Transcript
DailySaintsPod: Hello and welcome back to the Daily Saints pod episode 500 and 22 with Zach who is your host today and Greg who unfortunately is not here.
DailySaintsPod: If you listened to our matchday preview, you will know that Greg is currently at the game with his family. His annual trip to the Hawthorns is part of family tradition for him. So he got to witness.
DailySaintsPod: An incredibly feisty draw. uh you know which probably isn't what he wants. I know that he is... He is calling it a game of missed chances. I think that's probably because he...
DailySaintsPod: it just you know He's all that way to to not quite see a win. Considering our first half performance, I would say we were really lucky to get something out of it.
DailySaintsPod: if I'm totally honest, even though... But admittedly, we did miss some quite big chances in the second half. If you're still reeling from that, my heart rate's only just dropped down from its peak, 110. We'll chat about what happened before the game. so The lineups came out.
DailySaintsPod: And obviously one of the biggest surprises is that there was no Leo Cienza in the squad. He didn't even make it into the matchday squad. He was replaced by Samuel Adoze. This was a bit of a blow. even when Cienza is not at his best.
DailySaintsPod: I think that... He brings a presence to the pitch and he will drag players up the pitch. And I think that we lacked that. in the first half.
DailySaintsPod: And it shows you his impact. Apparently, he had a fitness test this morning and did not pass. So hopefully... that Because it's only something small, he'll be back for the weekend. but we'll have to kind of make do because this was a game that we played withoutciieza without without Kasper Janda and without Kyle Lahren.
DailySaintsPod: One of the most, I think, surprising additions to the lineup was Divin Mubama. leading the strike force. His first league start for Saints in the week that I've also just done a profile for him,
DailySaintsPod: And yeah, Edozie came in for Scienza and for... For both of them, this was a really big chance. And they had opportunities that they could grasp. And.
DailySaintsPod: we'll talk about how I feel like. It ended up for the both of them. I was right in my pre -match prediction that it would be James Ward -Prowse lining up with Downes. Greg kind of expected...
DailySaintsPod: Bragg to come in because he's shown that he can have that physicality. And also because he he was talking about how James Ward Pryor was... at this point might just be a bit tired you know he's in his 30s he's played a lot of football and It wouldn't have been a bad shout, to be honest, considering that we kind of lacked a bit of energy in the park, at least in the first half. We picked that up.
DailySaintsPod: in the second half. And I actually think all of the... the feistiness, let's call it. probably if anything just fired us up a bit more But... it was you know it wasn't surprising to me and you know i'm quite happy to be right Matsuki on the right.
DailySaintsPod: As pair. for you. I... Don't know if anyone's heard, but they're looking to postpone the Asia Cup for a year due to security concerns in the Middle East. So selfishly, that's really good for us because it means so that we're going to probably keep Matsuki for a period of time that the club were expecting to lose him.
DailySaintsPod: I do feel bad for him, however, because it will be a while before he gets a chance to play for Japan in a a major tournament. However, it just means he needs to keep form. So if he continues to play really well, then you know it's not a problem for all of us.
DailySaintsPod: We were not... Playing in our awake kit. Me and Greg discussed this yesterday about Basically, all the kits kind of clashed with it, but we ended up playing in the third kit. which means that we wouldn't end up with the awake it curse. However, regardless.
DailySaintsPod: It was still, as we know, a stressful touchy game The rest of the lineup was pretty much what expected. And then we just dove straight into the game.
DailySaintsPod: And very early on. West Brom showed that they were up for it. And like, you know, Jimmy Jay Morgan had a really good chance in the fourth minute. struck it over the bar.
DailySaintsPod: We were. We were sort of just struggling to get into the game, but it felt like, especially the first sort of 10 minutes, we were... we were getting there and a lot of my notes are literally just sort of like we're struggling to get into it but we're kind of building up and we're struggling to get into it and we we're getting up a little bit more and by the 10th minute You're starting to see a little bit more movement than we'd expect. Mbamu was doing some good hold -up play.
DailySaintsPod: I think that... the biggest issue that I had was he was doing. that job as a target man just absolutely nowhere near where he needed to be which is in the goal And, you know, that that caused a problem as we, you know... didn't really do anything in the first half and when I get to the the halftime stats, it's it's pretty dire. it's This is why when Greg says that he feels like it's kind of points dropped, I... I kind of feel the opposite just because of...
DailySaintsPod: It probably feels like points dropped after the second half. But honestly, it's a miracle we only got away with you know conceding one in the first half, to be perfectly honest. There's a couple more strikes from distance. We're now went into the 11th minute. Peretz gets a hand to it.
DailySaintsPod: They end up with a corner but it goes nowhere. They end up getting blown for a foul. I don't know if it's because of the fact that one of the players was literally hugging Peretz or what. And. It's honestly... They're playing really, really good football at this point. It's, you know, they're they're good at closing us down. They're constantly having a go. They're having a pop and, you know, not not that a lot of shots are are necessarily troubling, perhaps.
DailySaintsPod: but they're they're breaking through uh they're getting through to us it's a it's a problem you can start to steal you start to this is when you start to get the feeling of like oh it kind of feels like one's coming and It's frustrating because it continues like that.
DailySaintsPod: for another. you know, six minutes. And then then we hit the 20th minute. And then. you know, Ryan Manning loses his man, which is a thing that I know a lot of people complain about. And again, when Manning is really, really good, he he is. good and when he's delivering balls into the box, it's fantastic. But he he isn't known for his defensive prowess.
DailySaintsPod: you know dozy struggled i think on the left he just seemed to kind of be bullied quite a lot And then off the back of that, Stephens had his leg cut out. and core West Brom player.
DailySaintsPod: Now, Greg in the stadium said that it didn't really look like anything. when you can see it on the TV, it's pretty plain as day. caught him it just happens you know it's it was a scrambling attempt to try and get rid of the ball and uh unfortunately you know he caught the player Baseball.
DailySaintsPod: You know, perhaps goes is completely the wrong way. If he'd been studying... I think you've probably been studying who potentially takes their penalties. However, He... went for something completely different to what he usually does. I think his last penalty was scored down the middle.
DailySaintsPod: obviously price. dove to the wrong way. He drove to his right. Guy put it to his his right. So, yeah. It's just frustrating, but it is what it is. You just have to accept those penalties when they... It was a well -struck penalty, long and short of it. And I was like, I kind of felt at that point it had been coming. Something had been coming. At this point, we've we've barely tested their keeper. And they've just been peppering us nonstop.
DailySaintsPod: So it was only... it was only going to take a slip. And considering how... sloppy we'd been. Hmm. it was only a matter of time I felt like at this point, this is where i I started to, me and Greg were talking back and forth. This is when we really started to feel that missing presence of Sienza.
DailySaintsPod: which is which is ironic because, you know... we We're kind of getting frustrated at a dozy. And if it wasn't for him, we probably wouldn't have picked up the draw. so Just think. That's just the way that football is sometimes, right? You get frustrated with a player. Greg is absolutely awful for it, where he'll mug a player off solidly. He used to do it with Mara quite a lot.
DailySaintsPod: and But it would be like in games where Mara would end up inevitably scoring. Well, the games where Mara didn't, he would kind of be like, I have faith that it was scored. So, yeah, obviously it's just, what you know, call it football poetry, call it what you want.
DailySaintsPod: more than likely coincidence. And it's it's frustrating because a couple of the times that we did kind of get the ball, when we got to the the edge, Zaz had no one to pass to. If he kind of passed to Mubama, Mubama would end up passing back or alternatively...
DailySaintsPod: he would be like ahead on his own. kind of try and turn around and there was a lot of shots to shoot and then it just never Nothing ever really came off for the entirety of the first half. It was just very, very frustrating.
DailySaintsPod: but I think it was just the way I think. Greg pointed out best where the attack just kind of felt disjointed. And with two different players coming in that haven't played you know regular minutes. one, you know, One. barely gets five. Edozie gets probably a bit more time than Mubama. Mubama's first start as well, remember?
DailySaintsPod: But yeah, just kind of. gets peppered around sideways, sideways, goes out for... for throw -ins this, that and the other. Apparently this was the fourth game this season in which we've conceded first, which I thought was quite interesting. That was according to the Sky Pundits anyway.
DailySaintsPod: But honestly, 30 minutes in, we're we're just being dominated by West Ham non -stop. I kind of hoped after we'd go a goal down, we'd have a bit of a reaction. We'd only at that point had...
DailySaintsPod: four touches in their box which is just just awful quite frankly it's just It was dire. It was like... Greg said it was like almost watching us go back in time. And up the Sky Sports Pundits said that this was probably the worst. that they've ever seen us play.
DailySaintsPod: At least this season. And and i'm I'm more than inclined inclined to agree with that. And yeah, it's just, it's it's frustrating. And then, you know, we get almost a half time and you can see this point like Tonda literally pacing.
DailySaintsPod: And the pundits point out as well that he is pacing on the sideline. He just wants to get the lads in. have a conversation and we have to do up to that point is not concede but But my word, do we...
DailySaintsPod: Do we get some sort of sloppy... There's some. we get We get off with a few, right? I think at one point, like, Schlotterbeck completely missed the ball and then it ends up almost being a goal. But luckily, they just didn't quite take their chances.
DailySaintsPod: West Brom are frustrated because they clearly want to take their chances. And. Yeah, you know, at one point I think there's there's there looks to be a foul on a dozy, but because he's going down so much, it's not given. The the ref will kind of get to towards the end of the game.
DailySaintsPod: I'm not going to go on a rant like Greg would. I just think that regardless of whether or not some of the decisions went our way, I don't think he was a very good referee. I just think that a lot of the decisions that were made, I'm not really surprised. If I was a West Brom fan, I'd be fuming. Downs probably should have picked up a card well earlier than he did. Matsky probably should have picked up a card.
DailySaintsPod: you know, There's lots of various different incidents. Obviously, it's hard to... So mug a professional off. in the moment, and it is a point. that is constantly raised by multiple people we've actually talked about it very recently uh we've been talked about in the comments on youtube about sort of The idea of bringing Varin is terrifying, mainly because of...
DailySaintsPod: you know, anyone that's kind of refereed in the Premier League. almost become reliant on the technology and then it's it's about accountability and decision making And we struggled to see that. uh But he he stood to his guns, regardless of whether or not they were good decisions, but it just kind of felt like they weren't. So I guess that's my segment. won't lay I won't leave it to the end.
DailySaintsPod: But yeah, we get to halftime. and My conversation and back and forth with Greg, we have we have a catch up quickly. And I think we both agree it was just sloppy from everyone. and It wasn't like any one particular player.
DailySaintsPod: The attack didn't get into groove and everybody else just wasn't. wasn't kicking into gear we've got you know passes We have so many... so much less possessions, so much less passes. But it's also like... accurate policies were usually quite good we managed to get our accuracy up quite high. We're able to complete a lot of them, just a lot of them just misplaced. We've got... players that are jumping on it and this is where we talk about if we have players that could have just a moment of magic when we have like a carl aaron and he's able to you know
DailySaintsPod: but score an absolute worldie that we don't kind of expect or Scienza to just drive the ball forward. those Those sometimes are enough. you know those are moments that can change the game for a squad of our strength you saw it with qpr in the last game right they managed to score against the run of play we would have been able potentially to do that but we we can sometimes rally around that and build
DailySaintsPod: And like again, all all the defence were picking up mistakes. Obviously, Stephens ended up conceding the penalty. It was an accident. i I don't think it's considering how...
DailySaintsPod: defensively solid we've been with him back in the side I'm not going to be too mad because it wasn't just him that wasn't doing the job right Manning is the guy that lost his man I'd say Bree probably did it right. At this point, this is what we start discussing. You know, there should probably be two changes at halftime.
DailySaintsPod: uh probably a dozy off, maybe move Matsuki into that position and bring Tom Fellows on and bring Mubama off and bring Dobbin on. because it just hadn't quite worked and i think at this point we we're frustrated because this encapsulated all of the feelings that everybody has about our lack of depth and especially in the striker position and especially sort of on that left wing.
DailySaintsPod: where, you know, we've kept , Edozie because we need him as a utility option. But when it comes down to him, having to kind of step up doesn't quite manage it. Bear in mind, this is halftime.
DailySaintsPod: Right, so that's why. Mubama, we were just look a little bit disappointed. But then again, he hasn't really had a lot. of of crosses in. When he has, it's been sort of... Matsuki and and Manning and Azaz tried his best to kind of...
DailySaintsPod: And I feel like it's just somebody that's not played a lot, somebody that's very rusty and sort of is lacking confidence. And I kind of feel like that's but probably the case of both of them. And it seemed that Azaz tried, but didn't quite trust Mbamah. So he would occasionally keep it for himself, but then not be able to quite line up. And then he'd just lose the ball anyway, which was frustrating because at least if we'd had a shot, we'd have a shot.
DailySaintsPod: So... We get to halftime. And if you're looking like possession wise, which, you know, as as as an ex -Russell Martin side, we know is the most important stat. We've managed 36 .4 % of the possession. Honestly, it probably feels lower. When it comes to shots, shots on target.
DailySaintsPod: And my favorite stat, XG, it's a 0 -0 -0 because we didn't manage a shot the entirety of that first half. We managed from, I think it was... In the... we did what We'd had four touches in the box by the 32nd minute. We managed one more.
DailySaintsPod: up to the 45th. So he managed five. touches inside the opposition box. At this point, Parraxas pulled off three saves. Admittedly, two of them weren't, you know...
DailySaintsPod: want a lot. We hadn't had any set pieces or anything like that. But it was just it was just difficult. in part Passes -wise, at this point, West Brom had almost had double. but you know,
DailySaintsPod: In comparison to what we'd be expecting, you know... We had. They had... Just... so much more of the ball, but also just so much... They were just the better side. I think that's the long and short of it. that you can I can sit and debate all of the stats, but...
DailySaintsPod: it was plain for everybody to see who watched that game. that they were just a much better side than we were. in that first half. And I think that they would they are going to, and currently are, ruining their missed chances. I haven't had a chance to look at any of the post -match.
DailySaintsPod: media. I think I managed to catch one of the interviews with the West Brom players who clearly were frustrated that they didn't win. But... Yeah, it was just it was just an incredibly frustrating first half. But we know we know what this team is capable of, right? Let's let's not remember Admittedly, I consider West Brom to be a significantly tougher opponent, but we were 3 -0 down against Leicester that game we won.
DailySaintsPod: We beat them. Admittedly, we don't have Shea Charles anymore. But we come out. And. We start to see some immediate, much better football immediately. we We've got them on you know the front foot. wherere We're the ones that are kind of... attacking and it's There's more chances in the sort of first five minutes of that half.
DailySaintsPod: than we'd managed the entirety of the first half. Whatever was said inside the dressing room clearly fired everybody up. The things that me and Greg were most surprised by is the fact that there were no changes. And i'm so I've never been so glad to to be...
DailySaintsPod: to be wrong. Put it that way. 52nd minute. Adozie manages to score. A scramble around of the box comes off the head of Matsuki. He manages to knock it in. admittedly probably also some poor defending from West from West Brom there wasn't you know any anybody on them and they're probably anybody on a dozy when they probably should have been And then all of a sudden, then we enter what I consider to be the, the,
DailySaintsPod: when the heat turns up, the the boiler pressure situation. So we have like a crazy spell with back and forth. Obviously we've scored. So we do the classic thing of... take our foot off the gas a little bit. or oral West Brom. more accurately, are at home and are fired up to, to you know, peg us back immediately.
DailySaintsPod: And there's a bunch of stuff. And at one point, you know, there's There's some. good defending that's taking place. We're able to sort of clear balls and get in. and and tackle before the shots go off.
DailySaintsPod: James Brie does well. And then at one point he goes down. This is the point that I think that... that they They say that it's a head injury. then from what I can tell, he he does quickly come back up.
DailySaintsPod: That then results in a bit of afters between Jack Stephens and the West Brom captain. Referee gets involved. I think the... West Brom fans took.
DailySaintsPod: bridged with the fact that potentially Bree got up so so quickly and also that Stephens was just, you know... a bit riled up and I even said to Greg at this point like he needs to be careful to not get himself carded and and sent off. This is war.
DailySaintsPod: But also... I feel like this is the... the sort of This is... not going to be beneficial. Just for West Ham, this is going to be beneficial for us. It's it' fired us up, right? There's a bit of fire in in our belly.
DailySaintsPod: you know that... Players like Stephens, James Bree, Flynn Downes all feed off of that kind of energy. You've just got to hope that it doesn't get taken too far. And...
DailySaintsPod: Yeah. You end up with James Breed takes a little bit of time off at the side. Waits to come back on. Obviously, what we've done is slow the the game down in the momentum for West Brom. And... Then we, so so that's when the booing starts, basically anybody involved in that. So Stevens and Brie get the.
DailySaintsPod: Get the most of it. And. Yeah, then we we just we come back around and we start. we start properly going to them. This is when Azaz really starts to come into the game. He has a chance to to Mubama.
DailySaintsPod: who misses by what can only be inches uh and then it continues to get quite feisty uh 64th minute bounds is very lucky to avoid a card Put it that way, there are a lot of people that are across.
DailySaintsPod: This is when I think my heart rate peaked at 110. This was the moment where like around this just kind of time where, you know, for a neutral, despite it being a one -all draw, it must have been absolutely fascinating, entertaining. We're just kind of...
DailySaintsPod: we're we're we're starting to... really step into what we'd expect from our team. And what if we'd had maybe two halves of football of doing, we probably would have come away with a win. And I can understand that's probably why Greg is so frustrated. But for me...
DailySaintsPod: ultimately we didn't and we were very very lucky to only be one nil down So yeah, then the the next kind of big event, you've got Mbama comes off for Dobbin. So a change we'd kind of predicted.
DailySaintsPod: I'm shit. feel bad for Obama. It was a bit of a struggle. Mainly... It's a big game to kind of be put in. Your first stop. for right like a way to West Brom a place that we struggled last season and it took a last but gasp equalizer.
DailySaintsPod: And... They are playing really, really well they're they're where they are on the table. on form. they need to be respected this isn't This isn't early last season West Ham, put it that way. they they are really I expect them very much to be around.
DailySaintsPod: the playoff places this year, just just from what we've seen today. If they can continue that against most other championship sides, they've got a win against West Ham in a very similar manner to to us.
DailySaintsPod: And as much as apparently that's not impressive anymore, according to the West Ham fans, you need to take it. you know you need to take the merit We consider it to be a really impressive win for us. It's an incredibly impressive win for them.
DailySaintsPod: as we kind of As this game goes on, I think me and Greg both noticed that Azaz has just really grown into the game. And this is when we're starting to see the the the home fans get riled up a bit more. This is when Matsuki gets away with one. in the sort of 72nd minute. He's definitely doing a bit of grabbing.
DailySaintsPod: I think the home of fans expect a yellow. I don't know if that's maybe why it's not given. you've also... in the 76th minute. Downs is finally carded. And as Greg always said, safest bet in football.
DailySaintsPod: uh i honestly i'm surprised it took that long and i think a lot of I can understand why West Brom fans would be annoyed by it. but also I think at this point the referee is trying to manage what he knows is quite a feisty game.
DailySaintsPod: So, hey -ho. We then end up in the 79th minute with Dobbin. doing what having a what i can only describe as generational miss where he has one -on -one with the keeper. I think maybe he just kind of...
DailySaintsPod: He just seems a bit frantic and kind of strikes it. And yeah, it just doesn't, unfortunately, you know, they they talk about how it was a really good save. I don't really know if I agree. I just think that if it. if you picked anywhere else or... either you know held the ball for maybe a second longer.
DailySaintsPod: Probably. would have been 2 -1 at that point. But it is what it is. You know, he's come on. He's... over the last couple of games really shown his merit.
DailySaintsPod: And, you know. Me and Greg have kind of had our doubts about it. But. he He's turning into at least a... It's nice to have all of these options, right? I think a lot of people thought Mbamah would be the second. It feels that Dobbin very much is at this point.
DailySaintsPod: So there, we then have a what I consider to be a game -winning save from Peretz as they try to kind of clip the ball in and he kind of has to get into an awkward position to be able to save it. And then we kind of head into the end of the game. with Matzki off and Fellows on.
DailySaintsPod: This, I think, is the change that Greg is most frustrated by because he thinks that if we put Fellows on... maybe 10, 15 minutes earlier, we'd have potentially had a bit more chance to like grow into the game.
DailySaintsPod: I don't know. i think it's I think it's difficult. It's a bit of a weird one that we kind of put him on in the last five minutes of the game. in his, you know... what is essentially Boyhood Club. you know, got a bit of a, got clapped by by the Hawthorns. Fair play.
DailySaintsPod: it Just, you know... kind of struggled. and didn't quite get like the crosses off that you probably wanted to. you know he was He was involved in the closing the seconds of the game where we kind of hoped we'd managed to get maybe one more ball into the box.
DailySaintsPod: And yeah, then it kind of came to an end. and Honestly, i'm I'm kind of... wet One all is... we should We should take that. It was a really, really tough game.
DailySaintsPod: We... we basically just didn't have a first half. so you took to go into the second half at a deficit. we and and you know muster up at least 10 shots in that second half after absolutely nothing.
DailySaintsPod: Yeah, I'd say that it is a point earned as opposed to two points lost. Obviously, if we had it our way, we'd win every single game. This is one of the games that we spoke about. It was probably one of the toughest.
DailySaintsPod: we'd expected it to be difficult. We know that our away form isn't the same as our home form. i think the fact that we were able to come back out and go very much toe to toe with them and you know increase getting the ball forward and...
DailySaintsPod: you know, win a few more tackles and, you know, really just. show the mentality that we want to have to... get up the table and and show what we've kind of seen from a Tonda Eckert team so far.
DailySaintsPod: It would have been lovely if we managed to. take one of those chances and get the winning goal. But ultimately, that's football and it was a really, really tough game. against a really really tough side Yeah, I think that's that's pretty much it.
DailySaintsPod: You know, I maybe expected probably, you know, Prince was on the bench, so we maybe expected him to to get a look in. But obviously maybe there were, you know, between him. And...
DailySaintsPod: Also, Barnaby Williams, I think obviously they might have taken an extra under -21 player with Sienza's injury. not being expected. Hopefully for the weekend, we'll potentially have maybe Kyle Lahren, hopefully Cienza.
DailySaintsPod: Who knows with Yanda at this point. we'll just have to wait and see But for a Tuesday night. to go to the Hawthorns, which is quite tough to do, against a very informed West Brom side.
DailySaintsPod: I think a draw. is is okay. It's not great. I'd have loved us to have won, but we also managed to draw against both Lincoln and Bolton. so yeah it is what it is
DailySaintsPod: Yeah. I think i've I've got nothing else to add, to be perfectly honest. Greg will obviously probably share a couple of his thoughts when we we next have a a chat. tomorrow
DailySaintsPod: So yeah. That's pretty much it for today. Thank you very much for listening. Thank you to everybody that's tuned in. We are on Facebook. We are on X. We are on YouTube. We are on Instagram, TikTok, all of the social media places. As I think of what we've pointed out before, we're we're pushing for subscribers on YouTube. So that'll be that'd be awesome if somebody could you know have a look and and subscribe. It's up to you.
DailySaintsPod: But yeah. Everybody. come on you say it's On to the next one. And we will see you in the next one.
