Taking Southampton North!


UEFA Europa League Group Stage - Game 5 - IFK Göteborg (Home)


Our chance to seal passage to the knockout rounds of the Europa League today. A point should be enough, but a win would keep us in the hunt for first place. IFK Göteborg can’t qualify, so this match is a dead rubber for them, but their domestic season has just ended, and they were crowned Allsvenskan champions, so they can’t be discounted.

We dominated the opening period with four half chances, but couldn’t make any of them count, so went into the break level.

The game continued on it’s uneventful way until the 66th minute, when I subbed out Ward-Prowse, Martina and Pelle for Clasie, Yoshida and Rodriguez.

Tactical tweaks seemed to make little difference as we failed to create a single highlight for the remainder of the 90 minutes.

Fortunately, there was injury time too, and in the second minute, Clasie slid a ball through for Ramirez, who cut back for Rodriguez to finish from close range.

A dull match really, as we managed just 5 shots on target from 20 attempts, and I was almost certain we were about to draw a third game on the bounce before Rodriguez’s late winner. Qualification in the bag, and Dortmund drew with Besiktas - a result which changes nothing for us, as even if they’d won we would need a draw in Germany to finish first, whilst a loss hands them the group, now on head to head rather than outright. Surprising results see Manchester United and Liverpool both fail to qualify from their Europa League groups with a game remaining still.


POM: Jose Fonte (7.3, 0G, 0A)
 
These injuries are insane! Good to see Rodriguez doing the business for you up top
 
SeanKeaney said:
These injuries are insane! Good to see Rodriguez doing the business for you up top
Click to expand...

Really something aren't they? :p Rodriguez is definitely doing a good job. Surprise of the season so far has to be Juanmi though, he's been exceptional
 

English Premier League - Game 14 - Leicester City (Away)

Leicester, like Swansea last week, are ahead of us on the table and overachieving. Juanmi and Rodriguez replace Tadic and Pelle, as we look to continue our push for European places. A loss could see us drop to 9th.

It was Juanmi who fired us into the lead in the 5th minute when he latched onto Bertrand’s cut back, completely undressed Dyer and then curled the ball into the far side of the net.

Okazaki played Vardy through in the 32nd minute, and he should have scored, but was denied by a cracking save.

In the 39th minute Ramirez missed a chance as simple as they come, volleying low and straight at the keeper from 6 yards after Juanmi’s chip gave him the entire goal to aim at. Great passing from Rodriguez, Clasie and Juanmi to create the chance at least.

Two minutes later another lovely flowing move saw Juanmi slide a perfect ball through for Rodriguez, who made no mistake and doubled our lead.

In the 50th minute I was delighted when Jordy Clasie capped his best Southampton performance to date with his first goal! Ramirez’s low cross found Juanmi who was immediately tackled, but Clasie cleaned up the loose ball. Just reward for his influence on the game so far.

In the 57th minute Vardy once again tested Stekelenberg, but the keeper denied him at full stretch.

Tadic replaced Ramirez on the hour mark.

In the 76th minute Rodriguez was unfortunate to see his effort strike the post after once again being played in by Juanmi.

The ball was cleared into touch, and Rodriguez and Ward-Prowse departed, the former to a fully deserved standing ovation, to be replaced by Long and Slattery.

We saw the rest of the game out comfortably.

Finally a performance I can truly be happy with. We were outstanding in all departments, and fully deserved to run out comfortable winners. We face Manchester United in a week, and if we can repeat this performance we could certainly cause them some problems.


POM: Juanmi (9.0, 1G, 1A)
 

Transfer News...

Having removed my transfer restrictions, I was on the lookout for promising regens, and this young German certainly fits the bill. With reported interest from Germany’s top 5 clubs - Bayern, Dortmund, Schalke, Leverkusen, Wolfsburg - I was keen to ensure that he would sign for us, and decided to seal the deal a month before the window opens.



I’m sure you can see why I was so keen on him - the kid has everything needed to turn into a top class attacking midfielder. What's more, he has a cool name, so if he develops well he'll certainly become a favourite :p A shame he’s not more versatile, but you can’t have everything, right? Here’s hoping he’s not injury prone, as I don’t have complete knowledge of him yet.
 
Nice regen Pat! Will be good to see how he turns out.
 
PatrickLFC said:
Who knows? I'm hoping he turns into the next Moritz Fritsch, another German CAM regen I had for Southampton in 2014. They even share the same first name!

​

Scary part is that he was not the best regen I had on that save
Click to expand...

He is some player!! You never fail to impress with these regens!
 
PatrickLFC said:
Who knows? I'm hoping he turns into the next Moritz Fritsch, another German CAM regen I had for Southampton in 2014. They even share the same first name!

Scary part is that he was not the best regen I had on that save
Click to expand...

Wow !!!! What a player Patrick !!! And if he was not the best then post a screenshot of him to drive us crazy !!!
 
Cracking new signing!! Cant wait to see how he gets on
 
JamesScott2908 said:
He is some player!! You never fail to impress with these regens!
Click to expand...

Thanks mate, I do have quite an affinity for them, they're great fun :)

kolas79 said:
Wow !!!! What a player Patrick !!! And if he was not the best then post a screenshot of him to drive us crazy !!!
Click to expand...

Thanks haha I had 5 or 6 that were insane, I'll find the screenshots and post them if you like, it's 1am right now so I'll do it in the morning :p

Sam91 said:
Cracking new signing!! Cant wait to see how he gets on
Click to expand...

Thanks man, looking forward to his development!
 
Okay as promised, here are the star regens from Southampton FM14 edition. I had to narrow it down just to these guys, there were more but these are the cream of the crop.

The star is probably Paulo Costa, he was an absolute monster and at only 22 was the world's best CB. My personal favourite was Alex Corner, who was a first youth intake player. Damien Wedge came through in the second intake.

If I remember correctly Oh Hyun-Ho was really a backup player, whilst Wedge, Corner and Fritsch (earlier post) were fighting for attacking midfield slots with Gotze and Quintero, and that's without mentioning wingers.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

FMBase

Beta

Resources

Top