Premier League Match 33 - Burnley 2 Southampton 0

 

Saints Defender Appeals for Offside

Burnley on a Thursday night. Fuck me, it doesn’t get much more appetising than that. Fair play to all the Southampton boys and girls who have made the trip. Done it once, never again.

There is of course a very good chance that no Southampton fan will be making this trip next season because Burnley currently sit inside the bottom three, three points adrift having played one game more than Everton. They have course have been in the news this week because they have sacked their manager of 10 years, Sean Dyche who has basically performed fucking miracles to keep them in the Premier League over the last seven years and not only that, he once got them qualified for the Europa League. Before that, he had been relegated once to the Championship but brought them straight back up again. On the face of it, to let him go as is absolutely ridiculous but then ridiculous seems to be the way Burnley function these days, with a new owner Alan Pace who on the face of it seems to be full to the brim of brown stuff.  He has certainly taken a huge gamble with this decision especially as it appears at the moment that he doesn’t have a backup plan and no manager ready to come in. To be fair, they got a decent result at the weekend with a 1-1 draw against West Ham with a team of caretaker managers that included captain Ben Mee and Dyche’s old number two, Michael Jackson… no, not that one.

Whilst I never liked Dyche when we were playing them, you cannot do anything but admire what he has achieved with spending next to no money at what is basically a very small club. If they do indeed go down this season, there are a few cautionary tales they would do well to take note of, namely Bolton and Stoke, neither of whom have been anywhere near a return to the Premier League since they got relegated.

Jackson has a few good players to work with and I feel that Burnley have been victim of this season of trying to slightly alter their style. The twin battering rams of Wood and Barnes that defined Burnley, are no longer present with Wood having followed the money to Newcastle and Barnes being injured, possibly with a dislocated jaw from screaming at a linesman.  In the wide areas they have Maxwel Cornet and Dwight McNeil who are both decent players and up front is Ex-Saint Jay Rodriguez who has replaced the pace that he used to have with a bit more physicality. Talking of physicality, they have the 6 foot 6 monster that is Wout Weghorst upfront with J-Rod, so whilst Burnley have been slightly more pleasing on the eye this season when attacking, don’t expect too much to change.  It will still be crosses into the mixer from wide areas, be it from the wingers or the full-backs. Consequently, we have to shut those crosses down which means pressing a bit higher up the pitch then we did against Arsenal on Saturday.  It’s a day for doing the basics.

The mood around Saints has of course got better as a result of the win against Arsenal at the weekend, though everyone should acknowledge that it wasn’t the most aesthetically pleasing win we have ever had. It did however take us to 39 points so we can go into this game with next to no pressure. The pressure is completely on the home side because this is getting near last chance saloon territory for them. It will be interesting to see whether Ralph reverts to a back four or goes for the three at the back model that got a clean sheet at the weekend. It needn’t be a defensive formation if the wingbacks and two of the midfield players commit to attacking and we get bodies around the lone striker.

Saints make a decent start in the unusual sunny Burnley weather with Perraud pulling out a big switch to the opposite side to KWP, who cuts into the area before blazing over the bar with the aid of a deflection.  It’s all Saints pressure for the first six or seven minutes and we win another corner on the right hand side which is delivered with outswing by JWP and Oriol Romeu rises and meets it 8 yards out with a free header and plants it wide. Bad miss it has to be said.

Burnley haven’t started very well and Taylor underhits a back pass which sets Broja away and via Elyounoussi, Armstrong’s shoots straight into a defender. We get the ball back across and Elyounoussi attempts a volley but plays an airshot.  One non-swear word you could use is “wasteful”.

Here come Burnley with their first attack. Rodriguez to McNeil and his left foot shot from the right is headed away by Lyanco. Burnley pick up the ball again and a couple of passes later they find Roberts in exactly the same position that McNeil has just had a shot from and he tries exactly the same shot but he gets it spot-on as he starts it outside the post and it curls into the top corner. Brilliant finish, absolutely shit defending.  You only send him inside if someone is going to close him down.

Our reaction to going behind to their first attack is to give up and now it’s all Burnley as they piss their way through our midfield with McNeil sliding a ball through to Weghorst in the inside right channel but he takes a touch too many and Fraser spreads himself to block it.

In a movie that starts with a horrific touch by Romeu to give the ball away, Burnley build down the right and side and we allow McNeil once again to cut in on his left foot and stand up a cross the back post, Weghorst heads down and there’s all sorts of carnage as Lyanco plays an air swipe and Weghorst smashes it goalwards again but Fraser continues his brilliant form and claws it out.

Forster has to make another brilliant save from a free header from a corner before Weghorst puts another free header onto the post whilst we all stand and watch. Honestly, how the fuck are we not two down already?  Normally you’d say “they’ll pay for missing those chances” but we all know that they won’t.

We do try to make the most of our luck with Broja having a shot which is blocked for a corner and Armstrongs delivery results in Pope giving us a corner on the other side.  It’s exactly the same as before as JWP puts in an out-swinger and Romeu meets it, this time even closer and more central and it slides off his head and goes wide again.  Easier to score than miss from there.

Right on half time, after making a mistake half way up the pitch, Valery gets back on Cornet and gives away a corner.  Over it comes, free header and Nathan Collins nods it down and into the net. Jack Cork is standing directly in front of Fraser so we are off to VAR.

“Hi Stockley Park, it’s Stuart Atwell – check the goal please”
“We know it's you Stuart, it's the only game on?”
“Saints are saying Cork is offside?”
“We’ll let me see…. Ok I’ve had a look”
“Is he in an offside position?”
“Yes he is”
Is he interfering with play?
“Yes he is”
“Is he in the keepers eye line?”
“Yes he is… but he has jumped out of the way at the last second”
“Has he touched the ball?”
“Erm, I’ve looked 4 times at a useless camera angle but we don’t have the right camera angle so can’t say for sure”
“There you go… GOAL.  You can always find a reason to give it if you try hard enough and stick with my on-field decision”.

Oh that is absolute bullshit. What’s the fucking point in moaning though – we’re getting nothing today anyway.

Half time and regardless of the why’s and wherefore’s of the second goal, we cannot argue with being two goals behind. We have been fucking dreadful.  Ralph has surely got to change something in the second half.  For me we desperately need to go back to the 4-2-2-2 formation so I would be taking off both Lyanco and Valery and bringing on Adams and Salisu.  All of the defenders have been fucking useless so far and this formation has seen us offering next to nothing up front.

Here come the teams and for fuck sake - unchanged. Why? for fuck’s sake.

You would assume that as the same players were still on the pitch, they would have learnt from the end of the first half but from the very first corner to Burnley, less than a minute after the game restarts, Tarkowski has a completely free header which he fortunately puts over the bar.

More history repeating as we allow crosses come into our box in open play as Roberts stands one up to the back post, Tarkowski heads it across and Forster, J-Rod and Cork all bundle in and the ball ends up in there. For fuck‘s sake. We are off to VAR again.

“Hi there guys it’s Stu – another goal I think”
“Ok Stu, we’re not having this one”
“Why not guys – we want goals”
“Well… it’s probably a foul on the keeper, Rodriguez has punched it to Cork, Cork is offside and he’s the one who scored”
“Are you sure… he didn’t touch the first one?”
“The last one probably hit him and this one has definitely hit him”
“Accidental perhaps?”
“No Stu and it doesn't matter... and the scoring pass has come via Rodriguez hand”
“I want to give it”
“You fucking can’t – move on”.

Ralph finally decides to make some changes with Elyounoussi and Armstrong being replaced by Redmond and Adams and the two substitutes combine straight away with Redmond picking out a good cross between the Burnley defenders which is met by Adams about 15 yards out but it’s no surprise to anybody that he drills the volley straight at the goalkeeper who pushes it over the bar.

We are finally picking up a bit of a steam and win a free-kick about 30 yards out with J-Rod wrestling Romeu to the ground.  It’s the wrong side for JWP but because we’ve been so shit in open play, he has to have a shot but Pope shovels it over the bar easily enough. There is another chance from the resulting corner as Redmond heads it back into the box and Adams has a split second in which to shoot but takes more than a split second which means that Taylor can get across and block the shot.

I start enjoying the game a bit more when I realise that we are in the 94^th minute and then the best bit when it finishes.

Ralph Talks to Everyone Who Was Shit

Wank. Absolute wank. Every time we have a chance to move into the top half of the table, these players and to a lesser extent this manager, prove they are not ready to do so. The attitude and mindset of the players reminded me very much of the game against Chelsea a couple of weeks ago when we didn’t do the basics that you need to do to win any football match. We didn’t do the basics here and therefore we lost to a much worse team than Chelsea are. We played pretty well for 10 minutes, then let a goal in and then there was absolutely no reaction and we were always going to lose from that point onwards. I feel sorry for the people who made the journey.

So many players out there today were shocking. Broja has clearly let it all go to his head and he just doesn’t put the effort in anymore.  Elyounoussi and Armstrong both tried but were completely ineffective. Romeu had one of those games where hardly any of his passes were accurate and he was largely bypassed. Perraud on the left looked like a fish up a tree and that’s before we even get to 3 defenders. Having played well against Arsenal, Lyanco was an absolute liability, seemingly totally freaked out by having to play get someone as big as Weghorst. It reminded me of Yoshida at his worst when he came up against Andy Carroll and he basically just shat himself. Yan Valery was ok when defending but when he had the ball he looked incredibly limited and Bednarek just looked soft. Again, the only one who really enhanced his reputation was Fraser Forster, who for the third game in a row has kept the score down but he can’t produce miracles every game. Maybe that’s it, maybe it’s because of his contract situation and he’s the only one that actually has something to play for at this point of the season,

I do not understand why Ralph went with three at the back against Burnley. There is the old argument of “never change a winning team” and I expect that he wanted to reward the 11 that got the result against Arsenal.   If that was the case then they threw it back in his face.  However, today was a completely different assignment to Arsenal and we needed a different team. With this starting 11 in the Arsenal game, we created absolutely nothing and exactly the same happened today which was absolutely no surprise. I’m also slightly mystified as why when we were two down, he persisted with three central defenders when we were still producing next to nothing going forward. To make no changes at half time was very strange. He mentioned in a pre-match interview that he wanted to give the players 15 minutes to sort it out but all that did was waste 15 minutes.

A good team and a positive manager set up to win this game, not to keep it tight and hope to nick it but once again, I’m more inclined to look at the performance of the players and wonder if it would’ve mattered in the slightest what the manager did because so many of them were on the beach. We hardly won a challenge at all, certainly didn’t win any headers in our own half. We did however play some lovely patterns and passing moves in areas of the pitch that don’t matter which today at least, just enabled Burnley to put 11 men behind the ball. We didn’t play with any pace but the bottom line is that we are a decent side when all 11 players are at it but as soon as any drop off, we are bang fucking average and we are not going to win any games against anyone in the Premier League.

Apart from Fraser Forster, the only positive from tonight is that it drops Everton right in the shit which is great to see. Despite the Burnley love-in on Sky, it has to be said that Saints really should’ve been 1-0 up in the first 10 minutes with Romeu missing the first of two pretty simple headers from corners. It’s a different game of the first one of those goes in but as we all know, the game is won and lost in the penalty areas and if you don’t defend yours and you miss chances in theirs, you’re not going to win many games. Apart from the Romeu miss, we only created one more decent chance when we went behind which gave Che Adams his usual chance to smash a ball straight the goalkeeper. He did more in his first five minutes on the pitch then Broja did in 90 however and Nathan Redmond showed up well relatively speaking, when he came on.

Not that it mattered in the slightest but there was some real mystifying shit from Stuart Atwell and the officials today. I really don’t see how the second goal is given.  There is a foul on JWP because Collins is using him as a step ladder to win the header and there was a VAR check to see if the ball hit the clearly offside Jack Cork who was standing directly in front of Fraser Forster. They didn’t have an angle to prove that it flicked off him but regardless of that, he had to jump out of the way of the ball so how can you say he wasn’t interfering with play. Absolutely fucking ridiculous that wasn’t disallowed. They are saying you can now stand in front of the goalkeeper in an offside position but as long as you jump out of the way at the last minute and the ball doesn’t hit you, it’s fine.

When we did put Burnley under a bit of pressure in the second half with crosses into the box, on two occasions their players went down with head injuries so despite Saints still having the ball, Atwell stopped the game and gave the freekick to Burnley. Then, the alleged head injuries cleared up so quickly enough that they didn’t need to get a trainer onto the pitch so the injured party didn’t have to leave the pitch. And we got moaned at for our energy drink breaks. Burnley didn’t need to waste time as we were never going to score. 

The game was done however once we let Roberts cut in and score the first goal. Good goal it has to be said but we had had good chances before that and failed to even test the goalkeeper. Burnley‘s first attack and it’s a goal and from that moment on we couldn’t be bothered really. Beach football.

Changes are needed for the game on Sunday at Brighton. Like today, we are facing another team who have hardly won a game at home all season and we have to treat this game as a winning opportunity and not go there with a negative mindset. Today was one of those fucking awful nothing performances, the like of which we are seeing a bit too often in the last couple of months. Villa, Newcastle, Watford, Chelsea and now Burnley. We do not want to add Brighton to that list. Up the fucking Saints.