RALPH’S FEAST
Saints savour first victory as Leeds get no shots on target
RALPH HASENHUTTL warned it wouldn’t be a five-star dinner. Never a truer word, but sometimes a dirty kebab will do just fine.
It wasn’t pretty, and you wouldn’t expect it to be, not with the way these teams have been playing. But needs must and the need for Southampton was rather desperate.
It still is, of course. But for Hasenhuttl a little of the pressure can ease for now, with their first league win of the season secured courtesy of Armando Broja.
It was the 20-year-old’s first league start and his first league goal, too, following his loan from Chelsea, so maybe it can prove a launching point. Maybe. With upcoming games against Burnley, Watford, Aston Villa and Norwich, there is certainly an opportunity to exploit and it is one that really needs to be taken by a club that sat fourth at this stage last season.
As for Leeds, looking back might be the only way of finding comfort. This campaign is shaping into a bit of a slog, with all that glittered last season looking a little faded this time around.
Marcelo Bielsa can point to key absences and he would have a good point — Patrick Bamford, Raphinha and Kalvin Phillips all missed this game. But the mitigation should only go so far for a side that failed to land a shot on goal here.
To call Leeds weak would quite possibility undersell how poor they were. The worst performance of his reign? It was in the conversation at the very least.
To Bielsa’s credit, there was no attempt to hide it. He said: ‘The defeat was fair. We didn’t play well in any moment in the game. Difficult to stop them being fluid. Difficult to recover the ball in the middle of the pitch the ball. Did not prevent their possession leading to attacks.’
For his part, Hasenhuttl was delighted and said: ‘Sometimes the performances this season have been better than the results. To win you need a goal and we scored one. It was not the best performance this season but it was a solid one. It was defensively a good job.
‘Our performances have been good but the win has not been there. The season is long and I am not scared that we don’t take wins. To take one is the first step.’
Not scared? His team selection, featuring five changes, offered a clearer picture of the urgency in his situation.
Meanwhile, Bielsa was stripped of his sharpest tools, with the month-long absence of Bamford compounded by the newer losses of Phillips and Raphinha to a calf issue and jet lag respectively.
Without their three best players, Leeds were dreadful, with no obvious plan for how best to utilise the pace of Daniel James.
A frenzy of movement and tactical fluidity? Always. That will not change under Bielsa. But coherence in the madness? Nothing.
Against such muddled opposition, Southampton dominated without creating many exceptional chances. Their best of the first half came from a set-piece on 20 minutes after Nathan Redmond forced Illan Meslier into conceding a corner. Redmond’s delivery was flicked from near post to far by Armando Broja and that appeared to leave an open goal for Mohamed Elyounoussi. Caught between thoughts, he threw himself into a diving header and somehow missed the ball altogether.
Saints ultimately crashed through in the second half, with Moussa Djenepo leading the counter-attack that brought the goal. After a 40-yard run he played in Redmond, who drew Liam Cooper before squaring to Broja.
The Albanian was told just days earlier by Hasenhuttl that he was likely to be a substitute for the foreseeable future, but then Che Adams got injured and he had his start.
With his first league start he also had his first league goal. And finally some light in the grey for Southampton.
SOUTHAMPTON (4-2-2-2): McCarthy 6; Livramento 6.5, Bednarek 6.5, Salisu 7, Perraud 6.5; Romeu 6.5, Diallo 7; Elyounoussi 6, Djenepo 7 (S Armstrong 59min, 6); Broja 7, Redmond 7.5. Booked: Bednarek. Subs (not used): Valery, WalkerPeters, Lyanco, Tella, Walcott, A Armstrong, Long, Forster. LEEDS (3-4-3): Meslier 7; Llorente 6.5, Struijk 5.5, Cooper 6.5; Shackleton 5.5, Klich 5.5, Roberts 5.5, Dallas 6; Harrison 6.5, Rodrgio 5.5 (Forshaw 64, 6), James 6. Booked: Llorente, Struijk, Roberts. Subs (not used): Klaesson, Cresswell, Hjelde, Drameh, McKinstry, Summerville, Gelhardt, Greenwood. Referee: D Coote (Nottinghamshire) 7.