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What Really Cost Saints The League Cup Final !

Contary to popular belief across the country it wasn't the linesman's mistake that ultimately cost Saints their first trophy in 41 years.

Saints were of course the victims of a poor decision by the linesman at Wembley, but I can understand why he made the call and why he would have been distracted by the fact that Ryan Bertrand was behind Manolo Gabbiadini, but who is to say that this would have changed the game, Saints have gone ahead in the early stages of several games this season and yet still lost badly, Spurs and West Ham at St Mary's spring instantly to mind.

But the moment that truly cost us the League Cup Final happened five weeks earlier on a Sunday afternoon at St Mary's when Jamie Vardy with no chance of reaching a ball going out for a goal kick decided to put his studs into the back of Virgil Van Dijk's ankle.

Whilst I have always believed that one player does not make a team, sometimes a single player can make a difference in key games and for Saints Virgil Van Dijk has been that player this season.

At that moment what looked like an innocuous piece of nastiness from one of the Premier League's most odious players both on the field and by all accounts off it put Saints hopes of winning the League Cup in jeopardy.

Of course we still had to overcome Liverpool in the second leg of the semi final without Van Dijk and we did so in tense circumstances at Anfield and whilst we kept a clean sheet and Yoshida and Jack Stephen's performed with passion, the warning signs were there, the clean sheet was as much about the poor finishing by the home side who had several big chances where they were unmarked.

The truth was that Virgil Van Dijk being perhaps the best central defender in the Premier League was about to miss not only a big chunk of the rest of this season, but the biggest game of his life, due to a little scroat called Jamie Vardy.

Yes perhaps we would still have lost had VVD been available at Wembley, but we would have had a far better chance of winning it if he had been playing, I do not want to say too much about either Stephens or Yoshida they dug in and played their hearts out for the club and I cannot fault their commitment.

But there was something missing in the centre of defence and that was proved for both United's second and third goals were both scorers were not picked up in the penalty area.

That showed a lack of composure and organisation, something that Virgil would have given us in spades.

If the linesman's flag going up was a lack of concentration on his behalf, then the final two United goals showed an equal lack in our defence.

So we can make al the excuses for our defeat, but ultimately it fell down to our own shortcomings and nothing else.

We have much to be proud of as a football club for the way we conducted ourselves as a team on the pitch and as supporters off it, but when it comes down to it Virgil Van Dijk has been our best player this season and his absence was the biggest single factor as to why we were not celebrating at the final whistle.

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