the only reason I can be arsed to write a blog entry about it is because I’m a
completist so leaving things half done is not an option. You could basically take the top and bottom
of virtually any report I’ve written this season and change the actual match
description in the middle. It’s fucking
crap.
nothing – all entirely predictable. The
trail on Theo Walcott has gone cold with him looking set to sign for Everton
because they’ve got more money. To be
fair, I never really saw this one as a runner anyway because it’s exactly the
sort of thing we leak to the press to take attention away from who we are
really after. It’s perfect for that – he’s
English, a World Cup is coming up, he’s current with a big club and there’s the
ex-Saint angle. All this is ideal for
journos to make copy out of. We appear
to be after a striker called Guido Carillo who has played for Pellegrino
before. Carillo might be a good player
but the most worrying thing about this is that this implies Pellegrino is here
to stay.
was probably the game when the alarm bells first started ringing about
Pellegrino. Marco Silva comprehensively
out-managed him that day but Watford’s season started to fall away as soon as
Silva was linked with and prevented from moving to Everton. It’s fallen away to such an extent that they
are second bottom of the Premier League form table. Guess who’s bottom?
gets brought back. There are welcome
returns for Wesley Hoedt and Cedric with Bednarek and Yoshida making way with
Maya being injured. Shane Long is again
preferred to a striker who can actually score goals.
good and Romeu bursts through a tackle on the edge of the box and finds Long in
front of goal. Shane predictably hits it
straight at Gomes, only for referee Roger East to give an offside, even though
it wasn’t offside and the linesman hadn’t flagged. Then the linesman flagged once the ref had
given it. Great officiating all round.
minutes as Long does what he’s good at and outpaces the left back and the
covering Watson and bustles to the bye line, pulling the ball back via a
deflection to JWP who neatly passes it into the far corner of the net. Get in.
Two goals in two games for JWP and now on a veritable streak.
stay on the front foot with Wesley striding up from the back and trying a
ridiculous 40 yarder. For a second it
looks like it’s over Gomes but he gets back to tip it over. Great effort though. We have to capitalise on the opposition not
being at it and Tadic, back in his best position on the left, skins Janmaat and
sends the ball low across the six yard box but unfortunately it goes to Long
who for a split second has an open goal but after deciding not to take it first
time and take a touch, a covering defender blocks the half hit shot easily.
team and are grumbling at their manager as well as he’s hooked Cleverley after
half an hour and their mood only gets worse on half time as a ball out of
defence by Hoedt sends Long away on the left versus Wague. Shane puts on the burners and is gone,
squaring to Tadic in the middle who superbly tees up the arriving JWP and our
main goalscoring threat buries it under Gomes to put us 2-0 up. What the fuck is happening here?
thousands of Saints fans tweeting variations of “don’t fucking sit back”. Surely to Christ we’re going to have learnt
the lessons from all the other games we’ve thrown away. Watford bring on Troy Deeney and stick him
right up top with Andre Gray. Silva
obviously deciding to be pro-active and go for it now, rather than later. We all know what’s coming – 4-4-2 Route 1,
Mike Bassett.
worrying straight away as the balls start raining down on Deeney who is playing
against Stephens who has shat his pants.
Retreat, retreat, retreat.
box and he tries to run it out, panics and then looks for the sideways ball
which isn’t there and then loses it.
Deeney lays is square to Janmaat who belts one from the edge of the box
with McCarthy superbly tips onto the bar and it flies up in the air. We have three defenders in the vicinity
compared to Watford’s one attacker but guess who reacts first and Gray heads
down and in to make it 2-1 with half an hour to go. If you were a better man you would put money
on us losing now.
favour, Pellegrino makes what is basically a like for like swap with Lemina on
for Davis. Nothing else changes and we
just give the ball away and Watford are all over us. Corners and crosses come into our box and we
just don’t compete for them and it’s left to McCarthy to be the only decisive
one in there, coming out and claiming crosses well. We are getting deeper and deeper and in
addition, we are not stopping crosses coming into our box. Silva is proactive again to try and force the issue and on comes Okaka who is another big unit to play up front. He immediately starts roughing people up and the smell coming out of Stephens shorts is now ridiculous. We get away with one with ten to go as more chaos in our box and Romeu falls over, taking the opportunity to grab and hold Okaka’s shirt. Clear penalty really but those aren’t getting given now for some reason.
wins everything but somehow we get to the 90th minute still 1-0 up
and then it happens. A huge cross under
no pressure from the right, Stephens falls on his arse and doesn’t even
challenge Deeney who heads across and Doucoure messily bundles it into the net
as McCarthy seems to bottle it. All of
our players are appealing for handball and the first replay confirms it. McCarthy has left the ball because Doucoure isn’t
getting it and then the Watford man punches it into the net. Well spotted Roger East and linesman. 2-2 and
nail in the coffin and another Pellegrino master class.
and the fucking idiot makes a double substitution to try and win it with Sims
and Boufal coming on for JWP and Tadic. He
even delays taking JWP off because we have a set piece to take – so why are you
taking him off if you want him to take all the set pieces then you fucking
twat. Enjoy your two minutes lads – I bet
the ban counters are happy with having to pay out two appearance bonuses for
that.
few months has been the parallels between this season and the last time we get
relegated out of the Premier League in 2004/5. The main similarity has been at
the wasted points where we let in goals in the last few minutes and the games
against weaker teams in the division where we didn’t win when we really should
have done.
Another parallel is the fact that I’m almost feeling completely numb about the
whole thing. When the second goal went in for Watford, the ball hit the net and
I kind of just shrugged my shoulders because everyone could see it coming and
you knew it was going to come. From the start of the second half, Saints just
went further and further back with the manager not reacting to Watford’s change
of shape and let’s be honest, it is not rocket science and once again, and
opposition manager didn’t have to do anything particularly scientific to baffle
our team and manager. Put on the second striker and lump it forward. Anyone who
watched the Mike Bassett film could have implemented those tactics but it was
beyond Pellegrino to do anything about it. Let’s face it, he’s faced this
change a few times now in English football and it just doesn’t matter. Move the defence up and move the strikers away from our goal. Deeney and Okaka aren’t quick so they aren’t going to run behind you and their headers will drop into midfield rather than onto the penalty spot. It’s not hard.
pick Jack Stephens as a central defender, a central defender who cannot hit the
ball. He has lots of other qualities but he can’t head the ball. At the other
end of the pitch, we have a striker who cannot score a goal. He does loads of
other good stuff but he cannot score a goal and surely a striker who cannot
score a goal and the central defender who cannot head a ball is like having a
goalkeeper who can’t catch or midfield player who can’t pass the ball. If we
push the defence up then Deeney can win as many headers as he likes. He says that he tried to adapt by
bringing Lemina on for Davis and dropping Romeu to just in front of the central
defenders -basically retreating.
Whilst we’re on the subject of Davis, he really adds nothing to the team at the
moment. Nothing going forward and nothing defensively. Apart from Pellegrino
not reacting to when Watford changed the shape, the biggest single factor why
we didn’t win today was Davis piss-assing around with the ball in midfield and
losing it which led directly to the first goal.
The positives today start with the authoritative Alex McCarthy in goal.
Commanding the penalty area like a goalkeeper is supposed to do, I now hold my
hands up and admit I was wrong about him and he does look a much better all
round keeper then Fraser Forster does. JWP got two more goals and he needs to
keep this going and aim to school seven or eight by the end of the season.
Though I am not his biggest fan and was punching the wall when I saw his name
on the team sheet, Tadic had a good game in the first half, mainly because he
managed to find himself some space, usually on the left hand side. What a
surprise, the left footed player is better on the left. To be fair, he did turn
up right across the pitch in the first half and contributed well everywhere.
Shane Long what’s the usual 100% effort having a major hand in both of the
goals but he was also 100% predictable when trying to stick the ball in the net
himself. A decent striker smashes that in the net first time instead of taking
a touch and allowing a defender to block.
So I’ve managed to write this much post-match without mentioning the handball.
How in the name of fuck do both the referee and the linesman miss possibly the
most obvious handball ever. It’s not as if it was a slight deflection. He is
basically caught the ball one-handed and then threw it in the net. There are
two movements, a first to stop the ball as it came across and a second to push
it into the net. The question is been raised as to whether Doucoure should face
a charge for deceiving the referee successfully. Well of course he fucking
should. He’s deliberate put it in the net with his hand.
After the game, the conversation was all about VAR and whether it should be
rushed in because that fits the current narrative. There is no way however that
you can say that the result was unfair nand in no way should the VAR chat
detract away from the fact that Pellegrino is fucking useless. Watford deserved a point for the way they had
come out in the second half and the way the manager was proactive. Saints
didn’t deserve to win because of the way we totally sat back in the second half
and because of the way our manager did absolutely fuck all. What other manager
in the history of football makes two game changing substitutions in the 92nd
minute. By game changing, I mean substitutes that are not designed to just
waste time.
So, what have we learnt from today? Probably nothing that we didn’t know
already. It’s nothing new but it has been reinforced the Pellegrino does not
have the slightest fucking clue what he’s doing and he should be sacked
straight away. We have also had it reinforced that we need new players with a
centre back and central striker being absolutely vital. We know that Pellegrino
will have learned absolutely nothing because he’s been taught the same lesson
six or seven times already this season and he carries on doing the same things.
We’ve learnt that Doucoure is a fucking cheat. It’s all very well saying well
what if one of our players had done it. The fact remains that it wasn’t one of
our players who did it and Doucoure is a fucking cheat. However, if that goal
means that Pellegrino gets sacked then Doucoure will have actually made a
positive effect on our season. The board have to be decisive and get rid of the
idiot now. It is not too late but if he is still in charge by the time we play
Brighton at home then it will be too late and we will be playing football in
the championship next season.
League 1 Minus 10 
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