****official - champions v southampton match thread****

[zuricity]

I do not understand the slagging off of Dzeko, if you look at the highlights a southampton player blindsided him when the ball was played,no way was that a miss.
He played very well imo,held the ball up well and took his goal brilliantly...thats 2 in 2 for him.

Ballos miss was FUCKING shocking...nearly as bad as Silvas mind.

i agree with a lot of what slim wrote , but i disagree about Edin. I think Carl is correct. There is absolutely no need to mention Edin in the same breath as the other bad players today

[Socrates]

Or at least use a mix of tactics you WILL be using, and tactics you MIGHT be using.

We rose against adversity against spirited opponents and won. Stop fucking whining people (not you in particular dameerto just happens to be your post). 3 points in the bag and we'll be better for it.

[Clowncrete]

That is another 3-2. Our defense looks shakier as compared to the beginning of last season.

[ronk]

Exciting match. Going to be a long and interesting season. That's one thing that isn't going to change.

We dominated possession well and created a lot of chances. Defence wasn't really alert enough when they broke. Nige is a master at disrupting that. Maybe we needed someone to take a card and kill the move at halfway.

Losing Aguero early knocked us a little. Yaya's passing wasn't as good as usual, Rodwell looks tidy and has potential, I liked that he generally wasn't interested in being flashy

[stevefromdonny]

in my opinion, i thought all the players was rusty, and ffs why do we play slow most of the time when southampton scored the 2nd, they used pace and had 5 against 3, us we have to try to score after 20 passes. but hey we won

[carl_feedthegoat]

Or at least use a mix of tactics you WILL be using, and tactics you MIGHT be using.

We rose against adversity against spirited opponents and won. Stop fucking whining people (not you in particular dameerto just happens to be your post). 3 points in the bag and we'll be better for it.

The problem with you is that you are sooooo pig headed and will NEVER slag off the obvious once your agenda is set in stone.
A game was won but we played shocking in defense and shocking infront of goal...those are facts worthy of comments.

You just want to settle for the win and slapp your dick from side to side like a happy village idiot.....meanwhile most of us other fans like to comment on all aspects of the game thankyou very much.

[Blue_Manc]

Wow, what a game that was. QPR all over again. The players looked rusty and I think this game was the best thing that could have happened to us. Hopefully the team will wake up in the next game. Thankfully we got the three points and thats what matters. I hope the big shots upstairs will see the need to strengthen now with Aguero out. We need at least two players IMO, a striker and a CB.

Well done to Soton by the way. Hope they get relegated!

[paul_oresteia]

Being from Southampton, I have a lot of mates who are Saints fans. Many of them genuinely believe the possession stats were "wrong", that they "showed us how to play football", and that Adkins is a "tactical genius". Credit where it's due...they worked hard and almost got something out of the game. But don't take the piss, we were a couple of sitters away from a cricket score at one stage.

[ronk]

We were dominant, we didn't put them away and we got into a losing position. That's bad news. We came back and won it though by raising our game, that's good news.

[ashton287]

Any news on kun? What actually happened?

[Dameerto]

Sky's man on the ground went to try and find out during the first half - the word was one of cautious optimism and a hope that it's not as bad as first feared, but he still had to have a scan (we were told to expect him to be on crutches as a precaution).

[ashton287]

i agree with a lot of what slim wrote , but i disagree about Edin. I think Carl is correct. There is absolutely no need to mention Edin in the same breath as the other bad players today

Edinburgh looked crap when he came on but he looked good as the focal point for the front 3. That for me is how he needs to be played. The spearpoint with wide support. Expecting him to do aguero's job is just setting him up to fail.

[Swales4ever]

The way I saw it, to put it in a headline, I'd go with:
The CHAMPIONS back on office salute the starting season with an entertaining bunch of errors.
3 points all it counts for me and to lessen the burden of Ronk's pragmatic approach on the way to the 1st 40s... :-)


also,

Even on the match thread you have to dig at Marwood ... it fucling boring now

I tought it was a praise, tho.
charge denied... lol

EDITED: and, as my Thai Mate would say; there's no better taste in life than supporting typical City up and downs! excellent and entertaining cardiac training... :)

[kennyboy]

Nasri was outstanding, hope he continues with that sort of worldclass performance.

[ronk]

The way I saw it, to put it in a headline, I'd go with:
The CHAMPIONS back on office salute the starting season with an entertaining bunch of errors.
3 points all it counts for me and to lessen the burden of Ronk's pragmatic approach on the way to the 1st 40s... :-)

also,

I tought it was a praise, tho.
charge denied... lol

EDITED: and, as my Thai Mate would say; there's no better taste in life than supporting typical City up and downs! excellent and entertaining cardiac training... :)

And we're up to 5th!

3 points ahead of rags, pressure is on them.

[Swales4ever]

The way I saw it, to put it in a headline, I'd go with:
The CHAMPIONS back on office salute the starting season with an entertaining bunch of errors.
3 points all it counts for me and to lessen the burden of Ronk's pragmatic approach on the way to the 1st 40s... :-)

also,

I tought it was a praise, tho.
charge denied... lol

EDITED: and, as my Thai Mate would say; there's no better taste in life than supporting typical City up and downs! excellent and entertaining cardiac training... :)

And we're up to 5th!

3 points ahead of rags, pressure is on them.

Yap. Come on Everton!
wait.... can't believe I just said that! Carl, where are You and Your Browning M2HB, when I need to be fired??



btw: I forgot to mention of how much impressed I've been by that bloke, Fonte.
first time i saw him, looked an intelligent and solid CB with a great positional sense.

[Swales4ever]

Pic of the day? loved it!

[kinkylola]

i agree with a lot of what slim wrote , but i disagree about Edin. I think Carl is correct. There is absolutely no need to mention Edin in the same breath as the other bad players today

Edinburgh looked crap when he came on but he looked good as the focal point for the front 3. That for me is how he needs to be played. The spearpoint with wide support. Expecting him to do aguero's job is just setting him up to fail.

agree about dzeko, we've tried to shoe horn him into aguero/tevez/balo positions and it doesn't work, which I think anyone could have told you ... and i'm sure mancini knows quite well. What bugs me about dzeko is how wide he goes sometimes ... I don't want to see him trying to dribble a FB on the wing. I think he did decent though, at least no worse than average, and doesn't deserve to be slagged off.

[Slim]

I think the biggest lesson learned should be for Mancini himself. If you are going to faff about with a formation in pre-season you'd better have EVERY FUCKING INTENTION of using it during the season.

Rodwelll got moved about too much and needs to trust that Yaya knows what the fuck he's doing and not rush over to help him every time he goes to make a tackle, left way too many gaps behind him.

Silva, rusty, nuff said on the subject.

Dzeko was...well I am not sure he cared anymore, he'd make an effort to get it in the wide areas and then not really do anything with it. His miss from Nasri's cross was just ludicrous for a striker in this team.

Nasri had more fight in him than I've ever seen for us or Arsenal, that was pretty encouraging.

I do not understand the slagging off of Dzeko, if you look at the highlights a southampton player blindsided him when the ball was played,no way was that a miss.
He played very well imo,held the ball up well and took his goal brilliantly...thats 2 in 2 for him.

Ballos miss was FUCKING shocking...nearly as bad as Silvas mind.

And Clichy's, and Silva's again. They all faffed it in front of goal, and it was about a bad a game as I'd seen Silva play. I didn't say Dzeko played badly, I just don't think he gives a fuck anymore, do something good, do something bad...don't give a fuck cause I'm the one they are trying to replace no matter what I do.

And Soccs, we played one formation during the whole of preseason, the WHOLE of preseason, and then abandon it and play a formation we haven't played since May. I am all in favour of a plan B, but maybe we should give them a runaround in preseason at least once or twice in the "plan A" formation, just in case we need it, k?

[kinkylola]

I think mancini probably thought, hey ... we played all last season with plan A, it should be pretty well sunk in by now. I think he'll rectify the lapse this week and bust a few skulls. I expect rodwell to start again vs. liverpool as well