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.

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

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.

Southampton v Tottenham Hotspurs – Hooiveld Lets Southampton Down Yet Again

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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