First of all, well done Southampton for a deserved win in our last outing. While we started with enough endeavour early on; we were getting caught offside while they were showing their own signs of a goal threat.
Then it came on 16 minutes - a goal that turned out to be the winner a full 81 minutes later.
They had desire in bucket loads and defended so VERY well too; we played well over all. They created a few chances, as I’ve already said, and that 16th minute winner was a very audacious one indeed and, it has to be noted, after yet another horrible, defensive error by us.
And although the possession reads 74% to City, I just thought at the end of the game that The Saints were good for their win all things considered.
Like minded
As the clock ticked towards ‘the 90’ and then through 7 minutes of injury time, I just thought…‘Here we go again – lots of possession; loads of chances created, which we just can’t seem to stick away (26 shots and just 6 of those efforts were heading into the net before being blocked or saved by the keeper) and a silly mistake / lack of concentration at the back again that finished us off. Another L amongst our more positive results – our 9th defeat now in 33 league games!
Then came Pep Guardiola’s post-match press conference on the BBC
and he said, so very clearly, exactly the same; that the way this game went has
been our season in a nutshell – we create but we can’t score at times; the
opposition have few chances but in the same moment, put their chances away and
that, in general, inconsistency has been our constant companion this season. Once again we played well but, once again, it comes with a, hufffff....
SO…we now have to aim for a minimum of 7 points from the last 15 available to secure 2nd place (with the bonus of a superior goal difference to those on our tails) as we carry a slight limp, in the league at least, towards the finishing post.
Let’s see if we can get 3 of those tomorrow night…
 |
| Etihad Stadium |
Predicted line-up, subs and outcome:
(Number correct from the starting line-up in the last game: 8/11).
Fluid 4-1-4-1 / 3-6-1:
_____________________Jesus____________________
Sterling_________________________________Mahrez
____________De Bruyne_______Foden_____________
______________________Rodri____________________
Mendy___________________________________Walker
______________Laporte________Garcia____________
_____________________Ederson__________________
Subs: Bravo, Zinchenko, Cancelo, Otamendi, Fernandinho, Doyle, Gundogan, D. Silva, B. Silva.
Ederson, who produced one of his best ever, pinpoint, along-the-floor passes early on in last Sunday’s game, keeps the gloves. Great vision from him to start a City attack.
Benjamin & Kyle should come back left & right of the defence and I think we’ll see the partnership of Aymeric & Eric continue in-between those (seems to be something our manager is building for now at least).
Rodders comes back into the defensive midfield position and ahead of him in the same department, I’m going for Raheem & Riyad to ‘go again’; with a change in the middle that should see Kevin & Phil start.
Gabriel, who continues his quest to find the net and gain some much-needed confidence (I was convince he was gonna get a hat-trick before we kicked off last Sunday), gets another start up front (c’mon fella!).
Claudio is the back-up keeper on the side; Oleksandr, who had a poor game at the weekend, Joao, who I thought had a particularly good game & Nicolas are the defensive change-options from ‘the 9’. Fernandinho, who had a rotter on the south coast where he looked slow and rusty, Tommy, Ilkay, David & Bernardo are the more advanced personnel waiting in reserve.
Notable absences:
- John Stones – Not selected.
- Sergio Aguero – Recovering after knee surgery.
Do I agree with Pep’s (predicted) line-up?
Looks very good to me! And I was glad to see both Raheem & Riyad withdrawn on 59 minutes last Sunday, in order to keep ‘em safe and as fresh as possible, as they are our main wing-attacking players these days.
Result? Our visitors seem to be finding the net of late, which is something our sometimes self-destruct defence needs to be a little wary off. Okay...so the teams The Magpies have scored against since the restart haven’t exactly been the strongest opposition but for a side who-had-only scored 25 goals in 29 league games before the break; they’ve now got 10 in their last 4 league appearances…and should have equalised against us in the cup a week last Sunday.
But to be brief - at home, against a still-largely poor side and wanting to right last Sunday’s wrongs, I’m sure; this is a home win for me.
Last season’s, corresponding pre-match prediction and result…
Prediction: Win
Result: Won
(Pre-match blog posting from that game)
Expected weather conditions during the game: A bit murky, drizzly and certainly cool (15C) for a July evening. Summer doesn’t begin to restart again until Friday/Saturday, by all accounts. The wet-misty air should help to keep the pitch ‘zippy’ for some crisp-passing moves, at least.
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