Southampton (A) | PL | Post Match Thread

[Roachy]

You quote The pisscans influence. As a fanbase you can see it here already. I live and thank Pep for whathehas done but it's the next week that matters . We are treading water and we had rhe chance for 2nd , we may still get it. We had the chance to humiliate the rags last Yr at Wembley. Not ont fucking wznker in that team cared. They couldn't wait 1 week to celebrate. For me we need drastic action

Bet Utd couldn't believe their luck that day, poor drills that.

 

[Blue tiger]

That's football. Players are offloaded when they've passed their best and replacements are brought in. Some work out, some don't.

Why not coaches? I'd rather City take a punt on a coach like Thomas Frank or Roberto De Zerbi than watch another season of Pep's increasingly boring risk averse recycling possession rut that he can't seem to get out of. He got £20m+ for a season of dross this year.

It's lazy to say 'but who do we replace him with?' If your bread goes stale you go to the shop and buy a fresh loaf. It's time for the City Group to get off their complacent arses and make some decisions about the football side of business other than squeezing money out of fans.

So one bad season and he's past it? If we win the FA cup next week and it I know to some it seems a big if at the moment, that's 8 consecutive years winning a trophy, it'll be the second longest consecutive winning streak in English football. Now Pep might never get us back to the heights of the last 7 years, but I'd rather give him one more season than replace him with someone who finished 11th in our league last season and is the best part of 20 points behind PSG this season. As for Frank he's done a very good job at turning Brentford into a good mid table side, but doing that is a lot easier than at a club expected to win every week, just look at Moyes at the rags. I just feel our greatest ever manager should be given slack and more time to turn it around after 1 poor season in 5.

 

[IrishBloodEnglishHeart]

@ Tolmies Hairdoo. You quote The pisscans influence. As a fanbase you can see it here already. I live and thank Pep for whathehas done but it's the next week that matters . We are treading water and we had rhe chance for 2nd , we may still get it. We had the chance to humiliate the rags last Yr at Wembley. Not ont fucking wznker in that team cared. They couldn't wait 1 week to celebrate. For me we need drastic action

This is spot on.

 

[BlueMonkey79]

You’re saying we actually have a sort piece coach?

We must do. The way De Bruyne finds the opponents keeper with every corner can't be down to luck.

 

[Mr Grumpy]

If you couldn't give a shit about being relegated, then you've probably not experienced too many?

And if you have, then it's a bizarre take.

Some people may get too invested in personalities (not saying you have) and not the well-being of the actual club.

Plenty are already citing the Treble, Four in a Row and 100 points, as some sort of excuse for not winning anything else in the future.

Just as United and Arsenal fans do.

Finally, someone gets it.

Pep has taught us to be champions.
He's taught us a winning mentality.
He's taught us the standards we should aspire too.

This means we must continue to look forward, not backwards.

He'd be the 1st to admit it as well.

 

[bobbyowenquiff]

People criticising Pep and his possession style of football don't seem to understand that the basic concept is that is we have the ball for long periods, the opposition is denied the opportunity to score.

And it worked perfectly yesterday as we kept a clean sheet against a Southampton team that had previously scored a massive 25 goals in their 35 games.

It would have been perfect if we were away to Barcelona! Pep was very strange in his interview when he said he could see we needed width after 20 minutes.

 

[KingGeorge]

I’m still really angry about yesterday’s performance.

We played right into their hand by not picking up our tempo until late in the game. They sort of lulled us to sleep and we took the bait. Even Howard commented we needed to speed up at halftime of the NBC telecast.

 

[waspish]

When Southampton did have the ball they did push up in our half and when we win it back was when Doku had only one player to get past and Kev was busting a gut to get in the box! For me it would of been better if Doku main thinking was get int be one area have shot not look for Kev who was being marked by a player who was expecting Doku to try to pass for him!

 

[bobbyowenquiff]

Without inviting a pile-on, my personal feelings are Pep is burnt out and his messaging isn't inspiring total belief from sections of the squad?

To bring Akanji back yesterday was criminal, resulting in the entire back line being changed to afford it.

He compounded it by bringing Foden and McAtee into the starting eleven, losing the width and direct running of Doku and Marmoush.

City have fallen in to the trap which United and Arsenal have done, allowing incredibly successful managers to become bigger than the club.

Our executive are rightly in awe of what Pep has done for this club, but the lines have become blurred and there is zero threat of challenge to his authority because of what he has stored in the bank.

I'm starting to worry that some of the noises from sections of the fanbase remind me of what Liverpool and United fans have defaulted to when they cite previous trophy wins and some sort of defensive mechanism against failure?

The past is the past, means nothing all the records of recent years, if we are heading down a direction which is not the correct one.

There is a lot of pressure on Viana to deliver for Pep, but Pep also has to deliver for him. There has been too many instances of the obvious, certainly for a legendary coach on £20m a year, to have not seen them throughout this campaign.

I really don't expect or hear City to be signing any world class talents this summer, certainly not the ones which are needed to elevate us back to the quality we have previously displayed.

I don't know what the answer is, but we are merely kicking the can down the road if we think everything is going to be solved by Pep simply being here for another two years?

Great post. We are in a similar situation to United after Ferguson left. They were complacent and it looks like we are making the same mistakes.

 

[MCFC-Carl-88]

My frustration with yesterday was that pep went back to the line up that won us 1 in 13 then was surprised when we played shit.



Leaves me a bit nervous that he hasn’t actually learnt any lessons. He deserves the summer to fix it but if he thinks the way forward is to carry on with zero tempo and 100% control then he’s going to be in for a rough ride.

 

[tolmie's hairdoo]

@ Tolmies Hairdoo. You quote The pisscans influence. As a fanbase you can see it here already. I live and thank Pep for whathehas done but it's the next week that matters . We are treading water and we had rhe chance for 2nd , we may still get it. We had the chance to humiliate the rags last Yr at Wembley. Not ont fucking wznker in that team cared. They couldn't wait 1 week to celebrate. For me we need drastic action

Yep, I walked away from Wembley last year and was the first time I thought Pep wasn't bothered.

I was fucking bothered. We had a chance to do another Double and against United again.

Our two performances against United this season have been disgraceful to say the least.

There will be more of this next season because I fail to see how City bring in the levels of sufficient quality to become a title challenger again.

We are now in the unfortunate position of playing catch up to better teams who will also be adding quality to their existing ranks.

That was the gap we were able to afford ourselves in recent years but too many have taken their eye off the ball and thought Rodri and Pep would be enough.

 

[TFC]

Just saw the Southampton piss take of Dias comments and to be fair it’s fucking funny. How about keep your trap shut Ruben and play better as a team. Fucking hell.

 

[GrumpyLegacyFan]

Other than a lovely day out in the sunshine, it was a poor performance until the last 20 mins. And, like everyone else, just didn't understand the squad selection and lack of width.

But two non-game related observations.

On my favourite subject of tourists (I think I am going to start a 'Tourist Counter' thread) it was quite an interesting day. I suppose Southampton is close enough to London to be attractive to the Tout Army, but we accidentally sat in row N (rather NN on the last row at the top) when we arrived. And being the chatty friendly (but grumpy) bloke I am, I was talking to those around me, as I didn't recognise anyone. And low and behold I am within three rows of tourists - a wonderful Swedish family, two blokes from Swindon, three Japanese folks and a group of Spanish lads. So, I asked (in a friendly 'just out of interest' way) where they got their tickets.

The Spanish group 'from a contact at the Club' - the Swedish family from a Football tour package operator, the Swindon boys from 'LiveFotty.com' or something and the Japanese group had no idea what I was asking. We were then turfed out our seats (quite rightly) but two Russians in half and half scarves.

I know of at least a dozen Blues who just missed the point threshold - and it just continues to fuck me off. Sorry to keep on about this....

Final observation. It was embarrassing the way the Southampton fans celebrated being the second worst club in PL history at the end, but we were also a little embarrassed at some very coked up young Blues on the way out being a little aggressive, as opposed to piss taking banter, about how shite Southampton were - as true as this is - I really hope we haven't started having a fan base that have forgotten where we came from - and don't get me wrong, I love a bit of banter - but this was verging on arrogant and menacing. Never thought we were that type of Club.

 

[Mike N]

Yep, I walked away from Wembley last year and was the first time I thought Pep wasn't bothered.

I was fucking bothered. We had a chance to do another Double and against United again.

Our two performances against United this season have been disgraceful to say the least.

There will be more of this next season because I fail to see how City bring in the levels of sufficient quality to become a title challenger again.

We are now in the unfortunate position of playing catch up to better teams who will also be adding quality to their existing ranks.

That was the gap we were able to afford ourselves in recent years but too many have taken their eye off the ball and thought Rodri and Pep would be enough.

I share your concerns going forward and was absolutely disgusted at the performances against United.

Do you think Pep isn’t bothered now?

 

[Kippax Street 1880]

Yep, I walked away from Wembley last year and was the first time I thought Pep wasn't bothered.

I was fucking bothered. We had a chance to do another Double and against United again.

Our two performances against United this season have been disgraceful to say the least.

There will be more of this next season because I fail to see how City bring in the levels of sufficient quality to become a title challenger again.

We are now in the unfortunate position of playing catch up to better teams who will also be adding quality to their existing ranks.

That was the gap we were able to afford ourselves in recent years but too many have taken their eye off the ball and thought Rodri and Pep would be enough.

I was fuming the entire Summer about that cup final, that should have been the air raid siren to the powers that be that the desire and hunger was on the wane and we needed a major refresh but they sat on their hands and did fuckall.

 

[Dave El Magico]

We have one?

To me, it looks like the players on the pitch decide what is happening at set pieces!

 

[Keeper!]

Yep, I walked away from Wembley last year and was the first time I thought Pep wasn't bothered.

I was fucking bothered. We had a chance to do another Double and against United again.

Our two performances against United this season have been disgraceful to say the least.

There will be more of this next season because I fail to see how City bring in the levels of sufficient quality to become a title challenger again.

We are now in the unfortunate position of playing catch up to better teams who will also be adding quality to their existing ranks.

That was the gap we were able to afford ourselves in recent years but too many have taken their eye off the ball and thought Rodri and Pep would be enough.

We also have given the rags a potential 50m get of of jail card in they qualify for the CL.

 

[Bentheblue]

I share your concerns going forward and was absolutely disgusted at the performances against United.

Do you think Pep isn’t bothered now?

3 very poor Derby displays on the bounce totally unacceptable. It looks like the club don’t take them seriously.

 

[TonyColemansbagofapples]

The trend in performance has been downward for quite a while. This season should be a wake up call not just for management but players too.

 

[noseve]

The trend in performance has been downward for quite a while. This season should be a wake up call not just for management but players too.

Just watching El Classico - that's all the wake-up anybody needs :-(

(No replay of clear RM offside before first goal, btw - not just in Europe that they are looked after...)

4-2 before half-time - McManaman virtually in tears... :-)