Bad day at the office for EVERYONE yesterday
And when did JWP become Lallana?
Whatâs with this auto sub at 60 minutes shit?
Sure Boufal needs game time and we have shape but surely Puel sees the defensive side of JWP and should swap Tadic for Boufal?
We are running into beach time with JRod & Shlong hugely disgruntled.
We were shit, City were ok but we were shit, seen it again, desire, heart and how many attempts? City are a good team but we arenât a bad one, are we saying any good team we play we arenât expected to get a shot off? That was shit.
We werenât shit Barry. To beat City, Cherlsea, Spurs, etc you need all 11 to be at the top of their game. You need to take the few chances you will undoubtedly get and have a little bit of luck. We didnât. We lost. Too many players had an off day.
Tadic buries his chance, we go in 1-up at half time and itâs a different game.
If I remember right against the other top six I felt we were in the game. Yesterday I never got that feeling. That said if Tadic had put the chance away who knows.
Once Redmond found his touch we seemed to string a few passess together but apart from that our mid field really struggled. It was a seige most of the first half. Davis played to his best but it looked like we needed a better central midfielder to stand and link play. Failing that we need a different tactic.
They looked like we looked when we were spraying it round against West Brom
Im still really hoping that Boufal gets some decent coaching over the summer on how to impact a game. Im still holding on to the vision of him turning into a great player. He has got the skill level he just needs the craft
⌠and the fitness
Puel seems to agree with what I have said ie they didnât do enough.
Did he say we were shit Bazza?
I wasnât going to bother posting anything because you guys have summed it up pretty much exactly as I see it. But Iâm pretty bored so here goesâŚ
Whilst the bottom line is that City were decent and at absolute full strength, no injuries (other than that kid Jesus but fuck me they still have Aguero) compared to us missing several important first teamers - what I would like to add is that I donât feel our tactics helped matters.
It was pretty clear that City were going to see a lot of the ball and early on, demonstrated that they were going to play a high line. Therefore we should have anticipated that and selected a side to counter attack. It is here that I find Puel generally a bit rigid. You cannot always pick your best team in order to play the way you want. Consideration and respect needs to be paid to the opposition. The comparison to how we faired against the top sides last year to this is perhaps testament to this theory. Our game plans against Liverpool and Utd in the league cup were clearly well thought out but this hasnât been replicated in the league for whatever reason.
I would have played Long from the start but asked him to do a shift out wide. That way you get his work rate and his pace over the top for an outball on the counter attack. As far as Iâm aware Puel has never played Long or Rodriguez from the left (for any meaningful period of time), only ever through the middle. Bearing in mind both players have played here before and thrived. Especially Jay. Redmond, whilst quick, is much better at running with the ball than he is running off it. He wants the ball to feet and consequently you donât often see him making many runs in behind. Consequently the changes and substitutions are too like for like. With the exception of when we chase a game and JWP is withdrawn for Boufal for instance.
Whilst on the subject of Boufal⌠my god he is frustrating. As crazy as it sounds I almost feel like he is doing more harm than good by getting on the pitch. I almost feel that he needs to just draw a line under this season, hit the gym and strengthen up and then we can look forward to seeing him in August. I am pretty certain heâll come good but it isnât going to be this year. Playing him now whilst he is absolutely devoid of any confidence is just doing more damage and getting the fans on his back with every failed take on and every misplaced pass. Of which there have been plenty.
Whilst Iâm not going to worry about it, I would like to see us improve and take points from some of remaining games against the top sides. Realistically we wonât against Chelsea but I would like to think we can do a job against Arsenal who are all at sea at present, and we know we can beat Liverpool. Utd are a one man team so nullify Ibrahimovic (somehow) and get something there too.
These are my observations and arenât intended as meaningful criticism. Because at the end of the day City are a very decent side on their day and have some scary expensive players. Plus the fact we were unlucky that we played them with a fit Vincent Kompany rather than a useless bumbling John Stones or Kolarov at the back. I actually laughed when I saw their team sheet containing all of De Bruyne, Toure, Silva and Sane! That is simply ridiculous. None of them were even asked to play a more defensive role either.
As far as Iâm concerned we still have plenty to play for and some points to prove.
In this report these people say there is a stare-off between Shane and Puel after Long is subbed. There clearly isnt a âstare-offâ between the two, just an awkward conversation between all of them.
I think I must have zoned out because I didnât even notice this at the time. I thought he just got injured.
After about 5 minutes on the field Long was clutching his hammyâŚit was quite obvious to the Chapel Ultras why he went off FFS. Not surprised in the least when he was replaced by JRod.
Just checked my ff and Saints poor showing this week has seriously hampered my chances of a top eight finish in my local pubs league ⌠of eleven teams 
Sometimes you get a reminder of where we sit in the pecking order.
They have more quality, more depth, and we missed the chance to put them under pressure.
We are at a level where our season is not decided by games against Man City and Chelsea so I would just put it down as a slightly annoying lesson in how to use your squad quality to pick off teams on the break.
⌠in reply to my fantasy football quandry RB ??
yeah, know your place!
