Southampton vs Manchester City Match Thread - 15/4/17 K.O. 17:30

Ah but maybe The Chappelites leave early to get a good ambush spot for a rumble with the City fans… or burn their team bus perhaps ?

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Just trying to set a good example for the forum membership :lou_wink_2:

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:astonished:

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The thing that really puzzles me is the situation with Caceres. Made big efforts to sign him before the window closed, going the extra mile, bigging him up. Only signed till the end of the season, paying him one of the highest salaries. he must be fit because he’s on the bench every week, but nothing. Not even a couple of minutes playing time. Surely if his reputation is accurate we could have done with him, given injuries/suspensions at the moment. No explanation is ever given. It just makes no sense.

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Disagree actually. If we were in the shit and Stephens was having a mare then Caceres should be played.

As it is it’s far more beneficial from the club’s point of view that Stephens gets experience and develops as a player in what is a relatively ‘safe’ environment. We’ve got no worries about pissing Caceres off as he won’t be here next season anyway. Makes perfect sense to me.

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It was important to get him at the time incase Stephens didn’t make the step up. As it happens, he did and Puel obviously rates JS the better option. We don’t know anything about Caceras really but if he was better than Stephens at this moment, Puel would play him I would of thought. There’s a lot of good players sat on our bench.

It’s nice to put a face to the name @gavstar

Can’t really have too many complaints about that, apart from Long being fouled before they broke ffor the third goal, But we were never going to score three to win the game anyway. City really are a fucking good side - if you can play Aguero, de Bruyne, Silva and Sané, with Sterling and Iheamacho on the bench, you’re hardly short of attacking options. And, with Kompany back in, their defence was more solid - though we did, in fairness, create a few decent chances.

Someone else mentioned control in midfield, and that’s certainly something that was lacking today. Partly because City have seriously good players there, but also because we missed Romeu. While Hojbjerg had a decent enough game in some respects, he lacks Romeu’s class when actually on the ball. He played some excellent passes, but also some very poor ones - he probably gave the ball away more in that one game than Romeu would do in several. He’s also more predictable in terms of what he will do with the ball, which makes him easier to play against. But he’s young and he’ll develop - I think he has the makings of a very good player.

Sometimes you come up against a very good team who are playing well. That’s what happened today.

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To replace who?

I thought Stephens had a good game today and Yoshi has been one of the players of the season. Stephens has been a great bonus for this season. Don’t forget he has stepped in and replaced Virgil. He’s done more than enough to keep Caceres out of the side imho.

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Phew. Saves me typing it up.

I would also add that Tadic was dog shit again, Redmond had a poor game and Fraser can’t kick for shit.

But generally, City are a very good side (how much did their 85th minute sub cost?) and we were well in the game for 60 odd minutes.

Not quite up there with the big boys this season but not far off and we will improve.

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In the early stages I thought we looked like we could give them a game, but as the first half wore on I said to my mate that I was not confident that we would get anything from the game. They have spent a fortune on their team and today that paid off. They did a job on us but there is no reason to wet the bed. They played to their full potential and we didn’t but there is no reason to be despondent to be beaten by a quality side when they step it up. We weren’t crap today we were just beaten by a better side

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Watched the “penalty” a number of times now and don’t think that FF made contact and that he got his fingertips to the ball. Not that it makes any difference to the result though :lou_sad:

As per my earlier post - it looked like we were defending for a draw from early on. Was that because Citeh were better than us or our game plan? I’d go for the former…

Uh oh … @cobham-saint mother in law must be out on the prowl again

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Just got up to drive to Gatwick to pick up my Sis & hubby…so sadly not…& sober mate :lou_sad:

oh well … the roads will be clear !!

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Anyway, get back to bed Steve, you need your beauty sleep

:lou_wink_2:

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I’ve just got in, been round my mates getting drunk and watching Python

I am off to bed tho’ …well, in a while :lou_wink_2:

Oh Northam Uber fans? Really?

Fooking disgrace & embarrassment