Southampton (A) | PL | Post Match Thread

This is pep’s worst team ever and by some distance
We don’t have the quality of players to play the controlled football he wants
We pass without purpose or pace
The squad is totally unbalanced
I’m not actually sure how much pep wants to get it back. Maybe the fire has gone
Feel sorry for Viana
 
We have become risk averse now, it’s just side to side keep ball let the opposition regroup, it’s bloody awful to watch, we on 5/6 on the bounce then the team is completely changed, just why, we had 4 games, you play the best in form team who have got used to each other, but no we have to slot back in players coming back from injury, how about we start with the best team then bring them on later to get minutes under their belt? Fair play to all those travelling fans for down there to watch that shite yesterday. I fear for the final next week as Pep is going to have a brain fart bring Rodri back get him injured again or some other daft shit.
We look so much more fluid and on it with Marmoush who did more in 5 mins than Haaland did in 90, dint give me they did feed Haaland bollocks either the guy is just static, pull defenders to the edge of the box leaving space behind for others he will get at least two centre half’s to follow him leaving gaps for others. There are no excuses with injuries anymore just look at the bench, there is only Rodri and Ake out.
If we don’t get CL it will be on Pep, he reinvented football over here but his style has been around for around 15 years now, others have caught up especially in the Premier League, we have players who can play fast attacking football with a few additions we could blow teams away again but as long as Pep is around I think it’s going to be turgid football, yes we may win stuff but it won’t be anything like the centurions season.
 
Bluesince1979 said:
Kills me to say it, but i honestly think khaldoon and Viana need a sit down with Pep now.

Its not knee jerk because of yesterday, or this season full stop. Signs were VERY much there last season as we limped over the line then collapsed in the cup final, which was a fuck you to the fans IMO.

It was the right time for tixi to go, he hasnt made a decent signing in a ling time now. Gvardiol the last one? And before that?

We have a shiny new, young DOF now and he should be thinking of the next shiny new coach to work with.

Pep has had no clue of his best starting 11 all year. Every team sheet is a guessing game. Tactics are all over the shop. Take yesterday, who saw us playing a team like that? His team selections are erratic. Players come in, do well, disappear. Players look shot but play every week.
Hes had trauma in his personal life. We saw the face scratching episode, not good man. The man needs a break.

Pep will go down as the best ever, and rightly so. Ive seen football being played that at times has blown my mind, head shaking at its beauty. But not any more, and not for 2 seasons.

All good things come to an end. The best coach in the world eventually becomes NOT the best coach in the world.

For me, its time.
Who to replace? Has to be Vinnie.
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Putting Pep to one side, it's clear we've slipped considerably from the previous few seasons. Injuries, fatigue, poor purchases, over the hill players etc. have all contributed. I see a very hard slog to get us back up there. You can see other teams have energy and directness around Europe and that's what we need. Bit of a crossroads this summer for the club and how it wants to progress with the team.
 
Tb1981 said:
This is pep’s worst team ever and by some distance
We don’t have the quality of players to play the controlled football he wants
We pass without purpose or pace
The squad is totally unbalanced
I’m not actually sure how much pep wants to get it back. Maybe the fire has gone
Feel sorry for Viana
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We don't need to play controlled football against one of the worst sides the PL has ever seen.

Our attitude yesterday was shocking and do we deserve CL with that attitude?

We are so dull, boring and frightened to play it's beyond a joke, I love my club but yesterday was a very hard, sad watch.
 
the-ecstacy-of-eight said:
We were shit, but if sending a player to the floor with a double handed push to the back as a cross comes over isn't a foul and a penalty then I don't get football any more.

It's a fucking penalty.
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That’s was disgraceful decision, not enough contact, when you see fuckers go down for catching a toe, absolute bollocks.
 
heslops barnet said:
Are we blaming Pep or the players for this seasons poor performances?
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Mostly Pep, by far. He stopped, by his own admission, the beginning of a squad overhaul last summer, despite the lack of any semblance of an offseason for players to recover fully from last season. He has presided over a breakdown in the pressing game, a massive vacuum in central midfield, and a complete unraveling of the backline's discipline in defending (while continuing to insist on an insanely high line). He has sat passively on the bench as results were frittered away in the late stages, not even bothering to use most of his subsitutions with viable options on the bench with fresh legs. As the squad collapsed, along with his marriage, we have seen him engage in troubling incidents of self-harm for the entire world to witness.

He got most of the reinforcements he finally insisted on in January. After a calamitous first five minutes, Khusanov turned into our best defender and was then banished into oblivion, along with Gonzales, who had overcome some stumbles to seemingly transform our midfield into a zone of competence again. He has left Grealish and Doku on the bench for extended periods when they were fit and had played well enough to suggest that they were ready for more minutes to make consistent contributions. With all the horrible problems we had with control in the midfield for most of the season, he left a frustrated Grealish nailed to the bench. Control is what Jack does, and unfortunately, sometimes that's all he does, but why not use him to best effect when you're desperate for it instead of running the aging Gundogan and Kovacic into the ground? Pep has exacerbated most of the problems created by the incredible run of injuries this season.

Pep simply must find a new system which will bring Haaland into the action. He's being mostly wasted the way he's utilized and I can't even imagine his level of frustration. Then again, his finishing has regressed badly since his debut season for us, but maybe if he got to touch the ball every now and then it might improve.

I still believe in Pep and trust that he will incorporate new players and wave his magic wand again next season. If he doesn't, it will be time to move into a new era.
 
Keeper! said:
We don't need to play controlled football against one of the worst sides the PL has ever seen.

Our attitude yesterday was shocking and do we deserve CL with that attitude?

We are so dull, boring and frightened to play it's beyond a joke, I love my club but yesterday was a very hard, sad watch.
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True
Arsenal and Liverpool score three yesterday without breaking sweat
We’re a team full of cowards at the moment
We pass sideways because only Kev has any balls
 
Dizbuster said:
Mostly Pep, by far. He stopped, by his own admission, the beginning of a squad overhaul last summer, despite the lack of any semblance of an offseason for players to recover fully from last season. He has presided over a breakdown in the pressing game, a massive vacuum in central midfield, and a complete unraveling of the backline's discipline in defending (while continuing to insist on an insanely high line). He has sat passively on the bench as results were frittered away in the late stages, not even bothering to use most of his subsitutions with viable options on the bench with fresh legs. As the squad collapsed, along with his marriage, we have seen him engage in troubling incidents of self-harm for the entire world to witness.

He got most of the reinforcements he finally insisted on in January. After a calamitous first five minutes, Khusanov turned into our best defender and was then banished into oblivion, along with Gonzales, who had overcome some stumbles to seemingly transform our midfield into a zone of competence again. He has left Grealish and Doku on the bench for extended periods when they were fit and had played well enough to suggest that they were ready for more minutes to make consistent contributions. With all the horrible problems we had with control in the midfield for most of the season, he left a frustrated Grealish nailed to the bench. Control is what Jack does, and unfortunately, sometimes that's all he does, but why not use him to best effect when you're desperate for it instead of running the aging Gundogan and Kovacic into the ground? Pep has exacerbated most of the problems created by the incredible run of injuries this season.

Pep simply must find a new system which will bring Haaland into the action. He's being mostly wasted the way he's utilized and I can't even imagine his level of frustration. Then again, his finishing has regressed badly since his debut season for us, but maybe if he got to touch the ball every now and then it might improve.

I still believe in Pep and trust that he will incorporate new players and wave his magic wand again next season. If he doesn't, it will be time to move into a new era.
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Great post.
 
I was umpiring a cricket match yesterday and haven't watched any highlights so can't really comment on the performance

However, as soon as I sneaked a look at the starting XI I could virtually predict the main themes of the post match thread.

Needless rotation, a total lack of pace and energy and what's happened to all our January signings?
 
Roachy said:
Putting Pep to one side, it's clear we've slipped considerably from the previous few seasons. Injuries, fatigue, poor purchases, over the hill players etc. have all contributed. I see a very hard slog to get us back up there. You can see other teams have energy and directness around Europe and that's what we need. Bit of a crossroads this summer for the club and how it wants to progress with the team.
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The top brass have lost their way too. Maybe tixi shouldnt be the only ones to go?

I know people in decent jobs at city, ive made no secret of that.
And where as the guys in senior positions are very good at what they do, they arent City fans, some arent football fans at all. And thats manifesting in all sorts of ways now.

I think the club needs a reset, because as you say, theres a long slog ahead
 
argyle said:
Me calling out those calling for Pep's head because we drew a game is bizarre?

By all means question the team he picked and then not doing subs until late but calling for him to go is over the top.
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Mate I’m no pep out guy but this isn’t just about that game yesterday is it it’s basically a copy and paste of almost every game we’ve played this season it’s just that sometimes we’ve got away with it.
Surely you must be a bit concerned about next season?
 
elbearos said:
Yes, it was disappointing, but how are City supposed to play fast attacking football against a team with eleven players, in and around their own area?
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Many ways to skin a cat, let them have the ball and draw them out, slow passing between CB's allowing the Southampton players an easy day.

We would have struggled to score against Cheadle Town yesterday, we were appalling and to blame the tactics of the opposition is arrogant and pathetic.
 
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It's come full circle - we were on a long unbeaten PL run when we first played Saints.

Not playing great football even then, but nothing like the turgid stuff that suddenly became the norm, almost overnight.

Right after Pep said that he 'could learn a lot from Russell Martin' - to the disbelief of virtually everybody.

Well, even the so-called happy clappers would be hard-pushed to name a team whose style we've more closely mimicked since that very day.

A single-paced rhythm that is too easy to defend against.

How many false dawns have we had this year? Chelsea - when we thought we'd gone back to using Erling properly; Newcastle - when we became excited thinking of the two-pronged Erl-Omar strike partnership wreaking havoc on defences; more recently, riding our luck admittedly, but definitely building momentum with NOR's introduction enabling Gavrdiol to move out of his mistake-a-minute FB position to a much more comfortable CB role where he looks a different player.

And yet again - momentum wiped out with a performance like that. Ironically the game where we've given up the least chances (if any) of any lately is the one that's brought us down to earth again.

Do 20- or 30-something professional athletes really need two weeks' rest before the Final?

What a mood killer...
 
If the manager wants to leave next season, it may be more beneficial for him to go end of this season rather than later. Do wonder if the lack of jeopardy in his job is partially why he makes such selections. Any other manager on a winning run who makes changes and then loses would be under scrutiny.

The most frustrating part was that when Kovacic made way for Marmoush, the shots started to roll in. 20-30 minutes earlier, the game may have ended differently.
 
jrb said:
Rodri’s cover has disappeared. When Rdori is back Gonzalez won’t get a game. Another £50mill singing warming the padded subs seats.
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To sit alongside Nunes and Phillip's. Phillip's will hopefully be gone and Nunes won't get many games if a new right back arrives. So just a measly 150m quid spunked up the wall on 3 bang average looking players
 
All I can surmise is:

They are very confident of top 5 and the FA cup.

The new signings are being slowly introduced to peps ways and are being prepared for next season.


The unc’s have had their day.
I have enjoyed watching them all and will forever admire them, but it’s CTID, not UncsTID
 
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