Southampton (A) | PL | Post Match Thread

[eyalluvitt]

Bizarre team selection today. Felt we were getting somewhere. Then another pep spaz out and I'm not even sure where we are after that. Why was marmoush on the bench? Didn't he deserve to play? And why were haaland and foden starting? The team sheet did us. We need to evolve away from haaland ball.

Our best chance next week is Peps wife locks him in a wardrobe in Barcelona and lilo Lil picks the best team to beat palace, not Peps failing favourites

 

[cleavers]

This is our first down season in many years. Too soon to be negative about next season.

Exactly, far too soon, you can't judge next season on today's rubbish, a game we still should have won, but for poor finishing, and a lot of luck by Southampton and their keeper.

We've already brought in 3 new players to gradually integrate, you could argue 4 with O'Reily (don't think there's much hope for Mcatee sadly).

 

[eyalluvitt]

He doesn’t get a game now. The most baffling signing since Kalvin- Phillips.

Imagine being the main man at Porto and getting a big money dream move to City’s bench

 

[eyalluvitt]

He's been here two years too long. He's stale, his tactics are stale, he picks stale players. He's risk averse, and demonstrates every week that he has little or nothing 'fresh' to offer.

Without 5 or 6 high quality additions in the summer window, we're almost certainly going to see more of the same tactical dross that we've turned out far too often this season.

Win or bust now for the next three games, no cup or CL place will put Pep on a shoogly peg

 

[chaddblue]

Not sure I’ve been more pissed off about a result all season. Still fucking fuming

I’d convinced myself we’d turned a corner and pep had got his mojo back.. completely wrong on both counts

 

[pauls]

Not sure I’ve been more pissed off about a result all season. Still fucking fuming

I’d convinced myself we’d turned a corner and pep had got his mojo back.. completely wrong on both counts

All on Pep,and I'm his biggest fan.
Stumbled on his best back 4 with Nico and Nunes offering width and penetration, today Josko back as a terrible left back looked lost and, Rico and Mcatee offering nothing.If you could pick a worst 11 today from our squad then Pep somehow managed to achieve it.
We've given Villa and our rivals a massive lift today which at best was complacent and worst unprofessional, haven't been as pissed of since 21 in Porto, no idea why Pep's rotating with 1 game a week.

 

[Shirley]

He's been here two years too long. He's stale, his tactics are stale, he picks stale players. He's risk averse, and demonstrates every week that he has little or nothing 'fresh' to offer.

Without 5 or 6 high quality additions in the summer window, we're almost certainly going to see more of the same tactical dross that we've turned out far too often this season.

Much prefer you in the jokes thread !!

 

[Bluemoonadam]

Not a good look drawing against Southampton

 

[Bluemoon115]

The 1 win in 12 line-up couldn't win against worst team in the league until they played us Southampton is on Pep.

As soon as his favourites are back he puts the same useless cunts out.

If we don't offload all the OAP's in the summer we're fucked.

FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK

 

[citymad]

Wembley, next Saturday, bring your boots, you're starting.

Only if you can pass side and back. You pass it forward and you're hooked.

 

[ChicagoBlue]

2 clean sheets in 47 games until today. 3 in 48 now!

We scored ONE GOAL against them in 120 minutes home & away and they just got to 12 points in 36 games so far this season!

Not a great performance.

If Pep hasn’t learned how to play against a 10 man defence by now, he never will…and he hasn’t!!

 

[dhruvblue]

2 clean sheets in 47 games until today. 3 in 48 now!

We scored ONE GOAL against them in 120 minutes home & away and they just got to 12 point in 36 games so far this season!

Not a great performance.

If Pep hasn’t learned how to play against a 10 man defence by now, he never will…and he hasn’t!!

See people defending result saying it’s okay happens one bad season

Everyone accepted this was off season but that doesn’t mean they can put shift against a team like Southampton and more so defend such result

 

[Whether or not]

Pep is getting a lot of stick for the line up, which is fair enough. But I suspect he was not wanting to show Palace too much before next week.
But selection aside, most of the players were really poor. Sloppy passing, bad touches, and so lethargic. At times our attacks were like watching OAP walking football. You have to be some player to walk up to a professional footballer and beat him without running, but we tried it constantly. Very frustrating performance.

 

[Gray]

But Southampton didn't play in a low block against most teams. They had a manager who played out from the back and took chances.

Did you go to the home match against them?

 

[supercity88]

I listened to the match on the radio and it was so predictable. The strategy seems to be pass the ball until De Bruyne has an opportunity to do something more ambitious. No one else was trying anything that would put Southampton under pressure.

Doku came on and tried to inject something. Marmoush comes on and tries to do the same. The only hope is that Pep had one eye on the final and was resting some for that game, but I'm not certain that's the case at all.

 

[Mcfc1.9.8.0]

I listened to the match on the radio and it was so predictable. The strategy seems to be pass the ball until De Bruyne has an opportunity to do something more ambitious. No one else was trying anything that would put Southampton under pressure.

Doku came on and tried to inject something. Marmoush comes on and tries to do the same. The only hope is that Pep had one eye on the final and was resting some for that game, but I'm not certain that's the case at all.

It was pass the ball until KDB could put a big looping ball 60ft in the air to the back post

 

[Marvin.]

If anyone wanted evidence as to why we are letting KDB go, this game was it. In fact the whole slow passing narrow game is largely down to a pedestrian midfield. We exacerbated the problem vs Saints because we needed to get minutes into Akanji and Haaland in advance of the Cup Final and it took O'Reilly's attacking width out of our game.

The full-back side with Gvardiol instead of O'Reilly will always struggle to break sides down but I understand why Pep chose this formation. and these players. It's pragmatism and player prep. for the Cup Final.

The best way to beat a low block is with attacking width but Pep is not playing the 2 wide forwards any more. I think we should have started Marmoush but there's no guarantee that that would have worked.

This team is Pep's pragmatic plan to eke out the most points with a broken midfield and wide forwards who are not yet elite players.

 

[Otamendi's Beard]

What I found slightly annoying is that Pep said he realised his mistake with team selection after 15 mins or whatever.

So why not just bring on Doku, Savinho and Marmoush at halftime to have a proper go?

He waited far too long to change it up and I can't believe KDB got so much time on the pitch. I thought he was very poor - so wasteful.

 

[Groke]

Haaland is ineffective against teams with 10 man behind the ball - no surprise for me that returning to the dull pedestrian side coincides with Haaland's return, after we had looked like we'd turned a corner these last few weeks.

 

[heslops barnet]

...because it's worked for him. It's worked for him so much that he's made us the most successful team in this country for the last decade.

Not been that successful this season …….