Well that was kind of odd. I think we are better than that. We just didn't seem on it, and we wasted possession far too cheaply. Davis I thought stood out at times. Romeu is obviously a miss in a game like this, as he's simply class at the moment. Wish Stephens challenged for the cross for the third, otherwise did well I thought.
Yeah we are better than that, but even when we're better than that, when they are on it they're better. Hence why I'm not too disappointed.
Not at the races at all today. When you play one of the top sides you can't afford to make basic errors and have more than one player having an off day. Was Shane injured? Must have been... Don't think Gabbi was 100% fit, understandable of course. Run out would have done him some good though and with 9 days until next game should be raring to go. No complaints from me, City comfortably the better side. Once the first went in was always going to be 2 or 3... chasing shadows for the majority. Never mind, bring on the Champions elect Oh and for our friend Paul, you certainly did not have the full away end
It was pretty clear, from the first minutes, that City were up for this. Their movement and passing is mesmerising, at times, and what seems to go unnoticed by many, is how hard they work to get the ball back. It seems to be a less obvious version of the Pochettino high press, but just as effective. Or at least it was against us. We got into some decent wide positions, but the crosses, all too often, were not cut backs from the bye line but hit and hope. Davis and Stephens were my best two, for us. Redmond had an ineffective game, but part of that could be attributed to the way City closed down space so well, so if he beat one, there was another ready to take the ball off his toe. Hojbjerg has good qualities, but there are times when he seems to run out of ideas, getting caught in possession. Gabbiadini - not an easy return for him, through lack of service, but should have had an assist, when Tadic wasted our best chance of the game. No disgrace in losing to City, but please can we bring in a coach to help with defending dead ball situations. We seem to have been all over the place, most of the season, when defending corners, in particular.
From Puel's interview with Solent, he said something along the lines of a miscommunication between Long and the staff. They thought he had a tweaked his hamstring, so sought to sub he straight away (most likely because game was over, and you can't exactly run off a hamstring strain). But actually, Long was alright. Or at least I think that's what Puel was saying. All a little bit strange, but I am just about accepting it. Because if it turned out that it wasn't injury related... Stephens continues to get better. Boufal continues to get worse.
I think this match pretty much summed up a good proportion of Saint's performances under Claude Puel this season. In the first half we were clearly second best technically but I felt that the formation was containing City and it had the feel of a 0-0 draw albeit the football was quite entertaining and City's excellent passing made the match enjoyable up until half time. I don't think anyone could have had any complaints about the performance in the first 45 minutes. The second half was strange. I felt that Steve Davis was our man of the match although Stephens and Bertrand also had very good games and ran Davis close in this respect. Hojbjorg looked good in the first half but faded in the second and Gabbiadini got insufficient service to make any assumption as to what his fitness levels were. Davis and Bertrand must have been scratching their heads at how they could both put in those kinds of performances and end of playing for a team that lost 3-0. However, there were also a lot of bad things as well. Tadic was right off the boil and players like JWP and Redmond who have played really well in recent weeks did not put in a performance. Ward-Prowse and Gabbiadini were probably the right players to take off although you could have argued that Tadic remained on too long. I would have to agree with the decision to bring on Shane Long but the introduction of Boufal is a constant mystery. He has bags of skill as was demonstrated when he burst in to the penalty box in the second half with some mesmerising dribbling. However, I feel he is largely ineffectual and akin to two other recent players like Gaston Rameriz and Juanmi who both had talent but never delivered at Saints. Of course, the other issue is that this is yet another game without a goal. There seemed to be two genuine efforts (Tadic and Yoshida) all game that I can recall. Tonight, I felt that this was due to too many "progressive" players being unable to out in a decent performance but this has been a trait this season. Having heard the Puel interview explaining that Long was substituted because the Saints staff mistakenly thought he was injured and it was too late to rescind the notification to the officials I am totally surprised by this. I had assumed Long had taken a knock to the ankle but to learn that our best striking option was replaced due to a misunderstanding does not reflect well on our coaching staff. The most noticeable thing was how quickly the stadium emptied. Fans were leaving with 15 minutes to go and large areas of seating were clearly vacant at the full time whistle. There were also a few boos ringing around. I suppose that the late Saturday kick off does not help as it tends to impose on people's weekends and you can understand people wanting to get out of the ground early when the game was clearly lost by that point. It will be interesting to see what happens with the immediate sales of next season's tickets and whether the directors will read anything in the early departures from the ground as an indication of the football that has sometimes (but not always) been served up this season?
I left with 8 mins to go for a few reasons. It's Easter Saturday, I needed to get a train to Bournemouth and we had lost. Yep 3-0 down I threw in the towel. Sorry if that upset anyone, but I have been home since 20:15 and no way that would have happened if I had waited till the end. I know people get really precious about some people leaving early, but I had a good reason... I will leave a sick note next time.... The football was great, just today not from us. We were outplayed by a very very good City side. Simple as that. I have renewed my season ticket already if that vindicates me....
Yes, I suspect that might have had something to do with it. It was a clever ball, dropped right in between Stephens and Cedric, in an area where Aguero could see it the whole way and launch himself into it whereas Stephens and Cedric were closer to the ball but were caught flat-footed. I think they each thought the other would get it. Put it this way. A clever, physical CB might not have won the challenge, but could have figured out a way to give up his body and get in the way enough to throw Aguero off (or at least make it much tougher for him, not sure Aguero can really be thrown off) while "legitimately" playing the ball and not drawing a penalty. But Cedric isn't that kind of player, so I can't be too harsh on him. Both Forster and the defense should have done better on the first goal. The second goal happened because Bertrand had made a forward run, and two midfielders both went after De Bruyne despite neither being that close. That made it easy for De Bruyne to beat two players with one pass and spring himself for the return. After that, he was off to the races. Just had to outrace a CB, draw him to him, and then make the pass to Sane. Man City are better than we are. And they showed it today, even if they never quite got going they were clinical when they had to be. I was not expecting three points, nor did we deserve them. I'm a little disappointed that we played them tough for a half, and then gave up three semi-soft goals. 1-0 or even 2-0 would have been okay. But in the end, we are ninth, which is where I thought we would be when the season started. And without VVD as well. So... kind of a bummer today, but we just move on.
Didn't think we played badly today ... just simply outclassed. Boufal was poor again. Stephens is starting to look impressive, developing well, whilst Forster is improving week on week as well. Thought our fans, once again, were shocking in their support today.
I haven't read through the entire thread, but that implies that some people don't think he played OK? I thought that he was more than useful today, so I am surprised at any negatives. Certainly our best attacker. That was, until, Puel made the double change and swapped Redmond over the right. From the having the freedom of coming up against a weak City right (Navas is not a RB, and KDB hardly tracks back), suddenly he was up against a much stronger left side (Clichy is a LB, and Sane gets back in half a second). And from thereon, Redmond was anonymous. We effectively went down to nine men with that double change, with Redmond disappearing and Boufal having yet another poor game.
People around me were more interested in taking photos of Man City players celebrating than supporting my club ... winds me up!
Agree with all of that bar Fraser. Did brilliant with their so called 'penalty', was right in front with me and haven't seen a replay but almost certain he got a touch. Distribution was shocking though. Still looks like he has a niggle to me.
Yeah, I just think Man City outclassed us and played well plus looked more strong at the back with Kompany present. But if Tadic had buried our first good opening and made it 1-0 it might have been a different game, but no complaints from me. That is only the third game where I have felt we have completely beem dominated (the other games against Chelsea and Spurs). We missed Romeu and van Dijk but most teams would.
Just seen highlights on MOTD, the Man City 2nd goal is even better than I realised at the time. The final pass is timed excellently, just as Sane is level with De Bruyne, BUT the linesman is so far off the pace, I think if Sane had been in front he'd have had no clue at all!
