Match Day Thread Southampton v Man City 19/12/2020 3pm KO Amazon Prime

Danny’s fitness is still key to our season, that hasn’t changed imo. We can still be effective without him, but we miss him when he’s not on the pitch.

 

Pretty sure he did make contact with his foot. Thought it was probably a pen but not a clear and obvious error.

 

Seems a bit of a silly rule that. But rules are rules

 

It makes sense within the context of what is meant to be the design of the rule: namely, that you're only meant to be punishing situations where the player takes an action that causes a handball. It used to be 'deliberate', but now it's more 'negligent', but you can't really argue that a carom off another body part is either deliberate or negligent.

 

Got back an hour or so and just catching up.

Nice to see you all saw it the way I did.

City IMO are back to their best. BUT, we made it hard for them and on another day that easily could have been a draw or a Saints win. The old Saints and that would have been a drubbing.

We play some excellent football that is a joy to watch. No moans either from the crowd when we went back to go forward. Patient and confident on the ball.

One huge question I have is who is this No 4? It definitely isn't that tall Dane we had last year. I honestly believe that the haircut is a scam and it is a different person. What a defender. He would slot into any top side and not look out of place. If VVD was still here he would be no 2 to Vesty. His cross field passing is excellent and his well timed tackles and blocks are out of this world.

Theo also stood out to me. Boy, do I hope we can get him permanently at the end of the year - even for 1-2 years.

KWP - excellent game and I still can't work out who got the better deal, us or Spurs. Maybe it is just each player has found their home.

Not too upset by that, I'm upset we lost, but longer term I can see we are where we are because we are good and being back in the stadium was amazing. When the teams came out to OWTSGMI I felt quite emotional and got goosebumps.

Somehow also, I missed all the rain, so no Rudy Giuliani look today

 

Got it, thanks Tom. Honestly didn’t know that.

 

No pen apparently cause it hit his leg first. No sure why that matters it hit his arm

 

Because it's in the laws of the game.

 

BIB - whereabouts were you sat? I had plenty around me.

 

Was in row HH (2nd from back) on halfway line.

 

You must have been near me, I was row FF on the halfway line

Amazed you didnt hear the guys behind me. Constantly moaning about going backwards.

 

My mate with me started to moan and I shut him up straight away

He then agreed, when one instance of going back to go forward put Theo nearly through.

 

Weirdly i was happier losing 0-1today than drawing with Arsenal. We stood toe to toe with the best passing team in the league and looked good. Felt that we should have scored though. A point would have been a fairer result.

 

I don't normally watch MOTD when we lose but I will tonight.

 

It was brilliant to be back at St Mary's today although a shame about the result which I thought was fair. To be honest, this Saints side is unrecognisable from the one before the lockdown. They are exceptional. Three players stood out for me today. Kyle Walker-Peters and Theo Walcott were exceptional in my opinion but I was staggered at the change in Vestergaard who was a beast in defence and seemed to be pinging long passes across the pitch that were Beckham-esque.

Unfortunately, the change in fortunes with the Coronavirus today makes me think that this is the end of the opportunity to watch live football before the Spring. The new strain of the virus makes me wonder just have far the season we are going to get before everything shuts down again.

 

What the hell were those highlights???? That made the game look so one-sided! Totally not a reflection of the game!

 

I was thinking the same. The highlights bore no relation to how much pressure we put them under, especially in the first half.

 

They have an oddly high number of examples of Southampton chances to use when displaying John Stones as defender but none when showing actual match highlights... Odd.

 

No mention or evidence of how well we played at all! Bonkers!

 

I'm not sure you should bother. They barely mentioned us and Shearer said they were deserved winners. Not exactly my take on the game!