Long time since I last write this blog and I’m not when I’m going to write next time so I make this post short and clear. My second season with Southampton is just ended and it was good season. We played good EURO Cup campaign and managed to go quite far. Also FA Cup was success. In league we had ups and downs like it should be and we got fairy good result at the end.

The bellow icons show how it went this season (click the icon to show results):

Games & Player Stats:

At the end of the season we had lot of difficulties due our players form. We had lot of games and so small group of players that their form was in some games really bad. Still we manage decent result. We had two major problem this season. We conceded too much goals and we made over 20 goals less than last year. There was couple of players who played good season. Jay Rodriguez made good job in left flank as an Inside Forward. Also I’m happy Andy Carroll’s contribution. John Guidetti and Jeffrey Bruma were brilliant and I hope that I can get them both back at St. Mary’s in next year. Also our young guns Hicks, Shaw, Gauld and Ward-Prowse had good season. Hope seeing same next year.

League Table:

 This was the year of Tottenham. I was glad to see Spurs to win the PL instead of those Manchester teams. Wolves was the surprise of the season. It was great to see them so high on the table. I couldn’t reach to top6 which was a disappointment but still we qualify to EURO Cup second season in row. But I’m not worried I know that without so many ridiculous fixtures (game in every second day) we would have been around 5th or 6th place.

Capital One Cup:

Capital One Cup was a bit disappointed for us. When our games in third round started we were drawn against Manchester City and we lost 2-0 so COC was over after that first game. But when we came to the end of the season I think it was our advantage that we didn’t play in this Cup coz we had so many games and players got tired easily but still next year we must do better on this Cup.

 

FA Cup:

 In FA Cup we were brilliant. We beat Bolton in 3rd round after replay. 4th round we won Brighton. In 5th round we had to play replay again and we managed to beat Sheffield Wednesday 3-2. In 6th round we had tight game against QPR which we won 1-0. In semi finals we had an epic battle against Cardiff which we managed to win 2-1 in extra time. In the Final we face superior Tottenham. This time it wasn’t our time I hope that our young team grow and we got new chance in future.

 

Europa League:

Europa League we start in 3rd qual. round and managed to qualify in group stage. There we face Napoli, Genclerbirligi and H. Tel-Aviv. In all surprise we managed to win our group with 4-1-1 record.  In first playoff round we beat Italian side Cagliari with away goal. In second playoff round we face Napoli and coz we knew how they play it was easy  and we won both games in home 1-0 and away 4-2.  In Qtr. Finals we face Benfica from Portugal. It was really tough battle. They managed to get away goal in our home game when score was 1-1. Luckily our counter-strategy worked in Portugal and we won 2-0. So we were drawn against Mainz from Germany in Semi Finals. That was really good opponent for us. And in first game we pick up magnificent 2-1 away win. In home game we were solid winning it by 3-1 so we had played our selves on the Final! In Final we faced strong French side Olympic Marseille. To coming this game was difficult for us. We had just two day earlier lose the FA Cup Final so it affected our performance for sure. But it doesn’t we played brilliant football and gather 1-0 win and our first continental trophy!

 

Conclusion:

I was happy our cup success but little disappointed our league performance. We need better defence on next season. I think our young guys are not enough at the moment if we like to battle that title. After this years EURO Cup success I fear that board want that league title next season. I think that despite fact that we scored only 57 goals this season compared 73 scored last season our young strikers will be better next season and also Andy Carroll will be better than this season. But I think that we still need larger group if we had such ridiculous fixture list than this year.

 

Yours

-Jani-