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The last 20 minutes or so of yesterday's game saw City defending as badly as I have seen for quite some time. Whenever Southampton came at us, our defence were all over the place, screaming at each other and generally shitting themselves!

Compare this to last season when we had the best defence in the country and the difference is startling.

The central 2 in particular played like they had only just met for the first time that morning. Kompany was making desperate lunges where he normally keeps his head, stays on his feet, and calmly takes the ball off the attacking player and plays it out of trouble.

Our full-backs played well but had very little help from their team-mates. Zabaleta in particular was very isolated and had to work extremely hard to cover more than one position.

I'm not panicking (like Vinnie & Joleon did) as I know we have the best central defensive partnership in the country, but I really hope that this is going to get particular attention at Carrington this week.

I think the screening in front of them was not there. They operated with Barry or De Jong in front last season but yesterday Rodwell was playing a little further forward and this left the two of them more exposed than they are used to. I would hope Mancini is working with Rodwell to agree his positioning for the next game or even considering bringing in De Jong

Agreedo

I usually sing Joleons praises but yesterday and the QPR games were his worst two games in a long time, I hope he sorts himself out.

I also thought that Clichy had a poor second half.

It was a product of not having Barry or De Jong backing up and providing the cover and out ball for the central defenders when heading or clearing crosses. Both these two players break up play down the centre with superb positional sense meaning that Kompany and Lescott don't get exposed on one on one situations.

When the ball comes in from the wings Kompany and Lescott were winning the first ball but the second was going to the edge of the D straight to a soton attacker. This is we're Barry excels and is always in the right place at the right time to receive the initial clearance.

I was disappointed in Yaya and Rodwells tactical abilities. They didn't read the game well and both went off up front on occasions instead of one of them staying back. Our midfield was completely bypassed yesterday and our defenders didn't cope too well but were often outnumbered in the second half.

I disagree. I don't know how much of it was down to not having de jong or barry in front ... in fact, i think rodwell played in a similar position to barry for most of the game, and took up similar positions as well. And yaya was yaya.

We need to play a dedicated DM against a newly promoted side? It's not like they were pouring bodies forward, either. They had 1 guy forward, that was it.

Our defense was just off in that game ... we went in overconfident and thought we would walk it. Vinnie thought he could just take the ball off whoever he wanted, no sweat, and every time the ball came towards lescott, it looked like he was panicked and got shakey feet. They played on the counter and we let them do it, and did what they wanted, which was camp out in their half ... making sloppy ass passes and generally being lethargic.

As a team we let ourselves down, and each area, Att Mid and Def all need to look at themselves and take responsibility. Disjointed performance and glad to get it out of the way first game of the season.

We probably should have won that match 6-2 yesterday. Keeping it closer than it should have been definitely bolstered them.

Was Roberto playing a trick to show the management team how much he needs DDR? I just dont see why you play Rodwell and not Nige in that situation otherwise.

I thought playing Rodwell was a ploy/2 fingers to the media who were questioning if he'd get any gametime at all with us this season. Maybe he looked fitter and keener the NDJ in training and it was (on paper) the perfect game to blood him in. Oh a starter for the first game .... they can start/carry on with their Nige leaving rumours bollox now

aristation wrote:I think the screening in front of them was not there. They operated with Barry or De Jong in front last season but yesterday Rodwell was playing a little further forward and this left the two of them more exposed than they are used to. I would hope Mancini is working with Rodwell to agree his positioning for the next game or even considering bringing in De Jong

Exactly how I saw it. Lack of organisation at the back led to desperate efforts by our defenders which led to our defence being all over the place looking very shaky.
it will be a lot better next week. and it has to be.

Was Savic playing yesterday?

Oh and Yaya had every right to kick off with the defence as they were sitting so far back and inviting pressure on.

kinkylola wrote:We need to play a dedicated DM against a newly promoted side? It's not like they were pouring bodies forward, either. They had 1 guy forward, that was it.

That maybe was the case in the first half but in latter parts of the game half they attacked in numbers, with four or five men. As we didn't have proper cover for our defence they got nearly all second balls.'
but no, we shouldn't need to play dedicated DM tbh.

No player infront of them breaking things up and from what I can remember our CB pairing didn't have a single ore season game together which won't have helped.

It is all down to Joe Hart I'm afraid

Confidence in our goalie has completely evaporated hence the panic in front of him

In our last three home league games there have been 4 shots on target and Joe has not saved any of them

Its just a good job that the red swamp dwellers never tried a shot on goal in the derby

Come on Joe sort it out!

blues-clues wrote:It is all down to Joe Hart I'm afraid

Confidence in our goalie has completely evaporated hence the panic in front of him

In our last three home league games there have been 4 shots on target and Joe has not saved any of them

Its just a good job that the red swamp dwellers never tried a shot on goal in the derby

Come on Joe sort it out!

Most bizarre post of the season to date

Zonal marking. There were period where we were letting them play it about on the edge of our box and no one seemed to want to go and put the man with the ball under pressure.

its the first bloomin' game of the season. that's it. its as simple as that. we're rusty. we'll find our form.

OliverHardy wrote:

blues-clues wrote:It is all down to Joe Hart I'm afraid

Confidence in our goalie has completely evaporated hence the panic in front of him

In our last three home league games there have been 4 shots on target and Joe has not saved any of them

Its just a good job that the red swamp dwellers never tried a shot on goal in the derby

Come on Joe sort it out!

Most bizarre post of the season to date

Not meant to be taken too seriously mate! The point is that we have only conceded 4 shots on target in three games!

There's nothing wrong with the Joleon/Vinnie combination at the heart of our defence.....nothing that having Neven Subotic wouldn't put right.

My opinion is the 3-5-2 formation we have been playing zabba and clichy was pushing way too high in my opinion and the center backs was being pulled all over the shop. even though we wasnt playing 3-5-2 yesterday i think the fullbacks still felt the need to push way too high.

OliverHardy wrote:
Most bizarre post of the season to date

bizarrre or not he makes a good point. i could not help thinking that Joe was hiding his injury yesterday.his diving for those shots/goals didn't look right to me.

Milners absence, Dave's awfulness and pissing 4 sitters didn't help the back four.