Match Day Thread Manchester City vs Southampton Saturday 28.11.15 ko 3pm

I actually hope Ron's decisions were based on the importance of Wednesday's game and I salute them if they were.

 

Fingers crossed I will get a ticket for Spurs, and I will come down on my own and defiantly meet for a beer

 

I can only assume that something has happened or been said off the pitch. I thought he was poor against Stoke, but wouldn't expect him out the squad altogether unless there's something else gone on.

 

Fair enough if that's your feeling regarding a Wan/Rom partnership. As has been said, for whatever reason, Cedric wasn't in the squad, so not sure who we could have played at RB (possibly JWP I guess).

 

Further quotes from Echo:

The decision to replace Cedric with Yoshida was a tactical one and when asked how frustrating it was to see such a basic error leading to a goal after that call Koeman admitted: “That’s true. It’s true. It’s always difficult if you change a player in their position and he is making a mistake and they punish you.

 

Nobody is infallible, not even the manager, when he selected Yoshida he was not thinking he's going to stumble on the ball and gift possession to the oppo with no cover behind him. Individual errors happen, it's a part of football, Cedric did have a poor game defensively against Stoke and Koeman made the tactical decision to try and be more solid at the back, It backfired, but anyone can see the thinking behind his decision.

PS Maya's mistake had NOTHING to do with him playing RB, he could've made the same mistake playing at CB.

 

sorry but I do not agree, there is no way Yoshi would stroll up and try to beat a midfielder whilst only 40m from his goal. fullbacks these days are very much seen as an offensive weapon, as a fullback people would moan if had hoofed it, as a centreback people would have said if in doubt get it out (although he did have players free for the pass

 

My two US cents on some random things:

1) There have been numerous posters stating their dislike of Yoshida in the lineup. So the "hindsight" stuff is a little unfair since they made their objections clear well prior to the match.

2) As to who else Koeman could have played, I feel like there can be no winner in that debate. The fact is, we don't really know how good (or bad) Martina is. It is fair to express an opinion that you would have given (or not given) him a shot. But no one can say what would have happened.

3) As I said earlier, and I think most of us would agree, we massively stunk up the joint the first 20 minutes or so. We were flat awful and looked panicky. Pretty much to a man. And then we were okay. So in that respect, I do not think the match result hinged on our choice of RB.

4) I used to think Mane was a little selfish. I have softened my stance after seeing him feed players multiple times when they were in better positions. That said, I do think that sometimes Mane is guilty of trying to do too much. Especially when we are down, he just tries too hard to make something happen, but not for personal glory. He just wants to win. Pelle is guilty of doing this at times as well. I believe it just comes with being a striker. Mane needs to improve on this aspect of his game, but I think he is. I would rather have a little too much desire to score than a lack of urgency. So overall, I am not too bothered by this but I do sort of agree with those who pointed out it was a problem at times today.

 

1 - The hindsight stuff hasn't been in reference to Yoshida, but to do with Romeu/Wanyama!

 

Hmm.. Okay. Well in that case I feel like the board is split. There have been some who have questioned why Romeu hasn't played more. And others-- I think I would include myself here-- who think that Romeu is guilty of too many yellow cards/bad tackles and that Romeu/Wanyama is a little too defensive. So depending on who is speaking it may or may not be a case of hindsight 20/20. Personally, I understood why Koeman did it and am not upset by it. Nor do I think that was the problem. I think Romeu has flaws, but he also has some strengths that could have been useful against Man City.

 

I just went back and watched the replay about a dozen times more. Not sure why I'm such a glutton for punishment.

But IMO, Yoshida was not trying to beat the midfielder. I think he thought he had more space and was going to do the old fake boot/hesitation trick. Basically get the player to jump, and then cut inside to get space. This would have given him time to pass to a CB or failing that to get his back to the player and shield the ball and then kick it out where it wouldn't get blocked or intercepted. So worst case scenario should have been giving away a cheap throw-in.

Except that 1) Sterling didn't bite at all and just charged, and 2) Yoshida somehow tripped over himself, taking a heavy touch in the process and then sort of backdoored his way into trying to dribble past his man.

So more of a terrible technique coupled with massive brain fart than an attempt to channel a speedy fullback. And probably his relative unfamiliarity with the position was a leading cause. If he has that ball in the center of the pitch he probably just boots it rather than messing around. But he still should have been able to pull it off if he weren't so clumsy and kept his wits about him.

So I don't know if that's really such a defense of Yoshida there. Just saying how I saw it. He wasn't trying to beat anyone, just looking to create a bit of space.

 

Having had to night to think about the game, l am not happy with how slow we seem to be slow starting games, we simply cannot be chasing games in the EPL. I have no idea what the answer is but it cannot continue. It is not good enough to compete with City over 70 minutes as we did yesterday given that we had thrown the game in the first 20. This has happened for quite a few games this season and with lesser teams we have got away with it.

 

I've slept on it too and here is my thing:

I said in the week that the big game for me is Liverpool in the quarter final of the cup. For all we know (and none of us will, unless one is a mate of Ron) and don't believe everything written/said, Ron may have felt the same. He may have looked at the City game and felt the team he picked could do a job and that having Clasie, Tadic and Cedric (who again despise what we may have read, has had a lot of head injuries and clearly has a delicate cut) would benefit from a rest and be 'saved' for the Liverpool game.

I don't know if that's true, but if an element of it is, then great because that's how I would have prioritised the games too.

Despite what people say in here, you do have to shuffle your pack sometimes and can't continue playing the same team every single game.

We lost to Man City.

Roll on Wednesday.

 

Exactly my thoughts. If we go for it and put out our best effort on Wednesday with Tadic, Clasie, Cedric and Pelle back in the side then I'm ok with all the changes he made against City. If he doesn't play his best team (subjective) I will be annoyed.

 

I blame Guly

 

He would have been a terrible right back, it's true.

 

Post match analysis and debate is a fruitless waste of time unless you are the team coach or a player. No matter what I may say or think about yesterday's game I can change nothing regarding the result and will have no influence on future team selection. So I refuse to get down or angry about it, I accept we can't win all of the time and I just get on with something else that is more likely to lift my spirits. Go and do that music test and you will find some interesting questions on there about how you respond to negative events.

 

I looked at his passing options on MOTD, and, without having had another look, (get out clause if I am proved wrong ) would disagree with your view.
In the first instance the ball was played to him at a pace that allowed Sterling to close him down.
The nearest teammate was Fonte, who was being marked by Aguero.
The next nearest teammate was Wanyama, but he was in a position that meant a pass would need to be threaded through a narrow corridor, between the in rushing Sterling and Aguero. May have been the better option, in hindsight.
The next nearest player was JWP, who was about 30m upfield, and who should have offered Yoshida a simple pass up the touchline, as he was playing wide right at the time, but he was too far infield offering no angle for a pass.
Yoshida made a mistake in conceding possession, but he was hung out to dry by a lack of options.

 

Agree 100%. As I said at the time, Yoshida was put under unnecessary pressure by (I think) Virgil's pass, when Virgil had better options upfield.

 

Agree with this analysis we all blame the obvious but passing the ball around is dependent on those without the ball