Sunderland v Southampton – The Black Cats Move Forward In The FA Cup

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

It feels like only a week ago that Southampton played Sunderland in the Stadium of Light on the 18th of January. That match was a League game it which both Dejan Lovren and Gastón Ramirez injured their ankles. But today the Saints travelled to the Stadium of Light to play the Black Cats in the FA Cup.

Southamptons starting eleven is pretty surprising, many changes have been made: Kelvin Davis, Nathaniel Clyne, Maya Yoshida, Rickie Lambert, Steven Davis, Victor Wanyama, James Ward-Prowse, Adam Lallana, Guly do Prado, Luke Shaw and Jos Hooiveld are starting in this match. Kelvin Davis wear the captain armband which I can understand on one hand since he used to be the captain when he was the first team goalie. But since Adam Lallana is still starting this match, I think he should be the captain. It is weird seeing the usual captain starting while a second choice goalie gets to wear the armband.

The starting line up is strange since Southamptons next match is next week, giving the players a week to recover. Maybe some players still weren’t fit enough after last Tuesdays match and the manager just chose the fittest and best players, this is the case according to Jesús Pérez. Or Mauricio Pochettino doesn’t want to risk getting more injuries and save his best players for the League matches. Which would still be a bit weird since the players would have a full week to recover.

The match starts off slowly for Southampton with Sunderland trying hard to attack at their home ground, they are the stronger team at the start of the match. It takes the Saints well over 20 minutes of play time before they match up with the Black Cats and manage to attack some more themselves.

Not many big chances, none worth mentioning here, get created in this first half. Sunderland receives a free kick just outside the box in the 35^th minute. Sebastian Larsson takes it, but instead of shooting it towards goal, he kicks it to his left where Craig Gardner is waiting. Gardner tries to shoot at goal, but the goal has never been so high and thus the ball flies far over it.

Finally, with about 5 minutes left in the first half, Southampton seem to get stronger at attacking. This work doesn’t pay off yet, leaving the score 0-0 at half time. The last time these two sides met in the FA Cup was in 1985. Southampton won that match with 4-0, but there hasn’t been any indication that that score is going to be repeated.

Only 4 minutes into the second half and Sunderland gets their biggest chance so far. They are attacking and Luke Shaw manages to clear the ball away from the box but it goes toward Craig Gardner. Victor Wanyama turns around and chases the ball but is just not strong enough to stop Gardner, who takes the ball and runs away with it. Gardner shoots the ball from outside the box towards the top left corner. Kelvin Davis doesn’t stand a chance when the ball flies over his head. With this goal the Black Cats take the lead.

Mauricio Pochettino decides to bring on the big guns when he makes two substitutions in the 61^st minute. Jay Rodriguez comes on for Guly do Prado and James Ward-Prowse goes off for Morgan Schneiderlin. It is kind a surprising Pochettino decides to leave Victor Wanyama on the field.

Sunderland seem determined to make a second goal. In the 73^rd minute they get a big chance when Sebastian Larsson plays the ball to Connor Wickham in the centre of the box. Wickham is one-on-one with Kelvin Davis but just misses the final touch with the ball causing Davis to catch the ball instead. One minute later Larsson has a go himself outside the box but again Kelvin Davis is ready to make his save. I must say that Davis seems to be a very good shape today, probably the best I have seen him this season.

Southampton finally try to catch up with Sunderland with only 10 minutes left. Nathaniel Clyne realises the importance of this match and tries to set up his teammates to score. First he crosses it to Adam Lallana who is just outside the 6 yard box, he only just misses to the right. Two minutes later Clyne crosses the ball towards Rickie Lambert, who’s in front of an open goal. At this close range he tries to shoot it, but shoots way to high causing the ball to fly over the goal instead. How could Lambert miss such a great chance, he will be blaming himself later for this miss. Lambert hasn’t been in his best shape these last two Southampton matches.

Mauricio Pochettino decides to take of Adam Lallana in the 81^st minute so Sam McQueen can make his debut in the Premier League. I wonder if this is a smart move by Pochettino since Lallana seems to have been one of the better players on the field.

Sunderland receives another big chance with 5 minutes of the match left. John O’Shea plays the ball towards Connor Wickham who only has one Southampton defender in front of him and to Sunderland players on each side to support him. However Wickhams selfishness takes the better of him and he makes the wrong decision to try and score himself, which ends in the ball being blocked and a chance being wasted.

Three minutes later Kelvin Davis massive save when Fabio Borini shoots towards the centre of the goal from the centre of the box. Davis falls down to block the ball causing it to bounce away from goal. This was probably Davis his biggest save of this match as it almost resulted in a second goal for Sunderland.

With one minute of added time left, Southampton receive a corner and Kelvin Davis runs forwards too giving the Saints one extra chance to maybe score. This corner doesn’t even come close to ending in a goal. So the match ends and the Black Cats move on in the FA Cup with this one goal win.

It is fair to say that the better team won this game. Sunderland obviously wanted the win more than Southampton and so they got rewarded with a win. Mauricio Pochettino didn’t take this game very serious when he decided not to play with his full first team. Even though they are save in the Premier League and would have a week to recover from this match. Also the players themselves didn’t seem to worried about this match as they played a more all for themselves game instead of playing a team sport.

The Saints their game play was pretty messy and with that I don’t mean like Messi but just hopeless. I wish Southampton would have taken this match more serious and realised how much this win would have meant for their fans. Instead they decided to not even really try. All I can say is that Sunderland absolutely deserved to win this game and I hope for them that they will get further into the FA Cup.

Hull City v Southampton – Tigers Are No Match For The Saints

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

Hull City was hosting Southampton on Tuesday night. The only change Mauricio Pochettino made to the team placing Nathaniel Clyne back on the bench to let Calum Chambers start. It looks like Chambers is fully recovered now from his dead leg injury and is ready to play a full game again.

It doesn’t take long for the Saints to create some serious chances. It’s just the 4^th minute when Adam Lallana plays the ball to Rickie Lambert who is just in the centre of the box but misses to the right. He was so close to goal that it should have been on target.

Lambert gets another chance to make up for his first miss just 3 minutes later. Steven Davis plays a through ball towards Lambert who is in the centre of the box again. He shoots the ball to goal when Steve Harper and a Hull City defender both slide in towards Lambert. The ball gets saved in the centre of the goal. Second chance for Rickie Lambert in just the 7^th minute of the game and it could already have been 2-0 for Southampton.

Paul McShane has been injured during the slide tackle to prevent Lambert from scoring. The match gets stopped for several minutes while they carry McShane off the field on the stretcher. This forces Hull City to already make their first substitution and George Boyd comes on. Later on we hear that the ambulance has arrived to take McShane to the hospital and that he might have fractured his ankle.

George Boyd manages to create his first chance when he has only been on the field for 1 minute. First Shane Long tries to head towards the goals but hits the left post, next is Boyd who shoots it from the centre of the box but Artur Boruc saves it in the top left corner.

Artur Boruc takes his time in the 35^th minute to put his gloves back on his hands properly before he gets ready to take the goal kick. Referee Martin Atkinson warns him to stop wasting time. Hull City fans start to boo him and yell at him because he’s taking too long. But Boruc wouldn’t be Boruc if he didn’t answer these yells by yelling back at them. Finally Boruc takes the kick, but from that moment on the Hull City supporters have decided to boo every time the holy goalie gets near the ball.

Boruc makes an incredible save 6 minutes later when Ahmed Elmohamady crosses the ball to Nikica Jelavic, who shoots the ball from the centre of the box to the bottom left corner. But Boruc is ready and waiting for it when he catches the ball and holds it tightly in his arms.

The second half starts of the same as the first half. Southampton is putting lots of pressure on Hull City limiting their options. The Tigers must have come to the conclusion at half time to try and score now, since for all of Southamptons pressure and the all the chances and attempts they have created, they still haven’t been able to score, leaving the score at 0-0.

Rickie Lambert tries to strike again in the 55^th minute. Steven Davis plays the ball to Lambert, who finds himself in a tight angle towards goal. Lambert shoots it from the right side of the box but it goes straight to Paul Harper who is waiting for it in the bottom left corner.

Not only Artur Boruc seems to get mad this match, Jay Rodriguez has had enough of the assistant referee who rewards Hull City with the ball. This is the second time Rodriguez sees the assistant making the wrong call making the ball go to the Tigers. He clearly shows his displeasure, causing Martin Atkinson to warn captain Adam Lallana to calm his player down.

4 minutes after this incident there is suspicion on a handball by Luke Shaw but the assistant referee doesn’t make a call, maybe he is scared to get it wrong again. The commentator states that he will get a decision right before the end of the night so at least someone has faith in this assistant referee.

In the 68^th minute Southampton receive a corner, which gets played towards midfield but somehow ends in the box where there are still several Saint players waiting for it. The ball seems to bounce from player to player. José Fonte heads it, but the ball gets punched by Paul Harper on the goal line. The ball deflects to Adam Lallana who shoots into the defenders deflecting the ball back to José Fonte. Fonte shoots it but Maynor Figueroa shoots it away towards Rickie Lambert who blasts it into the goal. How many chances does it take to finally get the ball into the net? About 3 or 4 would be right. It was an exciting play of ball which let to this goal. Rickie Lambert wants to claim the goal but José Fonte gets to claim it as the ball went over the line before Maynor Figueroa managed to kick it away.

In the 75^th minute Mauricio Pochettino makes his first substitution, bringing on Guly do Prado for Rickie Lambert. For his second substitution Pochettino brings on James Ward-Prowse in the 87^th minute for Adam Lallana. I think Pochettino decides to take off these forwards to rest them a bit before the next match. ‘He’s off to Brazil’ is the chant we can hear the fans cheer when Lallana hands the captain armband to José Fonte and goes of the field.

Hull City seem desperate to make the equaliser as they create to pretty big chances after each other towards the end of the match. Sone Aluko passes the ball to Nikica Jelavic who shoots the ball too high from the right side of the box. One minute later Sone Aluko gets a shot himself when Shane Long passes him the ball. He takes a good shot from outside the box towards the bottom left corner. Artur Boruc is ready to show his great goal keeping skills and stops the ball. Where would we be without our Holy Goalie?

The last big chance for Southampton comes in the 90^th minute when Jack Cork gets the ball. Cork shoots the ball strongly from outside the box but just hits the right post. What a chance this was for Jack Cork. It would have been a cracker of a first goal for the midfielder and would have given the Saints the bigger lead they deserved. Paul Harper didn’t even move, he thought the ball would go wide and was ready to take the goal kick.

The only big thing that happens in the added on time is that Mauricio Pochettino makes his last substitution and brings on Victor Wanyama. Surprising is though that it is not Jack Cork who he is replacing, it is Steven Davis. Maybe Pochettino is finally convinced by Corks skills. This is probably the first time Wanyama and Cork are together on the field in a match.

Yes Southampton did deserve the win, like they say ‘it only takes one goal to win the game’. However I believe Southampton should have at least scored two, if not more, goals. I’ve said it before and I will say it again, the Saints really need to work on their goal scoring skills. They are probably the only team in the Premier League who gets so many chances but only use a few of them to the fullest.

But lets not forget that this only the second season for Southampton back in the Premier League after they had back to back promotions to get from League One back into the Premier League. Knowing that this is just their second season now and they are already 8^th on the ladder, they have done amazingly well. Like they say: ‘Our dream is real’ and it seems like they’re right.

If you have watched the game, then please do the players rating here: http://www.fansnetwork.co.uk/football/southampton/match-ratings/display/match:8207/hull-city-v-southampton

Southampton v Stoke City

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

On the second Saturday of February Southampton played Stoke City at St Mary’s. The weather conditions aren’t really ideal this match as there is a whirling wind ruling in the stadium and the prediction that rain and hail are on it’s way as well. These conditions might make it a bit tougher to play this match. Nathaniel Clyne is starting this game instead of Calum Chambers, who incurred a dead leg in the previous match and has missed most of this weeks training due to that.

The second change is Jack Cork who is starting instead of Victor Wanyama. Cork has proven his worthy after he came on in the last match against Fulham and changed the game around. This is the first time this season that Jack Cork has been preferred to Victor Wanyama. Cork his contract is running out at the end of the season and he is keen on signing a new deal. “I love everyone here, I’m so settled here,” is what he said. “I love everything about it, so I would love to stay here, but if things go back to how they were at the start of the season then things might change.” Referring to Victor Wanyama who took over his starting position.

Charlie Adams gets confused with which sport he is playing as he makes a handball five minutes into the game. Lucky for him he makes the handball just outside the box resulting in a free kick instead of a penalty. Rickie Lambert takes the free kick just outside the box on the left side of the goal. He curls the ball perfectly into the top right corner. This is one of Lamberts talents. I am sure that this 101^st league goal for him would have given him the same great feeling like the 100^th did if not a better feeling by the way he finished this shot.

After conceiving so early on in the game, Stoke City really seems to want to make the equaliser as they try hard to attack at the other end of the field.

In the 27^th minute Stoke City gets a corner but Southampton wins the ball back quickly. Adam Lallana plays the ball forward towards Steven Davis. Davis sprints away with the ball on the left side of the field when Nathaniel Clyne sprints past him. I am still wondering where Clyne came from and what he was doing on the left side of the field. It doesn’t matter though, what matters is that he was in the right spot at the right time when Steven Davis passes the ball to him. Clyne shoots the ball from the left side on goal but Amir Begovic saves it. However it was a great chance created by Southamptons quick play.

In the 37^th minute Charlie Adam plays a through ball to Peter Odemwingie, who is just on side. Odemwingie is fast and sprints forwards to get a one on one with Artur Boruc. Odemwingie scores in the centre of the goal and draw the Potters level with the Saints. Looks like Charlie Adams efforts to make up for the early Southampton resulted in an assist for him.

It only takes 3 minutes for another exciting chance, for the Saints this time. Steven Davis shoots from the right side from a long range with his left foot at goal. The ball shoots into the bottom left corner and it’s a goal for Davis. The strong wind may have played a part in it, but either way it was a well deserved goal for Steven Davis.

In the 43^rd minute Stoke City get a corner which Charlie Adam takes. Giant Peter Crouch is in the right spot in makes a header from a close range and gets the ball in the bottom right corner. I’m not sure what Artur Boruc was doing exactly when he dived backwards to the left. But 2 all it is, again only 3 minutes after the previous goal. Charlie Adam seems to have done his best to assist in making some goals for the Potters.

Both team go into half time with 2 goals each. This first half has been exciting and definitely had at least double the amount of action compared to the Fulham – Southampton match of last weekend.

History might be repeating itself when Southampton receive another free kick at the start of the half just outside Stoke City’s box. Luke Shaw and Steven Davis are both ready to take the shot, Shaw runs past the ball as expected, leaving Davis to shoot it. But he misses.

I get the impression that Peter Crouch is just being a bully when he keeps on trying to impress referee Craig Pawson. Crouch looks almost twice as tall as Pawson when he’s hanging over the referee to let him know his opinion on Pawsons call. Lucky Craig Pawson is not impressed at all by Crouch and just ignores him.

Substitutions are made late this match when Mauricio Pochettino makes his first, and only, substitution in the 79^th minute. Calum Chambers comes on the field to replace Nathaniel Clyne.

It takes Calum Chambers 4 minutes to give a good pass forward to Morgan Schneiderlin, who is on the left side of the goal and has to shoot the ball from a difficult angle. Unfortunately his shot misses slightly to the left, but I think he was offside anyway.

Nothing more exciting happens in the second half and the match ends in a draw. Southampton have been trying hard to score again to take the win but Stoke City’s defence was to strong for the Saints to break through. However I do believe Southampton shouldn’t have let Stoke City to get equal with them so easily.

The Saints should have taken the 3 points, definitely when you look at the match statistics. Southampton has had 60% ball possession, made 18 attempts of which 5 were only on target. Stoke City only had 5 attempts but 4 of them were on target. This shows that the Saints really have to work on their finishing skills. Just being the stronger side is not enough to win a game, because you have to make goals to actually take the 3 points. It only takes 1 goal to win a match, but to be able to make that goal, they have to aim more in target.

Katharina Liebherr was seen sitting in the crowd again. Maybe she has found her Southampton spirit and is really following now in her fathers footsteps to continue running the club. The Liebherr family has done much for the Southampton Football Club and it would be nice if Katharina Liebherr was to continue pursuing her fathers dream.

Fulham v Southampton – Southamptons England Trio Secure The Win

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

On the 1^st of February Southampton travelled to Craven Cottage to play against Fulham. There are two changes to the starting eleven. Rickie Lamberts hamstring seems to be all good again and he is ready to start on the field. The biggest surprise is Victor Wanyama who has returned.

I honestly can’t believe Mauricio Pochettino made this decision after Jack Cork has been in top form and been playing great. Nathaniel Clyne lost his starting position to Calum Chambers when he got injured, it should have been the same with Jack Cork and Victor Wanyama. Jack Cork has deserved his starting position over all the games he has played lately. I reckon Jack Cork will be annoyed now, he has played the whole of January and on the 1^st of February, one day after the transfer window has closed, he gets replaced. I won’t be surprised if he decides to leave at the end of the season, he deserves better than being a second choice player.

The first half starts off pretty boring. Not much seems to be happening. Even though Southampton has most of the possession, 65% in fact, they use this by mostly just passing the ball backwards and sideways. Fulham has more attempts and most of their attempts are actually on target too.

Fulhams best chance comes in the 34^th minute when Darren Bent manages to shoot on goal twice within 20 seconds, but Artur Boruc is ready in the goal waiting for them. He is determined to keep a clean sheet and manage to save both chances.

After having seen the first half, I have to admit that Fulham was the better team. It wouldn’t be surprising if they manage to score in the second half just by using one of their chances to the fullest. The Saints have to try harder if they want to take the 3 points.

 

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

Jack Cork comes on for Victor Wanyama at the start of the second half. Wanyama gets taken off as he is not fit enough yet to play a full game. I also think Pochettino didn’t want to risk leaving Wanyama on as he has already made some stupid fouls costing him one yellow card, which could easily turn into him being sent off the field in the second half.

Southampton starts off the second half stronger than they were in the first half. Jay Rodriguez gets a chance just 3 minutes into the second half, but he doesn’t finish it neatly and misses to the left. Morgan Schneiderlin tries it with a bicycle kick in the 50^th minute at the centre of the box. It was a great attempt which just goes too high, it would have been an awesome goal if it went in.

So far I think Mauricio Pochettino made a good decision to bring on Jack Cork as the team already seems to be playing better. In the 57^th minute Pochettino takes Calum Chambers off so he can bring on Nathaniel Clyne. There is more than 30 minutes still to go and only one substitution left. These two substitutions have to be tactical ones, as why else would the manager make them so early in the match?

It looks like Pochettino’s changes were tactical as Adam Lallana scores 6 minutes after the last substitution. Lallana shoots the ball from the left side of the box right past the defenders and Maarten Stekelenburg into the far right bottom corner! A great shot and a perfect finish by the Saints captain. A goal well deserved, assisted by Rickie Lambert.

Southampton looks hungry for more goals now that they have finally managed to score their first goal. Looking at the way they are playing now, they deserve to score more goals and take the 3 points back to St. Mary’s.

In the 69^th minute Nathaniel Clyne has the ball. He knows exactly where Rickie Lambert is and crosses it towards him. Some good football insight by Clyne. Rickie Lambert shoots from the centre of the box to the bottom right corner. What a good finish by Lambert! This goal marks his 100^th league goal for Southampton, a goal Lambert deserves to put his name behind.

Jay Rodriguez has a try 5 minutes later when Rickie Lambert spots him up front all by himself and passes the ball towards him. A good decision by Lambert. Rodriguez has two defenders on him who he has to try to get past. When he is on the left side of the box he breaks through and shoots the ball into the far right top corner! It was a awesome sharp shot with a good finish. The best goal of the match if you ask me. All three goals went in on the right side which makes me wonder if this is Maarten Stekelenburgs weaker side.

This goal marks the ‘game over’ moment for Fulham and is the icing on the cake for the Saints. It looks like many Cottagers fans have seen enough of this match already as they are heading to the exit, while the Southampton fans are in very good spirit. Singing lines like: ‘We are Southampton and we’re off to Brazil.’ ‘There’s only one Pochettino, one Po-chet-ti-no.’ and ‘We are Southampton, we’re taking the piss.’

Southampton definitely gained the upper hand in this match after scoring those 3 goals in a bit over 10 minutes. They are playing mostly in Fulhams half now and the Cottagers have a hard time breaking through the Southampton defence.

In the 86^th minute Mauricio Pochettino decides to make his last substitution and brings on Sam Gallagher for Jay Rodriguez. This seems more like a time wasting substitution than a game changing one, but it is good for Gallagher to at least get some minutes play time.

This is how the match ends, 3-0 for the Saints. Their first win at Craven Cottage in 67 years, an absolutely well deserved win. Even though they had the less attempts on goal in the first half, they tried harder and doubled Fulhams attempts, with 17 for the Saints and 8 for the Cottagers by the end of the match. However Fulhams attempts were more accurate with half of them, 4, compared to only 5 attempts on target for Southampton.

One side note I would like to make is that I don’t think Michael Jones was being completely fair in his calls. It seemed easier for him to hand out cards to Southampton players and give free kicks against them than the other way around.

The Saints deserved this win and I reckon that the biggest game chance came with the first two substitutions. As soon as Jack Cork entered the field, the team seemed to be playing that bit better and Nathaniel Clyne finished it off by adding some more force to the squad.

England’s National team manager Roy Hodgson was in the crowd to witness Southampton’s England trio score a goal each and secure the win for the Saints. If Hodgson wasn’t sure about these three players before, they should have convinced him of their worth with their performance in this match.

For those of you have watched the game, please do the players rating here: http://tui.fansnetwork.co.uk/match-ratings/display/match:8188/fulham-v-southampton

End Of The Transfer Window – What Does This Mean For Southampton

It is the first of February today, meaning that the January transfer window has officially closed at midnight exactly. What does this mean for Southampton and their players? Mauricio Pochettino stated before that no player would be leaving if he didn’t want them to leave. But which players did he let go so they can move on with their football career?

Both Aaron Martin and Tadanari Lee have been released from the club. Aaron Martin has moved on to Birmingham City and Tadanari Lee went to Urawa Red Diamonds.

Billy Sharp and Lee Barnard have returned to the clubs, of which Southampton had purchased them from, on loan. Billy Sharp is back with Doncaster Rovers and will be trying to help them to stay in the Championship. While Lee Barnard went back to League Two team Southend United.

Nottingham Forest have loaned Danny Fox from the Saints until the end of this season. In the summer Danny Fox will sign a permanent deal with Nottingham Forest.

Jason Puncheon went to Crystal Palace on loan in August and has now joined the club on permanent basis, Palace purchased Puncheon for 1,75 million pounds. I will never forget that one game where he sprinted off the field for a quick toilet break.

Last player who has left the Saints is Dani Osvaldo. Osvaldo has joined Serie A team Juventus on loan for now with the option for Juventus to buy Osvaldo at the end of the season. Hopefully this big Italian team knows how to deal with an Italian temper and Osvaldo will fir in better in this squad with his attitude.

Southampton haven’t purchased any players in this transfer window. Instead they’ve decided to introduce academy players and who could blame them? If you have such a good youth academy for young talented players, you might as well use them. Sam Gallagher and Matthew Targett are going to fill the empty spots left behind by Dani Osvaldo and Danny Fox.

I want to wish all the Saint players who have left during this window, good luck at their new club and with their further football career!