Southampton (A) Post-Match Thread

[BluessinceHydeRoad]

When considering our games at the restart this was one I marked down as risky. Southampton are a much better team than their results suggest in that they have players who need to raise themselves for games and they have little difficulty of seeing City as a really big game. They press well and are food on the break. Their effort levels can be extraordinary. Over 90 minutes they can compete with anyone. All of this we saw last night.

City we know very well. Oozing class and moving the ball beautifully but throwing in a bewildering array of errors to mix with the sumptuous football. Zinchenko's was not the only error by any means but his was the clanger that effectively decided the game and it came just on time to add to Southampton's already gigantic motivation. Playing the 'keeper as an auxiliary defender ready to receive the ball outside the area and recycle it excludes the possibility of risky dribbling when an easy pass is on. From then on Southampton were always a threat on the break but they also defended heroically with most of the team back to defend in their own area and blocked everything it was possible to block. On another day we would certainly have scored at least two or three, but last night... not our night.

 

[BlueRain]

I can't believe we're 4 seasons and 8 trophies into Guardiola's tenure and people still want us to sit back.

If they did what you wanted, we would not lose 9 times, we'd have 20 0-0 draws.

Would we though?

I'll leave the tactical genius stuff to Pep but using my own eyes I can see time and time again that squeezing the pitch smaller and smaller by constantly pressing higher and higher up the pitch doesn't always work (and leaves us open to the counter). I just wish we had a "plan b" against these teams...
I love the attacking football we play - I really do, but possession stats and those nice TV graphics showing the areas of the pitch where most of the action has been don't win games.
I felt calmer about the risk of the counter when we had Kompany - he could generally read the game very well and could see the danger but now - not so much ;)

 

[domalino]

Would we though?

Yes.

Every team in the league will take a 0-0 with us. They aren't going to attack more just because we sit back.

 

[deegee33]

Didn't go on the Matchday thread (little there but moaning), waited till 24 hours to pass before heading on here. I've read four pages of this thread and obviously Zinchenko screwed up, which caught Ederson off his line...goal. Kudos to Southampton. What I watched yesterday, was an entertaining football match. Sure we lost, so what! Liverpool are the champions, were 11 points ahead of the Trafford scum and hopefully we learned something from the match. As I have said previously, I thought the match was quite entertaining, hats off to Southampton who despite what many here think actually came to play.
We have two meaningful games left to play right now, Arsenal and Madrid, win them and we have two more and so on. The balance of the PL is just training exercises, a classroom to learn in and concentrate in. Zinchenko lost concentration, hopefully he learns from it.
After spending 2 weeks in the hospital with this covid19 nonsense I am so thankful to see football that a loss like yesterday's doesn't bother me so much anymore. Learn from our mistakes, go forward there are 2 cups that will look great with proper sky blue ribbons hanging from them. Rant over.

 

[Roachy]

Would we though?

I'll leave the tactical genius stuff to Pep but using my own eyes I can see time and time again that squeezing the pitch smaller and smaller by constantly pressing higher and higher up the pitch doesn't always work (and leaves us open to the counter). I just wish we had a "plan b" against these teams...
I love the attacking football we play - I really do, but possession stats and those nice TV graphics showing the areas of the pitch where most of the action has been don't win games.
I felt calmer about the risk of the counter when we had Kompany - he could generally read the game very well and could see the danger but now - not so much ;)

You're right about the stats bit. Only really highlighted when we lose, when in reality it's only the goals for and against that matter.

 

[BlueRain]

Yes.

Every team in the league will take a 0-0 with us. They aren't going to attack more just because we sit back.

I'm not saying we should do it for 90 minutes or not even every game - it would be good to see a "plan b" against these types of defenses though because we just don't have the height to do anything with crosses against what it as times 11 men behind the ball.

Here's just one example from last night:

Southampton have every man in their own box (this was just after Sterling's miss that went wide) + our guys makes 16 players in a very small space... but it happened a lot and has happened a lot against defensive teams this season...

It may not be the answer - I don't know, it's just a suggestion / idea because we have been frustrated by these defensive "walls" quite a bit this season and this constant pressing and pushing teams back just doesn't seem to work all the time...

 

[blue61]

Lets face it if Pep can't find the right tactics to overcome a 10 man defence then nobody on here can for sure. We had the chances again but didn't take them that is the difference between City and other more clinical teams. I would say Liverpool are more clinical but they certainly wasn't last Thursday.

Hopefully we can improve the defence and stop these goals against, that in itself makes it harder to have the resolve to hang on. Once these teams have a goal lead it makes a huge difference. They way the rags beat us twice at home was no different to what happened in the game last night.

The other factor is you can see we are not playing with intensity which is natural, that will be stepped up in the cup competitions

I like Jesus but he is not the answer to replacing Sergio

 

[Damanino]

I hope after games like this the new guy Lillo can have valuable input what else to try, how to try, what to change maybe.

 

[BolinCell]

going round in circles comes to mind.

 

[Stiff Little Wingers]

Thought we played quite well yesterday but nothing went for us in the area. I do sometimes think on these occasions that near the opponents box we just don’t dribble enough- we always want to pass our way through.
The ideal for me in these games is to move the ball quickly enough to have Mahrez etc dribbling on the edge of the box