SFC Ref will now be giving his opinion in two parts from now on, the first will be his take on Saints and the football itself and the second will be his usual view of the refereeing decisions.
There is a lot to get through this week, so we have split this weeks column into two parts, firstly his view on Saints and then in part two the normal referee watch, anyway over to SFC REF:
So after speaking with Nick, we’ve decided to change up how these weekly articles will be done. The officiating side of things will be staying the same, but I will also be talking about saints from my own perspective, like my opinion of the starting 11, tactics, results etc… as well as the officiating from our games.
But now moving on to this weeks action! As we’ve had an interesting week around VAR and such with all the FA Cup and a few prem games going on, with our midweek FA Cup game having a fair few talking points.
With ours being a prime example, as I myself thought that the first penalty was arguable, but correct (although how it took them so long was ridiculous, and I’ve heard how there was a supposed handball just before but still haven’t seen any footage of it). But the second one they got, was certainly stupid from Calleta-Car, but still never enough for a penalty and really shouldn’t have been given.
So we’ve had a bit of VAR discussions from midweek, it’s time to see if give my opinion on Saturday's win over Leicester City
Southampton VS Leicester (Robert Jones)
The Saints side:
When the starting 11 first came out I did have mixed opinions over it. As I personally thought that Perraud should’ve been playing over Maitland-Niles, Salisu over Bednarek, Stuart Armstrong for Walcott and Onuachu for Alcaraz.
And after full time I do still think that having Perraud over Maitland-Niles would’ve been good, as there was always far too much space on the right side when Leicester were attacking. But in all fairness to Walcott, Bednarek and certainly Alcaraz, all played fairly well and Selles did make a decent choice in the end for selecting them for this game.
For subs, I think that 3 of the 4 subs were fair and made sense, but why Elyounoussie was brought on yet again, doesn’t make sense to me whatsoever!? As he’s always been so poor for us this season and when we’ve got Stue, Sulemana, Djenpo and even Walcott available to us, can’t understand how he keeps playing. But still the other 3 subs were decent enough and did help wrap up the win.
But overall I think today was very similar to the Leeds game from last weekend. As both games were contested between two pretty poor team, with the less poor team winning both of them. But thankfully this time we played for the win, and got it, whilst at Leeds it was almost like we were playing for and satisfied with a draw the whole time, which didn’t make sense for how low and poor Leeds have also been and how badly we needed that win. But thankfully this week we went for the win and got it, getting our first clean sheet in the league at home for the whole of this season!
But I still think we were a tad bit lucky to come away with all 3 points for some of the mistakes we did make, the chances we didn’t take, and thankfully the chances that Leicester missed. As on another day they could’ve taken all of theirs and won this game like 3-1 or so, with us yet again regretting our missed opportunities.
As Prowse’s penalty miss wasn’t the worst, as it’s only the fact that he missed that we probably scored just after, with that incident alone changing the momentum of the game for a large proportion of this game. But still we do need to learn to take our chances, as we could’ve wrapped up this game a lot earlier, making that last 20 minutes a lot less stressful and less costly when we play a decent opposition that will take their late chances.
But still as someone who met and spoke with Selles on Friday night, it’s good to see the improvements he’s had here, already getting double the amount of points that NJ managed within just a third of the games! As well as helping to solidify the defence with two clean sheets and just 1 goal conceded from open play under his reign. As yeah the Leeds game wasn’t the best, but still 6 points out of the last 3 games certainly ain’t a bad run, and if we can continue on that level of results will certainly be staying up.
As Saturday's game was always going be a major one, it’s only the fact that we won which is why we’re yet again within touching distance of staying up, whilst us losing would’ve, in my books, finished us off and made our survival hoped well and truly over. But this wins been pretty major and is why there is still hope that we can stay up. So let’s just back the lads now and hope to get something from Old Trafford next weekend!
As it looks to be an interesting season for many teams down towards the bottom with not the usual team or two practically relegated by now, with all the bottom 7/8 teams having to try and avoid the scrap.
Referee watch (Robert Jones)
Referee watch
This game was one with a bit for Jones and VAR to do. As we were given a penalty at around the half an hour mark, for what’s going be the most blatant handball I’ve seen at St Mary’s for a fair while now, which was rightfully awarded as a penalty by Jones and backed by VAR.
As of course Prowse did miss the penalty, but even if it had been scored I don’t think Alcaraz would’ve scored just after, so was an important decision from VAR and Jones.
VAR did also have to check the goal Alcaraz scored, for a close offside shout from Leicester, against Walcott. As after we scored I had a feeling VAR was going to get involved, and we did then have a delay for VAR after we scored, but thankfully VAR backed the on field decision, which as the replays showed was the correct decision with Walcott being onside in the build up to this goal.
But that wasn’t all for VAR as just before Alcaraz scored, Leicester had a red card shoot against him for serious foul play. As after seeing the replays of it, I can understand why Rogers and Leicester fans will feel a bit hard done by it. But at the same time I don’t think it is enough for a straight red card with how low it was, and certainly don’t think that it was a clear and obvious mistake with VAR being right not to get involved in this incident.
So overall I think VAR had a good game, and I was fairly impressed with Jones who controlled this game well, made his decisions clear and didn’t just blow up for just any soft foul (both for and against us). So certainly a good game from him.
You can find the second part of SFC Ref's Watch by clicking on the link below.
https://www.fansnetwork.co.uk/football/southampton/news/59772