City v Saints post match

I find it grossly unprofessional how often our player slip when in possession of the ball. The club should supply them with proper boots.
 
Typical we focus on booing rather than the performance of the team. For me I thought we looked uncomfortable in that formation, seemed like we totally lost our shape and seemed like the players were unsure as well. Thought Sterling was quiet today and gundagan Silva and kdb seemed to struggle making any space in the middle. Fair play to Southampton, defended well and annoying as it was, they got their point. We really need to stop gifting goals away, can't keep playing catch up due to stupid mistakes.
 
Cheadle_hulmeBlue said:
thats not a surprise. us cheadle hulmers know our stuff ;)
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Lived in Cheadle Hulme for 16 years (just off Acre Lane). Now on the other side of the pond, but still as true blue City as ever. Today was disappointing and one or two surprising selections - notably the omission of Nolito and positioning of Sterling on the left. Is Nolito still in the sin bin for his Bournemouth fuck-up? But we are still top of the league and less than a quarter of the season gone. We need the kind of run we had in MP's first season, and no reason why we can't do it. I would like to see us beat a decent team in the league, which we haven't yet this year ...
 
manimanc said:
The booing is the result of the emergence of the modern fan unfortunately.
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Booing is a very old tradition. It's usually the result of the emergence of poor performances! I'm not a fan of it myself, but it's a personal choice. For me, I think the team can sense tension in the crowd, and I doubt it helps on the pitch.
 
malg said:
Who was booing? I was in 111, didn't leave early, and heard fuck all.
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Did hear some booing, but who were they booing, the team (surely not), the poor performance of the referee or the time wasting Southampton team?
 
East Level 2 said:
He went against the happy clappies and that's a banning offence.
Just wondering, if those who tell us it will come right were blathering their "manager knows best" shite when we failed to score at both Villa and Norwich last season. It came right courtesy of West Ham beating the rags but it was a close run thing.
And if we can't criticise Pep because he's won a fair bit, then how come we could criticise Pellers and Bobby when they too have won a fair bit and have far more top level coaching experience than anybody on here. And remember Alan Ball? He too had far more experience, but was saved as the internet was only in its infancy while he was ruining us.
I think Pep will get it right, and it probably won't be as easy as it appeared after the first half dozen league games, but I really can't see why going over the top in criticism is any worse than going just as far over the top when praising the players and manager after a disappointing result.
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I'm between the two extremes. We are lucky to have Pep and I'm absolutely confident he will take us up a couple of levels. He's not infallible, though, and it's fair enough to kick his tyres on here. To panic (or worse, write him off) after an early blip is IMO pessimistic at best, foolish at worst. But hey, this is a forum and we have views right across the spectrum.
 
FantasyIreland said:
Silva occupying his best territory - they arent good for each other imo.
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Yeah I agree, kdb looked almost like a spare part. We rammed the middle today and that made it easy for Southampton to defend against. Also thought it negated the wide threat and sane and Sterling never had any space.
 
Too many player out of position today, 3 at the back caused us to use sterling and sane slightly deeper, stones was not the same as slightly out of centre , see the diffference when navas came on made us more balanced. Said it before we need two full backs left and right. On the who.e it wasn't the best but we're still in change mode. We will get better
 
willipp said:
Yeah I agree, kdb looked almost like a spare part. We rammed the middle today and that made it easy for Southampton to defend against. Also thought it negated the wide threat and sane and Sterling never had any space.
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There might have been a tactical problem but the much bigger problems were:
1) Players like Silva and De Bruyne being unable to make simple passes
2) Not enough effort in the 1st half. I could see after 3-4 mins that the attitude was wrong, and I really expected Guardiola to sort it out but he waited until half time. Should have subbed off one of the midfielders after 15 mins.
 
Russian Hat said:
Too many player out of position today, 3 at the back caused us to use sterling and sane slightly deeper, stones was not the same as slightly out of centre , see the diffference when navas came on made us more balanced. Said it before we need two full backs left and right. On the who.e it wasn't the best but we're still in change mode. We will get better
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Do you think navas could be converted to a right back, would solve a problem, and the boy has pace to spare :-)
 
OB1 said:
Individual mistakes like those should be a rarity from players of the quality Bravo and Stones. The players need to be intelligent about risk taking and the system may need tweaking but far to early to be thinking of radical change.

The players are quite capable of letting any manager down playing any system: they have proved that too many times. Pep has to get into their heads or get rid of them.
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Including the one's he's just bought? You know my fears about playing this system in this league and I haven't seen a great deal yet to change my mind. Chelsea set up similarly today, but when they needed to put a foot through it, they did. We try to play it out almost regardless of how dangerous the circumstances are, and that directive can only be coming from Pep. To that end better defenders would help, but surely a system has to be more robust than only being capable of working with top international players to implement it?

Pep's also going to have to find an answer to our longstanding mental and physical weakness in the face of deep lying, aggressive, 9 man defences. Sunderland, Everton and Southampton have all thwarted us this season simply by being organised, and I think we may need to see more of Kelechi on that score. I can't remember the last time we beat any side of note (our record against the top 8 last season was appalling, and it's not shaping up any better this time around so far). Our finishing from distance, 18-25 yards, in particular is diabolical with Kun as guilty as anyone of scuffing/dragging shot after shot. Whatever, Barca, Spurs, Everton, Southampton. 4 games, no wins, 2 goals.

What was most pleasing today, apart from the fuck up for the goal, was the return of Kompany. No coincidence that this afternoon was the first time a big opposition striker was unable to hold the ball up with ease or win everything in the air. I actually think Otamendi's got the edge over Vinny in terms of bringing the ball out, but Kompers is composed enough to pass muster and far more effective in physical contests. The other plus (again) was Sterling, the only real individual threat we possessed.
Pep's got a far harder job on his hands than most people thought IMO, and quite honestly I'd take top 4 right now, and go again next season with 2 new full backs, another centre half, and a really dynamic powerhouse defensive midfielder (just don't ask me who). That may not satisfy everyone on here though.... ;-)
 
willipp said:
Yeah I agree, kdb looked almost like a spare part. We rammed the middle today and that made it easy for Southampton to defend against. Also thought it negated the wide threat and sane and Sterling never had any space.
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My analysis also.
 
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