Southampton (H) Post-Match Thread

[BluessinceHydeRoad]

How many agree with me that the real star of the show was Lee Mason.

 

[BosnianBlue]

Anyone know how close Angelino was to being offside. I was holding my breath until they kicked off because expected to see a VAR sign pop up

I thought he was off n single replay I've seen. But surely not, they would enjoy t cancel the goal.

 

[Millwallawayveteran1988]

No matter how good you are, being a goal down to a team with 11 men in the box (and a lot of spirit) can be an extremely difficult task. Sometimes you equalize within 5 minutes and it's all ok with but often you don't. Because so much of the game is played in one box, there's just so little space. And tiny spaces don't work well with our midgets, because the bigger players can just barge them around.
Remember Pep's Barcelona came unstuck twice against shithouse bus parkers in the CL. The greatest team in history, Liverpool FC, almost lost against Manchester United because of their bus parking. PSG had it happen to them in the league last night against Dijon! It happens.

The best thing we can do is plow on, stick to what we do and believe. And it works more often than not.
Some of the play today was really good. After we conceded we looked really sharp down the left, and in the 2nd half we looked really incisive after Sterling moved to the right. And after then it was inevitable we'd succeed.

Not all perfect though. We were once again ridiculously wasteful with our finishing, final balls, and touches in the area. You'd hope this would even itself out over the season.
Also we crossed far too often, particularly in the first half. I can understand going for it if it's Aguero up against 1, 2, or even 3 others. We have some pinpoint crossers of the ball and he's a sharp mover, so in that circumstance you'd maybe think he can get on the end of a few. But if they've got everyone back like they did you need the perfect cross, you need Aguero to free himself perfectly, and then on top of that you need him to hit it perfectly, because it might be his only aerial chance. No surprises the low one got to him.


Even though it wasn't his best game I did think Sterling showed some real signs of his development today. Some great aggressive dribbling at times, some nice passing ideas and multiple sharp passes into the box in the second half.

The best thing we can do is stop conceding sloppy goals and going behind in the first place. Some of the goals we concede are hideous. Ederson should have saved that shot but the shot wasn’t closed down quickly
Enough either. That changed the game completely and they are then in complete time wasting mode and 11 men behind the ball. One tactic we used well against these sides was Gundogan’s little chipped passes but he doesn’t seem to be doing them anymore. It was all a bit samey today. Cross cross cross, rinse and repeat. We had endless corners and nothing came from any of them.

 

[stan bowles]

oh god that was shocking, i'd get bollocked for that, he should be too, really poor play

Pep needs to speak to him about form in the last few games as, aside from Atalanta, he's been below par for us over that time. Today he was running down blind alleys and constantly making the wrong decisions. It would also be good to see the Bernardo of 18/19 re-appear soon as that was his worst performance in a City shirt I can remember and he's been a 5/10 all season so far (the tweet saga looks like it's badly affected him).

 

[Millwallawayveteran1988]

The crowd sounded great for the most part on the broadcast, but you are both right. In fact, I remember a gent behind me at *that* Southampton match in the 2017/18 season quite literally slagging Raheem off as he took the ball from Kev in stoppage time.

Crowd was good last 20 mins or so. You have some people at the game screaming at players when we are winning 3-0 so you can imagine what they are like when losing!

 

[chaddblue]

Frustrating afternoon. Quite a few of our key creative players just not at the races today. I think I lost count of the number of poor crosses that either didn’t beat the first man or went straight to either of the 6’5” centre half or keeper

But we found a way which when you’re having an off day is a very good sign

 

[asahartford1]

hahahaha

maybe stop sending high crosses for aguero to try and head for a start ??? we have lost something in the attacking and its got to go out wide all the time

silva or KDB are not finding them little passes in and around the box because they are doing somebody job or out wide ?? we use to hit to the feet of aguero and let him hold it up and then play the 2nd ball into the gaps for sterling or jesus to run onto, and we did in late in the 2nd half and it started to work and both goal sort of come from that idea

look am not the manager and pep is the master and i will back him in what he does, but other teams have sorted out a plan to stop us and i would like us having something in the bank to call from time to time, but again a full strength squad helps and plugging cover players from there role sort of changes any plans at times

I do understand that, but with 8 narrow defenders, playing one twos on the edge of the box is very difficult, and high risk with 9 forwards. We are on a record breaking number of goals I thought so I am sure pep won't change drastically at present.
We need to understand that teams play a certain way against us, and switching play and getting wide , stretching them is our best option..

 

[squirtyflower]

How many agree with me that the real star of the show was Lee Mason.

Far from a star, more like a black hole

 

[simon23]

Absolutely bang on there, 100% right

always the same on here, the same old idiots moaning about the fans who have their eyes open and see the team for the excellent players they are.
May be they’re having an off day, maybe the refs are adding to that by being absolute ****s.
But no, let’s instead listen without criticising the moaning nellies who can’t see the wood for the trees.
Then when the thickos are called out in it they do the ‘whatabouery’ shithouse tactics of the most biased of media ****s.

it’s bad enough we have 360 degree attacks from all and sundry, without our own supposed fans resorting to pile the shit on.


If you don’t line my opinion, then tough, it’s mine, not Bluemoon’s or anyone else’s so deal with me without resorting to the ‘woe is me, I’m not liked’

when have i said the players werent excellent - go and look at my post in this same thread where i said about the attitude and application of the players being excellent and the spirit they show...along with pep.

and yet again you cannot post without insults.

i can deal with you all day long hence why i aint reported your posts. there are others like you as well hence the comment about various on here making the same excuses..

and if you dont think the media are biased fuckwits then you need to look a bit more closely

 

[DTKOAG]

Great to see the stadium 90% full at the end