Before I begin, I’d just like to apologise for my lack of Saints content across all platforms this month. A trip to Disneyland, starring in a pantomime I wrote and directed myself and a Two Year Anniversary have made for quite a hectic November. I’m pleased to say, from tomorrow, I shall be focused on all things Saints – I have tickets for all games in December and Chelsea away. There will be vlogs of all matches on my channel, and I’ll be more active on Twitter.
It’s a shame though, that my activity increase coincides with such a depressing time to be a Southampton FC fan.
Though I have been quiet on Twitter this month, I did have a tweet ‘bang’ last Sunday. This blog post will basically develop that tweet to an appropriate word length. When I had to make the decision to cut my articles down to monthly, I initially intended to write mini reports of each game. However, each game this month (and last…) have sadly been, to an extent, carbon copies. Which would be fine if we were winning. However, we are ending November with the joint fewest (only with Ipswich) league wins in the entire EFL. We have not won since September 1st – tomorrow will mark the three month anniversary.
A run down of our results this month sums it up:
SUN 04: Manchester City 6-1 Southampton
SAT 10: Southampton 1-1 Watford
SAT 24: Fulham 3-2 Southampton
TUE 27: Leicester 0-0 Southampton (6-5 on penalties) Carabao Cup
An improvement over October would be the amount of goals scored. It was a surprise to everyone that we ended our goal drought at The Etihad, denying Man City their clean sheet record… and preventing our ‘games without scoring record’ being smashed. It was admittedly a penalty, but having made the trip up to Manchester to see Hoedt score an OG after 5 mins, even quicker than he did at Anfield, and us be 3-0 down after 18, I was thankful for the small mercy. 6-1 was an embarrassment to be honest, and they could’ve scored more in the second half if they had gone for it.
What’s more, people are for some reason still watching the match vlog on my channel – which is currently at 3.6k views…
Following that, we’ve bottled two leads and gifted Puel yet another victory over us. So where does the blame lie?
The Players:
With all due respect, in general there isn’t a lack of effort out there. I can still see the fight that kept us up last season, and there’s more desire than there ever was under Puel or Pellegrino. Sadly, a handful of players really aren’t playing to potential/are just shit.
Cédric – What he lacks in height, he makes up for in… well that’s the problem. His crossing is dire, and defensively he’s beaten in the air and rarely puts in a challenge for the ball. We need everyone to be putting their body on the line but instead he shies away from every tackle. After our loss at Craven Cottage, he came out with this wisdom:
”We were winning 1-0 and I had a feeling that we [would] get the 1-1 because we were very exposed, and then maybe after 1-1 our head was gone immediately. We need to be more experienced in managing the game. It’s very small margins. When we concede we immediately get so down mentally, we get frustrated, maybe afraid to lose.”
Very exposed? Who gave Sessegnon the run of the flank and time to squeeze his ball across the face of goal for Schürrle to poke in? I would understand these frustrations from strikers, but when its coming from a person responsible for what he’s criticising? I really don’t know what he was trying to achieve with these comments.
Hoedt – What is there left to say about Hoedt? To have scored two own goals, one at Anfield and one at the Etihad… and what was he doing in the build up to Fulham’s winner? Honestly, there are no words. He is a liability and everyone seems to know it except Hughes, who we’ll come on to. Again, the most frustrating thing about him is the unfounded arrogance; he’s been known to remove all club content off personal social media accounts when dropped. He gave a similar interview to Cédric at the beginning of October…
”There is still some kind of fear when we are up and winning that it might go wrong and it goes wrong. That’s up to us. You can’t say we’re unlucky because it happens too many times. It’s concentration, it’s mentality. Don’t switch off when we’re up because often that’s what happens. We need to make everything a little better so we don’t keep clean sheets for 75-80 minutes but for 95 minutes. Everyone needs to look in their own mirror and if we do that we’ll be a better team.”
We’ve had no wins and have thrown away every lead since – nothing’s changed, including his inclusion.
Austin – To his credit, he demonstrated passion in ‘that’ interview, following his questionably disallowed goal. However, every week he continues to demonstrate that his years as a starting Prem striker are behind him. He should be an impact sub at best, but even then there are other options I favour. Unfit and passive are the words I’d apply to him; when was the last time had had any influence on a match?
What’s more, he’s turning on us fans.
These are the three major examples of under performing players that are distancing the fans from having an attachment to the squad. Arrogance is bad, its worse when it is completely unjustified and they believe themselves to be better than the team that is shit because of them.
Having said that, they don’t pick themselves.
The Manager:
If the interviews quoted serve any purpose, they demonstrate just how low morale and belief is amongst the squad. Who’s the man that’s meant to be breeding confidence? Ultimately, the man who got Stoke relegated last season. Fantastic.
Hughes did his job. We stayed up. How much was influenced by him and how much was down to Swansea’s capitulation, can be debated. There’s no arguing though that he came in and did what was asked. In the emotion of the aftermath, I admit I supported the notion of keeping him. The players had shown a noticeable increase in fight and belief since his arrival – none more so than Tadić who we then went and sold. It was never going to end well, but I thought he’d bring a bit of needed stability. Well he has. We’ve stabilised at being the worst team in the league.
Pellegrino, at this stage of the season, had DOUBLE the amount of points; higher goals for and less against. Hughes currently has us in the relegation zone, off bottom on goal difference. We could drop to 19th tonight depending on the Cardiff/Wolves game.
In fairness to him, he has introduced Obafemi to the fold, however this may have been injury enforced. Valery also put in a good showing at the King Power, but you just know that tomorrow he’ll revert to Hoedt, Cedric, Austin… It’s a return to the Pellegrino issue of stubborness/insanity.
The issue of arrogance comes up again, as demonstrated in his press interviews this week.
”That’s where experience comes in because it’s water off a duck’s back. I know how this game works. The reality is if people surmise a manager is under pressure almost every sports agent in the country will put forward clients and debate and try and get in contact with the powers that be and say, ‘this is the right guy if you are thinking of making a change. That’s what happens. It’s not a problem. It’s people doing their business. It doesn’t faze me. Actually it makes me want to excel even more and that’s the message I give to the players. The pressure will build until we get positive results in Premier League games. I don’t need assurances. The board understand what I’m doing here, what we did last year, how I work, how my staff work. We’re not very far away. We all feel that – ownership, football management, players. We all feel we’re very, very close.
Very close to what? Bottom?
Time after time, he’s proving himself to be tactically naive. His utilisation of James Ward-Prowse alone shows this…
But it’s never his tactics is it? Of course it’s always the bloody referees! Of course it is! Every week we are screwed over by the officials!
No we’re not. I don’t really buy into this notion of ‘luck’ and the ‘referees being against us’. Every team has decisions go for and against them. The constant moaning is just him in denial of his own failings as a manager.
A loss at bottom of the league is unforgivable. So why is he still here?
The Board:
Whilst sat in Starbucks in Disney Village, I received a notification that we had sacked our Director of Football Les Reed. This was basically an admission that Hughes was a poor appointment, without sacking Hughes. Go figure.
Chairman Ralph Krueger came out and spoke a load of meaningless bollocks that dissipated any optimism the sacking had brought. I won’t waste time with his bullshit but this quote sums it up.
”There is an opportunity now, what I call a space, and we will move on into that space now and make it an opportunity.”
Maybe Krueger has done his job in improving us commercially. But look where we are now football-wise. Almost a month later we are still without a Director of Football, so clearly we had no one lined up as a replacement. This has ultimately left us in limbo. It would appear we’re stalling the sacking of Hughes, until we get a new DoF in. Getting a new DoF in might be proving a struggle, due to being mid-season and the January transfer window looming. So from the outside, we have no real plan or direction. Sacking Reed was purely an act of Krueger trying to be seen as an active chairman and thus keeping his position. But now the only people with the authority to sack Hughes and sound out a replacement, have no football knowledge. A Chinese businessman and a Canadian hockey coach.
And to top it all off, we seem to have no funds for January spending, so do we even have the money to compensate Hughes?
It’s not often I write a full analytical post about the club, but the situation has been a farce and I needed to express my frustrations. Whilst writing this, I have realised that arrogance and naivety, at all levels from players to boardroom, is rife within the club and has all contributed to the mess we find ourselves in now. A mess that has no immediate escape route.
Tomorrow we face Man U at home, and on Wednesday we travel to Spurs away. Arsenal at home, Man City at home and Chelsea away all follow. We have two big trips to Cardiff and Huddersfield, but having lost at Fulham, there is little hope for those games either.
It’s time for some leadership. For a plan. For a direction. Even if that is setting up for the Championship. We can’t just carry on as we are. We deserve at least one home win this season. Someone, anyone, please stand up and be counted. Form can change quickly in this league, but someone needs to do something in order for that to happen. And don’t leave it too late.
I’ll be back at the end of December with another review of the month, unless there are any breaking stories to cover in between. In the meantime, follow my Twitter and subscribe to my channel.
I hope you all have an amazing Christmas, and that Saints don’t do their best to ruin it.
Owen The Saints 