Southampton (a) – The Review

Random star performer

The Finnisher. Not much random about it, but the only star performer.

As a guy who grew up adoring a Scandinavian you could rely on to score whenever he was presented with a gilt-edged chance, it’s a familiar sensation for me when Teemu Pukki gets a clear opening with goal at his mercy. I’m not saying he is of the same calibre as Henrik Larsson but you back him to score more often than not when gets the chance to stare the keeper down.

I would have been far more surprised if Pukki hadn’t scored that goal in the second half and although he was fairly quiet for most of the game, he was the only player who looked like making the difference with Onel Hernandez having an off-night, Kenny McLean forced deeper by the momentum of the play and Todd Cantwell playing on the fringes.

Moment of the match

The concession of the opening goal was huge. James Ward-Prowse is a set piece specialist and scored a world-class free-kick to help defeat Watford a few days earlier, so giving away silly free kicks around the box is not a good idea when he’s around.

Then for the marking to be as dross as it was and Danny Ings to be allowed a running jump on the defenders inside the six-year box (zonal marking facepalm!) – despite the delivery being, admittedly, of very high-quality – is not good enough, especially at this level.

Southampton overran Norwich in the first half without carrying an incisive threat but that moment of slackness changed the game. Tim Krul’s furious reaction, which saw him berate his defenders for quite a while, said it all.

Farke watch

For such a forward-thinking, modern and progressive manager there’s one really admirable (for the most part) old-school trait about the man in the Parka: he sticks with a winning team – or in this case one which got a very creditable result against one of the league’s big guns.

That said, assuming Tettey was fit enough to start the game and play the opening 45 at least, would it have made more sense to go with his experience than Amadou, who looked a bit ragged at times against Arsenal – albeit that it’s still early days, of course, for him getting to play in his natural role.

The summer loan signing misplaced the odd pass and shanked a few shots against the Gunners, but in this game he looked spooked by Southampton’s high-press facilitated by Ralph Hasenhüttl’s 4-2-2-2 system.

Farke adapted by moving Amadou to create a defacto back five which served only to invite Saints even further on to Norwich, eventually yielding the second and ultimately winning goal.

The boss’ changes made a difference after the break but by then it was an uphill battle. The Austrian getting the better of Farke in the first half’s tactical battle proved decisive.

Biggest positive

Four points would’ve been a good haul from the last three fixtures (Everton away, Arsenal home, Saints away) when you looked at it at the start of the season and we are just one win from being right in touch with a host of teams who could easily be dragged into the battle.

That, and Pukki scoring again, are the two main crumbs of comfort.

Midweek moan

Southampton’s time-wasting tactics started very early in the game and they were fucking annoying. Ryan Bertrand proving an especially adept master of this dark art – but the main whinge has to be about Norwich being undone by two set pieces.

From the start of last season more than a third of the goals Norwich City and have let in (36/98) have been conceded from set pieces (thank you @ncfcnumbers for the stat). That’s just not good enough. The debate over the respective benefits and flaws of zonal and man marking has been done to death, but do Norwich need to look at the way they defend set plays in detail? The numbers would suggest so.

When you have just one fit, very Premier League-raw defender, it is perhaps permissible for assignments to go completely missed at set pieces, but not with a proper back four together again. It’s also worth noting, there were multiple times in the Arsenal game where balls into the box were causing problems with marking assignments lost or missed, and in particular I think of the moment where Krul missed it completely only for Onel to clear it off the line as a sign of the panic and indecision within the backline – so this is not just a one-off game where this has been an issue.

Norwich City just aren’t good enough to afford to give away goals on the cheap in this league. Cutting that out, or at least cutting down on it, could define our fate come May.

Atmosphere rating

I loved my first time in the away end with the Canaries diehards. The view was great and the singing and backing of the team was really good from start to finish. All that was missing was an equaliser to have made it a really satisfying and productive away trip. The level of conversation at half-time and during the game with those around me analysing what was going on was of a decent level too. Good craic and fine backing.

Summary

This performance was a bit of a flattener for morale after Everton and Arsenal. What’s really disappointing is Norwich didn’t give the best account of themselves, mainly in the first half, and against a beatable team, too. With Southampton having such a leaky defence we should’ve exerted far more pressure on their backline as that was the way to get at them.

The Saints won the midfield battle in the first half and that won them the game, but Norwich, after a decent opening five minutes or so, quickly faded and became passengers. The lack of any real panache to punch back before half time was a disappointment.

Out-thought in the first half, out-fought at set pieces, out of points to take back to NR1.