Apologies if you've read this, but I thought it worth posting. The analysis of Rickie's movement is particularly interesting and complimentary. http://www.eplindex.com/26117/southampton-3-manchester-city-1-match-stats-report.html
Interesting. As you said, talks about importance of Rickie's play...with holding up play and creating space and indecision in defenders. I kept wondering why he seemed to be in so much space against City...if anyone was marking him it wasn't evident.
Total bollox, everyone and his dog knows City played shyte and we were lucky catching them on a bad day and being gifted 2 goals
Just looked at the Blue Moon site...nearly suicidal on there...mind you, so would I be if Saints played like that. They really want Mancini out...clueless is one of the nicer words. We got scarcely a mention...a couple of compliments and one who said that it wasn't as if Saints even played well!.
That was the most direct that I've seen us play all season, and it worked wonders. Not 'direct' as in 'hoofball', but decisive and aggressive, with players flooding forward, making runs, and generally putting pressure on City at every opportunity. Play like that, and there'll be more big scalps to come. The role that our CMs are playing is really quite remarkable; Pochettino wants them to get forward whenever possible, and we now have two goals in two games from central mids arriving in the six-yard box. It's a testament to the squad's fitness that Schneiderlin/Cork are able to cover that much space trying to win the ball, yet still have the energy to get forward when asked (say, an 80-yard sprint in the 85th minute!). Think that Poch walked into the perfect situation for what he's trying to build.
Yes Corky and Spider are massively important to the way we play, winning the ball high up the pitch, allowing the front four good possession in the opposition's half and adding extra bodies in defence and attack, i'd love to see stats on how much ground they cover.
Blue moon makes for amusing viewing doesn't it! The only thing I will say about it though, if that is what Arab billions do to your supporters, then I want no part of it. The way they now feel entitled to success is just staggering when they never used to be in with much of a shout of winning anything.
A certain Michael Channon and then there was a very good young midfielder who was a great mate of Steve Williams but I can't remember his name. Then of course a certain very good ex Sunderland cup winner. I can't get my memory working and am too lazy to look them up on Google. I am trying to remember if Asa Hartford played for them. They had a great manager in Joe mercer who was a really nice guy who managed England for a few games and made Channon captain and then of course the enigmatic Malcolm Allison.
I agree with you about directness. No more sideways passes just to keep posession. Every pass was looking for an attacking move.
Have heard people say (including City fans) that we only scored because of their errors (isn't that how most goals are scored?). We scored those goals because when an error was made it was one of our players who was there. Puncheon was faced with 4 defenders and a GK when he took advantage of a spilled ball; Davis was charging in even though who would have guessed hart would drop the ball; pressure made barry put it into his own net. I fully expect that if a Lambert penalty is saved () we would score from one of our players being first to the ball.
Thinking of Graham Baker may be Godders.. My long term memory is OK it's remembering our manager's name I have trouble with..
The other aspect of our play which has been very noticeable under Poch, is our ability to pick up the second ball. This has gone up tremendously. The other aspect too is as soon as we lose possession we are more alert to the opposition around us and are picking players up a lot earlier than previous, often doing this before they have received the ball. In other words we are closing players down even if they do not have possession just in case they are likely to get it. This of course means each player has a greater responsibility as to the man they are marking......
