Saturday
Well Mario finally went which leaves us both happy he’s
gone but sad that it didn’t work out. Needless to say he opened the scoring for
Milan then got an injury time penalty winner. This after Berlusconi’s brother
said he was “off to see the family’s little ni*ger”
Mario’s already incurred a parking fine apparently.
England beat Brazil 2-1 at Wembley with Joe saving a
penalty. Neymar missed a sitter.
Still it was a good excuse for me to get out my 1956
Big Book Of Football Champions to read of how we beat them at Wembley in 1956
4-2 before they went on to dominate, and also, of course, to reminisce about
our FA Cup win that year.
John Cross in Thursday’s manumirror tells us that
Fergie’s given new signing Zaha, the biggest deal of the window at £15M,
conveniently forgetting about Mario’s £20M to Milan, the hairdryer treatment.
Apparently he needs to meet united’s standards on and off the pitch, maintain
his form and be an “ambassador” for united. So watch out for some gloating and
boasting tweets, boyhood dreams of joining the rags, shagging around, grannies
and family members, plus a bit of ticket touting, counterfeiting, bullying refs
and linesmen, and swallow dives to earn penalties. That should do the trick nicely!
Anyway safe journey to the Blues making it to
Saints. We’re watching it on the box in the comfort of home – daren’t risk
losing my rag at the pub. KK204 is coming along nicely. Looks like a big issue,
gonna have to start limiting articles in length in future at this rate!
Here’s the Saints it’s A Fix update :
26)
SATURDAY FEBRUARY 9TH : SOUTHAMPTON (AWAY) KO 5.30PM
Back in the top flight for the first time since 2005.
Last trophy FA Cup in 1976 (beat rags 1-0) Recent connection : Wayne Bridge. 44th
league meeting.
This
season so far: They’re in 16th place with 24 points from
25 games and 3 wins 5 draws and 4 losses at home.
At
The Etihad : First game of the season in August it was a 3-2 City
win. Tevez opened (40), Lambert equalised (59), then S Davis put them ahead
(68) though Dzeko (72) equalised and Nasri clinched it (80) after Silva had his
weak penalty saved. Crowd was 46,190 with 1924 Saints.
In
the Capital One Cup: They beat Stevenage away in the 2nd rd,
Sheff Wed home 2-0 in the 3rd but lost 3-0 away to Leeds in the 4th
In
the FA Cup: They lost 5-1 to Chelsea at home in the 3rd
rd
Our
form at Southampton: last meeting was in season 2004/05 a 0-0 draw
making it : DWLWDDWWW for City
Groundwise:
No change to St Mary’s and we’ll be in our usual
spot to one side of the goal.
St.
Mary’s - Capacity: 32,690
Comment:
Relegation battle for the Saints but they’ve managed
to put a few results together and are no pushovers at home now they’re getting
used to the Prem. Nigel Adkins was fired and the Espanyol bloke, Pochetinno, appointed and they do look lively. Every game
is a ‘must win’ for us, and this one is no different.
WWTWTWShite: Averaged 11,612 in 1955/56 in and this season it’s 30,371
Parking
is crap but we’ve managed to get a spot near the
ground in the past, though the stewards always stopped us from selling.
Sat
Nav: S014 5FX
Worst display since the last time I posted that it was their worst display. Can't take anything away from Southampton, they set out their stall from the first minute and pressurised us every time we were in possession. Will we ever make as many mistakes in one game again? I doubt it, but what hit me was an occasion in the second half when we made about fifteen passes to gain twenty yards, lost the ball only for a Saints player to hoof the ball seventy yards onto to their only forward who very nearly beat Hart. It has all been said before and nothing's changed no width and the insistence of needing to walk the ball home, hell we even nearly cocked up our goal because we had to walk the ball home. Why Sinclair is even on the bench is a mystery as RM won't use him.
ReplyDeleteA performance so bad that one reaches for a piece of rope to string oneself up. So bad, I was embarrassed to be a City fan watching in the pub, never mind the poor sods who went. Does Nasri bring anything to the team other than the odd half decent performance every 5/6 games. YaYa's decline this season has been quite alarming. Dzeko hopeless again with Kun having to run himself into the ground to no avail again. Where as Tevez? or Guidetti for the bench? How can a journeyman centre forward aged 31 turn Clichy inside out and trouble us so much? What's happened to Silva? As for Barry today, don't get me started.
ReplyDeleteAt the moment we're second in the league, but if fourth place was offered to me, I'd snap your hand off, but if we're in the C/L next season how would we cope?
There has to be a massive rethink in the summer, with a dramatic turnover of staff. At the moment, I'd only be keeping Hart, Zab, Kompany, Nasty, JoLo, Clichy, Milner, Kun and maybe Silva. Boy, did we miss DeJong today. Sod the FFP and buy Bale, Fellaini and the other Suarez.
once again City have no plan B. RM needs to man up and shoulder the blame because this is his team playing his tactics that are once again exposed as unimaginative and predictable. I also think this game proved once and for all how is vastly overrated ya ya Toure is, defensively, the man is a liability. again I do not want Roberto Mancini to get the sack, but he is not doing himself any favors. I would like him to stay and prove me wrong but he seems to want to open up the door for another manager to take over. I am truly worried he has been found out.
ReplyDeleteIt is starting to get seriously worrying. Barry, who's been playing well recently scores the kind of og a Malaysian match-fixer could dream of, Milner dropped after some decent performances, no attacking options on the bench aside from the ostracised Sinclair.
ReplyDeleteI share Dave's concerns about whether we'll even make the top 4 atm. Failure to do so would have serious implications and see Mancini's exit.
Alex
The only solace available to Blues this morning is ITV4 where a City team with Corrigan, Bell, Kidd, Barnes, Channon, Power and Deyna have just murdered Spurs 3:0 at WHL. Big Mal suggesting he had now turned it around. Yet it all that ended in tears. Determined not to get down hearted about it but that really was awful last night and it really felt like "the good old bad old days" when we had so much to moan about. I can live with the ups and downs of being a City fan, I been going since 1958 and have seen a few, but I can't stand the smug bastards in the media who are gloating this morning. Even as we thought we had got rid of the tag this season is turning into "Typical City"
ReplyDeleteMark Radcliffe best somes up performances like that shower yesterday:
ReplyDelete"Sometimes we're good and sometimes we're bad but when we're good, at least we're much better than we used to be and when we are bad we're just as bad as we always used to be, so that's got to be good hasn't it?".
We celebrated for too long, bought badly, pissed about all pre-season with silly formations, started the season sloppily, rotated when we needed fluidity and kidded ourselves that everything would eventually come good. Apart from Zabaletta, Milner, Dzeko and arguably Kolarov, virtually every player has underperformed this season.
ReplyDeleteEven worse most of this was blindingly obvious last October.
Spot on Neil, particularly about celebrating too long. Like the Germans after the 2nd world war, united knew what it felt like to have been beaten and set about correcting their faults, whilst we behaved like the British and expected the world to fall into our hands. I had never known United fans so scared of us and that went for the rest of the premiership too. All that was needed was to improve on what we had. Replace Savic with Nastasic, keep deJong and Johnson and make one marquee signing to let everyone know our intentions. I used to make fun of United having to sign players such as Jones, Smalling and Young as I reckoned they were second best for a club who had previously signed the likes of Keane, Ferdinand and Rooney, yet here we were signing Rodwell and Sinclair. In my opinion we have lost the chance to really turn the screw on the reds and their fans will be back big headed as ever and gloating, but who can blame them. Whoever is to blame, Mancini, Taxi, Marwood or the Sheikh, it doesn't matter now, but thanks to FFP, I can't see how we can become what the Sheikh wants us to become for several years, untill the academy really kicks in. But on that score every time I see an EDS result, we always seem to have lost. Mancini ultimately has to take responsibility for the decline as its HIS tactics that are responsible. Don't tell me that every one of us and many more blues who have been screaming for some width are tactical geniuses, it's just bloody obvious. Finally, I'll wager United will beat Real on Wednesday, perhaps not in the away leg, but at O/T they will attack them down the flanks and with pace, unnerve them and give the Madrid defence kittens. Something we haven't the luxuary of.
ReplyDeleteI think we need to get a huge performance against Leeds because if we crash out I am seriously worried we could see a meltdown like we witnessed in 2008 under Sven "smoke & mirrors" Eriksson
ReplyDeleteAgree completely as the manner of the Southampton defeat reminded me of the FA Cup defeat at Sheffield United under Eriksson.
ReplyDeleteAlso, how many away defeats does it take before Mancini realises that playing both Silva and Nasri in midfield leaves our full backs vulnerable. Saturday was crying out for Milner's industry.
The only consolation is that Dzeko appears more relaxed now that he knows he's going to play most weeks. Unlike Tevez, he scores one yard tap ins because he gets into the position for one yard tap ins.