Southampton review
Nailed it with my prediction. I said the game would be difficult and that if City cut out the mistakes, we'll be ok. We made a mistake, Southampton punish and it starts again. City responded, just like against Everton and equalise and then don't really carry the momentum forward to win the game. More home points dropped but how good was Southampton's defence and organisation? The match was a copy of the Everton match, I expected that and Southampton made life difficult yet rarely looked threatening, but why do you need to look threatening when you get gifts for goals? City's form is concerning but it's onto Old Trafford on Wednesday night, lets hope we can match our performance of last month and we try out new positions and make a few changes. After all, it is the League Cup, so rest some players and start some fringe and hungry young players.
There was nothing in the first half from City yesterday. The worst half of football this season from them. Southampton defended well and looked threatening with pace up front, Redmond and Tasic caused problems but they never looked like scoring with some shots coming in from range. A bore. That was until Stones never looked up, he wasn't under pressure and just passed into the gap between Kompany, who pushed forward and left Bravo in no man's land. Redmond is quick to respond, cooly slides the goal by Bravo and rounds him and slots away. 1-0. Here we go again for Man City. City equalised through Stones but with the ball going towards Aguero, he started offside and the goal is ruled out. After a bit of confusion, the goal was ruled out by the linesman and the correct decision in my opinion. That pains me to say. So frustrating.
The second half wasn't a lot better. City looked a little frigid and very tired yet it was Southampton who had the day less to recover. What are they doing in training? Is it the age of the squad? There was a lot of younger players playing yesterday so I find it strange. Or maybe they're just not interested? I'll name names in a bit. Iheanacho came on for KDB, he looked lively. Fernandinho played a lovely ball forward to Sane in space on the left, cut out all of Southampton's midfield and put their defence on the back foot. Sane waits, sees Nacho arriving and players a cool, low pass with his right foot straight to Nacho who fires well to Forster's left, 1-1. There wasn't much afterwards, City looked dangerous in the last 10-15 minutes with space in the middle but, if i'm honest, Southampton looked more likely to score, with Long testing Bravo with a good save and Southampton having corners and winning the free kicks. It was really disappointing from City, but well done Southampton. A mean defence and a top 10 finish is destined for them this season... Even Europe if they can maintain their play, avoid injuries and play like they did yesterday. I didn't like Forster's time wasting, but i get why he did it. I would rather have seen Southampton have a go, if they believed more, they could have won yesterday. But Saints definitely did not deserve to not pick up a point at least yesterday and they did so fair credit. City's woes continue and Guardiola has done and said all the right things since yesterday at 4pm. He huddled the team together on the pitch after the final whistle, locked them in the dressing room for nearly an hour afterwards and said he'll have a look where things are going wrong, address it and he will solve the problems. So I'll trust him and hopefully we will see a response a Wednesday night. United were awful yesterday, mainly due to their game plan being ripped up after 30 seconds. City scored twice in the first half last month, so scoring early and attacking from the whistle in the first half may cure a lot of City's problems in my opinion. Puts pressure on the opponents and not on City. I can see it, Pep can probably see it, so the team need to see it. On my last note, KDB, Gundogan, Silva, Aguero and Stones were very underwhelming yesterday, I hope Guardiola addressed them yesterday. We lack a leader to take charge and we miss something in midfield (Yaya but he is passed it, so fresh legs needed next summer as I don't expect fireworks in the January window). Sane, Sterling and Iheanacho did good yesterday, and some of Bravo's kicking was good yesterday too. A much needed boost on confidence for him.
I'll preview United soon, but until then. Ciao.
