Man City 5-2 Saints - Match Thread

[bpsaint]

That scoreline would be a slightly less bitter pill to swallow if it hadn’t largely been our own mistakes that led to it. I know they’re the champions in waiting but as we’ve done so so many times recently we’ve handed them the 3 points on a plate. We never seem to go down fighting and losing by an odd goal, the mentality of this squad is akin to the white flag wavers of France in WWII.

Sad that it feels like some kind of hollow victory that it was “only” 5-2. How far we’ve fallen....

[maysie]

Just now, SKD said:

What’s racist about this? Prick 

Telling a black Englishman to go back to Jamaica...

[Lord Duckhunter]

2 minutes ago, bpsaint said:

We never seem to go down fighting and losing by an odd goal, the mentality of this squad is akin to the white flag wavers of France in WWII.

Sad that it feels like some kind of hollow victory that it was “only” 5-2. How far we’ve fallen....

Spot on. 

[SKD]

2 minutes ago, maysie said:

Telling a black Englishman to go back to Jamaica...

Read the news about the Jamaican football team pal. Then apologise. 
 

[LuckyNumber7]

Overall a pretty decent performance, let down by some really weak defending and individual mistakes. Stephens and Salisu particularly bad, McCarthy made a couple of good saves but generally looked quite wobbly, hope FF is restored for Brighton.

Plenty of positives despite the scoreline.

[Turkish]

2 minutes ago, maysie said:

Telling a black Englishman to go back to Jamaica...

or maybe not

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/sport/football/jamaica-plot-move-to-call-up-ten-english-stars/ar-BB1ecJLS

[JRM]

I think with a defence so disorganised as ours parking the bus was never an option, we had a left back at right back, made no sense to me as it weakened us on both sides,  Salisu is so raw and seems to hate the physical side of the game, and we missed an opportunity to see Forster in a game when  he'd be tested. 

But there are benefits, we were never likely to get anything so back to strong line up on Sunday, KWP is going to be a key player for us next few weeks. 

Thought Redmond played well, and Adams looking sharper, his offside goal was a good finish. 

With a more organised back 4 against Brighton we can get the points to pull us away from the bottom. 

Souness seemed to think we'd "Get sucked into it as we concede so many goals" 

Edited 10 March, 2021 by JRM

[derry]

I certainly will cut them some slack. It was a pragmatic side in the circumstances. What I was annoyed with was Adam's stupidity trying to pick out Salisu on the other touchline, playing straight across our box to Mahrez. Salisu passing forward but straight to a MC player. That was two goals. Bednarek played one pass forward all night. Turning and playing backwards with McCarthy in goal with the ball usually going back to him did us no favours. Never mind his lack of saves his kicking is abysmal and mostly his passes just get us into trouble. It was right to rest players.

It was good to see Adams score but he might have had a second, He really needs to pay attention and stay onside we've had several goals ruled out this season because of it. He was well offside tonight even though he could see across the pitch.

Edited 10 March, 2021 by derry

[SKD]

5 minutes ago, bpsaint said:

That scoreline would be a slightly less bitter pill to swallow if it hadn’t largely been our own mistakes that led to it. I know they’re the champions in waiting but as we’ve done so so many times recently we’ve handed them the 3 points on a plate. We never seem to go down fighting and losing by an odd goal, the mentality of this squad is akin to the white flag wavers of France in WWII.

Sad that it feels like some kind of hollow victory that it was “only” 5-2. How far we’ve fallen....

Said this a few weeks back. No leaders, no fight. 
 

shite Mentality throughout the squad. 

[maysie]

Yep I stand corrected hadn't seen that article. Apologies to @DT

Edited 10 March, 2021 by maysie

[Lee On Solent Saint]

13 minutes ago, Lord Duckhunter said:

Fulham 2-0

West Brom 1-1

Newcastle 2-0

Brighton 1-0

Aston Villa 2-0

Sheff Utd 1-0

West Ham 2-1

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yes,but how many of those teams faced City after they were beaten by Man Utd? There was always going to be a reaction after that game.

[Baird of the land]

18 minutes ago, Teddeer said:

Quite enjoyed that as a football spectacle but obviously not the result. Considering we gift-wrapped at least two of their goals overall we were ok especially when you look at having Salisu at left back. He's taken a lot of stick but let's cut him some slack playing out of position against Mahrez who is arguably the best in the league out wide. We played lots of good football and certainly looked more balanced when Diallo came on.  Shame JWP couldn't treat us to one of his free-kick specials but thought he played very well.   

I do wonder if it would have been better playing Bertrand at left back. Playing 3 players out of position rather than 2 didn't really work imo.

[Turkish]

7 minutes ago, Lord Duckhunter said:

Souness hits nail on head. Had city gone for it, we could have got a real beating. Played totally wrong tactics. Concede too many goals. Yet people are bigging  up a 5 against a team in third gear, evidently we played “well”. Pony . That’s noddy club mentality 

I agree, my pal and I on WhatsApp were saying it could get embarrassing again at 5. City looked like they were going to score with every attack. Thankfully at the end they were happy to give Aguero some game time and let us knock it about a bit.
 

Going forward was alright but Defensively awful, 3 goals from mistakes, got away with one of the clearest pens you’ll ever see again down to to a mistake. City are great but didn’t we make it easy for them. 

[woodsaint1]

If a keeper wasnt high on our transfer targets for the summer, it should be now. McCarthy has been poor for most of this season and Forster is now the clear number 1. Hes made a number of glaring mistakes this season (including another tonight which could have seen him sent off), gets beaten too easily at times and doesnt seem to inspire confidence to the defence in front of him. No idea what his communication is like, but he doesnt seem to be a strong presence.

That being said, the defence in front of him were poor again tonight. Yes its City, but how many mistakes were there. Worried for Sunday given that Brighton have been creating chances for fun and its only a matter of time before that perseverence pays off. If we make the same silly mistakes then we'll come away empty handed

[SKD]

1 minute ago, Lee On Solent Saint said:

Yes,but how many of those teams faced City after they were beaten by Man Utd? There was always going to be a reaction after that game.

Hahaha really? I thought city were way below par tonight. If they fancied it, it could have been 9+ 

[Teddeer]

2 minutes ago, bpsaint said:

That scoreline would be a slightly less bitter pill to swallow if it hadn’t largely been our own mistakes that led to it. I know they’re the champions in waiting but as we’ve done so so many times recently we’ve handed them the 3 points on a plate. We never seem to go down fighting and losing by an odd goal, the mentality of this squad is akin to the white flag wavers of France in WWII.

Sad that it feels like some kind of hollow victory that it was “only” 5-2. How far we’ve fallen....

I wouldn't say it feels like a hollow victory because it was only 5-2.  We played our part in a very entertaining game of football and it is no disgrace to lose to Man City.  Ralph rested a few players to save them for the more important game against Brighton. Had he not done so and the likes of KWP or Diallo had picked up injuries he'd have been slaughtered. With what we had on the pitch we did ok and maybe all the luck went their way with two rebounds off bar and post that fell perfectly for their forwards to score. 

If our squad cost what their's did I'd be livid at losing 5-2 but we have to accept that their entire bench would walk into our team.

[DT]

11 minutes ago, maysie said:

No need for racism. Prick

Not sure I follow. He’s applied for Jamaican citizenship or at least qualification to play for the country. Er. Prick. 

[saint michael]

Reflects how football is now that Ralph was pleased with result and all but said we couldn’t win because they are world class and won 21 on the trot. Yes I know he saved side to play Brighton and he saw today as free shot. Another feature of modern football. 
 

That defensive performance was almost as bad as we have seen. You just don’t just turn this on and off 3 of those defenders likely to be in for the Brighton game. Stood ball watching, no positioning, no movement, no talking, a real learned helplessness from them all. 
 

As I said, you could say this match really doesn’t matter or you could show how you are developing. I honestly do not see any development or improvement. 
 

just feels like an incredible low in the club, and I’m old enough to have seen many, but few felt like this...

[maysie]

Just now, DT said:

Not sure I follow. He’s applied for Jamaican citizenship or at least qualification to play for the country. Er. Prick. 

Yep sorry. I've apologised, wasn't aware of the news.

[Turkish]

3 minutes ago, derry said:

I certainly will cut them some slack. It was a pragmatic side in the circumstances. What I was annoyed with was Adam's stupidity trying to pick out Salisu on the other touchline, playing straight across our box to Mahrez. Salisu passing forward but straight to a MC player. That was two goals. Bednarek played one pass forward all night. Turning and playing backwards with McCarthy in goal with the ball usually going back to him did us no favours. Never mind his lack of saves his kicking is abysmal and mostly his passes just get us into trouble. It was right to rest players.

3rd goal seconds from the end of the half, 4 players round mahrez, not one got a tackle in. Just let him walk though them. Killed the game, what little chance we had, gone.

[S-Clarke]

1 minute ago, Turkish said:

3rd goal seconds from the end of the half, 4 players round mahrez, not one got a tackle in. Just let him walk though them. Killed the game, what little chance we had, gone.

It's amazing how many goals of similar style we conceed, we just don't get a tackle in - either in the box, or on the outside. We just let them dance around.

I don't know why...is it an instruction they are following? ''stay on your feet' or whatever. I dunno, but we are meek as fuck in those situations.

[Teddeer]

3 minutes ago, woodsaint1 said:

If a keeper wasnt high on our transfer targets for the summer, it should be now. McCarthy has been poor for most of this season and Forster is now the clear number 1. Hes made a number of glaring mistakes this season (including another tonight which could have seen him sent off), gets beaten too easily at times and doesnt seem to inspire confidence to the defence in front of him. No idea what his communication is like, but he doesnt seem to be a strong presence.

That being said, the defence in front of him were poor again tonight. Yes its City, but how many mistakes were there. Worried for Sunday given that Brighton have been creating chances for fun and its only a matter of time before that perseverence pays off. If we make the same silly mistakes then we'll come away empty handed

Against Brighton Salisu won't play left back and we'll have KWP at right back.

[DT]

3 minutes ago, maysie said:

Yep sorry. I've apologised, wasn't aware of the news.

Ok. No worries. 

[Baird of the land]

2 minutes ago, Teddeer said:

Against Brighton Salisu won't play left back and we'll have KWP at right back.

And we won't be playing a CB at CM.

[Micky]

It was only 5 - 2.... its that where we're at now?   Thought we played well first and last 15 minutes, but the hour in between was bloody abject in so many areas.  Our defending was not only physically weak, but we were all over the place for most of the goals.  No strength or desire to get a block in,  their third was awful, we just let them through without so much as a tackle or block.  Thought we looked much better when Diallo came on,  but City were in cruise control by then.  

Shipping 5 maybe seen as respectibility by some, but as others have said,  other teams have held City to much lower scores.  The only positives that I will take from this is if we get 3 points from Brighton at the weekend - nothing less will do. 

[SKD]

4 minutes ago, Turkish said:

3rd goal seconds from the end of the half, 4 players round mahrez, not one got a tackle in. Just let him walk though them. Killed the game, what little chance we had, gone.

Yep I noticed this at the time and I’ll be honest, it looks like they’ve given up playing for the manager. Absolutely no fight or passion at all. 
 

you could put it down to lack of confidence, but it’s a lack of effort or fear of making a mistake. 
 

Never would have said this at the start of the season. Amazing how far we’ve fallen, it really is.  

[Chez]

I thought we were pretty brave on the ball, pressed high and controlled the game for long periods. It was a far cry from the United debacle. Some of the goals we conceded weren't great. Bertrand ball-watched for the first, the woeful pass for the third...but City do have some real talent and they really punish mistakes like this, which we perhaps makes every game but get away with. When teams catch us on the break we seem more susceptible than most.

To a degree I thought Bertrand at right back and Salisu at left back worked - when compared with the other option of playing Bednarek out there - which has not worked at all well. Stephens did OK, too. He's a decent ball playing CB, positionally solid, but he is not the quickest and felt he gave a little too much time and space. We instantly looked better with Dialo on. Redmond did OK too, but I have to say Tella too looked very sharp when he came on, which is encouraging. We may have found a real gem there. As for McCArthy, I have no idea why he played if Forster is seen as the number 1 now, but he made some great saves which sadly wasn't enough to prevent two goals from rebounds. His kicking is not great and he makes me nervous. I'm not convinced Forster is any better though. That position is a mess.

To be honest I feel quietly confident we can beat both Brighton and Bournemouth, which could help to `save' this season. Win the FA cup and all will be forgiven in my book.

 

 

[macca155]

3 minutes ago, DT said:

Not sure I follow. He’s applied for Jamaican citizenship or at least qualification to play for the country. Er. Prick. 

I assume you didn't intend it to be abusive, but If you can't see why that could be perceived as racist, then we'll be seeing players on one knee for many more games.

[macca155]

City went easy on Saints, that could easily have been 8 or 9.

Patches of good play but our defence is desperate in any formation.

No need to make that many changes. 

Self inflicted bad karma.

VAR was kind tonight, that won't last.

[macca155]

5 minutes ago, Chez said:

I thought we were pretty brave on the ball, pressed high and controlled the game for long periods. It was a far cry from the United debacle. Some of the goals we conceded weren't great. Bertrand ball-watched for the first, the woeful pass for the third...but City do have some real talent and they really punish mistakes like this, which we perhaps makes every game but get away with. When teams catch us on the break we seem more susceptible than most.

To a degree I thought Bertrand at right back and Salisu at left back worked - when compared with the other option of playing Bednarek out there - which has not worked at all well. Stephens did OK, too. He's a decent ball playing CB, positionally solid, but he is not the quickest and felt he gave a little too much time and space. We instantly looked better with Dialo on. Redmond did OK too, but I have to say Tella too looked very sharp when he came on, which is encouraging. We may have found a real gem there. As for McCArthy, I have no idea why he played if Forster is seen as the number 1 now, but he made some great saves which sadly wasn't enough to prevent two goals from rebounds. His kicking is not great and he makes me nervous. I'm not convinced Forster is any better though. That position is a mess.

To be honest I feel quietly confident we can beat both Brighton and Bournemouth, which could help to `save' this season. Win the FA cup and all will be forgiven in my book.

 

 

Good post. I guess Ralph could only risk 15 mins of Diallo and Tella.

Once again shows the folly of not having a backup full back. That decision has ruined the season for me.

[Lee On Solent Saint]

We have now conceded 49 goals, only West Brom have shipped more. That's a worrying statistic 

[S-Clarke]

2 minutes ago, macca155 said:

City went easy on Saints, that could easily have been 8 or 9.

Patches of good play but our defence is desperate in any formation.

No need to make that many changes. 

Self inflicted bad karma.

VAR was kind tonight, that won't last.

Just putting it out there, what if we went full strength from the start, still shipped 3 or 4, but lost KWP and Diallo to a reoccurrence and they were out for 'weeks' again?

I'd say that would have been a much worse outcome. I see why he did what he did tonight. We don't have the luxury of two 11s though, which is why it becomes a bit square pegs when we do want to change it up.

[trousers]

9 minutes ago, Lee On Solent Saint said:

We have now conceded 49 goals, only West Brom have shipped more. That's a worrying statistic 

And yet we've had 9 clean sheets which is the joint 6th best in the league. Bit of a Jeckyll and Hyde season.

 

Edited 10 March, 2021 by trousers

[Turkish]

6 minutes ago, Lee On Solent Saint said:

We have now conceded 49 goals, only West Brom have shipped more. That's a worrying statistic 

24 of those since the start of February which is even more worrying 

[S-Clarke]

6 minutes ago, Lee On Solent Saint said:

We have now conceded 49 goals, only West Brom have shipped more. That's a worrying statistic 

We were actually fairly solid up until January, all gone to shit since then in spectacular style. Obviously the Utd result skews that a little bit as well.

[Lallana's Left Peg]

The biggest problem this group has, or maybe its our Manager, is an inability to stop the rot and dig out a result to give us a foundation to go again.  When we're good the momentum makes us very good, and when we're bad the momentum makes us very bad.  It doesn't really cost us too much given other issues (club ownership, lack of funding etc.), but if we're to make progress as a team we need to take a thumping then shake it off - the hangover of things - both in game and across games - lingers far too much and it's not right.

[Chez]

12 minutes ago, S-Clarke said:

Just putting it out there, what if we went full strength from the start, still shipped 3 or 4, but lost KWP and Diallo to a reoccurrence and they were out for 'weeks' again?

I'd say that would have been a much worse outcome. I see why he did what he did tonight. We don't have the luxury of two 11s though, which is why it becomes a bit square pegs when we do want to change it up.

£100m+ wage bill should be enough to pay for two right backs. Shifting Valery and replacing him with genuine young talent will be high on the list of jobs for the summer.

[CanadaSaint]

Stephens looked like an exhausted cat chasing a laser pointer.

Not a team to play against when you're a man down in midfield.

Hopefully that sets to rest any desperate notion that he might be better as a DM.

[trousers]

Guardiola: "They are the team that make us suffer the most this season without the ball."

[Lighthouse]

3 minutes ago, Chez said:

£100m+ wage bill should be enough to pay for two right backs. Shifting Valery and replacing him with genuine young talent will be high on the list of jobs for the summer.

Genuine young talent isn’t going to sit and watch KWP from our bench. Our options are substandard young talent, like Valery, or a mediocre journeyman like Martina or Pied.

[Chez]

1 minute ago, trousers said:

Guardiola: "They are the team that make us suffer the most this season without the ball."

we play some nice football at times. We don't have forwards and wingers that do enough in the final third and defensively we are not great. We get caught on the break a lot. There is a lot of room for improvement. Get rid of more deadwood, free wages to sign players, make sure those players are decent and things could come up rosey. 

[Fan The Flames]

1 hour ago, Lord Duckhunter said:

Fulham 2-0

Newcastle 2-0

Brighton 1-0

Aston Villa 2-0

Sheff Utd 1-0

West Ham 2-1

A list of teams who all got the same amount of points out of the game as we did. 

[Chez]

3 minutes ago, Lighthouse said:

Genuine young talent isn’t going to sit and watch KWP from our bench. Our options are substandard young talent, like Valery, or a mediocre journeyman like Martina or Pied.

fair point, but if you pay them they will come, especially from the lower leagues. I suggested Justin James when he was at Luton for example. Lloyd Kelly at Bournemouth might be option at left back.

Maybe we need to invest in a two footed player that can press both KWP and Bertrand.

[BotleySaint]

BBC match report has Ward Prowse down for two goals.

Edited 10 March, 2021 by BotleySaint

[DT]

58 minutes ago, maysie said:

Yep I stand corrected hadn't seen that article. Apologies to @DT

No worries

[Lord Duckhunter]

6 minutes ago, Fan The Flames said:

A list of teams who all got the same amount of points out of the game as we did. 

Oh, that’s ok then. We also got the same number of points at Old Trafford as most teams do. 
 

People keep banging on about how we played well, worried them, but gave away silly goals. We’ll both of our fucking goals were handed to us on a plate. 
 

Does anyone seriously believe City were anywhere near their best tonight? They barely broke sweat. 

[captainchris]

1 hour ago, SKD said:

Started well. Came back from being a goal behind well. Fought (ish) until the end. 
 

Unfortunately individual errors have cost us again. The second goal (wtf was adams doing? Seriously) killed the game. 
 

I wonder if Ralph too Forster out to save his confidence? But McCarthy isn’t the answer for us. 

Beaten by the better team, obviously, and 5-2 doesn’t on paper look that bad. That being said, It should had been more. 

Defensively, absolutely shocking. Bednerak needs some time out of the team, really not up to the level were after at the moment.

Bednerak was never any different if you watched him closely... 

 

[Saint Billy]

Some of our defending was like watching a conference side playing Man City, it was embarrassing to see our so called defenders running about like headless chickens just chasing the ball.

I am not at all confident that by throwing any chance of getting some sort of result from this game by fielding a disjointed and weakened team will secure us a result against Brighton. Brighton are no pushovers and they will not be overly concerned about playing us considering our form since the Liverpool win.

However you look at it, a 5-2 loss is not the best result to carry into your next game and in my book is not great preparation and not motivational in any way.

[northam soul]

I keep reading that we were brave but I just don’t see it.

When city and other teams for that matter get through our midfield it invariably ends up with a goal a shot on goal or at least a bit of chaos in our box.

When we get through their midfield it invariably ends with a pass back to the centre half’s and goalkeeper.

That is not brave its fucking gutless, now we may not have the quality that city have but that has always been the case with the top sides.

The difference nowadays is we don’t ever look like coming back into a game and seem content to pass the fuck out of the half way line.

 

[Fan The Flames]

4 minutes ago, Lord Duckhunter said:

Oh, that’s ok then. We also got the same number of points at Old Trafford as most teams do. 
 

People keep banging on about how we played well, worried them, but gave away silly goals. We’ll both of our fucking goals were handed to us on a plate. 
 

Does anyone seriously believe City were anywhere near their best tonight? They barely broke sweat. 

I don't know what points you are trying to make, like our defence you're all over the place.