Stoke City rolled into town with Mark Robins in charge and full of confidence after winning their first two Championship games. With the Dibling saga seemingly over, as an agreement with Everton for £42 Million has been widely reported in the press, it was reassuring to see Fernandes still on the teamsheet. On paper the side looked very strong and should be a match for most teams in this league. So there was a good feeling of anticipation that was buzzing around the stadium and, dare I say it, expectation of a comfortable Saints win.
The game kicked off and Saints laboured. Adam Armstrong was a lone figure up front and seemingly running around willingly but not really getting into the game. The greatest attacking threat was through Robinson and how he managed to hit the same post twice in 5 seconds is still baffling me. The grumbles all round me at the ground were that Armstrong is not a number 9 despite what his shirt suggests. He works best coming off the flank and linking up with a proper centre forward. Think Che Adams and how he held the ball and allowed Arma to glide in and take his chances. So why not give him that role and play a centre forward with him?
The answer to this question is when the likes of Downs, Archer and Stewart were thrown on. In a desperate attempt to salvage something from a game that was drifting away, they offered nothing. Saints transfer policy has somehow managed to unearth forward after forward that do not offer anything. It is early days but Downs looks lost and floats about and is never in the right place at the right time and don’t get me started on his rubber ankles. Stewart is an injury waiting to happen and Archer has been given so many chances to shine. Unfortunately he couldn’t shine if you buffed him up for 30 minutes with a chamois leather and polish. I sometimes think we would be better playing Harwood-Bellis up front than what we have and that says something.
So, once again, the opposition’s route to victory is quick breaks and long balls. It works time and time again against us. We bomb forward in a bit of desperation to get something, create nothing and get done on the break. Even with 10 men, for what I thought was a harsh red card for a dive, we still fell for it. So we traipsed out of St Mary’s and once again had that feeling of a wasted afternoon. If the money for Dibling is not invested in creativity and at least someone who knows how to play up front then this type of frustrating result will occur more often. If we lose Fernandes to West Ham then I fail to see where and how we will create the goals needed to win games. People say to me “Why would Fernandes want to go to West Ham?”. Why would he want to stay if he gets beaten every week and has very little creativity around him at Saints? Fingers crossed he stays as he put in one heck of a shift yesterday.
On to Norwich for the cup and we had better get everything sorted when the rowdy neighbours roll into town in a few weeks.
