City V Southampton post match discussion

Saint said:
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
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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?
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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
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Glad you enjoyed the day out fella, what did you think of the stadium, the facilities?

I'm over in Totton, not too far away!
 
I get the feeling RM "underestimated" the opposition yesterday and thought he would give Jack Rodwell an "easy" start. I dont think we,d have conceded those goals if De Jong had been playing as he gives the defence a more calming influence and would not have been as far up the pitch as Rodwell was when we conceded the 2nd goal.
 
While there are a few things to be concerned about, it was better to have a tough match and get a wake up call and 3 points at the same time, than to cruise to a win and become over confident to start the season. The most comforting thing about this weekend was watching our so called rivals for the title, and not seeing anyone else that looks remotely like they can challenge. We will lose a few this year, but not nearly as many as others will.
 
Exeter Blue I am here said:
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
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A 7 for Mario who missed an open net? And a 5 and a slagging for a guy who scored a goal you needed for 3 pts rather than 1? That's gratitude for ya. Did you boo when he scored?
 
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