City V Southampton post match discussion

My view of the action from the away end:

What a game! Fully expected a 3-8 nil thrashing to be honest and was pleasantly surprised.

Thought our players were solid throughout and bar the odd shake in defence put in a brilliant display. Clyne down the right was our MotM for me (sorry about the Aguero injury) and put in some great challenges, managing to get forward well. We managed to get some nice passing together in the opening 20 minutes, before you managed to find your feet before half-time.

I honestly thought the penalty save was as good as it was going to get for us. Second half and you missed a string of chances and, for what it's worth, I've personally never liked Dzeko but that might be more down to his stereo-typically arrogant footballer appearance rather than his ability.

Lambert came on and shifted the tide for us, his link-up play and knock-downs have been terrific for the past couple of seasons, not to mention the odd goal. Obviously went ballistic when he equalised and we were in dreamland when Steven Davis scored 143 seconds into his Saints debut! The 5 of us in our group all agreed you'd still win, but I was just glad you scored before it got too close to the end.

I was buzzing more after that defeat than some away wins we had last season, it was a very strange feeling!

At the end of the day your class shone through, but I felt we certainly put in a good account of ourselves and with a couple more signings should be comfortably able to stay up.

Good luck for the rest of the season and hopefully you can stick it to United once again :)

Saint
 
Saint said:
My view of the action from the away end:

What a game! Fully expected a 3-8 nil thrashing to be honest and was pleasantly surprised.

Thought our players were solid throughout and bar the odd shake in defence put in a brilliant display. Clyne down the right was our MotM for me (sorry about the Aguero injury) and put in some great challenges, managing to get forward well. We managed to get some nice passing together in the opening 20 minutes, before you managed to find your feet before half-time.

I honestly thought the penalty save was as good as it was going to get for us. Second half and you missed a string of chances and, for what it's worth, I've personally never liked Dzeko but that might be more down to his stereo-typically arrogant footballer appearance rather than his ability.

Lambert came on and shifted the tide for us, his link-up play and knock-downs have been terrific for the past couple of seasons, not to mention the odd goal. Obviously went ballistic when he equalised and we were in dreamland when Steven Davis scored 143 seconds into his Saints debut! The 5 of us in our group all agreed you'd still win, but I was just glad you scored before it got too close to the end.

I was buzzing more after that defeat than some away wins we had last season, it was a very strange feeling!

At the end of the day your class shone through, but I felt we certainly put in a good account of ourselves and with a couple more signings should be comfortably able to stay up.

Good luck for the rest of the season and hopefully you can stick it to United once again :)

Saint
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Some of your lot didn't cover themselves in glory when Kun was being stretchered away. Left a bitter taste to be honest. Anyway, about the football. Fair play to your lot; at least you had a go, although we should have been out of sight before you got your first. Defensively, you'll have to tighten up. We made a lot of chances that we didn't take yesterday. Thanks for the vermin comment at the end by the way!
 
Saint said:
My view of the action from the away end:

What a game! Fully expected a 3-8 nil thrashing to be honest and was pleasantly surprised.

Thought our players were solid throughout and bar the odd shake in defence put in a brilliant display. Clyne down the right was our MotM for me (sorry about the Aguero injury) and put in some great challenges, managing to get forward well. We managed to get some nice passing together in the opening 20 minutes, before you managed to find your feet before half-time.

I honestly thought the penalty save was as good as it was going to get for us. Second half and you missed a string of chances and, for what it's worth, I've personally never liked Dzeko but that might be more down to his stereo-typically arrogant footballer appearance rather than his ability.

Lambert came on and shifted the tide for us, his link-up play and knock-downs have been terrific for the past couple of seasons, not to mention the odd goal. Obviously went ballistic when he equalised and we were in dreamland when Steven Davis scored 143 seconds into his Saints debut! The 5 of us in our group all agreed you'd still win, but I was just glad you scored before it got too close to the end.

I was buzzing more after that defeat than some away wins we had last season, it was a very strange feeling!

At the end of the day your class shone through, but I felt we certainly put in a good account of ourselves and with a couple more signings should be comfortably able to stay up.

Good luck for the rest of the season and hopefully you can stick it to United once again :)

Saint
Click to expand...


A pretty good assessment Saint, except we should have been about 3 or 4 up at half time!

Thought you acquitted yourselves well, you broke quickly but I do think part of that was to do with our players thinking all they had to do was turn up to win.
Still, you can take great comfort from your display, cdertainly impressed a few of us in East lvl 3, you were very loud when you scored, we were quiet yesterday, maybe everyone was still spent from May 13th!

Was it you that started singing that stupid song 'Where were you when you were shit?' That really is a joke, I think all KNOW where we were when we were shit!

Good luck for the rest of the season, obviously except the return at St. Marys.

What part of Southampton do you live in fella?
 
Tell you something the atmosphere yesterday was awesome!

We fight till the end
we fight till the end
we're Man City
we fight till the end!

Both players and fans

Brilliant!
 
Bilboblue said:
Saint said:
My view of the action from the away end:

What a game! Fully expected a 3-8 nil thrashing to be honest and was pleasantly surprised.

Thought our players were solid throughout and bar the odd shake in defence put in a brilliant display. Clyne down the right was our MotM for me (sorry about the Aguero injury) and put in some great challenges, managing to get forward well. We managed to get some nice passing together in the opening 20 minutes, before you managed to find your feet before half-time.

I honestly thought the penalty save was as good as it was going to get for us. Second half and you missed a string of chances and, for what it's worth, I've personally never liked Dzeko but that might be more down to his stereo-typically arrogant footballer appearance rather than his ability.

Lambert came on and shifted the tide for us, his link-up play and knock-downs have been terrific for the past couple of seasons, not to mention the odd goal. Obviously went ballistic when he equalised and we were in dreamland when Steven Davis scored 143 seconds into his Saints debut! The 5 of us in our group all agreed you'd still win, but I was just glad you scored before it got too close to the end.

I was buzzing more after that defeat than some away wins we had last season, it was a very strange feeling!

At the end of the day your class shone through, but I felt we certainly put in a good account of ourselves and with a couple more signings should be comfortably able to stay up.

Good luck for the rest of the season and hopefully you can stick it to United once again :)

Saint
Click to expand...


A pretty good assessment Saint, except we should have been about 3 or 4 up at half time!

Thought you acquitted yourselves well, you broke quickly but I do think part of that was to do with our players thinking all they had to do was turn up to win.
Still, you can take great comfort from your display, cdertainly impressed a few of us in East lvl 3, you were very loud when you scored, we were quiet yesterday, maybe everyone was still spent from May 13th!

Was it you that started singing that stupid song 'Where were you when you were shit?' That really is a joke, I think all KNOW where we were when we were shit!

Good luck for the rest of the season, obviously except the return at St. Marys.

What part of Southampton do you live in fella?
Click to expand...

Yeah we certainly looked dangerous on the counter-attack. First-half I didn't think we'd score, but at 3-2 I had every confidence we could nick another.

The "where were you when you were shit" was probably more tongue in cheek than anything else, in response to the usual "small town in pompey" crap. Thought our fans put on a good show and not having the fear of losing helps that. Little surprised by your fans as you made quite a racket at the Community Shield last week. I see the Poznan didn't exactly catch on around the ground either.... not universally loved by City fans then?

With regards to the Aguero injury you'll obviously get a few idiots that cheer, but it certainly was a relief that we didn't have to face him for another 85 minutes!

I live about 10 miles from Southampton, near Eastleigh.

Saint
 
Saint said:
I've personally never liked Dzeko but that might be more down to his stereo-typically arrogant footballer appearance rather than his ability.
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Now that's a surprise because Dzeko comes across as one of the most down to earth and friendly players in the Prem.
He's a great lad and doesn't appear to have an arrogant bone in his body.
 
watched the highlights on the OS.

could have been 5-0 before they scored, should have been at least 3.

silva missed pen
dzeko scuffed sitter from 4 yards (nasri's ball)
silva over the bar
clichy chance over the bar

hopefully with more game time those will be going in.
 
stony said:
Saint said:
I've personally never liked Dzeko but that might be more down to his stereo-typically arrogant footballer appearance rather than his ability.
Click to expand...

Now that's a surprise because Dzeko comes across as one of the most down to earth and friendly players in the Prem.
He's a great lad and doesn't appear to have an arrogant bone in his body.
Click to expand...

To be fair that's me judging him at face-value, never actually heard an interview with him.
 
Impressed with Southampton tbh, a much better side than I thought they would be. I thought we did alright yesterday, not on the top of our game and I could see that from the opening 10 minutes, and Silvas god awful penalty didn't help. If anything that put us back a step and gave them more confidence. But then we got into our stride, scored and should have had a few more before they got back in it. It's a good sign that even though we weren't on top form that we could still create chances in abundance. Defensively we need to sure it up again, but Southampton scored the only 2 shots they had on target, so it isn't like we were giving away chances in abundance which is positive. The comeback is the thing that excited me the most, we finally have this mentality engraved in us that we aren't going to lose the game. We don't panic, we keep playing our stuff and know that it will come for us. After Dzeko scored, I think the majority of us at the ground expected us to go and get the winner. And the man who scored the winner I thought was outstanding yesterday. His touch to Tevez for the penalty was class, the way he dribbled past those 2 in the corner to set it up for Dzeko was quality, his chipped through ball for Tevez was perfect and it was only fitting he scored the winner. Silva was off the ball, which I can understand as he has not played any pre-season whatsoever, the same could be same for Mario when he came on. Was impressed with Dzeko, he put himself about in the air, should have scored a sitter but made up for it with his goal, and he did a decent job. End of the day, we deserved to win, we did win, we got the 3 points and THAT'S WHY WE'RE CHAMPIONS
 
Saint said:
My view of the action from the away end:

What a game! Fully expected a 3-8 nil thrashing to be honest and was pleasantly surprised.

Thought our players were solid throughout and bar the odd shake in defence put in a brilliant display. Clyne down the right was our MotM for me (sorry about the Aguero injury) and put in some great challenges, managing to get forward well. We managed to get some nice passing together in the opening 20 minutes, before you managed to find your feet before half-time.

I honestly thought the penalty save was as good as it was going to get for us. Second half and you missed a string of chances and, for what it's worth, I've personally never liked Dzeko but that might be more down to his stereo-typically arrogant footballer appearance rather than his ability.

Lambert came on and shifted the tide for us, his link-up play and knock-downs have been terrific for the past couple of seasons, not to mention the odd goal. Obviously went ballistic when he equalised and we were in dreamland when Steven Davis scored 143 seconds into his Saints debut! The 5 of us in our group all agreed you'd still win, but I was just glad you scored before it got too close to the end.

I was buzzing more after that defeat than some away wins we had last season, it was a very strange feeling!

At the end of the day your class shone through, but I felt we certainly put in a good account of ourselves and with a couple more signings should be comfortably able to stay up.

Good luck for the rest of the season and hopefully you can stick it to United once again :)

Saint
Click to expand...
Cheers!

Could tell your team has been at the top of the league for the last two years (doesn't matter what division it was in). The way you applied youselves to the game, the players' attitude, the positivity...could be seen. If you play like that all season you will stay up.

We were all over the shop at times yesterday. Yaya doesn't get fully fit until October so when he runs forward it takes him five minutes to get back this left either Rodwell or Zabaleta isolated (doesn't matter if Clichy is left isloated because ge's rapid) and your team took advantage of that. Plus you would have seen better defending in the Championship than what we served up at times, even from our captain who is among the very best centre halves on the planet.

But that's taking nothing away from your team and manager, who were professional and look like a Premier League outfit.
 
Saint said:
My view of the action from the away end:

What a game! Fully expected a 3-8 nil thrashing to be honest and was pleasantly surprised.

Thought our players were solid throughout and bar the odd shake in defence put in a brilliant display. Clyne down the right was our MotM for me (sorry about the Aguero injury) and put in some great challenges, managing to get forward well. We managed to get some nice passing together in the opening 20 minutes, before you managed to find your feet before half-time.

I honestly thought the penalty save was as good as it was going to get for us. Second half and you missed a string of chances and, for what it's worth, I've personally never liked Dzeko but that might be more down to his stereo-typically arrogant footballer appearance rather than his ability.

Lambert came on and shifted the tide for us, his link-up play and knock-downs have been terrific for the past couple of seasons, not to mention the odd goal. Obviously went ballistic when he equalised and we were in dreamland when Steven Davis scored 143 seconds into his Saints debut! The 5 of us in our group all agreed you'd still win, but I was just glad you scored before it got too close to the end.

I was buzzing more after that defeat than some away wins we had last season, it was a very strange feeling!

At the end of the day your class shone through, but I felt we certainly put in a good account of ourselves and with a couple more signings should be comfortably able to stay up.

Good luck for the rest of the season and hopefully you can stick it to United once again :)

Saint
Click to expand...
Very fair reflection of the game.

I thought the Aguero injury shocked a lot of City fans and spoiled the game for me as I kept thinking about the impact on our whole season.

Saints started very well then City started to get on top and create some chances. We had the odd purple spell before and after half-time, but when you don't take your chances you know what's coming and it duly did through two very well taken goals.

I thought Nasri was the pick of City's players, and Tevez.

I thought City played reasonably well and did very well to come back from 2-1 down. That is the mark of a good team who have self-belief, but I wasn't happy with the last 10 mins after we went 3-2 up. We should have controlled the game then, but instead we were in disarray and you could have gone on and got an equaliser.

I think we deserved to win. Bit dangerous to take too much from one game, but I think Saints fans can be optimistic.
 
Every United fan I've spoken to (or had the displeasure of receiving a text/email from) seems to be revelling in the fact that we were 'shit'? One of them said 'you looked like you didn't know how to defend' - hasn't seemed to have hindered us being the best defence in the league the last two seasons with the same players?

I don't get where this is coming from.

We won and totally dominated, and it was the first non-crucial competitive game we have played in a while - can't remember the last time we didn't start a game and I didn't feel like we had to win. I was a little concerned that the players would find motivation to be an issue, but it was great to see them 'fight to the end'.

Again.

We also scored three (again) against a massed ranks defence - so much for us not being able to break that down.

We could have easily scored ten yesterday, despite losing the best striker in the league after 15 minutes.

Rodwell as well is getting slated. Yes there was a dodgy pass in there, but apart from that he hardly showed he was a 'bad signing'. Something like a 96% pass completion from a ridiculously high number of passes? Will only get better and better IMO.

I would say our performance yesterday should be more of a concern for the rest of the Premier League than for us - because once we click back into gear and our finishing becomes more clinical and our defence more assured we will be close to un-fucking-stoppable.

Smacks of desperation. Hopefully Everton will refocus their attention on their own club's issues tonight.
 
We played well except for:

a). our defending when they came at us.
b). our ridiculous wastefulness that was a problem at times last season. Match should have been over by half-time.

Not much reason to be concerned, remember we played 3-5-2 all pre-season so this was our first team playing our regular system again since the QPR game.

I wonder if we will play 3-5-2 against the Dippers and try to hit them on the break as they usually are quite dominant against us at Anfield where we haven't won in years.
 
LoveCity said:
We played well except for:

a). our defending when they came at us.
b). our ridiculous wastefulness that was a problem at times last season. Match should have been over by half-time.

Not much reason to be concerned, remember we played 3-5-2 all pre-season so this was our first team playing our regular system again since the QPR game.

I wonder if we will play 3-5-2 against the Dippers and try to hit them on the break as they usually are quite dominant against us at Anfield where we haven't won in years.
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Defending was good. It was our midfield who did not retain possession - I thought Rodwell struggled in the 2nd half, and we missed Barry / De Jong who normally play that deep anchor role. Kompany, Lescott, Zab won their challenges
 
Defence was poor.Joe didnt look fit.Rodwell was a bit off the pace in the second half.Hope agureos ok.Nasri played well.Tevez played well.
 
baildon blue said:
Defence was poor.Joe didnt look fit.Rodwell was a bit off the pace in the second half.Hope agureos ok.Nasri played well.Tevez played well.
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So what mistakes in defence did we make? Our defenders won their individual battles. The goals came from City losing the ball in their half, and we put ourselves under pressure in the last 10 mins because we didn't hold on to the ball - that had little to do with the defence and a lot more to do with the midfield. There weren't that many options for the man in possession so we kept giving it away, but actually we protected our goal quite well
 
Btw Did you lot who complained last season about the announcer when the team comes out notice he said our name properly yesterday? Guess he reads bluemoon.
 
It was evident after about 5 minutes that Southampton were pacy and mobile, and intent on exploiting our lack of personnel down the flanks. Zabaleta in particular was completely exposed for the entire 90 minutes, with nobody covering in front of him, as Southampton doubled, and even trebled, up on him. Kompany kept getting dragged over to help, which then left Mr Wooden (Lescott) having to cope with the big lummox up front on his own, something he struggled at, getting backed into and bumped into scuffed half clearances galore. Seriously though, if we can't cope with a team of Premier League journeymen counterattacking, then the Chimps League promises to be a fucking nightmare of epic proportions. Whatever, it took Mancini 85 minutes to introduce Kolarov, and we never saw Milner at all.

Hart 6 - Fuck all to do, but his piss poor sliced clearances down the middle in the last 10 minutes allowed Southampton to run the ball back at us repeatedly.
Zaba 6 - Did his best, but had no fucking chance defensively.
Clichy 6 - See Zabaleta. Much better crossing than usual I'm pleased to say.
Kompany 6 - Mediocre at best.
Lescott 5 - See Kompany, only painfully slow.
Nasri 9 - Man of the Match by a country mile and even won a few tackles.
Silva 4 - Dreadful. Clearly not fit. The penalty was a joke. Anyone who takes an almost perpendicular run up to the ball, drastically reduces the chances of controlling its placement, and so it proved. If I was Mancini I would have fried his nuts in oil for that one incident alone. Give him two or three games to get that sharpness back and he'll be buzzin' again I'm sure.
Ya Ya 8 - Increasingly ran the game.
Rodwell 6 - Some nice touches initially, but grew progressively more crab-like as the game possessed. May have been acting under orders in that regard, or may have been feeling the pace, but either way unless he's prepared to unleash his attacking instincts now and again, then he'll be little more than a taller version of De Jong. There were enough flashes of skill to make me optimistic though and it's a shame his one bad pass proved so costly.
Tevez 7 - Typically bustling, scored and won a pen.
Dzeko 5 - A carthorse. Looks like he's put on a stone in weight, and clearly can't be relied on to convert even the simplest of chances. Unfortunately, at 120k a week and 25m quid, he ain't going anywhere. Moaning about being on the bench is fine (it demonstrates hunger if nothing else), but he was put clean through in the Charity Shield and lumbered after it like a Lada towing an anvil, and yesterday he adjusted his feet with all the dexterity of Arthur Mullard ballroom dancing to miss from 3 yards.
Mario 7 - Also joined the "missed an open goal" club, but touch and movement was light years ahead of Dzeko.

If we play like that on a regular basis, a top 3 finish will be the best we can hope for. There were positives - good going forward (apart from the dire finishing) and crossing much improved, but there were significant negatives as well. For the third competitive fixture in a row (QPR, Chelsea and Southampton) the opposition had 2 shots and scored 2 goals. We were a fucking shambles at the back, but much of the trouble there stemmed from the midfield failing to protect the defence, particularly down Zab's flank.
The injury to Aguero killed the mood for me, and I'll be absolutely gutted if he's out for the season. A pox on the cunts in the away end booing him and chanting "She fell over". Bottom line though? We were way below par and still won. The hallmark of champions
 
Marvin said:
baildon blue said:
Defence was poor.Joe didnt look fit.Rodwell was a bit off the pace in the second half.Hope agureos ok.Nasri played well.Tevez played well.
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So what mistakes in defence did we make? Our defenders won their individual battles. The goals came from City losing the ball in their half, and we put ourselves under pressure in the last 10 mins because we didn't hold on to the ball - that had little to do with the defence and a lot more to do with the midfield. There weren't that many options for the man in possession so we kept giving it away, but actually we protected our goal quite well
Click to expand...
I said rodwell was off the pace mush so that means the midfield didnt do the best of jobS ok!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
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