Southampton Post Match Thread

[Neville Kneville]

Like last season against United. Our inability to hit the target allowed M. to claim his tactics of parking the bus worked.
Our start to this season showed that being more clinical works and we score from our superior shots on goal but recently I think we may be slipping and our own inabilty to hit the target is something our opponents use against us.

At one stage earlier in the season it seemed that it mattered little if our opponents parked the bus or tried to match us we scored.

Stats last night as follows:
City
Shots 26
Shots on target 12
Goals 2

Soton
Shots 6
Shots on target 2
Goals 1

Did Soton really play that well or are we just not converting our chances again ? Some great goals among the recent games but I wonder.

The level of bus parking we are seeing now, is something new imo. This is not what we saw earlier or even the traditional Fat sam/Mourinho level negativity.

A defensive team in the past, would be perhaps a 451 who played deep & safe & tried to hit on the counter. In the last 10 mins they might go for kitchen sink defending & lumping/time wasting.

What we are now seeing, is teams kicking off, as if it's the last ten minutes & getting worse. The formation is more 5-5 in and around their own penalty area, for 90 mins. They are almost set up, just to block, in their own box.

But of course, we are actually still creating chances & missing them & imo, not taking seriously enough, the idea of shooting from outside the box. It's an afterthought rather than a plan. Mke it a plan & they have to come out, to stop it= gaps elsewhere.

 

[ganganvince]

Any lip readers worked out the conversation with Redmond yet.

 

[Chi-town blues]

Any lip readers worked out the conversation with Redmond yet.

Pep - you are a time waiting cvnt .
Redmond - I know .

 

[newenglandblue]

Watched the game again today and we were much better than I remembered. In terms of chances, we created more than enough against a team set up very well.

 

[Phil1]

So why have any post match analysis? I was "buzzing" all the way home after the game and I'm still chuffed to little mint balls this morning. And I was the same coming out of Huddersfield and Bournemouth when we got late winners, but that doesn't mean we can't analyse the performance.

Analyse away.

 

[Dave Ewing's Back 'eader]

I swear some people watch a different game to me. Nathan Redmond was man marking Fernandinho for those last 15 minutes. He's a fucking striker! They had no intention of winning the game, the chances were set pieces.

And they were cheating, as well.

Vile c### got exactly what they deserved. Fuck all

This was clearly a major tactic. Every tackle resulted in a Soton player ending up on the ground and the ref was very easily convinced by the antics that it was a foul. They even, at one point in the second half thumped the ball down in the corner to no one 'cos no one was there, simply for us to defend our own throw in!

 

[St.Pauli support]

I do agree with all that anger about anti football. But there is a reason for it, and surely it has to do with City's offensive qualities.

In the highlights vs Hudds I've noticed a 5 home player formation within their own 6 yd box on several occasions, that's really weird.
Pep will have to find more ways to unsettle those deep defensive formations, e.g. by quick movements, overloading their box, forcing penalties. We need some new ideas and tactical moves.
And, early in the match, to avoid chasing the clock too often in a tight December schedule.

But much more annoying to me is conceding after finally being 1 up!
Gundogan HAS to block the cross if he is doing Walker's job out there - and well, Delph can do much better than that...
We really have to be much smarter when we have fucked up the opposite bus parking match plan.

Not finishing such a game is one thing, as chances were aplenty. But conceding and then chasing 3 points again doesn't help our unrested players who are more and more playing against the bus parking world of football, all of them having wet dreams about seeing City draw.

This seems to be the back side our new shining medal we normally love to see.

Fuckin ref, btw. Having a goal disallowed in 90+1 is a disgrace. Keeper completely misjudged the cross.
That was a slap in our face. Thanks to Raz we've had the final word.

 

[oakiecokie]

It was also a shit refereeing performance btw. Not really been talked about.

He let them get away with it and was actively supporting it I thought.

The less said about the disallowed goal the better.

The ref was really poor last night and fucking Forster should have been booked for time wasting early on in the game.I can`t believe the ref didn`t hear us fans shouting and booing for him to take action.
Just have a look at their goal when it comes in from their left back.It was nothing better than watching schoolboys with kick and run.Five of our players were dragged over to that right hand side and when the ball finally made its way over the only one we had was Delph who really got sold a dummy.I`m not just blaming him but when Southampton got forward they did cause us some problems,especially from free kicks and corners where Pep seems to deploy a zonal marking philosophy.
Too many players were off form last night so hopefully this was one off and we can play a lot better against the Hammers.
Thankfully we "fought to the end" and Sterling once again pulled us out of the shit.
3 points is all that mattered and fuck were we made to work hard.

 

[rushts]

The ref didn't give a flying shit about the time wasting throughout the game. The crowds frustration didn't have any effect on the ref. I thought some of our players may have consulted the ref or maybe Vinny have a word with him.

 

[melons]

We made plenty of chances last night. In the stadium the frustration was very evident but on watching the highlights today on the City site, it's clear what a great game Forster had and on another day we would have got 3 or 4.
West Ham on Sunday will be very similar in terms of attack v defence but I think we'll get three or four comfortably.
My prediction is that the best United will do on Saturday will be a draw. We'll batter WH and then we go into the derby at least 10 points clear.
Should take the pressure off and allow us to play our own game. Very exciting few days coming up...