should be the perfect way to kick start a run of decent results. This is because results are telling us that
they are complete shite with just five points from 14 games, a situation that
no team has ever recovered from to stay up.
They have dispensed with the services of Captain Bellend Tim Sherwood
and appointed Remi Garde as their new manager.
If they thought his apppointment was going to signal an upturn in
results then they were right – they got a draw.
At that rate of improvement, they should reach the magical 40 point mark
by May 2019. It’s a scandal really how
such a big iconic club can have got themselves in such a state. It’s what happens when the owner of a club
doesn’t care too much or when he runs out of money.
Liverpool game but I haven’t yet. It was
unbelievably bad and I expect a few of the players to pay for it in the team
selection. I think I would rather be
playing a decent side today – one where we knew we had to play well in order to
get a result. It’s ridiculous that you
have to worry about your players not putting it all in but yes, that Liverpool
game was that bad.
and JWP being preferred to Clasie who has a detention at school. The bench looked spectacularly underwhelming
with two defenders, two defensive midfielders, a goalkeeper and two strikers,
one of which was Juanmi. Gaston was
nowhere to be seen and nor was Maya Yoshida.
Villa had a few problems with Micah Richards being out so the defence
looked very dodgy.
the outside and pulls it back, finding Tadic on the edge of the box. It’s a free shot on his left foot and it has
to hit the target but he lamely sidefoots it over the bar. Utter shite.
Another great chance follows as Big Vic puts Tadic away and he puts in a
great ball from the left and Pellè lunges at hit and sends it into orbit from
about 6 yards. Big Vic then heads wide
at the back post when he should have headed it across and we haven’t played 5
minutes yet. Another chance goes begging
when Tadic gets a ball over from the right and Mané chests down before lashing
miles high and wide. Four presentable
chances, none on target.
down with the final ball. A ball gets
played to Pellè who spins away from the defender and gets wrestled to the
ground by Okore who is more or less the last man. Free kick… surely that’s at least a yellow
then? Apparently not. Twat referee. On 20 minutes, a corner drops of José Fonte
about 6 yards out after a Guzan flap and though his poked effort beats Guzan,
Gestede is there to kick if off the line.
The next corner presents another headed chance to Mané but he heads over
the bar…. From 2 yards. Fucking hell.
time to sit back and allow Villa to play themselves into the game. I thought it might be better if Plan B was to
try getting a shot on target but no, sitting off is where it’s at. Pass, pass, pass with no urgency in closing
down. When we get it back, usually
courtesy of Villa passing it straight out of play for no reason, our build up
is so slow that they’ve got 10 behind the ball by the time we try and play a
through ball. We also love trying to
walk the ball into the net and we favour trying to get past the massed ranks of
Villa defenders by playing trying lodas of flicks and tricks on the edge of the
box before we lose it. Twenty minutes of
tedium go by with no decisiveness or quality and just a JWP booking for a
tackle that was 5 minutes late.
gives the ball away and Virgil has to bale him out and give away a corner. Vertout mis-kicks it across at knee height,
JWP misses it at the near post and it skims across the box to where Lescott is
waiting at the back post and he knocks it in easily. Fucking hell. What a wank goal. Utterly ridiculous. Half time and a quick boo as the players
leave the field. How the fuck are we
losing to this lot?
reason for him leaving and joining Spurs (I shit ye not) is to have Francis
Benali’s daughter Kenzie present exactly the same half time and pre-match
routine. To be fair, she’s pretty good
and a lot less irritating than the bald bloke but it’s amusing that they leave
her surname out when announcing her name.
Everyone knows who she is and who her dad is. All we want to know is can she drop kick Nick
Barmby in the head or launch John Fashanu at the moon.
Mané has a shot deflected wide but Tadic takes it and it’s it’s shite and
headed away by the first defender. The
next 10 minutes sees Steve Davis driving everyone on and he’s absolutely
everywhere whilst others like Big Vic and JWP are playing like they’re wearing
concrete boots. A Cédric cross arrives
with Davis at the back post. He brings
it down with his chest and volleys it but some bastard defender throws himself
at it and it deflects off him and over the bar.
Great defending to be fair.
substituted which is a lame end to what has been a poor performance by the big
man and on comes Oriol Romeu and Tadic is off after another performace that has
had the odd decent pass mixed in with 95% frustrating bollocks. Whilst I’m quite pleased that he’s gone off,
I’m not so delighted with Juanmi coming on.
two subs have definitely livened things up.
Not only does Juanmi actually touch the ball but he has a header at the
back post which goes wide from another decent Cédric cross. It’s the kind of position that Shane Long
scored from against Man City a week ago and against Newcastle on the opening
day. Just saying. Juanmi looks likely though and after a rare
Villa incursion into our half, we break and Davis puts him away, running at
Okore. He shoots and Guzan saves well
bundle it in at the back post. Thank
fuck for that. Romeu piles into the net
to grab the ball so we can get on with it but hang on, a Villa player has gone
down out on the left wing. 72, 73, 74…
get him off for fucks sake. Oh look he’s
up and alright.
into our half for the second time in the second half and nearly score as we all
ball watch as Vertout chips is across and Westwood has a free volley at the
back post but he takes a leaf out of our school of finishing and smashes it
into the crowd.
hard without it working. I feel a bit
sorry for him as he spends most of his time running away from the goal on the
right wing. We have to find a way to get
him up the middle with Pellè. Time ticks
by, usually with a Villa player on the ground or the referee imploring Guzan to
get a fucking move on with his goal kicks.
We’re not creating much though other than with set pieces. JWP puts in a ball from a free kick, awarded
for a cynical Hutton pull back on Juanmi (similar to the one Okore did on Pellè
in the first half which got nothing) and Lescott heads it for a corner. JWP again and Virgil heads over. As we approach the 90 mark, Shane has an
optimistic shot into the side netting.
From the resulting goal kick, Guzan finally gets booked for taking an
age. Oh that’s really worth it ref you
fucking twat.
happens aside from Villa players rolling around on the ground and them limping
off to be substituted from one side of the pitch to the other. Fucking Stephen Hawking could move faster
than that. Spot on 5 minutes – the end.
Fuck.
against quite possibly the worst Premier League team I have ever seen. They
were absolutely shit and yet we’ve managed to draw with them because of the
shit goal that we gave away and our ineptitude at sticking the ball in the
fucking net. This game it should have been dead in the first 15 minutes but
after that we did our usual and stopped playing with any urgency and allowed
Villa to get a foothold in the game.
Once we’d equalised then Villa just disrupted the shit out of it with
convenient injuries and time wasting, the like of which I don’t think I’ve ever
seen. That’s not their fault though and all teams do it to a degree. My issue
is with the fucking referee Anthony Taylor who let them get away with it. Booking
the goalkeeper in the 90th minute is going to achieve fuck all. It would be
partially acceptable if the referee added the correct amount of time at the end
but that’s only part of the issue. It’s the total disruption of the game and
absolutely taking the piss.
How the fuck can there only be five minutes added at the end. There were six
substitutions so that’s three minutes straight away. When we scored it took
three minutes to kick off again whilst a player feigned injury. Then we had
Guzan taking the piss on every goalkick and every free kick and throw-in was
taking ages. I don’t think I’m exaggerating when I say that there should have
been double the amount that was actually added.
The substitutions that were made today made us a lot better which is unusual of
late. I have to admit that I am moaned like a bastard when Juanmi came on but
he did more in his first 10 minutes than he’d done in his entire Saints career
to date. Romeu coming on for Big Vic made an enormous difference as well
because the Spaniard played with energy and most importantly, he obviously
gives a shit. It’s not obvious that Big Vic gives a shit anymore.
I thought he was irreplaceable at the start of the year but he looks a much
worse player this season. I think he is being asked to do more creatively and
he just doesn’t have it in his locker to do anything apart from win the ball
and play it simply. In addition, his attitude is clearly not all that it should
be at the moment. If you’re genuinely sorry and want to forget about the
transfer to Spurs that didn’t happen, then why are you still talking about it
every month or so.
The midfield is still our main problem area instead but it was also noticeable
that JWP played better once the substitution had been made. Stephen Davis in midfield
was magnificent however, especially in the second half where he led by example
and continually drove the team forward.
Up front, Tadic did my head in after the first 10 minutes. His set pieces were
uniformly shite and he gave the ball away constantly. His role in the team is
to provide quality in delivery and final ball but nothing was happening, hence
our struggle to score again a shite team. Mané was again too wide to be most
effective and Graziano hardly got any service again.
this written, we’ve had the 3rd Round Draw for the FA Cup. We could have got the Skates or Eastleigh but
instead we’ve got a boring and shit draw, at home to Crystal Palace. It’s boring because we play them twice a
season anyhow and it’s shite because they’re a good side and it’ll be tough…
and of course they knocked us out last year.
you the cup draw was boring.
League 1 Minus 10 
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