Shame. Shame. Shame. Shame…
No guts. No pride. Not even a shred of self-respect. What happened three days ago will go down in history of football – only to it’s shameful pages. Still – that wasn’t merely a one-off disaster. No: nine-nil should definitely count as a symbol of it’s receivers’ regression.
Last Friday, it’s been exactly four years since Saints brought home a 1-1 draw from Anfield. In their first home game under Jürgen Klopp, The Reds struggled immensely to find an opening against the visitors’ defenses, managing only two shots on target the entire game and succumbing to a late equalizer. Christian Benteke would head home James Milner’s cross before Sadio Mané scrambled a goal after a flurry of headed flicks from a long distance free-kick. Soon enough, Southampton would also defeat Bournemouth and Sunderland, picking up two clean sheets and firmly entrenching themselves in the 7th place.
A lot things happened ever since. Anfield has become a Premier League graveyard. Benteke managed to break Crystal Palace’s transfer record only to go through a tragicomic decline, symbolized by his eventual loss of starting XI privileges to Jordan Ayew. Klopp and Milner lifted the Champions League with Liverpool, the latter also breaking the UCL assist record the season before his ultimate success. Mané was on the winning team too, picking up a Premier League Golden Boot in the meantime. Bournemouth paid small fortune for Dominic Solanke and Sunderland enjoyed a Netflix documentary only to drop to the League One.
And Southampton? Ronald Koeman, the architect of the aforementioned draw, has gone through a disaster at Everton before taking over the Dutch national team. During those years, the Anfield starting XI of Stekelenburg, Cédric, van Dijk, Fonte, Bertrand, Wanyama, Clasie, Davis, Mané, Tadić and Pellé has been effectively dismantled. One of it’s two remaining members has disgraced himself with a horrific tackle on Ayoze Pérez, costing the club a one-man down venture from the 12th minute of a battle against Leicester. And, of course – ten men who remained behind have disgraced themselves by suffering an unthinkable 0-9 demolition.
Those who departed are, by large, doing great. Mané, Tadić and van Dijk are nominated for Ballon d’Or. Pellè is earning a proper fortune in China. At the age of 35, Fonte has finally tasted the Champions League football with Lille. Wanyama has gone to the Champions League final with Spurs. Davis rejoined his beloved Rangers and is currently leading the club back to the Scottish glory under Steven Gerrard. Even Jordy Clasie has just oversaw the 4-0 win over PSV Eindhoven and flies high with AZ Alkmaar, albeit only as a squad player. Only Cédric and Stekelenburg can consider their four-year intervals a bit of a waste.
A photo from 2015: Clasie chases Firmino with Mané and Clyne watching.
The replacements plainly paled in comparison. Veteran Yoshida only used to be a squad player before being forced to step up. Towering Vestergaard played major part in 99 goals conceded by Gladbach in two Bundesliga seasons he spent at Borussia Park before moving to England. Højbjerg and Romeu had strong seasons at St. Mary’s in the past, but being utterly unchallenged by the lack of squad rivalry, they too have gone through a rough patch. While the form of senior professionals has hit the rock bottom, the young prospects of Bednarek, Valery and Ward-Prowse were unable to take the mantle on their own.
On Friday, the results of all those changes were horrifying. Losing every single second ball, put under heavy pressure, exposed thoroughly in the wide areas, Southampton collapsed catastrophically, allowing the greatest Premier League humiliation in the history of the competition. Ben Chilwell and Harvey Barnes were an absolute scourge down the left flank while Ayoze Pérez added another hat-trick against the Saints after scoring the previous one for Newcastle in April. Since Jamie Vardy, Youri Tielemans and James Maddison weren’t any worse either, Foxes’ dominant display has quickly turned into a grotesque hammering.
Unsurprisingly, some fans had enough after just 20 minutes. When Pérez powered his first goal with a thumping strike, small groups of home supporters were seen at the gates. Soon enough, that faction grew in numbers, ceding control over the ground to the visitors who, singing like there was no tomorrow, praised their ruthless team to heavens. Around the one-hour mark, Leicester’ sector has unleashed a flurry of white scarves, prepared in loving memory of Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha. Too bad that the Thai businessman could not receive a tribute from the home crowd – which, by that point, simply wasn’t there anymore.
A barrage of criticism followed right after the match. “Some of those players there is a disgrace” – said Jamie Carragher. “They just look naive” – added Gary Neville. In a post-match interview that turned into a post-match apology, Ralph Hasenhüttl called the fiasco a “no-performance”. Legendary Matt Le Tissier talked about “A total capitulation – a lack of any leaders or courage on the football pitch”. A scandalous video of a Turkish coach slapping all of his players in a dressing room after the game was making the rounds once again, this time with an appropriate caption. The remaining games of the weekend had nothing on the banter of this one.
But for the pulverized side, the match was merely part of a disheartening process. It’s been just two years since they’ve parted ways with Claude Puel. The Frenchman, widely accused of pursuing a boring style of play and having no remedy for the chronic lack of goals in the side now stripped of both Mané and Pellè. What they missed is that under Puel, the team has picked up very respectable 14 clean sheets, held Liverpool to goalless draws twice and advanced to the League Cup final, having outsmarted Liverpool again, this time with two 1-0 wins. And even in the light of an awful end of the season, the club finished eighth…
Boring, but efficient: Claude Puel’s SFC after beating Liverpool in the League Cup.
The season that followed quickly took a miserable turn. Led by the ex-Alavés boss, Mauricio Pellegrino, Saints have gone twelve games without a win. Their fans saw Watford, Burnley and Palace leaving the Hampshire with all three points. Soon after the Argentinian lost his job, the team would concede three in the first half at West Ham – the same West Ham who’ve been destroyed 0-3 by Puel’s Saints in London just eighteen month earlier. In the end, Mark Hughes-powered side has avoided the drop only by the virtue of winning the crucial six-pointer, away at just as inept and desperate Swansea City.
Around that time, the string of poor recruitment has started. Striker Manolo Gabbiadini enjoyed a strong start to his career in England but the rest of his story were just missed chances and forgettable appearances from the bench. Centre-half Wesley Hoedt did not come anywhere close to filling the van Dijk void, eventually settling for a loan to Royal Antwerp SC prior to the current campaign. Tricky winger Sofiane Boufal reportedly had a dressing room bust with Hughes, disappearing from the starting eleven before getting loaned out to Celta Vigo. And the club’s new record signing, £19 million forward Guido Carrillo? Sorry – who?
It’s difficult not to have sympathy for Ralph Hasenhüttl. The day this man packed his bags and booked a flight from Leipzig to Southampton, the damage’s already been done. Appointed during an eleven-game winless run, the Austrian boss has pulled off a good win over Arsenal and then went on to beat seven more opponents, securing Premier League status for the club without putting the fans through a nail-biting May finale. Nathan Redmond, James Ward-Prowse, even Shane Long – those are all players whose form has significantly improved under the Graz-born gaffer. Given the predicament – nothing more could’ve been asked of him.
But the recruitment issues do persist. Former Birmingham forward Ché Adams is yet to score a Premier League goal. Young winger Moussa Djenepo has won a Goal of the Month award for his mazy run in Sheffield but then suffered a long-term muscle injury. The permanent transfer of Danny Ings has been obviously a resounding success, but baring a loan of another young player, Kevin Danso, there were no more significant signings – meaning that Saints can hardly even shake up the personnel responsible for the greatest footballing disgrace in the club’s history. All that, while the ferocious beast of Manchester City awaits.
But at least there’s nothing to lose anymore…
Shot on Goal 