Saints (A) Post Match Thread

I keep stressing the point that there is nothing basically wrong at all with this City team. It is obviously significant that neither Aguero nor Jesus have been available anything like regularly and City have lacked a focal point to the attack. But we have never relied on the goals Sergio and Gabby have scored. Sergio is the greatest forward certainly of the PL era but in the last 3 completed seasons he has scored 62 of the 303 PL goals the side has netted. Gabby has scored 34 in that time. These are impressive totals considering they have never played together that much and both have had injury problems in those years. But the point is that goals are spread around at City much more than at other clubs. Raz has scored 51 PL goals in those seasons! Five players made double figures last season, four in 2018-9 and four in the Centurions season. Virtually every midfielder chipped in with 6 or 7 a season and defenders got at least one! Sane got 10 both in 2017-8 and 2018-9 and he's now back in Germany, so someone will have to take up the slack, but our "other" players are still capable of scoring goals! We aren't creating chance after chance as in the two title winning seasons but we are creating enough clear cut openings to win most games, and I think it is fair to assume that this difficulty is temporary. Obviously it can't continue for too long but we will get our shooting boots and Sergio back before long. Until then we have to create and take enough to win matches, even if only 1-0 rather than 6-2! Saturday was a good start, because it wasn't a win against a bad team. Southampton put us under pressure and we coped admirably - without falling to Westergaard at he near post or giving Ward-Prowse a set piece outside the box.
 
StillBluessinceHydeRoad said:
I keep stressing the point that there is nothing basically wrong at all with this City team. It is obviously significant that neither Aguero nor Jesus have been available anything like regularly and City have lacked a focal point to the attack. But we have never relied on the goals Sergio and Gabby have scored. Sergio is the greatest forward certainly of the PL era but in the last 3 completed seasons he has scored 62 of the 303 PL goals the side has netted. Gabby has scored 34 in that time. These are impressive totals considering they have never played together that much and both have had injury problems in those years. But the point is that goals are spread around at City much more than at other clubs. Raz has scored 51 PL goals in those seasons! Five players made double figures last season, four in 2018-9 and four in the Centurions season. Virtually every midfielder chipped in with 6 or 7 a season and defenders got at least one! Sane got 10 both in 2017-8 and 2018-9 and he's now back in Germany, so someone will have to take up the slack, but our "other" players are still capable of scoring goals! We aren't creating chance after chance as in the two title winning seasons but we are creating enough clear cut openings to win most games, and I think it is fair to assume that this difficulty is temporary. Obviously it can't continue for too long but we will get our shooting boots and Sergio back before long. Until then we have to create and take enough to win matches, even if only 1-0 rather than 6-2! Saturday was a good start, because it wasn't a win against a bad team. Southampton put us under pressure and we coped admirably - without falling to Westergaard at he near post or giving Ward-Prowse a set piece outside the box.
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I reckon we could score a lot more with Ward-Prowse in our team. I thought he was brilliant against us. I wonder if he has ever been on our radar for a defensive midfield slot. He would be a hell of a weapon at free kicks and corners. Every pass he made put us under pressure at the back.
 
This was a promising performance - defensively resilient and creating a number of quality chances.

Listening to Maine Road Ramble and the Southampton contributor mentioned what a difference being knocked out of the LC early on made to their season, as they were able to get up to full fitness and sharpness. I'd expect this has carried on with only playing once a week.

Watching the game made me think, just how much quality training have our players missed out on with the packed schedule? I can imagine there's very little training outside of match prep and conditioning. My only disappointment Saturday was the finishing yet again - Bernardo & Sterling guilty of passing at the wrong time or timid strikes. Even KDB dribbled one along the ground when you'd expect him to score.

Perhaps it's hard to build confidence in your finishing without the training time.

Rodri was caught twice early on, but aside from that he played well. Bernardo improving which is great to see.
 
eyalluvitt said:
Grealish could be our new David Silva, he is a Rolls Royce of a player, just needs an MCFC taxi/chauffeur to get him to training.
nfXofOucE7r4WnBzRt2nVgiRHPmLUofIvKSh_64ZJ9E-yZRRcXMRJOhiM7CvpM0Ton_2lI8QX_YTrdw0xbu8wd4nMkRIXzM_zb0QgPhdInH6SVSBwBuys1bpMt4IR0FGQVMH89OiPP1f
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3 pages slagging off rodri then i read this...
 
stonerblue said:
He gets caught at least once a game when pissing about in the middle but i'm sure most midfielders do.
Overall he was very strong on Saturday and battled away to keep the ball.
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He started poorly, no one can defend that, but he is a super player in my view.
 
oldius said:
He did.
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He actually did do ok for around 30-40 minutes of the whole game but he also looked shit at times

I'm his biggest critic & will always give any of our players stick if they have been shit

Kev & Sterling have both been poor at times but you just know these players will come good & start to win us games like Saturday but a major problem Rodri just doesnt give me any confidence against any top team with a clever forward who will drop off & ruin Rodri all day every day
 
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