We try and play out from the back and Shea Charles dawdles and gets tackled by
Hutchinson who takes the pass back from Skate Chaplin and fires it past Baz and in
off the far post. Fucking fuck off.  And
again.  In mitigation, Charles was trying
to find a player in midfield and waiting for someone to run but of course, no
one did so he should’ve made the decision just to belt it up the pitch.

Five minutes later and we’re at it again with Bazunu knocking the ball into Aribo’s
feet but with Joe playing walking football as usual, an Ipswich player nips in
and Skate Chaplin chips it over Baz and sees it bounce back off the bar and Hirst
slams the rebound wide. Should be 2-0, should be game over. Again though, even
though Aribo was in space, there was absolutely no one for him to pass to so it
was inevitable once the ball was passed to him that he would lose it.

We are still not learning anything and Charles gets caught on the ball again in
the centre of midfield with Hutchison finding Burns on the left hand side but
he suddenly thinks he’s got the ability to curl it in with the outside of his
boot and shats it wide. How hard have Ipswich had to work for these three
chances that they’ve had?  Not very hard.

Half-time and what would Russell Martin do, bearing in mind we have been
completely abysmal since we went behind? Against Leicester he just made a like-for-like
replacement but today he doesn’t even do that and we got the same 11 ragtag
bunch of arseholes out on the pitch for the start of the second half.

With ten minutes gone in the second half, KWP brings the ball forward into
midfield and slides a great ball into Che Adams who takes a touch and he has
to score but it’s Che we’re talking about and he smashes it straight at the
goalkeepers face and it goes for a corner. I wonder if there’s an xHitTheFuckingKeeper stat measuring
how difficult it is to hit the goalkeeper from your chance and the amount of
times you actually do.  Che would be
league leading.

Substitution time now with Aribo, Edozie and Fraser being replaced with
Bednarek, Sulemana and Stuart Armstrong. This means that Charles has gone into
midfield and Smallbone has pushed forward. There is no immediate effect though
and Ipswich have another chance with Skate Chaplin trying a volley from the
edge of the box which Baz gets down to save easily enough.

Adams gets put away by a bad pass from Ipswich and sets up Smallbone on the
edge of the box but his shot has absolutely no conviction and we are fortunate to
win a corner off it. Manning’s delivery ends up at the back post with Sulemana
and he gets a low cross in which finds Adam Armstrong but with a first time
shot needed, he tries to control it with both his shins and so the chance goes.

Smallbone’s put out of his misery with Alcaraz coming on as we get to the last
10 minutes and more in hope than expectation, Manning tries a pot-shot from a
long way out which the keeper pushes wide easily enough.

There’s just doesn’t seem to be enough urgency about us, though Alcaraz and
Stuart Armstrong have certainly been a positive change and Alcaraz slots are lovely ball
inside the fullback for Sulemana to run onto… down he goes and it’s given
offside before we can start howling for the Ipswich player to be sent off.  As time ticks by we are getting more and more
desperate and Stuart Armstrong puts in a cross from the right which
Alcaraz heads over and that is going to be that.

Well there you have it. What an absolute pile of shit again. It was a different
strain of shit from the Leicester game but it was still shit nonetheless.

… with Will and Joe

Who could’ve predicted that the worst midfield three ever named in Southampton
FC history would be absolute garbage?  Featuring as it did, three players who should
not be near the starting 11. We persevered with those three in midfield for far
too long. They eventually all got substituted but far too late. At least two of
them should’ve been gone at half-time because we were going to need all of the
last 45 minutes to manufacture something but then in truth, we probably could’ve played
all night and not scored. It was so bad that Joe Aribo was probably the best of
three as at least he started the game well until Ipswich scored and then he
went to pieces. Smallbone showed his lack of pace, lack of defensive awareness
and lack of tackling before moving further forward where he was almost as inept
but he stayed on the pitch whilst Charly Alcaraz was on the bench. Adam
Armstrong was dreadful in midfield and on both wings and when he should’ve been
in midfield he spent time being dreadful upfront as well. He shouldn’t be in
the team but will be because Martin has elevated him to captain. His record as
captain is 100%, played three, lost three.

Of the forwards, Che Adams should be bossing this division and being the big
dog but he is doing fuck all apart from hitting the goalkeeper yet again, with
the one chance that he gets. On the wings, Sam Edozie, easily our best wide
player, has been moved to his less favoured right side to accommodate Ryan
Fraser who has done absolutely fuck all in the last two matches and Sulemana
managed to not get sent off this time but was absolute garbage. There is no way
he should be above Sam Amo in the pecking order but he is our Nathan Tella
replacement so sooner or later, I’m expecting him to start chipping in with the
15 or so goals that Tella would have got this season.

We were better defensively today which is not saying much but we still managed to gift Ipswich three chances through our own carelessness.  What improvement there was, was partly down to Ipswich not creating much on their own and partly down to the defenders staying in position. Both Ryan
Manning and KWP had better games and the second half pairing of THB and
Bednarek points at better things to come in that regard. Shea Charles had a
decent game apart from the goal which again was down to him taking too long to
clear the ball and the team looked a lot more structured when he moved into
midfield, where he of course should have started.

I don’t understand Russell Martin’s thinking with that team selection and I
don’t understand the inactivity at half-time.  He’s a very likeable guy but you
will get no patience from anybody if you make batshit mental selections. There
is not a single fan or pundit who would have picked that side that he picked today –
not one … and that causes a perception problem when no one can even see what the
fuck you were trying to achieve and it’s predictably bad and we get beat.  Though
Aribo wasn’t the worst midfielder today, parachuting him in from absolutely
nowhere when you have Alcaraz and Stuart Armstrong as options, is unfathomable,
as was his selection of Sekou Mara up at Sunderland. It was painfully obvious
that that midfield was not going to work and it was painfully obvious that
something needed changing at half-time. He literally could’ve taken off all
three at half-time and he couldn’t possibly have made the team any worse.

What the fuck has happened to our attacking play? Where is the movement ahead
of the ball that we saw in pre-season? One of the things I’ll remember from
this game will be Taylor Harwood-Bellis in possession of the ball looking for
someone to pass to and then getting really annoyed when no one presented
themselves. He learned the game at Manchester City of course and played for a
very fluid, attacking Burnley side last year. He must wonder what the fucking
hell he’s got himself into this season. 
There was one incident in the first half where he passed it forward,
broke the lines and then without even trying to turn out and go forward, Will Smallbone knocked
it straight back to him and brought the three Ipswich players that had been taken
out of the game, back into it.

You also have to look at the intensity of our play without the ball. Basically,
there was none. A common feature in both the Leicester and Ipswich games has
been how much quicker the opposition has got to us when we have the ball than
the opposite way round. When you pick a midfield three were two of them can’t
run and one is miles out of position all the time, what do you expect?

Lack of running power in midfield also extends to tracking runners. When you
are in midfield and your opposite number runs past you, you have to sprint back
to cover the run that’s been made. Have you ever seen Joe Aribo sprint? Have
you ever seen Will Smallbone sprint? Can they even do it?  Do you remember a guy called Jermaine Wright who we, ironically, signed from Ipswich years ago?  I was reminded of him today – midfielders who can’t run.

Despite winning six of their first seven games, Ipswich really weren’t
anything special and we basically gifted them the three points. The winning
goal was scored by Omari Hutchinson and it was a good finish but the most
notable thing about his performance was how he managed to commit at least three
fouls that should all have been bookings and he didn’t even get one. Twice he scythed
down KWP in full flight and once he was literally dragging a shirt off a Saints
players’ back after he’d gone past him.  Ipswich
and their supporters will see this as the perfect away performance in that they
got their goal and then soaked up our very limited threat without too many
alarms. Like with Leicester on Friday though, they didn’t really have to do
much to get over the line. Just being organised and not making any stupid
mistakes was enough but fair play to them. 
Should have been 0-0 really but we made the mistake and they didn’t.  Neither team worked the keeper much but once
ahead, Ipswich didn’t have to.

So, three defeats in a row including two at home and now we go to bottom team
Middlesbrough on Saturday. Patience is wearing thin already and lose that game
and it will certainly be in short supply. If Russell Martin puts a proper team
out on the pitch and recognizes that the midfield has to be able to run and be defensively
disciplined, then we might have a chance.