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Southampton’s Shane Long strikes twice to extend Leicester’s barren spell
Southampton’s Shane Long strikes twice to extend Leicester’s barren spell
(about 5 hours later)
Persistence rather than flamboyance enabled Southampton to overcome stubborn Leicester City, as Shane Long came off the bench to claim his first league goals for the club since his £12m summer transfer from Hull. Two excellent finishes ended the Irishman’s wait for a goal and extended a fine start to the campaign by Ronald Koeman’s team.
Southampton’s style has won many admirers this season but persistence rather than flamboyance lay at the heart of this victory, their 11th in their past 12 matches. Ronald Koeman’s team struggled to overcome doughty Leicester City until Shane Long came off the bench to extend their fine start to the campaign and end his own wait for a league goal.
The match kicked off amid relentless rain and a gloomy forecast for Leicester: the Foxes had failed to win in five matches and not even scored in their last three and now they were about to face the meanest defence in English football and a side that had not lost at home for seven Premier League games. At least the visiting manager, Nigel Pearson, was able to re-introduce his team’s top scorer, Leonardo Ulloa, to the starting line-up following minor injury, the Argentinian joining Jamie Vardy in a twin-pronged strikeforce as Leicester sought to break their goal fast. Southampton made just one alteration to the side that began last week’s victory at Hull, Sadio Mané replacing Shane Long.
The Irishman came into the game hoping to fend off mutterings about him being the one ill-advised purchase during Southampton’s successful summer revamp and, after being introduced in the second half, he began justifying his £12m transfer from Hull with two nifty finishes that banished the disgruntlement that was beginning to infect St Mary’s.
The contest quickly settled into the expected pattern as Southampton, oozing confidence, hogged the ball. However, despite purposeful runs and crosses by Mané and Dusan Tadic, they lacked finesse with the final pass, meaning Kasper Schmeichel’s activity in the opening 20 minutes was confined to shouting encouragement to his resolute defenders. The only real fright for the goalkeeper in that period came when Ryan Bertrand, a regular threat down the left, pinged a dangerous cross to Tadic. The header that followed suggested that aerial power is not one of the winger’s many attributes.
The match began amid relentless rain and ended with gloomy forecasts for Leicester, who have now collected a solitary point from their past six matches and failed to even score in the past four. “We need to be more ruthless in both boxes, but I have got great belief in these players,” said Nigel Pearson, whose team displayed plenty of tenacity as they kept Southampton at bay for long periods.
In the 21st minute Nathaniel Clyne troubled Schmeichel for the first time, his 20-yard rasper forcing a save from the Dane. Leicester took that as a cue to assert their own ability going forward, and they won a couple of corners in quick succession, Wes Morgan going close with a header from one of them. Southampton responded by raising the tempo and putting the away team under further strain, but Leicester continued to defend defiantly, with Esteban Cambiasso proving a sturdy screen to the rearguard. And when Southampton did forge an opening, they continued to undo their good work with errant final passes.
The home side hogged possession but the only fright for Leicester’s goalkeeper, Kasper Schmeichel, in the first 20 minutes was when Ryan Bertrand pinged a dangerous cross to Dusan Tadic. The header that followed suggested that aerial power is not one of the winger’s many attributes.
Mané was looking the most likely source of a goal and should have confirmed that impression in the 35th minute, when his attempted cross was blocked and the ball broke back to him, only for the Senegalese to send a shot skyward from 10 yards. He might have made amends for that two minutes later if Tadic had not over-hit an attempted through-ball to him when Leicester were for once caught short at the back.
In the 21st minute Nathaniel Clyne troubled Schmeichel for the first time, his 20-yard rasper forcing a save from the Dane. Leicester took that as a cue to assert their own ability going forward, and they won a couple of corners in quick succession, Wes Morgan going close with a header from one. But the visitors could not build on that and spent most of the rest of the match in their own half.
It was obvious that a point would have been warmly welcomed by the visitors as they tried to clamber out of the bottom three and at half-time they looked a fair bet to get one.
“We were the dominant team but we did not create a lot of opportunities,” said Koeman.
Four minutes after the break Southampton finally found fluency, but Graziano Pellè fired over from Tadic’s cross after a flowing move. Mané turned a Bertrand cross into the net moments later - the goal was disallowed for offside, but the sight of the net billowing bred renewed life into the home supporters who had been rendered silent by their team’s unfamiliar lack of creativity in the first half.
“We spoke about that at half-time and said that if we keep good organisation and had a clean sheet, we will score because we have players who will make the difference.”
Bertrand fuelled their hopes further with another powerful run and cross in the 59th minute, the ensuing corner leading another effort on target from Clyne. The full-backs were Southampton’s main threats, Bertrand then producing a swerving long-range shot that Schmeichel held well. José Fonte and Morgan Schneiderlin also went close following corners, both being denied by last-ditch interventions by dogged Leicester defenders.
Long arrived in the 68th minute in place of Sadio Mané, perhaps the Southampton player most guilty of undoing promising work by delivering wayward final passes.
Koeman brought on Long for Mané in the 68th minute and that soon proved critical. Pellè teed his team-mate up nicely after taking down Jack Cork’s cross but a nifty finish was still needed and that is what Long produced, curling into the far corner with his left foot. The Irishman had endured a galling wait for his first league goal for his new club but was soon celebrating a second, again finishing smartly after Leicester’s offside trap malfunctioned. Chris Wood could have cut the deficit late on but dinked the ball wide when clean through.
The breakthrough soon followed. Jack Cork hoisted a cross into the box and Graziano Pellè took it down and teed up Long, who curled a lovely finish into the far corner to an explosion of relief around the ground. It must have soothed him, too, after failing to find the net in his previous nine league games for the Saints, with his only goal coming in the Capital One Cup.
Mind you, no one is getting carried away at St Mary’s. “The Saints are staying up!” chanted the happy locals.
“Shane is doing very well,” said Koeman, who never lost faith in his recruit. “He had some adaptation problems in the beginning, the way we play and train is much different to what he had in the past. You have to keep talking with the player so that he keeps confidence. He made the difference in the last part of this game.”
Long demonstrated his confidence five minutes after his first goal, when a deep pass from Victor Wanyama found Leicester caught short at the back for once. Long fired expertly past Schmeichel. Cue the “We’re going to win the league” chants that are becoming a regular, if slightly tongue-in-cheek, feature of Southampton home games.
Not that Koeman is saying Southampton are destined to fall down the table. “Maybe the big teams have more quality players than we have but I don’t see a big difference between how they play and us,” he said.
“[Esteban] Cambiasso said to me at the end: ‘What a good team you have,’ and that’s a big compliment from a great player.”
