Southampton Post Match Thread

BlakeTheBlue said:
I was looking last night to find a reason for his omission from the team. No injury from what i know of and he was only on 4 yellows. Very odd he wouldn't even be on the bench. Seems Pep was just resting him?... He does need one to be fair. So does KDB, big time!
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He had a virus - so some people - who did not know - wondered why Sane was not on the bench.
Some 'wisecracker' suggested that the bench should/would need to have a hole in it- ala Comode - another poster suggested that Sane was 'shitting through the eye of a needle' - hope he is well for Sunday.
 
yorkblue said:
cant believe all the stick Vinny is getting here, ok not his best game but certainly not the disaster people are making it out to be. Kevin/Sergio/Jesis didn't have there best games neither but I don't see the same kind of remarks about them. Hope vinny is not becoming the latest scapegoat for some fans, honestly don't believe city fans sometimes.
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Agreed. People saying he's done at HT last night, totally disrespectful and just daft because he's going to still be playing whether they like it or not.
 
I have I say Forster was awful (apart from one decent 1 on 1 save). The bloke has concrete hands. Couldn't catch a single thing and some of his shot saving (eg Jesus follow up shot first half) were abysmal how he couldn't smother that. If he ever becomes England keeper (based on last night) God help us
 
The City all angles video of the Red winner showed that Kev got a really nasty foot stamp as he passed the ball to Raz. ill be very surprised if he doesn't really feel that today and tomorrow.
 
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Stones is a massive miss, that much is already clear.

Teams have rumbled Otamendi is our only other decent passer out from the back and are quite comfortable allowing Vinny to bring it out.

He can't seemingly do what Pep needs, as the pass from him is generally jamming in the full-back from deep, rather than a ball into midfield.

Vinny has always been a front foot defender, using his power to get ahead of his man.

He doesn't seem to trust himself now and is standing off a little more, which is basically leaving him square on and ripe for making him look foolish.

Four yellow cards in so few games is a testament to that.

I'd rather have Mangala in at this stage, as he's arguably better than Vinny in the air and is certainly no worse in terms of pace, which doesn't say a lot.

Thought Otamendi was easily our best player and Jesus is wasted out on the left.

Walker looks knackered and not sure what the issue is playing Danilo, who I think is decent.
 
Can I just say how good Bernardo was tonight for his cameo. For the first time he looked fully up to the speed of the Prem. I think he needs to start against West Ham in the centre. In fact I'd start with Bernardo and David in central mid before briging on Foden in the second half for David and playing the second half pairing on Wednesday in the Ukraine.
 
RandomJ said:
Pep's laying into them parking the bus in his interview. Glad he's saying something cos this anti football shit is bollocks.
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Saints don't often play that way but, with the manager under a bit of pressure I don't think you could blame him for trying to get anything other then a loss against the best side in the country at the moment.

paulsimpson said:
Yes but both teams are so tired mate. 3 nights rest seems good but it never is enough to give a player adequate rest both physically and mentally. Sterling just had that little extra.
We've lost a bit of zip but after the next game we get a week's rest and I expect everything to come back to normal intensity for us
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Yeah maybe. Still we don't play till Sunday so I'm expecting them to be fully rested for a game that's almost on our doorstep.

Scottyboi said:
People under estimate how difficult Shane Long is to defend against, he is the fastest player in the prem and strong as fuck. Was relieved to see him go off, Ferdinand said he was the hardest player to defend against.
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Just need to leave him alone and he'd more then likely muck it up. He does try hard but, so would I if I was playing for a top division side. He just can't find the net enough!
 
nmc said:
How can one team with 70 odd per cent of the ball give more free kicks away than a team with 20 odd per cent - I guess it can happen but statistically tough. Thought the ref was very weak. If he’d made it clear early on time wasting wouldn’t be tolerated- things would have been okay but he positively encouraged Southampton and the game suffered as a consequence of his ineptitude. That vile **** Long wasted 5 minutes of the game on his own diving like a tart.
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Wasn't just the time wasting, he didn't clamp down. Lost count of the number of times a runner was taken out, off the ball.
 
SilverFox2 said:
I think every team that plays in that fashion is in effect submitting to our football superiority by refusing to play anything that opens up the game.

Cannot blame them reminds me of a mismatch of 2 boxers where one just uses his hands to stop his opponents onslought and attacks rarely hoping for a lucky knockout hit.
Getting plaudits for not being knocked out is all they expect but to say they were unlucky to not share the result would be rediculous even in the corrupt fight game.

The difference is of course is that each round has to be scored by judges in boxing whereas goals alone affect the result of football so take your pick which you value most pure defence or pure football.
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So basically, the other managers are saying they haven't got the ability to compete against Pep.
 
'Hope you die soon Branfoot.'

That's why for all the complaints about Pool fleecing their best players, Everton fleecing their worst, and they've had huge foreign investment yet present themselves as victims compared to the 'moneybags' owners, Soton fans will always be small-time.

And that's before we get to their performance last night.
 
Dave Ewing's Back 'eader said:
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!
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Maybe they thought they could win the line out.
 
Millwallawayveteran1988 said:
We need to tighten up on corners. They really should have scored twice last night and a free header in the second half too. This will be the rags only game plan.

Add this to the soft goal at Huddersfield.

Height is a problem but we have to find a solution. Two corners were needlessly given away by Otamendi last night when we could have dealt with the situation better in the first place. Not blaming him entirely but they were both very preventable and very nearly led to goals.
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Exactly how many goals have we conceded from corners or set pieces this season?
 
Neville Kneville said:
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.
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If you look at the average positions of Huddersfield and Southampton players in the last two games, you could describe them as having a back seven and a back eight. If you look at those teams' average positions v Arsenal and Liverpool respectively, the set-ups are not as ultra defensive. We are getting special treatment. I think teams looked at Wolves game plan and taken it as some sort of template.

Whilst it is a hugely unedifying approach, there's no law against it but the level of time wasting we saw last night is just an outright attempt to cheat.

Winter is coming but City seem to be made of Valyrian steel, such is their iron will to win.
 
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