Man of the Match…. NO ONE !

FAN REPORT by an ANGRY SCOTT DAVIES…..

Leicester visited St Mary’s stadium looking for their first win on the road in the 2016/17 season having only picked up 3 points from 3 draws away from home. In contrast, Southampton haven’t won in their last 4 Premier League fixtures.

Team News brought about a few talking points, a big one being, what formation were we playing? No one seemed to know, but Sky went with a 4-3-1-2, with Shinji Okazaki in a ‘false 10’ and Demarai Gray as a striker with Vardy. The other was Yohan Benalouane being included on the bench.

It didn’t take long after kick off to realise the Foxes had no width with whatever formation they had adopted and both Fuchs and Simpson fell foul of this with no cover in front of them. Save for some woeful end product from Southampton, City could have been 3 down after 13 minutes as the Saints cut through the back four with ease.

On 19, Nathan Redmond forced a save to Schmeichels’ left, with the Dane forcing the ball out for a corner. City finally had a glimpse at goal as Southampton wasted the resulting corner allowing Gray to race clear. He carved open some space on the edge of the Saints box, however the England Under 21 opted to take on the shot rather than looking up and seeing Vardy unmarked in a better position within the 18 yard box.

Southampton eventually took the lead on 26 after Cedric Soares was given far too much space in midfield and he found James Ward-Prowse on the edge of the box who hit a first time shot that beat Schmeichel, when it looks as though the City stopper should have done better.

It was all Southampton from here on in. City offered nothing in return. They struggled to string more than two passes together and things went from bad to worse on 39 when Jay Rodriguez blasted home from a few yards out as City failed to deal with a Saints free kick. Again questions are raised about Schmeichel, who perhaps could have attacked the ball after Huth had headed it into the path of Rodriguez.

Marc Albrighton replaced Mendy at half time and City reverted to a 4-4-2, however Southampton continued to dominate possession and were just cruising through the second half. There was no chance of a repeat of last season when City found themselves 2-0 down to fight back to 2-2.

Musa replaced Okazaki on 63, but was equally as ineffective as the rest of the team

It looked like things had gotten worse on 75, when Morgan appeared to have bundled the ball into the back of his own net from a Saints set piece, only for it to be chalked off for offside. Replays showed the decision was very lucky and the goal perhaps should have stood.

The game was put to bed on 86 after Wes Morgan had been adjudged to have brought down Shane Long in the area. A soft penalty, but there was contact, however minimal and Morgan was issued a yellow card. Tadic took the resulting spot kick and sealed an easy win for the home side.

Twitter and Facebook was awash with questions about Claudio Ranieri and whether he will keep his job, myself included in that as this is getting worse by the week. That said, where do we turn if he was to leave? Who is actually out there to get us out of this mess and build for next season? Food for thought.

It’s the joint worst points haul of 21 points from 22 games for any reigning champion in top flight history since 3 points was introduced for a win.

Friday brings a welcome break from the league with a tasty FA Cup tie at Pride Park, however, one thing we can take comfort in is that we were bottom in April just 2 seasons ago and we pulled off a great escape. We may well just have to do it again.

Man of the Match – No one.

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