Thought we could do some player ratings: Starting 11: Davis 6 Clyne 8 Fonte 8 Hooiveld 7 Fox 6 Ward-Prowse 8 Schneiderlin 7 Lallana 8 Puncheon 6 Guly 6 Rodriguez 7 The subs: Lambert 8 Davis 8 Sharp 6 What do you all think?
The brief was to make a game of it and not to **** up our goal difference, both of which we did. Very proud of the eforts from the team and they can go away with their heads held high. It was a tiring game for the players and ultimately the call to save Lambert for when we needed him proved to be a good one. Well done to Nigel for that. Man City look like a fantastic team and there won't be much beating them at their grond, so to come away with a credible result and battling performance is impressive. Well done too to young James Ward-Prowse who did well handling the big occasion.
Wow, James Ward-Prowse is a fantastic little player, giving Yaya Toure a run for his money. Hope any potential signings were watching that as well! It's nice to see a lot of fans complementing our support as well, many of twitter. It's good to be back.
What a game! When we took the lead I nearly jumped through the roof. I did not think we'd score two. Great work by the team and great subs. NA seems to just know what trigger to pull when. I was hoping Sharp would get the sub hat trick. Clyne looks really good. He runs and even when he looks a bit out of position he has the speed to get back. I thought the CB's did well. Fox just did not look good. Maybe NA can find a Clyne for the left as well. The midfield had trouble holding the ball and finding the outlet but that is not unexpected playing the champions. Against the mid table teams i expect we will hold the ball better. JWP did not look out of place at all. He will be seeing many games this year. The boys should be full of confidence for Wigan. Now we just need to go and play like we can. This is going to be an exciting year.
Me too. I remember at one point in the first half, he was under pressure and had the ball near the corner flag, and instead of booting it clear he decided to try and take on one of their players. He inevitably lost the ball and gave City possession in a very dangerous area. Normally, Fox is the best when it comes to hoofing it clear but for some reason he decided not too, and it almost cost us. I'm sure if he had no one around him and plenty of time, he would of smashed up field. Which is so annoying....He needs to understand when ,and when not, to hoof the ball. Anyway, apart from Fox. The team was fantastic and Adkins is a genius.... He knew that if we'd started out with our best team in the first half, we wouldn't have been able to step up a gear in the second. This is what happened to Swansea last year. After they got to the break level at 0-0, and playing well, they couldn´t up their game but Man City could. We were able to bring on Lambert and Davis is on that helped us up our game and compete with City all the way. Such a shame we couldn't hold on....but I think we've shown we have more than enough quality to stay in this league.
Absolutely, he'll get better and better and also stronger. He may get closed down quicker after this performance, but he's got a really good footballing brain on him.
we lost 3-2 but ****ING AMAZING! What a game. We were unlucky with the tevez offside goal. we need a few more signings especially a creative MF (ramirez) and 2 more CBs and a LB fox didnt look up for it and saw zabaleta bombing up the left wing with ease. the rumours on twitter is buttner has signed for man utd
Starting 11: Davis 6 Clyne 8 Fonte 8 Hooiveld 7 Fox 6 Ward-Prowse 7 for his age Schneiderlin 7 Lallana 7 Disappointed maybe weight on shoulders? Puncheon 6 Guly 5 Very lazy but sparked twice when RL was on. Rodriguez 7 The subs: Lambert 8 Davis 8 Sharp 6
Been saying it since last season: he's a very good option against teams who are playing defensively, but against squads with quality wing play, he's scary back there at times. Has an unnerving habit of pushing a couple yards further up the pitch than the rest of the defensive line for some reason, often forcing Hooiveld out to cover wide and scrambling our shape at the back.
I agree with Fox concerns. Really liked him last year but today.. well, we'll see how he does against Wigan. Also JWP is a future Saints legend.
I'll give Fox the benefit of the doubt considering I don't think he knew when J-Rod was going to drop back or not to help him out (it didn't work at any time really between those two)
I liked the fact that we could field a decent 11, and still had players like Lambert, Davis and Sharp to come on, the former two would normally be first team. Our attacking options may improve even more with Ramirez and Phillips possibly on their way which would mean we have a lot more strength in depth out wide. The only thing that worries me is the thin defence, the fact that we had the likes of Shaw (too early) and Seaborne (not good enough) on the bench. I think we need two cbs for extra cover and possibly even a left back and send Shaw out on loan.
