Changing a manager mid-season carries risks as well as rewards. Southampton and Wolves serve as recent case studies. In pulling Wolves from trouble, Julen Lopetegui has shown the benefits of elite experience. Nathan Jones, in losing seven from eight Premier League matches, has developed a rather different reputation. His xG anecdotes from Luton Town and folksy Welsh mining community origin stories do little to convince the Southampton public when their team remains bottom of the Premier League.
“I have no idea,” Jones answered when asked if this had been his last match in charge. His team had provided another example of how not to defend a lead against opposition reduced to 10 men. With 20 minutes to go, blind panic set in, when Jones seemed to have victory over the former Spain, Real Madrid and Sevilla coach within his grasp.
Wolves were struggling, confusingly so considering their victory over Liverpool last week. When Mario Lemina was dismissed in the first half, three minutes after Carlos Alcaraz’s goal, Southampton had a lifeline they could not afford to pass up. The manner of Wolves’ equaliser, Jan Bednarek clumsily unable to prevent the ball squirming in from Diego Costa’s scuff, was the combination of ineptitude and misfortune that befalls teams staring relegation in the face. João Gomes’s well-taken winner, on his Wolves debut when coming off the bench suggested real talent. “He will be a good player for sure,” said Lopetegui. ‘I am so proud of this team, the character they showed.”
Jones had asked fans “to get behind the players” pre-match. The response had been just as prescribed, only for St Mary’s to quieten once Wolves equalised and then echo to chants of “get out of our club” following Gomes’s winner. As the full-time whistle came, Jones sped to the exit. “I’ve never done that in my life before in 390 games,” he said. “But I’m not sure me going around clapping would have gone down well.”
The positivity of the first half, and a brave team selection – with debuts for deadline-day signings Kamaldeen Sulemana and Paul Onuachu – had been long forgotten. Jones’ team had come apart at the seams.
Sulemana’s skidding shot wide had been the game’s first proper effort before another debutant in “Charly” Alcaraz set the home fires burning. After a penalty-box skirmish caused by Onuachu’s 6ft 7in height, Alcaraz, with his second effort, lashed the bouncing ball beyond José Sa. Just 20, the Argentinian, powerful and rangy, looked an instant hit.
Better yet followed three minutes later, a red card for Lemina against his old club, a second yellow picked up for dissent against the referee, Jarred Gillet. “One-nil to the referee,” sang the Wolves fans, forgetting the excellence of Alcaraz’s strike.
Lopetegui’s half-time response was to send on the muscle of Adama Traoré and the youthful overlapping of left-back Hugo Bueno. Still, Southampton looked far likelier. Sa’s clutching save was required to stop Sulemana blazing in after a long ball from Ainsley Maitland-Niles.
Saints were exuding a confidence that betrayed the narrowness of their lead and depth of their predicament. They even attempted a training ground Wout Weghorst v Argentina-style free kick when dead-ball expert James Ward-Prowse would usually be expected to shoot. They soon lived to regret such wastefulness.
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Lopetegui chucked on Costa, the agitator supreme, and Southampton began to tighten up. “For me, the 10 men was to our detriment, because I think it made it a free hit for them and it actually added more pressure for us,” said Jones, his defeatism unlikely to win many fans’ favour.
A series of lofted balls into the area began to cause panic. Bednarek’s haplessness ensued, before Gomes made his mark to grant Wolves a win their fans celebrated in rapture, singing Lopetegui’s name lustily.
In turn, Jones’s employment prospects are bleak at very best. “I couldn’t feel any more pressure than I have been under this week,” he said. “We have to keep fighting.”
That fight has likely reached its bitter end.
