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MOTD: Southampton 1-2 Manchester United

By on December 8, 2014

Southampton might be on their way back “down,” though fourth place is hardly poor for a classically mid-table club. But before you right them off due to their most recent results, bear in mind that they still have plenty of swagger. They’ve faced Manchester City, Arsenal, and Manchester United in their last three matches, from which few would have expected many points, despite recent form that had offered room for hope. Indeed, Southampton thoroughly outperformed United tonight, and could easily have gotten a result against Arsenal as well. Only against City did they look out of their depth, but nobody would have even dreamed pre-season that Southampton, the same club that lost their manager and several of their best players over the summer, would get a result from reigning champions City.

People had written them off then, saying they knew they were always bound to get plucked apart by the big clubs (not that we at Football Every Day aren’t guilty as well), only to be shocked when the club turned around and began to power forward to where they are today. And now, people have begun to do the same; say they always knew it was somehow all a run of luck – Southampton were never any good anyway. But even more so than last time the facts say otherwise – we very may well be surprised again as the club’s fixture list brightens dramatically towards the New Year.

Ronald Koeman’s side, in the form they have shown throughout the first four months of the season, and replicated today, should be fighting for European competition by the end of the season.

The only thing that Southampton lacked tonight was the result. In every other way they played United off the pitch. For every shot United took, The Saints managed five. For every corner United had, Southampton earned five. Southampton even had twice as many shots on target as United, and given the chances they had they should have had many more. And while United scored twice from just three shots throughout the entire ninety minutes, Southampton only found the target four times – they failed to finish.

For while United have been improving gradually as the season has worn on, they looked overwhelmingly shaky at the back for much of the match. The tell-tale sign came when Patrick McNair came off in the first half for Ander Herrera, in an urgent tactical substitution. For all that Louis Van Gaal’s tactics have been built up to be, United looked more stable in a back four than the back three Van Gaal started today.

The Red Devils’ vulnerable defense had already been plucked apart by Southampton in the opening ten minutes, yet due to the quality of their forwards took a surprising lead. It was only due to a terrible mistake from Jose Fonte, who played a back-pass right into the path of Robin Van Persie when put under pressure. With all the space and time in the world, Van Persie had no trouble beating Fraser Forster with a low far post effort across the goal. Eleven minutes in and Southampton had already shot themselves in the foot.

It was a rare lapse, though. Graziano Pelle came close with a header, and then forced David De Gea into work to stop his ten yard effort from Saido Mane’s cut-back. Southampton wasted far to many good opportunities, as well, with Mane and Dusan Tadic both guilty of choosing the wrong option in promising situations. Finally, and deservedly, they found an equalizer just after the half hour mark. The ball pinged around the box, and eventually fell to Pelle six yards out, where the forward slammed a volley off the leg of De Gea and into the top left corner of the net. Shane Long wasn’t too far wide with a volley thirty-five minutes in, and Southampton only increased their pressure on the other side of the half.

Fifty-two minutes in they had a golden chance, only for Long to head Tadic’s far post cross right at De Gea, in miles and miles of space. Long practically literally had almost half of the eighteen yard box all to himself to convert the chance, yet somehow failed to do so. Pelle then blasted over from sixteen yards, and it was these chances they wasted that cost them the match. But they’ll mature, surely. For a young side that has shown so much potential and outperformed their expectations, it would hardly be difficult to attract another world-class forward in January, though Pelle has hardly been poor and is now joint fifth in the Premier League scoring charts.

Yet today their inability to finish cost them. Seventy-seven minutes in, in one of United’s few dangerous chances, Wayne Rooney floated a free-kick from the left into the mixer, and at the far post Van Persie peeled away from his marker to poke a finish into the back of the net. De Gea kept United in the match as well, smartly parrying Pelle’s low sliced effort shortly afterwards.
Man of the Match: Graziano Pelle

About Alex Morgan

Alex Morgan, founder of Football Every Day, lives and breaths football from the West Coast of the United States in California. Aside from founding Football Every Day in January of 2013, Alex has also launched his own journalism career and hopes to help others do the same with FBED. He covers the San Jose Earthquakes as a beat reporter for QuakesTalk.com and his work has also been featured in the BBC's Match of the Day Magazine.