The gameplan was simple as I mentioned yesterday. The extra midfielder sitting in meant that they couldn't pass through us through the middle and so had to keep going wide. High balls into the box is something we usually deal with quite well and so it played into our hands.
As I said, and if you watch it back, Saville hardly touched the ball but with Honeyman, Mitchell and Longman all staying tight beside him as a unit, he was just there to block any through balls. It worked perfectly.
How many times recently, under both Rowett and Edwards, have teams just played or run through our middle. The 5 at the back always left us a man short in there. Having the extra man in the middle made all the difference. Having Flemming more central also helped.
Who'd have thought it, a 4-4-2 or 4-4-1-1 works for us.
No, we didn't actually attack much or have much of the ball but not many teams can do what Southampton do.