Saints 1-4 Man City - Match Thread

[the colonel]

10 minutes ago, cloggy saint said:

No it's not.

totally agree.

[verlaine1979]

1 minute ago, OttawaSaint said:

Fucking idiotic challenge by Salisu turned the game on its head. We were looking the more likely to go ahead. 

Looking at it Moi couldn't decide what to do while breaking, they score straight after. The likes of Foden just act, quick as lightning.

It's just a question of quality. Both their second and third came after we squandered great attacking positions through Moi's indecision and Che's agricultural finishing.

Though to be fair, it's not as if City were under the cosh until the pen. There was plenty of panic in our box the first ten mins of the second half that suggested they'd get at least one more, and so it's proved.

[stevy777_x]

How can you start AA and freaking Shane Long in a game like this???

[Dman]

Just now, Saints foreva said:

Did the PA announcer really annpunce that KDB was the MOTM? Pathetic. 

Shoulda given it Mike Dean. He’s won it for city innit. 

[Chez]

1 minute ago, Holmes_and_Watson said:

Still time for a Smallbone hat trick. Just get him up there. 🙂

I know the game is done, but he just jogs around with no urgency. Now I know why we always look so open in midfield when he is selected.

[BotleySaint]

Broja has really gone off the boil in the last few games. Looks a lot less interested.

[trousers]

Just now, stevy777_x said:

How can you start AA and freaking Shane Long in a game like this???

Submitting the team sheet to the ref before the game typically

[VectisSaint]

7 minutes ago, Lighthouse said:

But that’s what billions of Dirhams buys you, top quality players who finish their chances. As opposed to a £15m striker and whatever Shane Long is.

Phil 'no dirhams' Foden. 

[redkeith]

On a positive note, Salisu has been making a few errors lately. Hopefully him, his agent and the big 6 will realise that he needs another year or two with us to develop.

 

Just seen Dean gave only 2 minutes injury time, 10 substitutions, 3goals and all that time-wasting.  Prick

[CanadaSaint]

1 minute ago, Ade said:

Dunno why you comment? You just spout crap. How on earth you can put any blame on Forster for two of their goals is beyond parody. What a melt.

Watch the game again, and then post a response that has a modicum of intelligence and objectivity behind it. Melt.

[CB Fry]

Just now, Dman said:

Shoulda given it Mike Dean. He’s won it for city innit. 

Mike will be holding hands with the City players leading the cheers in front of the away fans in a minute.

[Dman]

Just now, BotleySaint said:

Broja has really gone off the boil in the last few games. Looks a lot less interested.

Unfortunately came on at a point where the game had changed. Needed to come on at half time (if not start), game went from being open to completely shut after the pen. 

[Toadhall Saint]

2 silly mistakes plus a really good strike compounded by not taking our chances.

[Chez]

Just now, BotleySaint said:

Broja has really gone off the boil in the last few games. Looks a lot less interested.

how on earth could you tell?

Did he get a ball anywhere near him? I saw one, and he won the header.

 

[Dman]

2 minutes ago, redkeith said:

 

Just seen Dean gave only 2 minutes injury time, 10 substitutions, 3goals and all that time-wasting.  Prick

😂😂😂😂

 

Fucking Mike dean. How dare he not give city another 3/4 minutes to probably stick another past us, especially at 4-1. Wanker. 
 

Probably already planing his post match celebrations. 

Edited 20 March, 2022 by Dman

[Micky]

Meh, plucky, plucky stuff as expected.  But nowhere near enough quality to get anywhere near them really. Pretty much men against boys after 70 minutes.  Back to the league I guess. 

[NewYorkSaint]

Ultimately, we can be proud of that performance. We went for it. Full on. Against the champions. And it could have worked. Some scintillating, truly scintillating play by us... both on and off the ball.  We're always going to need a little luck in a game like this, and it wasn't to be... 

 

 

[saint lard]

Man City didn’t even have to try. 
On a side note…I wouldn’t break the bank for Broja. 
And Ralph is so mediocre. 

[northam soul]

The one thing I take from this game, not that I really doubted it was Jack Stephens should not be playing Premier league football ever.

[Sheaf Saint]

1 minute ago, VectisSaint said:

Phil 'no dirhams' Foden. 

He didn't cost them a transfer fee, but their financial clout means that, just as Chelsea do in the South, their academy hoovers up all the decent talent in the North. 

[Scoobysaint]

It’s just about taking your chances. We had some decent chances but didn’t convert. Not convinced by Adam Armstrong yet. He may well get into good positions but he just doesn’t strike the ball cleanly. I understand it will take time to adjust but technically he looks poor. 

[OttawaSaint]

I'm really gutted after that. Felt like we had a chance. But we just don't have the quality and always have mistakes in us.

[Dusic]

Only summary of that game can be that we played well and two bad mistakes from our CBs killed us.

They are too good to gift 2 goals and think you have a chance.

Until the penalty it was a tough game for them.

Love the fact that Ralph always plays 2 strikers and gives it a go against them.

Edited 20 March, 2022 by Dusic

[Chez]

Just now, saint lard said:

Man City didn’t even have to try. 
On a side note…I wouldn’t break the bank for Broja. 
And Ralph is so mediocre. 

maybe not break the bank, but I picked him ahead of the other three. He was the ideal player for this game. Poor decision by Ralph not to start him IMO.

[Baird of the land]

Really frustrating. Played some very nice stuff.

Gave them two soft goals, plus our inability to take any of our chances.

 

[Chez]

Just now, Dusic said:

Only summary of that game can be that we played well and two bad mistakes from our CBs killed us.

 

and that our strikers wasted several good chances.

[DT]

Just awful awful defending. Championship at best. Compounded lack of intensity, and mystifying team selection. You don’t beat City unless you’re all on it and you don’t have someone as poor as Armstrong was in the first half presented your chances. Don’t get me started on Stephens. Dogshit from start to finish

[AlexLaw76]

Well, lets now concentrate on finishing 13th

 

[Dark Munster]

1 minute ago, Micky said:

Meh, plucky, plucky stuff as expected.  But nowhere near enough quality to get anywhere near them really. Pretty much men against boys after 70 minutes.  Back to the league I guess. 

But they gave one of the best teams on the planet a decent game until handing a penalty decision on a plate to Mike Dean. Even after that, Adams had a good chance to equalise. At the end of the day class players won it, so I have no complaints with how Ralph handled it.

[CB Fry]

The Match of the Day are definitely going to be analysing that controversial soft penalty decision for absolutely ages aren't they? 

Oh.

[Holmes_and_Watson]

Beaten by one of the best teams on the planet.

While the scoreline could have been more at the end, we were in it for two thirds of the game.

We did have some decent spells. Undone by not being clinical when we did get a sniff on goal, and some less than stellar defending, against a team looking and very able to capitalise on any error.

I can see why Ralph went with Broja and Adams on the bench. But you want your best strikers to be on the end of your chances, while the team are still in it. In the spell where it was end to end, City were making as many errors as we were. Better outlets might have given us more. KWP, Stu and Romeu were my stand outs for us, pretty much as they always are.

[maysie]

Thought we had them on the ropes at times so much that they resorted to time wasting. You lot are unrealistic at times in your expectations, but I guess that's the entitled times we live in.

[Dman]

My summary. 
 

Played really well for 60/70 minutes. Shoulda/coulda/(starting our regular strikers) woulda been 2/3 up and probably out of sight. 
 

Last 30 after the pen, was pretty poor but City are an unreal team who can bring on some unreal players, which we can’t. 
 

Stephens, time to move him on. Just not good enough. 
Salisu, looked bang average and making mistakes post injury. To me, doesn’t look fit. 
A.Armstrong, other than 3 or 4 scuffed shots offered us nothing. I’d be amazed if he had more than 5 touches in the first half.

 

[VectisSaint]

What was Salisu thinking, with the pen. Not the first time he has cost us even in the last few weeks. Really needs to learn. There was no need to make that challenge, as Shearer says, idiotic. 

[trousers]

An unsurprising result, regardless of the starting line up. Lots of factors need to coalesce for us to beat the likes of Man City. 9 times out of 10 that won't happen. Today was one of those days. Hey ho. International break then we can hopefully reignite our good league form of mid-Dec to early-March rather than fizzle out with a whimper...

 

[Dark Munster]

Just now, DT said:

Just awful awful defending. Championship at best. Compounded lack of intensity, and mystifying team selection. You don’t beat City unless you’re all on it and you don’t have someone as poor as Armstrong was in the first half presented your chances. Don’t get me started on Stephens. Dogshit from start to finish

Easy to say in hindsight. It was 1-1 at half time, and it was Salisu who did that stupid little shove to give Jesus the opportunity to dive for Mike Dean. At that point Adams and Broja were warming up, to about to come on.

[Ade]

5 minutes ago, CanadaSaint said:

Watch the game again, and then post a response that has a modicum of intelligence and objectivity behind it. Melt.

Suggest you go and spout crap on the Pompey Forum mate, you'll fit in there. No one has blamed Forster for any of their goals except you. Tell you something? Probably not, as you're obviously the one who lacks intelligence. Melt.

[Baird of the land]

3 minutes ago, CB Fry said:

The Match of the Day are definitely going to be analysing that controversial soft penalty decision for absolutely ages aren't they? 

Oh.

It was a penalty regardless of whether Dean was ref. Needless stupidity by Salisu

[Chez]

 

Just now, maysie said:

Thought we had them on the ropes at times so much that they resorted to time wasting. You lot are unrealistic at times in your expectations, but I guess that's the entitled times we live in.

we did have them on the ropes. We played really well. A coupe of errors at the back. These things happen. Stephens' one was worse than Salisu's. But for me, if we had had a couple of strikers in form, we might well have won that game.

Strikers get al the love, all the glory but today they were fucking shite.

[S-Clarke]

Very flattering score in my opinion, we more than held our own. The quality is what does it, we had no answer to their subs really (Mahrez and Foden).

Stephens, in a technical sense, is absolutely horrific. But you can never fault his commitment or his application to the game, he is just incredibly limited. I still don't think he's a bad 4th choice to have around the place, we do need a better 2nd centre back though. Cash in on Bednarek is what I'd do as there's more value in him, but the chances are slim to none I'd have thought.

Tino was quality,although tired as the game went on.

Armstrong and Long ran around a bit, but lacked any real quality. I'd have started Broja, he struggled to get into the game when he came on and would have been more useful from the start. That chance is what you get from Adams, that's why it's bog average. I don't have a problem with him at all, but that finish summed up the limitations to his game.

Overall I kinda enjoyed watching us today, as weird as that sounds. We just need to make sure we get ourselves 15 or so points over the rest of the season so we can end up in the 50's and I'd say that would be a decent effort all told. New GK, CB and number 10 needed in the summer for us to progress to anything other than a bit of a nothing team though.

Edited 20 March, 2022 by S-Clarke

[Dark Munster]

1 minute ago, Dman said:

My summary. 
 

Played really well for 60/70 minutes. Shoulda/coulda/(starting our regular strikers) woulda been 2/3 up and probably out of sight. 
 

Last 30 after the pen, was pretty poor but City are an unreal team who can bring on some unreal players, which we can’t. 
 

Stephens, time to move him on. Just not good enough. 
Salisu, looked bang average and making mistakes post injury. To me, doesn’t look fit. 
A.Armstrong, other than 3 or 4 scuffed shots offered us nothing. I’d be amazed if he had more than 5 touches in the first half.

 

We'll never know of course, but I very much doubt it.

[OttawaSaint]

3 minutes ago, CB Fry said:

The Match of the Day are definitely going to be analysing that controversial soft penalty decision for absolutely ages aren't they? 

Oh.

OK, you've made your point. Only 2 or 3 didn't think it was a pen, the rest of us said "stupid challenge".

[Chez]

2 minutes ago, VectisSaint said:

What was Salisu thinking, with the pen. Not the first time he has cost us even in the last few weeks. Really needs to learn. There was no need to make that challenge, as Shearer says, idiotic. 

it wasn't great, but he's left one on one, and these things happen when you get a little desperate.

[maysie]

Just now, Chez said:

 

we did have them on the ropes. We played really well. A coupe of errors at the back. These things happen. Stephens' one was worse than Salisu's. But for me, if we had had a couple of strikers in form, we might well have won that game.

Strikers get al the love, all the glory but today they were fucking shite.

Can't argue with that the strikers weren't good enough today, but I saw one comment that we lacked intensity, which is absolute horseshit.

[CanadaSaint]

Just now, Ade said:

Suggest you go and spout crap on the Pompey Forum mate, you'll fit in there. No one has blamed Forster for any of their goals except you. Tell you something? Probably not, as you're obviously the one who lacks intelligence. Melt.

I knew you weren’t capable of an intelligent response. 😂

[Dman]

Just now, Dark Munster said:

We'll never know of course, but I very much doubt it.

Broja was quiet when he came on at a point where the game had gone, but I’d stick my Mortage on him taking one of those Armstrong chances. 
 

Also would have been perfect at running in behind. 

[Saints foreva]

Just seen back that Che Adams chance. That's exactly why the term "second striker" exists, it's for strikers that have an awful goal return because they're shite infront of goal. 

[The Cat]

Good performance until Adams missed that great chance and then they scored the third shortly after.

Pity we didn't take one of the other chances in the first half, although they could have easily scored another in the first 45 minutes too.

Silly mistakes cost us, but as with most other mid table teams, we have players who are liable to make them.

Thought Long did pretty well, as did the midfield and full backs. Salisu didn't have his best game and giving away the penalty was stupid. Stephens was poor.

[S-Clarke]

13 minutes ago, saint lard said:

Man City didn’t even have to try. 
On a side note…I wouldn’t break the bank for Broja. 
And Ralph is so mediocre. 

What game did you watch if you've come to the opinion that Man City didn't even have to try?

[Toadhall Saint]

4 minutes ago, OttawaSaint said:

OK, you've made your point. Only 2 or 3 didn't think it was a pen, the rest of us said "stupid challenge".

My jaw dropped and I thought “WTF”. Couldn’t believe how straight forward it was.