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Episode 351: Matchday Review: Toothless against the Lions
18 Plays1 month ago
Southampton – In what was described by Greg's wife as one of the most boring games of football she's ever seen, what can be seen as a disappointing draw to Millwall, but is there still positives to take?
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Transcript
Introduction to The Daily Southampton Podcast
00:00:05
Speaker
your daily soccer podcast with the Global Sports Podcast Network.
00:00:14
Speaker
Hello and welcome back to the Daily Southampton part of the Global Sports Podcast Network.
00:00:20
Speaker
My name is Greg Elliott and as always today joined by my good friend and wonderful co-host Zach Ingo Finch and Happy New Year everyone.
New Year Greetings and Holiday Reflections
00:00:29
Speaker
Happy New Year Zach.
00:00:30
Speaker
Happy New Year mate.
00:00:31
Speaker
I do mate, you alright?
00:00:32
Speaker
It's nice to have you back.
00:00:32
Speaker
We've had a little bit of absence, we've had breaks and not knowing what day it was and
00:00:37
Speaker
Yeah.
Zach's Game Day Experience at St. Mary's
00:00:55
Speaker
Look, I didn't know what day it was.
00:00:56
Speaker
I didn't know what time it was.
00:00:58
Speaker
I rocked up at St.
00:00:59
Speaker
Mary's at like quarter past ten this morning.
00:01:02
Speaker
It was, to be fair, by design.
00:01:05
Speaker
The kids wanted to go and see if they could meet the players for the game.
00:01:07
Speaker
And, well, that was definitely a cheerier than if we'd have waited around afterwards, I think.
00:01:12
Speaker
So, yeah.
00:01:14
Speaker
I mean, it was a nice day out, but...
Debating Southampton's Nil-Nil Draw
00:01:19
Speaker
I don't know, mate.
00:01:19
Speaker
I've got contrary opinions on the game.
00:01:23
Speaker
Did you know we were the only draw today in the championship?
00:01:27
Speaker
Oh, don't tell me.
00:01:28
Speaker
I'm already wrong.
00:01:31
Speaker
We were one of two draws in the championship.
00:01:34
Speaker
I do know that one of the results was Pompey getting battered 5-0.
00:01:38
Speaker
That's true.
00:01:39
Speaker
That's true.
00:01:39
Speaker
It could have been worse.
00:01:42
Speaker
Arch rival Nathan Jones managed to draw at Coventry.
00:01:44
Speaker
I was completely wrong.
00:01:45
Speaker
I'm just bad at reading, apparently.
00:01:47
Speaker
But yeah, I don't know, mate.
00:01:49
Speaker
I've got conflicting opinions on the game and on how I feel about it because it's like the... I think it was the Coventry game I talked about and I'm like... Outside of the actual performance and the actual game, on paper...
00:02:06
Speaker
a nil-nil draw against a team that beat us previously and that are, you know, pushing for playoffs and in a good position in the league and are always going to be a tough team.
Southampton's Performance Analysis
00:02:20
Speaker
And, you know, what, five unbeaten on the bounce at home now?
00:02:23
Speaker
Like, that's not sounding too bad, but... Yeah, okay, so how does three points from 15 sound?
00:02:32
Speaker
Yeah, it sounds miserable, doesn't it?
00:02:34
Speaker
That's where... That's unfortunately where I kind of land on it.
00:02:39
Speaker
And also, I think the most upsetting thing, I don't know what's recently happened with the way that we're playing.
00:02:46
Speaker
And we've talked about a little bit
00:02:50
Speaker
off air about what our opinions are and how we think we've landed into this position because yes despite doing a up until this week daily podcast for the last year and a half we still have enough like time outside of this to also talk about football
00:03:06
Speaker
But even in like, it's just everything's fallen a bit off.
00:03:09
Speaker
And you were talking about how it's a lot of games over a short period of time.
00:03:13
Speaker
And I said to you, I concur with your point that it is a short period of time with a lot of games.
Comparing Championship Clubs
00:03:18
Speaker
However, that's the same for every other championship club.
00:03:21
Speaker
And there are other championship clubs that are winning football games.
00:03:24
Speaker
They don't just go into it and get, oh, I'm tired.
00:03:28
Speaker
I'm tired.
00:03:28
Speaker
They can still score and be tired.
00:03:30
Speaker
Like, that's one of my problems.
00:03:31
Speaker
Yeah, but it's the same.
00:03:32
Speaker
But I mean...
00:03:33
Speaker
I would argue that Millwall also looked to be suffering the effects of a busy Christmas period.
Critique of Southampton's Play Style
00:03:41
Speaker
They seemed as fatigued.
00:03:43
Speaker
And, you know, we're back to exactly the problem that we were talking about before this festive period of, if it's not our first 11 firing all guns blazing at a frankly unsustainable pace, wasn't even sustainable for two halves, let's not forget,
00:04:04
Speaker
we don't really have a lot of depth or options.
00:04:08
Speaker
And that showed.
00:04:12
Speaker
We've gone from Azaz winning, scoring every game after a while, to Armstrong firing on all cylinders, Sienza, to back to the, oh, that was an almost chance.
00:04:24
Speaker
That was an almost chance.
00:04:25
Speaker
But even then, the kind of early Tonda wrecking ball football,
00:04:32
Speaker
has just completely died down and we managed we mustered as many shots as Millwall despite having 66% of the ball over that game right like that's why I find one of those was Jack Stevens only presumed out of pure frustration yeah and that was early into the first half and this is what I don't understand is like you've had well before do we want to talk about the lineups before we get into conspiracy theories yeah mate let's absolutely that's very surprising
00:04:59
Speaker
Let's go back to the start.
Lineup Changes and Team Impact
00:05:01
Speaker
Let's see the lineups.
00:05:02
Speaker
The team sheet came out, five changes, and I think I described it to you as bold, which is normally my maybe more politically correct way of saying I don't really agree with that.
00:05:18
Speaker
It's a bit stinky.
00:05:19
Speaker
I don't know.
00:05:20
Speaker
It wasn't... I mean, sure, Archer got goal...
00:05:28
Speaker
against Blackburn.
00:05:31
Speaker
A very last-minute goal.
00:05:34
Speaker
Birmingham, sorry?
00:05:35
Speaker
Yeah, not... As you can tell from my feedback, mate, I was kind of like... Dubious goals committee aside, but sure, he got a goal, and he should be hungry to play for this place in the team, right?
00:05:46
Speaker
Which is a bonus.
00:05:49
Speaker
Matski coming in.
00:05:51
Speaker
right, is going to be hungry, good performances earlier on in the season, disappeared.
00:05:59
Speaker
He's going to be fighting for his place.
00:06:01
Speaker
Fine.
00:06:02
Speaker
That's an argument here.
00:06:04
Speaker
Can Bragg slot an inter-midfield?
00:06:05
Speaker
Didn't have a problem with that.
00:06:06
Speaker
When he came on at Birmingham, he was solid.
00:06:09
Speaker
That was fine.
00:06:09
Speaker
He also managed 20 minutes.
00:06:11
Speaker
Yeah, it's just... And do you know, the thing is, actually, that
00:06:16
Speaker
The line-up itself, I think Matske had a really good game.
00:06:20
Speaker
He was driving the ball forward like you'd want the player in that position of the pitch to do.
00:06:25
Speaker
He was picking the ball up and winning the ball in ways.
00:06:29
Speaker
It's trying to bed in... It's like the whole bedding in new signings period.
00:06:33
Speaker
They've been out of the team for so long, both him and Gela and everything, that...
00:06:36
Speaker
if we're supposed to be playing this certain way, but we've almost reverted back to possession for the sake of possession.
00:06:42
Speaker
I don't want to say it's specifically like a Russell Martin style, but again, like we were 66% of the ball.
00:06:48
Speaker
It was slow.
00:06:48
Speaker
It was boring, mate.
00:06:49
Speaker
It was lethargic.
00:06:51
Speaker
It was boring.
00:06:54
Speaker
It was such a boring game to watch.
00:06:56
Speaker
There was like a 15-minute spell in the second half, right?
00:07:00
Speaker
That was basically it.
00:07:01
Speaker
Sometimes we come out and we hit him on the front foot in the first two minutes of the game.
00:07:06
Speaker
And then it was just, oh, oh, and back, oh, and back.
00:07:11
Speaker
I could have just been watching a really slow tennis match.
00:07:14
Speaker
I think that's his biggest point.
Gameplay Patterns and Risk Aversion
00:07:17
Speaker
You know in computer algorithms where you look for similar patterns and if you've got that pattern you compress it.
00:07:25
Speaker
I can compress an entire description of the game into a couple of sentences because what happens is
00:07:32
Speaker
We gain possession.
00:07:34
Speaker
We recycle it back.
00:07:35
Speaker
It ends up with either Stevens or Baz.
00:07:39
Speaker
They push it out to Wood.
00:07:40
Speaker
He goes to pass it to Manning, but turns around and passes it back to Harwood-Bellis, who passes it out to Stevens, who plays a big...
00:07:49
Speaker
diagonal looping ball straight to the Millwall centre-back and then we go again.
00:07:55
Speaker
Like, that was it.
00:07:56
Speaker
And I don't know why he kept trying to play that same ball to Cameron Archer because, I mean, it didn't take genius to see that Cameron Archer was half the size of both Millwall centre-backs.
00:08:10
Speaker
This is the same problem we had in the Will Still era, right?
00:08:14
Speaker
Of like, why are we passing to non-target men balls where we're flying it up in the air and then not passing it through?
00:08:22
Speaker
And like, again, it's because trying to make something happen.
00:08:25
Speaker
But if you want to know, like the distribution, Greg, our total passes, 591.
00:08:31
Speaker
Millwall's 281.
00:08:33
Speaker
Our backward passes, 88, which is almost more than double of Millwall's backward passes.
00:08:37
Speaker
And I understand.
00:08:38
Speaker
It's ridiculous.
00:08:39
Speaker
That's going to be the case, but it's just, I don't understand what's changed.
00:08:44
Speaker
And then you get to a point in the second half where Harwood-Bellis turns around and once again passes it across the 18-yard box to Nathan Wood, and the entire northern end groans and goes forward, and he waves his arm up like, what do you want me to do?
00:08:56
Speaker
I'm like, I want you to go and score a goal!
00:08:59
Speaker
It's not...
00:09:00
Speaker
I want the game to be won.
00:09:02
Speaker
The absolute fear of losing possession is such a problem because the whole point is we started wanting to play better on the counter where teams came up and we'd hit them on the counter.
00:09:15
Speaker
And now we seem to have reverted back just like, oh, we can't do that.
00:09:18
Speaker
And it was just baffling to watch.
00:09:21
Speaker
But again, its biggest crime is just how boring it's gotten.
00:09:25
Speaker
And like, I would understand if we've lost like attempting to win, I'd have felt better.
00:09:30
Speaker
And it's like going to be like, oh, that's good.
00:09:31
Speaker
It's two draws in a row.
00:09:33
Speaker
And I'm like, nah, man, we're not going to get pretty little draws.
00:09:36
Speaker
And like, I understand that I still feel like what I said last time is promotions getting to a point.
00:09:42
Speaker
It's just a little bit out of reach now, right?
00:09:45
Speaker
And I said how important this Christmas period is going to be.
00:09:48
Speaker
And I was correct.
Evaluating Christmas Period Performance
00:09:49
Speaker
Because you're looking at Coventry with 52 points, mate.
00:09:53
Speaker
We have 33.
00:09:56
Speaker
We described it coming into the period as make or break.
00:10:00
Speaker
And if you summarise the games that we've had across this period...
00:10:06
Speaker
We broke.
00:10:07
Speaker
There's no other way to put it.
00:10:09
Speaker
I lost to Oxford.
00:10:12
Speaker
Sure, a draw to Birmingham who haven't lost a game at home in like 38 games is maybe slightly more forgivable.
00:10:21
Speaker
And then, you know, disappointing performance today.
00:10:24
Speaker
It's just, yeah.
00:10:26
Speaker
I mean...
00:10:27
Speaker
I mean, I saw a stat before, you know, I don't want to get ahead of ourselves too much.
00:10:31
Speaker
I saw a stat before we came on about our next opponent, Middlesbrough, that said it's now been seven hours of football since they scored a goal.
00:10:40
Speaker
Now, realistically speaking, after today, you know, three days of turnaround until Sunday, can we even possibly predict anything for that game other than the most boring nil-nil you've ever seen?
00:10:53
Speaker
No, or it's going to be turned around.
00:10:56
Speaker
I'm still baffled that Armour is still top scorer, by the way, for the championship.
00:11:01
Speaker
And it just feels like a lifetime ago.
00:11:03
Speaker
And then you look at all these exciting games that have happened around us, you know, Pompey getting batted 5-0, which we always love to see.
00:11:08
Speaker
But, you know, you've got Watford beating Birmingham 3-0, Preston beating Sheffield United 3-0.
00:11:13
Speaker
Oh, sorry, Sheffield Wednesday, which is, you know, Sheffield United beating Leicester 3-1.
00:11:17
Speaker
And, like, we were those exciting scoring games.
00:11:20
Speaker
Like, Oxford, since they beat us, they didn't go on a run after that.
00:11:23
Speaker
They lost twice in a row.
00:11:24
Speaker
They lost today to Ipswich.
00:11:25
Speaker
Like...
00:11:26
Speaker
It just seems so bizarre that we were kind of, you know, and I don't, again, like, do we want to get behind the conspiracy theory?
00:11:35
Speaker
What you mentioned earlier, we were chatting off stream, which is like, you know, is this some sort of like directive from the top?
00:11:43
Speaker
Because people are talking about, you know, the new manager bounces over and it's supposed to be seven games.
00:11:49
Speaker
I made that joke last episode.
00:11:50
Speaker
But I just don't get why he's having to change.
00:11:55
Speaker
At this point, it's all about managing these minutes.
00:11:58
Speaker
They've managed the minutes so poorly that it doesn't matter if Sienza's only, oh, well, we've managed to get Sienza on the field for all four games.
00:12:05
Speaker
Great.
00:12:05
Speaker
And how many have we won?
00:12:08
Speaker
I'd rather have him played 90 minutes, us won at least a game, and then him gone out for two or three games and us drawn or lost another two.
00:12:16
Speaker
At least I've been slightly more excited than just the most poor draws.
00:12:20
Speaker
The theory being right, that we've lost this dynamic edge that we had under Tonda, and now maybe we've reverted to what people call it a very Sports Republic style, right?
00:12:33
Speaker
And is there some sort of involvement from higher up to...
00:12:38
Speaker
that's sort of causing this and making these things happen.
00:12:44
Speaker
But actually, I think if you think about it and observe it, it's not really that, in my opinion.
00:12:53
Speaker
I know I put that out there, partially joking to you, Zach, but I think when you observe it, it's pretty clear that...
00:13:01
Speaker
It was unsustainable in the first place, and we just don't have it anymore.
00:13:05
Speaker
Part of that was shock and awe, right?
00:13:07
Speaker
And, you know, there's video on that now, right?
00:13:11
Speaker
Other teams can go on and see what they start off strong and batter out the gate.
00:13:15
Speaker
So here's how you sort of mark them out of the game for that.
00:13:18
Speaker
You saw it with the comeback from West Brom.
00:13:19
Speaker
right like they realized that we slowed down the second half and then they came out guns blazing managed to you know peg us back a little bit and then we're sat there having to hold on to that win and then that was what like our last win and then since then it's just sort of just been just painful actually i think the real answer more condemningly than that is that it's what's happened to the
00:13:42
Speaker
I guess all of our managers, right, is where they want to bring this exciting, dynamic football that scores loads of goals.
00:13:49
Speaker
And it's like, great, but we can't just outscore teams all the time.
00:13:53
Speaker
We can't rely on scoring three goals.
00:13:55
Speaker
We need to shore up the defence.
00:13:56
Speaker
And then it's like, well, all of a sudden, to shore up the defence, we've just got all of these defenders on the pitch.
00:14:02
Speaker
And it's like, well, actually, that's just not working for me anymore.
00:14:06
Speaker
Like, if...
00:14:09
Speaker
Do you say we need better defenders or do we just need a change of formation entirely?
00:14:13
Speaker
Both of those things, probably.
00:14:16
Speaker
It's a struggle to get players now who are so used to playing specific positions to go back to what they were before.
00:14:23
Speaker
You think about the most effective, the meta, right?
00:14:27
Speaker
The most effective tactic in football for...
00:14:31
Speaker
decades has been a four-at-the-back formation, right?
00:14:36
Speaker
And one of our favourite catchphrases on the show for a long time is, if it ain't broke, don't fix it.
00:14:41
Speaker
Why, all of a sudden, are we playing a three-back?
00:14:44
Speaker
Three centre-backs and two full-backs.
00:14:46
Speaker
Three or a five-back, however you want to look at it.
00:14:48
Speaker
It's just...
00:14:51
Speaker
it's what slows things down, right?
00:14:53
Speaker
And sure, one of the things that was happening a lot today and has been happening, sort of being a trademark of Tonda, is one of those three defenders takes the liberty to stroll up the pitch and drag the ball forward and almost step into midfield.
00:15:09
Speaker
And today, normally it's Harwood-Bellis, sometimes it's Wood.
00:15:12
Speaker
Today, it was Stephen's turn to, you know, take up that mantle and try and drive the game forward.
00:15:17
Speaker
But at the end of the day,
00:15:20
Speaker
there are other people that I would prefer to drive up the pitch than Jack Stephens.
00:15:24
Speaker
And that's no disrespect to Jack Stephens.
00:15:26
Speaker
He was... I think he had a very good game today.
00:15:29
Speaker
He was very captain-y on the pitch.
00:15:32
Speaker
Agreed.
00:15:32
Speaker
I think he was just a... He was probably best to have seen him play in a while.
00:15:37
Speaker
And, you know, even if he's taking a shot on, at least he's throwing.
00:15:39
Speaker
But then why would you not have...
00:15:41
Speaker
Like an actual player who, you know, like, why can't we have on the pitch all at the same time Archer, Armstrong, Azaz, Sienza, and Fellows, right?
00:15:55
Speaker
And play a four-back.
00:15:56
Speaker
That would just, you know, it would be that extra option.
00:15:58
Speaker
It would be the extra pass.
00:16:00
Speaker
And like the amount of times today that Archer did receive the ball and tried to flick it onto someone who wasn't there,
00:16:06
Speaker
And it's infuriating.
00:16:07
Speaker
I'm like, why are you flicking it?
00:16:08
Speaker
Just grab the ball and shoot.
00:16:09
Speaker
You know there's no one else there, but it's because he's a player who plays better as a striker with another striker with him.
00:16:17
Speaker
And we know that about him.
00:16:18
Speaker
That has always been the case.
00:16:19
Speaker
It's the same with Adam Armstrong.
00:16:21
Speaker
He plays better and scores goals.
00:16:22
Speaker
Sure, he scored goals this season.
00:16:24
Speaker
Do you know when he scores better?
00:16:25
Speaker
When one of the wingers steps inwards and plays like another striker partnering him to give him the ball.
00:16:32
Speaker
Like, it's crazy.
00:16:34
Speaker
Like, I'm not saying that 4-4-2 is the only way to play football, right?
00:16:40
Speaker
We're past that, and there's so many, like, iterations on it.
00:16:43
Speaker
I'm just saying, if our players...
00:16:46
Speaker
If our attacking players play better in a different shape, why are we so stuck in this formation that, I mean, it hasn't consistently worked any of the times that we've tried playing it?
00:16:59
Speaker
Or just like maybe play players in their positions because to my knowledge, Fellows isn't a right back.
00:17:06
Speaker
Yeah.
00:17:08
Speaker
Crazy.
00:17:08
Speaker
And I get like, when it worked, it works, but like the crux of it is at least
Should Southampton Change Their Style?
00:17:13
Speaker
it needs to change.
00:17:13
Speaker
Like I don't want us to be looking at like, I think that's the other thing, you know, I know that you've talked big about philosophies, but it's like you look at Ruben Amarin, like refusing to change his style, they're just man you.
00:17:24
Speaker
proceeding to topple down the table and then like, you know, have a bit of a good run.
00:17:28
Speaker
And then it turns out that he had, they had one good game where he changed his style.
00:17:32
Speaker
And the fact that it's so insanely confidential.
00:17:34
Speaker
It's not similar about his rigid style that's bad.
00:17:37
Speaker
It's a three at the back formation.
00:17:43
Speaker
But like, I just don't know because what I worry is that, you know, I know we talk about it being a conspiracy theory, but what I do worry about is that, okay, so he ended up with somebody instead of Beckett, right?
00:17:54
Speaker
I still think that, you know, given what he's done so far out of this season, he's been our most successful manager for forever, right?
00:18:01
Speaker
Yeah.
00:18:02
Speaker
It is what it is.
00:18:03
Speaker
But what...
00:18:04
Speaker
I don't quite get it.
00:18:06
Speaker
I don't think it would have mattered who we brought in.
00:18:08
Speaker
I somehow feel like we would end up falling to three in the back because I'm wondering if they even know how to play in a different way anymore.
00:18:15
Speaker
That's genuinely what it feels like.
00:18:17
Speaker
They haven't been told, this is how you're going to do this, this is how you're going to do that.
00:18:22
Speaker
Or it's just, you're right, it was working really, really well.
00:18:24
Speaker
And because of the unsustainability of it, it's now dropped off because they're all tired.
00:18:28
Speaker
Well, I mean, the reasons I've heard is that he feels without that three-at-the-back structure that we'd leak goals.
00:18:34
Speaker
And the answer to that is maybe we just need better centre-banks that can play as only... You know, if we need three of them because that's how they collectively strength, maybe we just bring in some that we only need two of to free up something to be a bit more creative.
00:18:49
Speaker
And there you go.
00:18:51
Speaker
But because of how many centre-backs we have, does it feel like we're going to swap them out anytime soon?
00:18:56
Speaker
No.
00:18:57
Speaker
We're day one into the window and we're already apparently getting a goalkeeper for Bayern Munich, whatever.
00:19:03
Speaker
Sure, I'll believe it when it's on paper until that point.
00:19:06
Speaker
I just know that it's everyone trying to drum stuff up.
00:19:09
Speaker
And that's, that's the, bear in mind, Baz had a really good save today.
00:19:12
Speaker
But you also, you know, since they have sent me a text mugging him off with a comment from YouTube that was like, that's great.
00:19:18
Speaker
If he could just like come on the box and do it more often, that'd be, that'd be grand.
00:19:23
Speaker
And like, you've got to say, well, he had a good game, he had a good game and that was a good game to me.
00:19:29
Speaker
I've got to say, that's one thing that would probably help push towards back four though, right?
00:19:34
Speaker
Because I've never seen someone who's stuck to their line.
00:19:37
Speaker
as Gavin Bozzunu when it comes to crosses and set pieces.
00:19:41
Speaker
McCarthy is much better at that and managing his box and coming and claiming it.
00:19:47
Speaker
It's just a shame about the entire rest of his game.
00:19:50
Speaker
Yeah, and also you've said things like he's much better at that and I genuinely remember him running out and then them pipping it over the top of him and it just rolling into the box.
00:19:59
Speaker
That's why I hit the post and he just kind of forgot.
00:20:03
Speaker
But you've got to think that if you've got a goalkeeper that's going to come and claim corners successfully with a high success rate, that would A, shore up the fewer defenders that we could muster on the pitch, and B, give the players more confidence to play in a four-back formation.
00:20:21
Speaker
Sure, they are used to playing in a three-back, but Stevens has played in a four-back
00:20:27
Speaker
before for us.
00:20:28
Speaker
Harwood Bellis played in a four-back formation for us and got promoted from this league.
00:20:36
Speaker
So do you reckon with a new keeper that might be why?
00:20:40
Speaker
Do you reckon it's just extra defence for Baz?
00:20:42
Speaker
There's so much we don't know, but you're right.
00:20:45
Speaker
That was the problem.
00:20:46
Speaker
And also, Tonda would have paid attention to what happened to Will Still when he went four at the back.
00:20:51
Speaker
And every other time we tried to do anything like, oh, like that time that Martin brought on like Suleymane and switched things around.
Timing for Style and Formation Changes
00:20:57
Speaker
And then immediately, what, seven minutes into the game, collapsed back, brought him off, tried to go back to what it was before.
00:21:04
Speaker
And like, you got to wonder, you know,
00:21:07
Speaker
How, you know, when is the right decision to go, well, actually, let's massively change things up now.
00:21:12
Speaker
And then, you know, if it's a risk and it pays off massively, happy days.
00:21:15
Speaker
If we go into a game, we do 4-0, all it's going to do is then perpetuate, well, we should just not do that.
00:21:23
Speaker
Well, I mean, let's try and come at it from a different viewpoint slightly, right?
00:21:28
Speaker
Because five changes today.
00:21:30
Speaker
Big changes.
00:21:31
Speaker
But the same formation.
00:21:33
Speaker
Yep.
00:21:34
Speaker
Of those five changes, right, Yeller looked very good.
00:21:38
Speaker
I think he had a good game.
00:21:40
Speaker
Matsuki looked good and promising.
00:21:44
Speaker
Almost looked like he was fighting a bit too hard.
00:21:47
Speaker
Needed to chill out a bit.
00:21:49
Speaker
Some of his tendencies to... The thing that we talked about in his profile, right, about where he was like, randomly take shots on that he's never going to score.
00:21:57
Speaker
And that paid off for him like once this season.
00:22:00
Speaker
Really don't want it to happen again.
00:22:02
Speaker
But then again, maybe I would have liked to have seen more shots.
00:22:04
Speaker
Yeah, I definitely wanted more shots.
00:22:07
Speaker
Cam Bragg came in and I think was excellent in midfield and also good at picking the ball up and trying to drive the ball forward.
00:22:16
Speaker
Um...
00:22:17
Speaker
Archer didn't receive the service that he needs.
00:22:23
Speaker
And when he did, it was too busy to try and flick the ball.
00:22:25
Speaker
But to his credit, it was also marked by two blokes who were the size of three blokes more than him.
00:22:32
Speaker
When it comes to that, though, I know we've talked about this and how over and over you've got different strikers who have their different profiles in this than the other.
00:22:41
Speaker
Is it not up to them just a little bit, mate, to adapt their game?
00:22:44
Speaker
Yeah, definitely.
00:22:45
Speaker
Because it does feel like that is always the gat of JL Freecard for Archer and previously Downs and stuff.
00:22:50
Speaker
It's like, oh, you know, well, we're treating Downs like Ross Stewart, but he's actually more like an Archer than Armstrong.
00:22:57
Speaker
Yeah, but also the reason they're kicking the big ball at Downs is because he's tall.
00:23:02
Speaker
Yeah, he should be doing work to adapt his game to that, and that's fine.
00:23:09
Speaker
But also, that's the same argument as, why can't we play someone that's not Jack Stephens to make these darting forward runs, right?
00:23:16
Speaker
Like, do you know, it's just... And I wholeheartedly agree with
Individual Performances vs. Team System
00:23:21
Speaker
you on that as well.
00:23:21
Speaker
Square pegs around holes.
00:23:23
Speaker
But so, you know, of those changes, and I can't even remember who the fifth would be,
00:23:29
Speaker
You've got Matsuki, Archer, Jalert, Bragg were the changes.
00:23:35
Speaker
So I think you said five, but in actuality, there was four.
00:23:39
Speaker
Well, I said it because Sienza didn't start the last game.
00:23:41
Speaker
He did this time.
00:23:42
Speaker
Sienza didn't start the last game, but started this game and was okay.
00:23:46
Speaker
So that's four players coming in, four players who I think individually had pretty good performances.
00:23:53
Speaker
So if all four changes had good performances and we still didn't win...
00:23:58
Speaker
then it's the system that's broken and not the players, right?
00:24:02
Speaker
That's as objectively as I can look at it.
00:24:06
Speaker
Subs changed a few things, though, right?
00:24:07
Speaker
You said when they brought the big guns, when we brought on Tom Fellows and Armour, we had a bit of, you know, a spell of dominance, but that spell of dominance didn't really amount to anything.
00:24:18
Speaker
It was just sort of... We had a couple that came close and then got a couple of corners that almost came close and...
00:24:25
Speaker
Yeah, it's the set-piece thing again.
00:24:27
Speaker
We went through this period where we were doing really well with them.
00:24:30
Speaker
We were never going to do well from a delivered corner or a set-piece against Millwall because their goalkeeper was about eight foot tall.
00:24:40
Speaker
Their number six centre-back looked like they pulled him straight out of the Rugby World Cup.
00:24:46
Speaker
He was an absolute tank and about six foot three.
00:24:49
Speaker
And were entirely reliant, realistically, on Taylor Harbour-Bellis to be the one to always score those set pieces at this point.
00:24:55
Speaker
Yeah.
00:24:57
Speaker
And I joke, we queued up outside the players' car park today and met the players as I came in and chatting away to them as they were signing the kids' autographs and taking photos.
00:25:07
Speaker
And I said to Harbour-Bellis, I was like...
00:25:09
Speaker
you're on to beat Armour's goal-scoring record at this rate, aren't you?
00:25:13
Speaker
And he sort of laughed it off and went a fair way away from that.
00:25:15
Speaker
And, you know, not as far away as you think.
00:25:19
Speaker
He had three shots today, one of which was on target.
00:25:22
Speaker
That is 25% of the total shots taken for our team.
00:25:26
Speaker
That is the reality of the situation.
00:25:28
Speaker
And again, of the other 75, at least one of them was Jack Stephens.
00:25:32
Speaker
So, like, it's just, yeah.
00:25:35
Speaker
Do you know how many shots that Archer had the entirety of the game, mate?
00:25:40
Speaker
None?
00:25:41
Speaker
One.
00:25:42
Speaker
It was off target.
00:25:43
Speaker
Yeah, all right.
00:25:45
Speaker
Was that the volley that he hit Rose Ed with?
00:25:48
Speaker
I believe so, yes.
00:25:49
Speaker
It's just... It's just... Maybe we just play a shape that puts... Instead of a shape that encourages our defenders to strike the ball, which is fine and great, maybe we just put players to do that that...
00:26:05
Speaker
are more suited to that.
00:26:07
Speaker
And, you know, if you want to play Cameron Archer, that's fine.
00:26:10
Speaker
But if you're playing him against two 6'4 centre-backs, maybe just let him run off the shoulder because chances are he's got them beat for pace, right?
00:26:19
Speaker
Like, maybe let's not keep knocking the same ball up to him in the middle of the park that he's never going to win.
00:26:25
Speaker
Or if he does win, he's only going to bounce off of him to the absolutely nobody around him.
00:26:29
Speaker
It's just... I'm finding it very hard because it...
00:26:35
Speaker
I think if you break down the individual performances, of all the changes, I think Archer was the worst.
00:26:42
Speaker
He definitely struggled.
00:26:44
Speaker
Agreed.
00:26:46
Speaker
I find it very hard to blame anything other than the system because I think I saw the players trying.
00:26:50
Speaker
I saw the players making the move.
00:26:52
Speaker
I saw them putting it in.
00:26:53
Speaker
Is it also just we're not that good anymore?
00:26:56
Speaker
We're not good enough.
00:26:57
Speaker
I keep saying, it's the beating around the bush we constantly do and it's the thing that baffles me when you look at Saints from the outside in.
00:27:05
Speaker
And Saints from the outside in is a bunch of pundits sat in a room, like anyone from Sky Sports, for example.
00:27:12
Speaker
There's no disrespect.
00:27:13
Speaker
I can do their job.
00:27:14
Speaker
But like,
00:27:15
Speaker
When they're all, what they know of Southampton is that we are a demoted team.
00:27:20
Speaker
Some of those members were part of the promotion squad under Russell Martin.
00:27:23
Speaker
Some of them have been, had good spells elsewhere.
00:27:25
Speaker
You know, when they talk about Archer being a £15 million strike on the bench that had a little bit of success on the Sheffield United and like Villa and whatever.
00:27:33
Speaker
And they talk about all of the money spent and what we should expect from Azaz and Fedos.
00:27:37
Speaker
Like Azaz has scored a bunch of goals.
00:27:39
Speaker
Armstrong in the Championship has scored a bunch of goals.
00:27:41
Speaker
That is correct.
00:27:43
Speaker
But the collective unit of what Southampton Football Club is in comparison to what people's perception of us is that we're not actually as good as we'd like to think.
00:27:53
Speaker
And it's baffling that when you get people
00:27:54
Speaker
come in.
00:27:55
Speaker
What we need is a strong manager to come in and it's like, we've done that.
00:27:58
Speaker
We do that.
00:27:58
Speaker
We keep bringing in managers.
00:27:59
Speaker
We keep bringing up, you know, but none of them can really quite change the system and no one really is quite able to get the best out of the players.
00:28:06
Speaker
And, you know, the only real player that I feel like doesn't need the coaching is Sienza.
00:28:10
Speaker
And that's again, because that man seems to be driven by something else.
00:28:14
Speaker
Right.
00:28:14
Speaker
And like, who knows how sustainable that is realistically.
00:28:18
Speaker
I think that you're seeing that it's not, and that's why we're having to manage his minutes.
00:28:25
Speaker
He had the second most shots in comparison to Taylor Harbour-Bennis today.
00:28:29
Speaker
I don't think it wasn't his best game for us by any stretch of the imagination.
00:28:33
Speaker
But the fact of the matter is that taking him off
00:28:42
Speaker
you felt the atmosphere deflate in St.
00:28:46
Speaker
Mary's when they was like, and our substitution at halftime off Leo Sienza and on Azaz.
00:28:51
Speaker
And everyone was like, yeah.
00:28:53
Speaker
So I don't know.
00:28:55
Speaker
Obviously you didn't get to see it.
00:28:56
Speaker
Cause I, but Azaz's face mate was just like, cool.
00:28:59
Speaker
Okay.
00:29:00
Speaker
Like I'm so glad I'm really excited to get into this half knowing that everyone is mad that I've been replaced with another player.
00:29:07
Speaker
And like, that's got to happen.
00:29:10
Speaker
Like he scored a hat full of goals and, but also he seems to be a very hot and cold streaky player.
00:29:16
Speaker
And he, at the moment is on a cold streak, but to his credit, he came on and he was, he was pretty decent when he came on.
00:29:23
Speaker
He had a couple of,
00:29:24
Speaker
decent through balls and a couple of good chances created, but not enough, not enough to do anything other than draw nil nil.
00:29:34
Speaker
And that's maybe the most deflating thing of all, right?
00:29:37
Speaker
It's the lack of urgency.
00:29:38
Speaker
Like you're looking at five minutes before the end of the game.
00:29:41
Speaker
Seven minutes added on.
00:29:42
Speaker
I didn't feel like in those seven minutes we were going to score.
00:29:44
Speaker
And then they're doing the thing where you were talking about the passing back between the centre-backs for a solid, like, I don't know, like 30 seconds to a minute.
00:29:50
Speaker
And you're like, there is like four minutes left on this clock.
00:29:53
Speaker
You need to move that ball forward towards the goal.
00:29:55
Speaker
And it just wasn't happening again.
00:29:56
Speaker
Like one of the biggest crimes at the moment is we've won from this exciting dynamic team, which, which will seem to be on the absolute ascent where they've, they've seemed to have dropped off a little bit of a cliff and
00:30:08
Speaker
Like, I don't know if it's confidence wise.
00:30:10
Speaker
I don't know if it's, if it's tiredness wise or whatever.
00:30:13
Speaker
And then again, like their biggest crime being the fact that it's just really boring to watch on top of that.
00:30:18
Speaker
I think, I think it's just that the directive changed, right?
00:30:22
Speaker
Like Tonda came out in the press and said, we need to stop leaking goals.
00:30:27
Speaker
That's the next thing I'm working on.
00:30:28
Speaker
And so now our way of stopping leaking goals is... I would rather win and lose two games.
00:30:36
Speaker
I guess this is also, though, that he's right.
00:30:39
Speaker
And we're also hypocrites in the sense that this was also the whole problem with Russell Martin's football.
00:30:44
Speaker
We were able to score goals under Arsenal.
00:30:47
Speaker
They weren't pretty.
00:30:48
Speaker
They weren't great.
00:30:49
Speaker
They were usually Ryan Fraser in the 96th minute to get a draw or win.
00:30:53
Speaker
But we were able to score goals.
00:30:55
Speaker
But we would leak loads.
00:30:56
Speaker
And obviously, then once we got to the Premier League, it was a massive problem.
00:30:59
Speaker
The issue we've got now is, like, I don't look at our team.
00:31:02
Speaker
And even if we get to the playoffs...
00:31:03
Speaker
I don't think we look like a Premier League squad.
00:31:05
Speaker
Like, I don't think, you know, again, like, I don't want to mug off Oxford United.
00:31:10
Speaker
Like, we completely underestimated them and they put us to the sword, but they've gone on to lose both games after playing us and we completely underestimated them.
00:31:18
Speaker
And it's like, we also watched us play in the Premier League last year with a handful of these players that were still there.
00:31:24
Speaker
And yeah, OK, we've spent some money on supposedly good championship players that are supposed to have strengthened the squad and stuff.
00:31:29
Speaker
But a lot of the core is what we talked about early in the season is far more the same than we would like it to be.
00:31:38
Speaker
And it's not that I have any disrespect for the vast majority of the players we have, but the reality of the situation is we are not as good as we think we are.
00:31:47
Speaker
And we're not as good as the perception of us is.
00:31:51
Speaker
And it's going to be tough to take.
00:31:52
Speaker
But I don't see us getting out of the championship this year with what's happening at the moment.
00:31:58
Speaker
And that might change.
00:31:59
Speaker
We might go on a massive run.
00:32:01
Speaker
But even if we go on a massive run, I'm not going to be able to not think about that massive patch at the beginning of the season and this patch now where when it's mattered most,
00:32:12
Speaker
we've kind of just gone, oh, we've run out of gas.
00:32:15
Speaker
Yeah.
00:32:16
Speaker
Or maybe we're overthinking it and maybe they're all just knackered from Christmas.
00:32:20
Speaker
Definitely.
00:32:21
Speaker
And, you know, that's a factor in all... We've talked about it more than they probably do, to be honest.
00:32:25
Speaker
This is their job.
00:32:28
Speaker
I mean, look, at the end of the day, maybe not getting promoted this season is probably for the best because, you know, frankly, with how hot and cold we've been in this league,
00:32:41
Speaker
we'd be at risk of challenging Wolves for how dire our season is, right?
Southampton's Promotion Prospects
00:32:46
Speaker
So it would likely be.
00:32:47
Speaker
So maybe another year in the championship to get it sorted out properly.
00:32:51
Speaker
Isn't the end of the world.
00:32:53
Speaker
I sort of drive-by in Wolves there, but... Poor Wolves.
00:32:58
Speaker
They held the mighty Manchester United to a draw the other day, mate.
00:33:01
Speaker
I think I saw someone describe that as an absolute disgrace, that someone wasn't beating a team that terrible and that the manager should be sacked.
00:33:10
Speaker
Rob Edwards.
00:33:11
Speaker
Yeah, but he's taken charge because he knows when they go down, he's in charge of Wolves with probably a slightly bigger budget than he expects.
00:33:21
Speaker
But it's not as easy to go down and go back up as it used to be.
00:33:24
Speaker
And I think you've got to look at a team like Sunderland to show...
00:33:29
Speaker
man, this is what we could have done if we'd had the planning.
00:33:32
Speaker
And the thing is, is what's not going to happen, what's going to start to happen again, which we've already kind of like thrown around conspiracy theories in this episode, is people are going to look past the manager and they're going to start looking at
00:33:45
Speaker
the institution again, right?
00:33:47
Speaker
And you're going to start to get the criticism of Sports Republic come back up if we're not able to recapture that form.
00:33:52
Speaker
And again, like we always knew it was going to be unsustainable because again, you can't have a guy just live at Staplewood nonstop, eat, breathe, whatever, football.
00:34:00
Speaker
And also you can't expect that from the players.
00:34:02
Speaker
They've got to have lives and stuff.
00:34:04
Speaker
But I just think you're right.
00:34:05
Speaker
We're probably going to need maybe some more time to rebuild.
00:34:08
Speaker
We're going to need time to gel because as much as I'm a big fan of sort of like
00:34:15
Speaker
big fan of Leo, big fan of some of the individual performances, it doesn't seem like you look at our squad and go, that's something special.
00:34:24
Speaker
Right?
00:34:25
Speaker
Like, the way you're looking at teams like Coventry right now, they're always trying to find a way.
00:34:31
Speaker
And even to an extent, like, I know Middlesbrough have already struggled, but obviously, like, after Rob Edwards left, it was like he hadn't really left.
00:34:37
Speaker
And that's when you realise there's like a togetherness in the team far more than elsewhere.
00:34:41
Speaker
And I think that as much as I love Southampton and I love Saints, you know, there doesn't seem to be that quite level of like, we are all in this.
00:34:49
Speaker
We all want to do better.
00:34:50
Speaker
We all want to, you know.
00:34:52
Speaker
I don't know if you get what I'm putting down here.
00:34:55
Speaker
But like, it just feels a bit weird, right?
00:34:59
Speaker
I just think it's got to be baby steps.
00:35:01
Speaker
Like, like I say, we went to the ground early today and I'll say that
00:35:06
Speaker
all of the interactions with players and the overall atmosphere was leaps and bounds ahead of the last time we went to the stadium at a ridiculous time of the day to do the same thing.
00:35:18
Speaker
Of course.
00:35:19
Speaker
There's still a lot of people in the back.
00:35:21
Speaker
Yeah.
00:35:23
Speaker
But even from the players, they seem happier together and more together than they have been.
00:35:30
Speaker
It still feels like it's coming together.
00:35:34
Speaker
And...
00:35:35
Speaker
I mean, look, we can only wait and see what January brings, right?
00:35:42
Speaker
And, you know, we're probably in for a busier window than Spores was willing to let on to.
00:35:51
Speaker
And also, mate, clean sheet.
00:35:54
Speaker
that's I guess a benefit we can take as you said, undefeated at home for a while it's not all doom and gloom, it's just like it's riding this emotional roller coaster of like being it's a week where we wanted 9 points and actually we got 2 so it's tough it's tricky it's alright though, we've got another game coming up that's it mate, we've got such short
00:36:23
Speaker
That's it.
00:36:24
Speaker
Like an incredibly short turnaround and, you know, maybe we can beat Middlesbrough.
00:36:28
Speaker
Who knows?
00:36:29
Speaker
We'll see.
00:36:31
Speaker
Maybe we'll talk about it before, but I'll tell you what, mate, that is all we've got time for tonight.
00:36:37
Speaker
Can you believe we've waffled on for all this time?
00:36:39
Speaker
No.
Listener Engagement and Feedback
00:36:42
Speaker
It turns out, listeners, if we don't have ad transitions, we just forget how long the episode's been going until at one point, one of us will look up at how long we've been recording and go, woo!
00:36:54
Speaker
Indeed.
00:36:54
Speaker
And that has certainly happened today.
00:36:57
Speaker
But look, that is all we've got time for today.
00:37:01
Speaker
Let us know how you're feeling in the socials, in the comments.
00:37:06
Speaker
Let us know.
00:37:06
Speaker
We are GSPN Southampton everywhere on Blue Sky, X, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube.
00:37:14
Speaker
Hit us up, drop a like, comment, subscribe, all of those things.
00:37:18
Speaker
We love hearing from you.
00:37:19
Speaker
We love interacting with you.
00:37:22
Speaker
We will be back soon.
00:37:23
Speaker
We will be heading back into whatever normality looks like as we work out what day of the week it is.
00:37:32
Speaker
I don't know.
00:37:33
Speaker
I've only been knowing how far... This is released, Greg.
00:37:37
Speaker
Friday.
00:37:39
Speaker
Good.
00:37:40
Speaker
Yeah.
00:37:40
Speaker
Because, of course, all good game reviews come on a Thursday.
00:37:44
Speaker
I don't know, mate.
00:37:45
Speaker
It's just...
00:37:47
Speaker
Is it any wonder I've lost the plot?
00:37:51
Speaker
For sure.
00:37:53
Speaker
And till then, though, everyone, have a wonderful day.
00:37:56
Speaker
Happy New Year, and we'll see you then.
00:38:03
Speaker
Your daily soccer podcast with the Global Sports Podcast Network.
00:38:10
Speaker
Happy New Year!
00:38:11
Speaker
Woo!