This should have been an even clash between two sides who were busy in the transfer market – but Southampton taught Newcastle a footballing lesson at St Mary’s.
It’s always nice to see the Magpies come to town. Our home match against them usually provides us with three points, but I was not expecting a repeat of last season’s 4-0 victory.
That game was an end-of-season affair, with Saints in great form and the visitors depleted by injuries so the result that day was not much of a surprise.
This time around, I thought that the match would be a close contest especially as we hadn’t performed well in our opening home game against West Brom.
I couldn’t have been more wrong. From the first minute, every single Saints player was on his game and Newcastle just could not cope with the intensity of our play. After that they became demoralised and we didn’t even have to play that well to win the game so easily.
The worst element for me was the attitude of Alan Pardew’s players. They didn’t look up for it, and appeared to be a side lacking in confidence and going through the motions.
The new signings played like individuals, and there was no structure to their play resulting in a disjointed showing.
Fabricio Coloccini, Mike Williamson and Tim Krul set the tone with their slack performances and must take their share of the blame. They played very poorly and did not set a good example as the senior players in the team.
Contrast that with Morgan Schneiderlin. Forced to stay in a side shorn of its stars from last season, the Frenchman has relished being the main man in Ronald Koeman’s side.
Schneiderlin has been given more licence to roam forward in the three-man central midfield and his superb goal was the icing on the cake of another excellent display.
That goal, with 41 passes in the build-up, was the symbol of how well the new signings have settled at St Mary’s. Everyone was involved, everyone knew their role in Koeman’s system and everyone seemed to be on the same wavelength.
We’ve lost more of our important players than Newcastle did, but I would suggest that the new signings have been very shrewd with a good balance of promising footballers and players with proven experience at this level.
Buying a big number of players in one transfer window is always a risky strategy but the Magpies seem to have got it hopelessly wrong compared to Saints.
With Pardew set to stay on as manager, he has a big job on his hands getting the likes of Remy Cabella and Emmanuel Riviere to start putting in the sort of performances that their talent suggests they are capable of.
Meanwhile, I’m loving how well Saints have begun the campaign and feel more optimistic than ever about our prospects for the season ahead.
The Swansea game cannot come soon enough!
Source: Metro UK
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