with already 37 so early on into the game. Second comes Morgan Schneiderlin with 32, followed by Steven Davis with 25. The two centre backs are taking up spot 4 and 5, Dejan Lovren has completed 22 passes and José Fonte 17.

Almost every time when Jack Cork got the ball, he has heaps of space to play. It looks like the Black Cats aren’t able to deck him. Cork has been dictating the game so far with his great play and lots of completed passes.

Sunderland have been chasing shadows so far. They have put no pressure on the ball whatsoever so far in the match.

Southampton gets another corner in the 30^th minute which Steven Davis takes. It looks like he is targeting Dejan Lovren, who runs at the ball, jumps up and shoots it straight into that left corner. What a good finish by the Croatian, he makes it 2-0 for Southampton. This is exactly why Dejan Lovren and José Fonte run forward whenever the Saints get a corner. It is surprising though that no Sunderland defender was on that left post, because it would have been easy to block this goal if they were there. But instead Sunderland just gave away a great goal to Dejan Lovren.

Sunderland fans seem to be leaving already after this second Southampton goal while the Black Cats try to go on the counterattack. Adam Johnson plays the ball towards Fabio Borini, who is just onside. Borini shoots the ball from the centre of the box to the bottom left corner. Artur Boruc couldn’t get there on time and just misses the ball. Sunderland manages to score only 1 minute and 28 seconds after Dejan Lovrens goal. This goal seems to have given Sunderland the confidence they needed as they are starting to attack more. I guess to fans who were just leaving before, are desperate to get back into the stadium now.

But Southampton doesn’t want to give their lead away as they try to keep creating chances of their own. Firstly there is Adam Lallana, assisted by Steven Davis, who’s shot from outside the box gets blocked. Then Jay Rodriguez’s shot is close but just misses to the left. And the third chance comes when Jack Cork manages to run all the way up to the box and passes the ball to Adam Lallana. Unlucky for the Lallana, the defenders are already on him and he can’t get through to take a shot. Maybe Jack Cork should have tried it himself.

Two minutes get added onto this half. And in the 46^th minute Rickie Lambert gets Southamptons final chance of the first half with a free kick. Lamberts sharp shot curled inside the post, but goalie Vito Mannone pushes it away. However it was a great free kick by Rickie Lambert even though it didn’t have a goal as a result.

The first half was the worst first half Sunderland has had this season, so they can’t probably be any worse this half. Anything they do will already be an improvement. The Black Cats need to get more in the face of their opponent at home, especially if you’re in the relegation zone like they are. They can’t afford to welcome a team at their home ground and let the guests leave with the 3 points in their pocket without even trying to win themselves.

3 minutes into the second half Luke Shaw creates another chance for himself when Artur Boruc passes him the ball. Shaw runs up the field and shoots. It is a pretty good shot which unfortunately goes straight to Vito Mannone.

Something must have happened in the Sunderland dressing room during the half time break, as they now seem to try harder to actually make another goal. Almost 10 minutes into the second half we see that Sunderland has had 59% of the possession so far this half. This could be promising for the Sunderland fans.

But the Black Cats can’t keep this up for long as a few minutes later the Saints put the pressure back on the Sunderland defence. Several chances get created from that moment onwards as Morgan Schneiderlin passes the ball to Calum Chambers, who gives the ball a good hard shot which gets saved. Jay Rodriguez also has a go at it when Adam Lallana gives him the ball, this chance gets saved too. José Fonte also has a go at it when he heads a corner towards goal, which also gets saved.

Southampton manages to go forward on the field each time they get the ball. They surely do know how to play a high pressure game. Their biggest chance of the second half probably comes in the 60^th minute when Rickie Lambert makes a run. He passes the ball to Jay Rodriguez, who shoots it from the centre of the box but just misses to the right. It was a close shot.

Sunderland scores another goal in the 63^rd minute when Fabio Borini breaks free and runs forward. Artur Boruc decides to run out and block the ball, but he just misses. Borini finishes his shot well and is celebrating his second goal happily. However I am convinced he was just offside when he get received the ball. Lucky the assistant referee agrees with me and cuts Borini’s celebrating off.

The Black Cats create another chance in the 70^th minute when Graig Gardner passes the ball to Adam Johnson. Johnson shoots the ball from the right side of the box to the top right corner. The ball only just flies through Artur Borucs hands – he seemed a little off balance. It shouldn’t have been a goal as Boruc should have been able to save it, this was a poor mistake by him and it draws Sunderland level with Southampton.

Mauricio Pochettino decides to make his first substitution in the 72^nd minute. Gastón Ramirez comes on for Adam Lallana. It is surprising that Lallana gets taken off after he has been playing such a great match so far. It is not surprising though to see Pochettino taking the captain off the field again since he has been doing this almost every single game.

Sunderland seems to try harder now to get the win, since they only need one more goal to get all 3 points. But Artur Boruc blocks their next chance in and it looks like he is trying to make up for his mistake from just before. Even though Boruc just made a good block, the Southampton fans are still showing their unhappiness about the Johnson goal he let in. Boruc isn’t pleased with the fans their response. Mauricio Pochettino seems to be so displeased about Boruc that he is even considering bringing Kelvin Davis on who is taking his jacket off and putting his gloves on. But when Boruc makes another save in the 79^th minute it looks like he has dealt with his problems and is able to play properly again. This makes Pochettino decide to leave Davis on the bench who is putting his jacket back on.

A few minutes later it looks like Mauricio Pochettino wants to bring James Ward-Prowse on the field for Jack Cork. I can understand he wants to give this young, talented player a run of the field, but Jack Cork has been playing fantastic this match and will probably be voted man of the match. It looks like Pochettino has to consider his substitutions a bit more before actually making them.

When Gastón Ramirez is just over 10 minutes on the field he starts to make a good run forward. He tries to get through the Sunderland defence, but they knock him down and even win the free kick. Wes Brown did win the ball but when you have a proper look at the replay you can also see that, after he wins the ball, he stands on Ramirez’s ankle which bends in half. So giving the free kick to Sunderland was a bad referee decision as Wes Brown just made a very nasty foul. Then on the other side of the field we see Dejan Lovren going down, he is holding his leg but it is hard to see in the replays what caused his injury. The medical staff are really slow with bringing the stretchers on to take those players off the field. Lovren even gets an oxygen mask on. It turns out that both players have a foot/ankle injury.

It is lucky for Mauricio Pochettino that he hadn’t brought James Ward-Prowse on yet as now he has two spare substitutions to bring on. It is almost as he sensed something was going to happen and that is why he has waited so long with making his substitutions or he was so pleased with the players game play so far that he just wants to leave them on. That these injuries happened is very unlucky for Southampton as now they lost two key players, but the positive thing is that Pochettino now has to leave the man of the match on the field. So on comes Ward-Prowse to replace Gastón Ramirez and Maya Yoshida takes Dejan Lovrens spot.

7 minutes get added on this second half due to the injuries which took up a lot of time. Not much happens in this extra time, no big chances are created. Sunderland does try to win especially now that Southampton has lost two key players, but Southampton stays strong and the match end in a two all draw.

Sunderland should be happy that they still got one point out of this game as Southampton has been the dominant team. The did have the upper hand as they have had 17 shots of which 8 were on target to only 10 shots for Sunderland with 5 on target. The Saints also had 63% of the possession during the whole match and completed a lot of passes. These statistics show that Southampton definitely was the stronger team and they are unlucky to not take all 3 points home with them. The Saints do have to work harder on their finishing skills during their training as it happens often that a Southampton chance ends away from the goal. On the other hand the Black Cats take every chance they get and even managed to score 2 out of those 5 on target shots.

Press Conference: Pochettino Is Fully Committed To Southampton FC

Source picture: http://www.saintsfc.co.uk

Mauricio Pochettino has just given a press conference about the departure of Nicola Cortese and how things are now with Southampton FC. This conference was broadcasted live on the Southampton FC YouTube and I have watched it. Here is what Pochettino had to say about it.

During the press conference Mauricio Pochettino didn’t seem to be able to give us very much clarity. Pochettino has decided to stay on as manager of Southampton because the circumstances have changed since he made comments back in May 2013 about wanting to leave if Nicola Cortese did. Cortese’s departure has surprised Pochettino, he didn’t see this coming is what he said.

Pochettino says he has a great relationship with Nicola Cortese. Cortese knows about Pochettino’s decision to stay and has accepted this decision. Mauricio Pochettino did have to promise him though that they would win this coming Saturdays match against Sunderland.

According to Pochettino Cortese has told him one to promise one thing when he was signing his contract, that he needed to be 100% professional and committed to the club no matter what the situation is. The same has been told to the players who have signed under Cortese.

Shortly before the conference, Mauricio Pochettino had quickly talked to Katharina Liebherr. She told him that she gives him, the staff and the rest of the club her full support and trust. Katharina wants the club to be stable and not let the current circumstances affect the club.

Mauricio said he will stick for a full 100% to his contract and his commitment to the Southampton football club.

He couldn’t answer any question over Luke Shaws future at Southampton. But he did make it clear that no one at Southampton is for sale. No player will leave the club if he doesn’t want the player to leave.

Pochettino was short in most of his answers and any questions connected to Katharina Liebherr or Nicola Cortese he was very short about. He said that he hasn’t talked to Cortese since he resigned last night and that he only had a quick 5 minute chat with Katharina just before the press conference so she could assure him of her support and trust.

However Pochettino kept insisting that they need to stay professional and focus on Saturdays game. Even though Nicola Cortese has been really important for the club, they have to focus on what is laying ahead. The coming match on Saturday against Sunderland is very important to the club and supporters and they have to focus on that.

Cortese’s Resignation Leaves Southamptons Future In Doubt

Source picture: http://www.telegraph.co.uk

The Southampton Football Club and it’s fans are in shock after Nicola Cortese’s resignation was made public last night. Cortese came to Southampton back in 2009 after convincing Markus Liebherr to purchase the club. During this time he has been a key figure in getting Southampton back on track and helping them gain promotion twice in a row all the way to the Premier League.

Since May last year Cortese has been considering leaving the club since talks with Katharina Liebherr (Markus Liebherrs daughter who inherited the club after his death) over both Southamptons future and his contract lead to nowhere. Katharina’s desire to sell her assets of the club doesn’t go down well will Nicola Cortese. Cortese resigned just after 7 pm last night after he managed to convince Mauricio Pochettino to stay on for Saturdays match against Sunderland.

Club owner Katharina Liebherr has taken immediate charge of a new position of non-executive chairman to arrange the day-to-day running of the club. Her main concern now is to persuade Mauricio Pochettino to stay on as a manager and to reassure leading players, as she wants to keep Pochettino as well as key players. She also wants to appoint a chief executive now.

Katharina Liebherr has said the following in a statement: “With great regret we have accepted the resignation of Mr Cortese. He has done a wonderful job at the club and we very much wanted him to stay. A search has now begun for a successor. In the meantime, it is business as usual and we will ensure that the manager, the team and all the staff at the club have all the help and support they need.”

Cortese as well as Southampton staff fear that Liebherr wants to sell the club since she has no experience whatsoever in running a football club. But according to sources close to the family this is not the case.

It is unsure now if Mauricio Pochettino, who was recruited by Nicola Cortese, will stay on as a manager or not, especially if we remember the comments he has made: “Nicola Cortese has basically been the reality at Southampton for the past four years. Me on personal sense, I would not understand a Southampton without Nicola being here,”

Even if Pochettino agrees to stay, we might still expect him to leave at the end of this season. “When I first arrived here, nobody knew who Mauricio Pochettino was. Nicola put his faith in me from way, way back. When I got to know his project, we were basically on the same wavelength as to what we wanted for Southampton in the future. Basically, my future in Southampton has to be with Nicola,” are Pochettino’s words.

Then there is also the chance of other Premier League clubs starting a bidding war on star Saint players on which they have laid their eyes on. Nicola Cortese was the person rejecting the bids from coming, but with him now gone who knows what is going to happen.

Luke Shaw is the most sought-after Saints player and might leave now, even though he decided last summer to stay despite interest from Chelsea, which he has mentioned is his favourite team after Southampton. Manchester City, Manchester United and Chelsea are all still interested in the young defender after previously being told that there was no possibility of Shaw leaving in the January transfer window and that a possible deal had to wait till the end of the season. But current circumstances have renewed their hopes and some sources even seem to believe a deal can be completed within the next week. Liebherr values Shaw at 30 million pounds and seems willing to sell him if a club comes in with a bid.

Cortese was scheduled to meet up with Rickie Lambert yesterday morning to talk about a possible move to West Ham United. Lambert fears his World Cup hopes will be in jeopardy if he doesn’t get regular football. Southampton reportedly accepted a 7 million pound bid on Lambert Wednesday night, leaving Rickie Lambert to discuss terms with West Ham. Lambert demands a 70,000 pound weekly wage, which West Ham United are unwilling to meet but they are still keen on signing the forward.

Besides interest being showed in Rickie Lambert, there also seems to be interest in the other two players of this England trio. Offers can be expected for Adam Lallana and Jay Rodriguez, as well as offers for Morgan Schneiderlin and Dejan Lovren.

The shocking resignation of Nicola Cortese has very much left the future of Southampton in doubt, as they didn’t only loose their chairman now, they might also lose an inspiring manager and big key players.

We have to wait and see what will happen and where the future will lead the Saints. Mauricio Pochettino is supposed to give a press conference this afternoon which may provide us with some more information. I will try and keep you updated around this situation.

Southampton v West Bromwich Albion – Reigning Saints Seem Little Off Target

Source picture: http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/football/25600388

West Bromwich Albion was visiting St. Mary’s on Saturday the 11^th of January to play Southampton FC. The big surprise (in a very good way) in the starting eleven is Artur Boruc. It looks like his hand is back to its old state and he is ready to start goalkeeping again. The rest of the team is similar to previous matches with Nathaniel Clyne starting his second match in a row now.

I am only surprised to not see Calum Chambers on the bench after he has been playing pretty well. The other surprise is to see Jos Hooiveld still on the bench, I had hoped that by now he would have made some space for another reserve player. We see that Guly do Prado is on the bench as well. Maybe he has been doing well in training or Mauricio Pochettino just wants to keep him happy by putting him on the bench, unless Guly has been asking for more game time himself.

Rickie Lambert might be extra motivated for this match as he is only one goal away from having scored one hundred goals in the Premier League. Lets hope he can make that desire come true this match.

20 minutes into the match and not much has happened yet. Southampton have been the better team right from the start as they have had more possession so far and West Bromwich Albion seems to struggle to even touch the ball. Even though they haven’t been able to touch the ball much, they have been trying hard to defend strongly and keep the Saints away from Ben Foster. Southampton hasn’t been able yet to create a good chance.

Dejan Lovren receives a yellow card in the 26^th minute after he committed a bad foul on Shane Long. At first Shane Long seems like a pretty good actor laying on the field, but now it looks like he is genuinely in pain since they move him off the field while the free kick is taken. Artur Boruc punches this free kick away and with that, he has made his first save of the game. Later Boruc says that the doctor told him he could have some problems with his hand when he had to punch the ball. He said his hand was fine after he had to punch the ball to make his first save. Such good news his hand is completely healed now.

Two minutes later Rickie Lambert commits a foul also resulting in a free kick. The ball goes straight to Artur Boruc and it is an easy save for him.

By the 34^th minute Southampton have made 6 attempts, of which 2 were on target, to 2 off target attempts of West Bromwich Albion. This might sound exciting but these two Southampton chances weren’t big at all as goalie Ben Foster was always there to stop the ball.

With only 5 minutes of playtime left in the first half, the Baggies seem to be able to touch the ball a little bit more.

In the 43^rd minute Steven Davis plays the ball to Rickie Lambert who is just on side. He puts the ball on his foot but seems to feel the pressure to make his 100^th goal as he shoots too high and the ball goes over the crossbar.

Two minutes later the same happens with Jay Rodriguez as Nathaniel Clyne passes him the ball. Rodriguez has a right footed shot from outside the box that is too high and also goes over the crossbar.

With that it is half time and I must say it was a pretty boring 45 minutes. There weren’t really any decent chances created even though you would have expected some as Southampton had the ball about two thirds of the time. To give you an indication of the boredom of this first half, the most exciting thing that happened was the foul by Dejan Lovren which got him a yellow card.

Both teams start the second half with the same players who have played the first half. Five minutes into the second half and Southampton creates a chance when Jay Rodriguez is running up the field with Rickie Lambert as support. However Rodriguez decides to try it himself but his shot goes wide.

The Saints seem to get stronger at attacking this half. Maybe Mauricio Pochettino told them it is not enough to have main possession of the ball and that a goal is needed. I don’t know what happened in the dressing room during half time, but it looks like the Saints are more motivated now to make that goal.

Mauricio Pochettino decides to make his first substitution in the 61^st minute. On goes Gastón Ramirez to replace Jack Cork. Yes Southampton can use an extra attacker on the field to finally break through the Baggies defence so I do understand why Pochettino choose Ramirez to come on. Jack Cork however has been defending well in this match and I hope the loss of this defensive player won’t make a crack in the Southampton defence for the West Bromwich Albion players to slip through.

4 minutes after he came on the field, Gastón Ramirez already gets to take a free kick. Ramirez takes the shot from outside the box with his left foot, the ball goes towards the bottom right corner but Ben Foster is waiting for it and he catches it.

Ramirez creates another chance just two minutes after his free kick. He crosses the ball to Adam Lallana at the centre of the box. Ben Foster decides to run out of the goal, opening it up for Adam Lallana, who then shoots the ball with his right foot to the centre of the goal. And a goal it is. Mauricio Pochettino made a good decision when he brought Gastón Ramirez on as this extra attacking player helped the Saints to create enough pressure so that the Baggies defence would crack. Southampton did deserve this goal as they have been the stronger team all along, they just needed to create an opening to score and so they did.

Suddenly West Bromwich Albion seems more motivated to get a goal of their own to draw level with Southampton. This is evident as they are taking more risks which sometimes turn into fouls, such as when Jonas Olssen places his boot with the studs up in Adam Lallana’s upper leg.  This must be on purpose since the ball isn’t even near his boot, maybe he is jealous that Lallana got to make a goal for his mothers birthday. It was a nasty foul which Howard Webb luckily saw and he gives Olssen a yellow card. Webb has been gentle here and I reckon Olssen should be happy he didn’t get sent off the field.

Pochettino makes his second substitution with 7 minutes of game time left. Off goes Adam Lallana to make way for James Ward-Prowse. This makes Rickie Lambert the captain. I do think that Mauricio Pochettino should stop taking the captain of the field, specially after he has been playing such a great game. But also, what does it do to the mentality of the rest of the team when they see their captain being replaced?

West Bromwich Albion now seem desperate to get the equaliser and the Southampton defence is being put to the test. With two minutes left on the clock Shane Long takes his chance when Liam Ridgewell plays the ball towards him. Long gets a one-on-one with Artur Boruc. Boruc seems to sense what is going to happen and he goes low, instead of staying up, in attempt to stop the ball. Maybe Boruc is psychic as this is exactly what the ball does, it stays low. Artur Boruc blocks the ball and thereby prevents the Baggies from drawing level. This was West Bromwich Albions best chance but they weren’t able to beat our Holy Goalie. It is so good to see Boruc back on the field in great shape. Down below you can see a picture of this awesome save.

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

3 minutes of extra time are added to the second half and Pochettino decides to waste some time by making his third substitution in the 90^th minute. He decides to give Guly do Prado a run and takes Jay Rodriguez off.

With only one minute left to play, Shane Long receives a lucky free kick on the right wing. The free kick goes out and turns into a corner for West Bromwich Albion. This corner gets conceded by Artur Boruc and with that Howard Webb blows his whistle to indicate the end of the match. Webb has been really fair this match and made good calls.

Looking at the match statistics at full time, you might get the impression that the Saints were overrunning the Baggies the whole game as those statistics show 18 attempts to only 4, with 5 on target for the Saints to 2 for the Baggies. And with 62% of the possession in this match you would be surprised by only seeing one goal on the match sheet. If you have watched this game you might wonder where those attempts went as the whole match looked pretty boring. Yes Southampton did have most possession but they also had a very hard time creating chances and breaking through the West Bromwich Albion defence.

As you can see by looking at their total attempts and the attempts which were actually on target, you can see that a lot of the Saint shots went wide. They weren’t really accurate with their chances and definitely should have tried harder to create more goals as only one goal is not enough based on those statistics. In their last match, Southampton actually looked sharp and created goals out of chances similar to those which went wide during this match. The Saints have some work to do during training this week on how to finish off their shots.

Watch Southampton Online

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

It has been a little quiet around my blog since I wasn’t able to watch the last FA Cup match and couldn’t write a report about it. However I would like to share a funny article with you as well as some websites on which you can watch sport games online and pay a little attention to the FA Cup.

Now there is an article I would also like to share with you, just because it is kind of funny when you read it: http://www.dailyecho.co.uk/sport/10905701.Pochettino_tells_referees__Don_t_judge_us_by_our_good_looks_/

Mauricio Pochettino claims here that referee’s judge Southampton players on their good looks and that is why the opposite team usually gets more calls in their favour.

Honestly I don’t believe this is the case, yes I agree that the referee’s do often let Southampton down when they make their decisions. But I don’t think this is because of how the players look, I think it is more to blame that the other teams are more popular since they have been in the Premier League longer. Also the crowd can negatively influence a referee by booing to make the referee give the call in their teams favour. Some referee’s are sensitive for this even though they will probably deny it.

However it is an interesting article to read and I do have to agree that Southampton has more good looking players in there team compared to other Premier League clubs.

Last weekend there weren’t any games on in the Barclays Premier League, because all 20 clubs in the Premier League had to play a match in the FA Cup. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to watch Southamptons match against Burnley. I’ve searched on the net and finally gave up once the game was already 15 minutes on it’s way. At least I could read updates on the Southampton FC Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/southamptonfc), but how I wish I could have seen Nathaniel Clyne scoring the opening goal of the match. First full game starting on the field after his injury and he scores an amazing goal!

For those, like me, who weren’t able to watch this match and have therefore missed the goals that were made, here is a link on which you can watch all the goals that were made during this game: http://www.goalsaim.com/southampton-vs-burnley-4-3-highlights-2014-fa-cup/

I’d like to share some other helpful links with you. If you, just like me, happen to not live in the United Kingdom and don’t have the access to watch the Southampton (or other Barclays Premier League) matches on your tv, then there are some websites on which you can watch those matches live.

This is the first website, which I have recently discovered after my favourite website got taken out of the air: http://livefootballvideo.com/      This has become my favourite new website to watch matches online. Not only because they live stream the games, but also because afterwards there is still a video online on witch you can watch the game highlights. And even better is the fact that, for most matches, there are full first and second half videos still on the website once the match is finished. This worked out perfect for me when I missed the Southampton – Chelsea match due to private circumstances, as I just watched the match the next day online. The best thing about this was that I could pause and rewind the match as much as I wanted!

Here is the second website:  http://livetv.sx/en/This website also live streams matches. Once the game is finished there is usually still a highlight video online for it. The only bad thing about this is that sometimes the commentating on the highlight video is in a foreign language.

I have a few more links on which you can watch sport games but I prefer the two links I just scared above here. The other links usually don’t work as well or don’t even have the match on that I want to watch, therefore I don’t like to recommend them to you. If you would like to know those other websites as well, leave a comment down below and I will share them for you. And if you have a good website to watch Southampton matches online, please share them in the comment box with us.

Southampton v Chelsea – Chelsea Stifles Southampton In Every Attack

Southampton hosted Chelsea at St. Mary’s on the first day of this New Year. There are two changes to the Southampton team. Firstly Morgan Schneiderlin is back from suspension and he is starting on the field, moving James Ward-Prowse back to the bench. Secondly we see that Gastón Ramirez is making his first league start this season, so Rickie Lambert has to start on the bench. There might be two reason for why Lambert is starting on the bench, firstly he might just be tired after all the game time he has had in the last games which also happen to take place in short time frame. Or it is because Ramirez loves to play through balls and Lambert might not be fast enough to run after them, but Jay Rodriguez is. So maybe Mauricio Pochettino is hoping that Ramirez will set Rodriguez up.

Within the first 2 minutes of the game Fernando Torres already creates two chances. Gastón Ramirez loses the ball to Torres so he gets his second run towards Kelvin Davis goal. Luckily Davis manages to block the ball both times.

In the 4^th minute Chelsea gets their first corner. When the ball is coming towards the goal José Fonte knocks Dejan Lovren down to the ground. Lovrens mouth is bleeding and it turns out his tooth got loose. I hope this is not an act of jealousy since Lovren seems to have been standing more in the spotlight lately. It turns out it is not, since Fonte has blood on his own head as well. Lovren is tough so he just plays on.

In the 12^th minute Chelsea’s Ramires runs towards the goal to get a one on one with Kelvin Davis. Davis decides to take a risk and run out of his goal to block the ball. If his timing is off, it will mean that Ramires will have an open goal in front of him and he can make sure that Chelsea takes the lead. Luckily his calculations are accurate and he arrives just in time to block the ball. This was a good save by Kelvin Davis.

The weather conditions for this game are far from ideal with a strong wind and heavy rain. This makes it harder for the players to play a top game and it is therefore understandable that the players find it hard to deal with those weather conditions.

Southampton gets a big chance in the 16^th minute when Morgan Schneiderlin passes the ball to Adam Lallana. Lallana tries but the Chelsea defenders are right there to block it. After this chance, the Saints get two more good chances within 10 minutes. Gastón Ramirez plays a through ball towards Jay Rodriguez, who is onside and tries to break through the Chelsea defence. But with three defenders around him, he doesn’t make it. Then Calum Chambers manages to run up the field and he crosses the ball to Adam Lallana who, unfortunately, gets blocked by 3 Chelsea defenders. It was great chance.

Southampton seems to have more possession but they are just having a hard time breaking through the Blues defence. It looks like Chelsea knows how to stop the Southampton attacks, as every time the Saints get a chance to run towards Chelsea’s goal, there are always at least 3 Blues defenders waiting there for the Southampton player. So no matter how hard the Saints try, it looks like Chelsea has figured out their game play and will just be waiting in front of Petr Cechs goal to stifle each Southampton attack.

Ramires runs towards the goal again in the 34^th minute but Kelvin Davis makes another good save. Davis seems to get more comfortable and starts to make better saves, who thought a goalie at the age of 37 could still improve his game play.

The second half starts with one change. Nathaniel Clyne is coming on for Luke Shaw. Apparently Luke Shaw injured his toe in the Everton match and this toe is bugging him too much now to play properly. Nathaniel Clyne isn’t fit enough yet to play a full game, but at least we have a great substitute option sitting on the bench. Hopefully it won’t be much longer until he can play full games again.

Five minutes into the second half Chelsea manager José Maurinho decides to make two early substitutions. Juan Mata comes off for Oscar and Willian replaces Andre Schürrle. These must be tactical changes to try and turn the match their way.

It only takes four minutes before Oscar receives his first yellow card. Oscar runs towards the goal and Kelvin Davis slides to block the ball. Then Oscar falls to the ground. Replays show that, if there even was contact between those two players, the contact was at an absolute minimum. Referee Martin Atkinson sees it right and makes a fair decision by giving Oscar a yellow card instead of a penalty. I really hate players who just try to dive to receive a penalty. What happened to fair play? At least now there was a referee on the field who saw it happening and made a fair call.

Chelsea scores a lucky goal in the 59^th minute. After the ball deflects from Calum Chambers boot, it lands near Torres who just happens to be in the right spot and heads it into the bottom right corner from a close range. Maybe Davis is to blame as he should have tried a bit harder to block the ball, but then again we can also blame Chambers since he didn’t make a good enough clearance. Either way, it looks like Fernando Torres has finally broken Chelsea’s curse since he was the last Chelsea striker to score away from home and that was 13 months ago. That is right, no Chelsea striker scored in 2013 away from home, which is a pretty pathetic statistic.

One minute after this goal Mauricio Pochettino decides to bring on Rickie Lambert so he takes off Jack Cork. Hopefully by bringing on Lambert we can create more chances to get level. But again I don’t fully understand why Cork is the unlucky one to come off. I don’t think Morgan Schneiderlin and Steven Davis have been playing much better. Although maybe Pochettino doesn’t want to take Davis off on his birthday. And maybe Jack Cork has been playing a bit risky against his old team, but I don’t believe his game play was that aggressive that he was in danger of receiving a second yellow card.

Only four minutes after he has come on the field, Rickie Lambert gets the best chance for Southampton in the whole game. Nathaniel Clyne has the ball and crosses it forward towards Rickie Lambert who is near Petr Cech’s goal. Lambert heads it from the centre of the box but the ball goes straight to Cech. What a great chance this was and from an excellent heading player like Lambert we would have expected him to score. Unfortunately he couldn’t make it happen.

It is the 70^th minute when Oscar has the ball and he tries to get past the Southampton defenders. While he is trying to rotate his way around the defenders, Calum Chambers falls down and Oscar manages to get past the other two defenders. Then he passes the ball to Willian who sure knows what to do with it. He shoots and he scores. Kelvin Davis didn’t stand a chance. This goal perfectly proves how important those two early substitutions were for Chelsea and how they have changed the game for them.

Mauricio Pochettino doesn’t allow Steven Davis to play a full game on his birthday, as he takes Davis off in the 75^th minute so he can bring on James Ward- Prowse. Hopefully this last Saints substitution will make a difference for us.

It is the 81^st minute when Oscar runs up towards Kelvin Davis goal again after Eden Hazard plays a through ball to him. Oscar makes a great run forward and manages to break through the Southampton defence. José Fonte notices this break through a bit too late but still tries to catch up with Oscar. Oscar shoots the ball with his left foot while Fonte tries to block the ball. Fonte makes a slight touch, just lightly enough that the ball deflects into the bottom left corner of the goal, leaving Kelvin Davis wrong-footed. This makes it 3-0 for Chelsea. Both those crucial Chelsea substitutions have scored now.

In the 93^rd minute, Southampton gets the last chance of the game. Adam Lallana plays the ball to Gastón Ramirez. Ramirez shoots from the centre of the box with his left foot but just misses the top left corner. Unfortunately he couldn’t repeat what he did in the last game to give Southampton at least one goal.

Both sides have been strong in this game, but Chelsea has used their chances better. The Southampton defence just wasn’t strong enough to keep the goals out, while the Saints had a hard time breaking through the Blues defence at the other end. It looks like Chelsea were better prepared for the way Southampton play then the other way around and I do have to say that, in the end after the they made their first goal, Chelsea has been the stronger team.

Don’t forget to rate the Saint players on The Ugly Inside website if you have watched this match: http://www.fansnetwork.co.uk/football/southampton/match-ratings/display/match:8150/southampton-v-chelsea