Saints (A) Post Match Thread

[Stoned Rose]

Always nice to see Rodri flying into yet another crunching tackle.

 

[Stoned Rose]

We have become resilient, but I miss that goal expectancy we used to have, now when we go forward I dont expect a goal. Needed the win though so that will do, Stones mom for me.....even though andy townshend decided to give it to a player on the losing side?

Please can we kick on from here.

Stonesy's mom has got it going on.

 

[dadnlad]

When Eddie kicked it he was in his own half, so can't be offside. Plus although he ran into their half, he didn't challenge for the ball when the Southampton player headed it and only picked it up from KDB's knockdown, so he was probably not interfering either. Good goal though.

when has that ever mattered where city concerned
but yes your right i was just being .........

 

[Fordyboy46]

This win reminds me of when city went on that run of 14 wins, all those games, we just did what was needed to get the win. Our defense now is as good as any in the league. Pep is cautiously getting us back to our best. However he knows our firepower is costing us game by game. A new striker in January is Peps no 1 target, don't let him make you think otherwise.

He would love a striker in January but can't see anything happening unfortunately

 

[willipp]

If we had a proper striker non of this would be an issue, however pinning our hopes on one player whether that’s Messi or Haaland or whoever is a dangerous game. It’s not long ago we had 5 players on 20 goals, they have dried up, we have to learn to just shoot and stop fucking about in front of goal, as professional footballers on hundreds of thousands a week how they can’t shoot with their weaker foots is beyond me, shooting from 8 yards just put your foot through it, it doesn’t have to be perfect.
We have a great defence now, something we have lacked in all of Peps tenure, it’s looking good for the champions league but in that competition you get very few chances and you must take them or be punished.

That Bernardo chance yesterday just summed us up. The one where he has the ball 8 yards out, on his left foot and everyone in their right mind just thinks go one Bernie, smash it in. But no, he cuts it back across goal on the volley to Mahrez who blazes it over the bar. It’s like we don’t want to score goals at times and until players start taking responsibility we are going to keep struggling. I actually thought Bernie looked a lot better yesterday, but he blew 2 golden opportunities that if we want any success this year he and others have to start taking.

 

[Saddleworth2]

It’s like we don’t want to score goals at times

I said to Mrs S yesterday, I'm sure we practice ways not to score goals. That chance you mentioned and two or three breakaways are the chances we used to score for fun.

Still, it was a better performance and the defence was sound. Cancelo better. John is our best CB at transition, he gives us a lot. Please keep him fit and playing like this. Bernie had a pretty good game too which was nice to see. Raz scored a nice goal but is losing the ball 75% of the time he gets it. That just isn't good enough. If Pep talked to him as has been reported, he wasn't listening.

 

[Ancient Citizen]

Great result, Saints are a very decent side, the usual 36 touches before shooting is a pain in the arse though, we should have won that at least 4-0.
John Stones is a revelation, he was brilliant again, obviously now over the relationship problem.

 

[daflanger]

My worry throughout the game was that if they had scored, we would have had a problem. In the WBA game if we had managed to score 2 or 3 goals then their goal wouldn't have created an issue for us but it seems we are unable to score more than 1 goal in most games these days

Leed 1-1
Westham 1-1
WBA 1-1
Liverpool 1-1
Man U - 0-0

Then the Wins

Arsenal - 1-0
Sotons 1-0
Sheffield 1-0

Only three games where we scored more than 1 goal are Wolves, Burnely and Fulham (bar the Foxes game where we lost)

We really don't need a world class striker, we just need any striker who can score right now. Be in the right positions and give the opposition defense a problem. I wonder if Delap was 19 or 20, would Pep have called him to lead our attack?

 

[Father Paul]

Not playing like we have in previous seasons but they're not some bum team this season and would've gone 2nd in the league today with a win against us, we won and that's all that matters, after boxing day we've got a bit of a break but today we took 3pts away from home in front of 2k of their fans so that has to be positive, as is more clean sheets than any other team in the league this season it said on commentary before. Win our game in hand we're 5pts off top spot hardly season over tackle. Still well in the race for the title.

Vital 3 points and as you say against a decent side in form. I had a feeling we would pull something out of the embers in this one and keep on track.
Not sure what the break after boxing day is don't we have the blue dippers on the 28th followed by another big test away at Chelsea?
The defence is now solid and the gap still manageable 8/5 points but a lot more than what we witnessed yesterday will be required to win the big race.

 

[Eds]

Excellent performance against a much improved Southampton. Finishing again let us down but we haven’t suddenly become a poor team. One defeat in nearly 20 games, one own goal conceded in eight games. Can anyone say why we had to have crowd noises piped in when there was a crowd there and why do the commentators add nothing insightful. We switched formations a number of times, most notably when we played with a false nine but no mention of it. I don’t need to know shit like that was the third time that Redmond has passed the with his right foot to Ward Prowse’s left foot in as many games.