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

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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.

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Southampton v Stoke City

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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

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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.

 

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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.

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

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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.

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Sunderland v Southampton – Unlucky Draw For Southampton

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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.

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.

Cardiff City v Southampton – Southampton Gets Back Into Their Winning Spirit

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

This Boxing Day, Southampton was travelling to Cardiff City Stadium. Looking at the starting eleven, it looks like Mauricio Pochettino has learned from the loss against Tottenham Hotspur. He has changed the backline. Luke Shaw is apparently better since he is starting this game. Next to him Maya Yoshida and José Fonte are also back on the field. This was a good surprise. After looking at who is on the substitute’s bench I have to assume that Dejan Lovren is sick since he is neither on the field nor on the bench.

Those little changes seem to have given Southampton back their confidence. Right from the start the Saints were on an attacking streak. In the 12^th minute Adam Lallana passes the ball to Jay Rodriguez who is running ahead of him. Rodriguez takes the ball but shoots too high.

One minute after this, it is actually working out better. Adam Lallana and Jay Rodriguez are running up the field together, Lallana has the ball and passes is to Rodriguez, who takes the ball and scores. Great teamwork that was, Adam Lallana and Jay Rodriguez play so well together. The arms of the Cardiff defenders are going up but it wasn’t offside.

It only takes 6 more minutes after this first goal, for the Saints to score again. Rickie Lambert gets the ball in midfield and has a good look forward before he passes the ball on. There he spots Jay Rodriguez on the left side, shoots the ball forward and Jay Rodriguez gets the ball right in front of his feet. He sure knows what to do with it – a goal it is. What a great football insight from Rickie Lambert to play the ball to Jay Rodriguez.

In the 26^th minute Southampton receive a corner. They pass the ball instead of shooting it towards the box and that is how the ball goes back to midfield. From there, they kick the ball towards the box. Rickie Lambert is ready for it, he claims the ball and of course he scores. So early on in the game and Lambert already has an assist and a goal to his name.

Not even half an hour into the match and already 3 goals for the Saints. It is obvious they found their winning spirit back and are ready to show it off to all the fans and anyone else who wants to see it.

Southampton’s defence definitely has improved after the loss against Tottenham Spurs. Maya Yoshida has been impressive in the backline and has made some great tackles and blocks. This makes me wonder why we haven’t seen him showing off his skills for so long. Paulo Gazzaniga is in good shape too in this game: he seems more confident with his saves and even manages to hold a couple of catches.

Calum Chambers and Luke Shaw have been good so far as well. Both these young players are strong on many different aspects. They are both good at blocking attacks and winning the ball back. But they also have good attacking skills and are running up along the sides of the field pretty often. Seeing these Southampton Youth Academy Graduates makes me wonder what other great talents are still in the Academy waiting to graduate.

After halftime Cardiff City started to show a change in their play. Something must have happened in the changing room during the break or maybe it was bringing on Danish international Andreas Cornelius at the start of the second half. Either way, the Bluebirds seem more confident. They are attacking more. Fraizer Campbell is putting more pressure on Paulo Gazzaniga, but luckily he doesn’t crack under this pressure.

Mauricio Pochettino makes his first substitution in the 79^th minute. Surprisingly he decides to take captain Adam Lallana off the field for James Ward-Prowse. Lallana passes his captain armband on to Rickie Lambert. I just can’t wrap my head around this decision, why would a manager take of the captain of his team? Of course I agree with giving James Ward-Prowse some game time, I just don’t think that taking off your captain is a good move by Mauricio Pochettino. This could give the teams confidence a dent since their coach is taking off their captain. Plus Adam Lallana has been playing really good this game so he surely deserved to play the full 90 minutes.

With about 10 minutes left of the game, Cardiff City fans start to flow out of the stadium. Seems like they have seen enough of this defeat and decided that it is better to beat the rush and get out of the stadium.

Jay Rodriguez misses out on his hat trick when Mauricio Pochettino takes him off in the 85^th minute for Gastón Ramirez. Another substitution I can’t get my head around. Why would a manager take of the best two attacking players of this match?

3 more minutes get added on as extra time. Not much happens in those last three minutes of the game. With one minute left of the extra time Mauricio Pochettino takes Rickie Lambert off for Sam Gallagher. This is probably more a move to waste time than a tactical move. Soon after this substitution Andre Marriner blows his whistle to indicate the end of the game.

The second half of the game definitely was less exciting then the first 45 minutes of match time. Even though both teams did try to create chances in the second half, neither of those chances were as big as the 3 chances in the first half which ended in goals.

It looks like Jack Corks inspiring words of this week became reality, so it is more than fair to say that the whole Southampton squad was in great shape this game. All the players have been playing great. In the last 6 games Southampton hasn’t been able to win, which makes this win right after Christmas even sweeter. A well deserved clean sheet for Paulo Gazzaniga, that must be a great boost for his confidence.

Such a great decision it was by Mauricio Pochettino to leave Jos Hooiveld out of the starting eleven. See what happens when Hooiveld isn’t playing, the whole team seems to play more confidently and the defence line is definitely way stronger without him. Jos Hooiveld was still keeping a spot warm on the bench, but that might be to blame on the injuries in the team. At least Pochettino didn’t allow Hooiveld to get on the field. Seems like Pochettino found his football insight again.

The coming games will be tough ones for the Saints, with Everton and Chelsea being the first teams on the list. All we can hope for is that they will stay in the high spirits of this game and keep this winning feeling in mind while playing those coming games. Come on you reds, you can do it. I am sure we haven’t seen the last of you.

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.