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.

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.