This harebrained, lily-livered performance left the Sunderland goalkeeper Vito Mannone so ashamed that he says he will try to convince his team-mates to pay back the ticket and travel expenses of the away supporters who witnessed it. More than 2,500 fans made the 653-mile round trip and they watched with bemusement and outrage as their side produced an error-strewn and ragged display that resulted in the joint heaviest league defeat in the club’s history.
Mannone admits it was unacceptable. “It was a difficult afternoon but we need to react,” said the Italian. “We have to do it for ourselves, for the club and for our great fans as well that came all that way. I will personally talk to the team to see if it is possible to pay their tickets and their trip. It is difficult for us but it’s very difficult for them as well.”
Mannone confessed that, despite making an encouraging start to the match, Sunderland surrendered after going 3-0 down to a Jack Cork goal in the first half only moments after Steven Fletcher had been refused a penalty following an apparent foul by the goalkeeper Frazer Forster. Santiago Vergini had already put the home side in front with a preposterous long-range own goal – “a goal from another planet”, according to the bewildered Sunderland manager, Gus Poyet – and Liam Bridcutt also put the ball into his own net as blunders by Sunderland became a recurring feature of a farcical match.
Mannone was as guilty as anyone, making weak efforts to keep out Cork’s goal and one of Graziano Pellè’s as well as inadvertently booting the ball straight to Dusan Tadic to allow the excellent winger to curl in Southampton’s sixth goal.
“I take all the responsibility I can take for each goal,” said Mannone. “I will try to work on it and try to improve. Each one of us should do the same. To try to defend and be in a game properly as a unit. Each one of us knows there were mistakes on the field.
“I really mean that we should pay their tickets and travel,” continued the goalkeeper. “I will do everything possible. We should do it because we didn’t work hard. We started the game well but after we conceded we threw in the towel – and I include myself.”
That is an alarming confession from a key player in a team that had gone into the game seemingly having resolved such problems. Poyet had questioned his player’s character several times last season but four wins from the final five matches saved Sunderland from relegation and that run, combined with a promising start to this campaign, suggested the club was finally on an upward trajectory. That made the nature of this defeat all the more shocking for Poyet. “I cannot explain this,” said the Uruguayan. “For me it is not my team, it is not what I was expecting. I don’t know what words to say.”
Poyet is not – at least not yet – so aghast that he believes the team have regressed to the state they were in before last season’s revival, reasoning: “It would be harsh to say that but maybe over the next few games I can let you know.”
He is demanding that his players prove during training they are prepared to make amends against Arsenal on Saturday. “It’s going to be interesting week, that’s for sure,” says Poyet.
Ronald Koeman, meanwhile, wants more of the same. He says that one of the most satisfying aspects of Southampton’s biggest league win since 1921 is the fact the team continued to attack long after the game was won. Other sides might have spent the closing moments saving energy and keeping possession but Southampton, with their manager urging them forward, continued to chase their opponents and carve open Sunderland, with the final two goals scored by substitutes sent on to increase the damage, Victor Wanyama and Sadio Mané.
There were doubts in the summer about Southampton’s capacity to replace the goals of the departed Rickie Lambert and Adam Lallana, plus the injured Jay Rodriguez, but Koeman is adamant his midfielders must continue to help provide the answer. The side’s main striker, Pellè, is doing his share, having now scored six league goals, but the manager takes particular satisfaction from the fact Wanyama, Cork and Morgan Schneiderlin are now scoring more than they did before his arrival, while midfielders such as Tadic and Mané replicate the prolific form they had showed in foreign leagues.
“Players like Tadic have to score seven, eight, nine goals every season and he knows that,” says Koeman, still pushing his team forward.
Man of the match Dusan Tadic (Southampton)
