Lallana's decisive long-range shot at the last moment broke Brundford's record of not conceding a goal this season and helped Southampton narrowly get a point at home.
After this draw, the fans were a little regretful, but they were still satisfied. After all, the losing streak had stopped, and the team should be heading on the right track after all...
At the very least, with good intentions, Southampton should indeed be on the right track.
In the second round of the League Cup three days later, Southampton's performance was indeed quite outstanding. When facing the Premier League team Birmingham, their performance was much better than before.
You must know that although Birmingham is also a famous lifter and was still playing in the English Championship last season, they are a Premier League team after all. They still have Stephen Carr, Lee Bowyer, Marcus Bent, Barry Ferguson, etc. in the team.
Kevin Phillips and other former famous players in the Premier League, although these people are basically old, they still play a big role in their avoidance of relegation.
At least they have a lot of experience.
However, the experienced Birmingham was defeated by Southampton at home through running and impact. Facing the English League One team, Birmingham certainly would not use solid defense and airtight interceptions like other English League One teams to stop them.
Southampton's offense, on the contrary, they are constantly attacking to eliminate this English League One team...
They have enough space in the backcourt to allow Lallana to play enough.
In this game, Southampton played a defensive counterattack. The counterattack mainly relied on Lallana and the two centers. There was enough depth and width for the three of them to perform fully. Lallana scored once in each half.
The ball helped Lambert and Giroud directly face the goalkeeper twice, and the two forwards did not miss this opportunity and scored goals one after another!
Although Birmingham recovered a point in the second half, Southampton completed a legend of dragon-slaying in the League Cup!
Judging from the reputation of the team, it is not unusual for Southampton to defeat Birmingham. However, considering that Southampton is a League One team and Birmingham is a Premier League team, successfully challenging the two levels can be regarded as a dragon-slaying legend!
So after the game, the excited Southampton fans held a small celebration parade in the city of Southampton, with more than 10,000 people participating - this is for Southampton, which has a total population of only 220,000.
To put it simply, it is quite astonishing.
In fact, as a seaport city, the income of Southampton residents is quite high. Under such circumstances, the proportion of their fans is also large - otherwise Southampton would not have dared to build a stadium with a capacity of 30,000 people before.
, which is already close to one-seventh of the total population!
But in fact, when Southampton was in the Premier League, St. Mary's Stadium was always full.
Now that we are downgraded to League One, poor results will of course affect the attendance. Recently, we have given fans a little hope, and the attendance has only returned to around 20,000. However, in the League Cup game that just passed, the number of fans entering the stadium was already 20,000.
The number of people reached 23,000, which is almost the same as the average number of people per game in the first season after they were relegated.
From this perspective, the potential of Southampton fans is still sufficient.
After all, there is only one professional team in Southampton, so their mortal enemy is not a rival in the same city, but Portsmouth, a port city team on the southwest coast. Portsmouth is now in the Premier League. Although they have not historically
Southampton is so brilliant, but now it is much more brilliant than Southampton.
Moreover, the reason why Portsmouth is Southampton's mortal enemy has basically nothing to do with football, but the historical rivalry between the two cities. In fact, the two sides have not played against each other in the same league for many seasons, which is far less than other rivals.
many.
Under such circumstances, if Southampton performs well, their attendance will be sufficient. If Southampton performs poorly, their attendance will drop, which is a very logical thing.
When he was in the Premier League, Southampton's stadium was often full. At that time, Luwei even considered whether to expand the stadium - St. Mary's Stadium had enough expansion space when it was built, and it could be expanded to up to five
Ten thousand people, but having a stadium with 50,000 people in a city of more than 200,000 people is still too exaggerated.
Of course, Lu Wei won't have to think about this issue anymore, because Southampton was relegated within two years, and the club's attendance rate has naturally been declining. Not to mention the expansion, the 30,000-person stadium is often only half full...
…
Of course, if Southampton performs well next, expansion is still possible.
But at this time, Ji Ya didn't consider this.
"I found a problem." While the fans were celebrating, he pulled Benelli and others together and held a small meeting.
Benali and others looked at Ji Ya, a little strange.
Didn’t you win? Are there any other problems?
"Our two games in the League Cup were not very strenuous, but every game in the league was very strenuous. Aren't you surprised?" Noriya got straight to the point.
Benelli, Luo Fu and Pandli looked at each other, wondering what Ji Ya meant.
"It would be understandable to say that it was easy for us to play against Northampton. After all, they are only a League Two team. But when we played against Birmingham, we did not fall behind at all, and the game was not difficult. Doesn't this mean something?
Really? Birmingham City is definitely better than the English League One opponents we encountered, but it was not difficult for us to face them." Noriya began to explain in detail.
Benali thought about it and found that this was really the case...
"So there is a problem in the middle. I thought about it carefully and it has to do with our tactics."
Ji Ya began to draw on the tactical board. He was not idle during this period. He could figure out something just by thinking about it.
"Our basic tactic is 442, but the three midfielders are more defensive, and Schneiderlin is more organized, but most of the time it is left to Lallana and Lambert who are retreating to initiate the attack.
Offensively, their foot skills are very good and they cooperate well with each other. What I think is that just these three main offensive players in the frontcourt can form a quite threatening offensive system, with the assistance of other people.
, then it will definitely be enough in League One." Ji Ya said.
Benelli and others nodded, this was the offensive tactic discussed together at that time.
"But we have overlooked one thing. Whether it is Lallana or Lambert, although their foot skills can be said to be good, they do not have the ability to break through with the ball, so our offense can easily reach a deadlock. Good skills
And being able to break through, those are two different concepts!"
