Russell Martin’s manager profile page on Wikipedia first makes you wonder why he doesn’t conduct StatsBomb seminars while wearing a turtleneck and sitting on a bucket.
At MK Dons, “his team scored after making 56 passes, a new British record at the time”. Then, “at the peak of the 2020-21 season, only Manchester City and Barcelona had a higher average possession of the ball in Europe. His team also had the most touches of the ball in the opposition area in League One…”
Stop!
“…despite mixed results throughout the season which left the club 13th in the table.
We hardly need to be reminded of the agony of suicidal passing, but Southampton appear to be a special case at the start of the Championship season.
For a brief moment last summer, Martin was offered the vacant spot on Filbert Street; a businessman who owns a delivery man like Brendan would certainly prolong the pain of relegation. Of course, the rumors turned out to be meaningless and a manager with special skills stepped in:
encrypted queue that only he can understand. Send the clowns
It may not be pretty so far, but it just works for Enzo Maresca. This time it brought the exciting sight of James Justin returning to the starting line-up following the international efforts of Wout Faes, starting on the right of our back three to once again spoil the previous image Sky match. Jamie Vardy replaces Kelechi Iheanacho; The remaining surprise was that Cesare Casadei was once again left on the bench behind Wilfred Ndidi. With this evidence, he may have to wait a little longer.
None of that mattered in the opening exchange, however, as Southampton began with the same calmness you might expect from a game of Campaign after six hours of work on a pneumatic drill. After six games, they have conceded 16 goals – and for the second game in a row, they have conceded a goal in the first minute here.
This time it belonged to Vardy, in the 21st second, after a careless pass from the left back allowed Mavididi to change the pass and shoot into the Goat’s net to increase the score to 1-0.
That summed up a silly opening 25 minutes from both sides – for the neutral team, a thrilling lack of composure, where it would be more surprising to see one streaky unicorn than five successful pass; For Leicester fans, it was a relief that Southampton’s mistakes proved funnier than ours.
However, we exchanged pleasantries:
First, the Saints gifted Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall possession which he gloriously converted into gold with a beautiful slide rule pass to Kasey McAteer at number 2; Then unfortunately Callum Doyle was forced at the other end by faking his own shadow and ultimately allowing the hosts to halve their deficit. That’s funny stuff. That’s when we finally found our footing. Harry Winks looks like a teacher trying to control an unruly class, and slowly things begin to take shape. It could and should have been more before we got a third goal just before half-time – this time it was a brilliant move that started with Stephy Mavididi getting around midfield and Ndidi pressing Use the dummy and finish like a classy Messi.
Southampton’s first half best summed up as 1) Gavin Bazunu made a lot of saves, 2) we wasted a lot of money but 3) still scored three goals.
The good, the bad
The second half was unfortunately quieter, ending in the 67th minute when Mavididi stole control of the home half, accelerated and finished with ease. It’s really strange
