Greenlizard0 Weekend Football Thread ** spoilers ** [30th - 31st August 2014]

Superficially, looking at the stats, it reminds me of many Southampton performances under Pochettino - all the possession in the world but lacking a cutting edge to actually capitalise on it.

It's almost as if his teams press so high so much that the opposition defence is too rarely drawn away from the goal and there's not enough room to create anything in the final third.
 
Surprisingly comfortable win. I really was expecting a much tougher game against Spurs under Poch but we really outclassed them from start to finish. We made hard work of it in the first half though with our defense trying to keep Spurs in the game.

Today's match probably showed just how good City were against us last week, we probably made fewer mistakes last week than we did today but City were clinical in attack and rock solid defensively.

Despite the lack of a goal (or 2) Balotelli done well. The goals will come but he certainly done a lot to ease some of the concerns you'd have about him fitting into the side and putting a shift in; he worked hard all game, got back and defended when needed, ran the channels and held the ball up really well.

In Moreno and Manquillo (particularly the former) it looks like we've got a pair of handy fullbacks on our hands. Both defend aggressively, have the pace & energy to recover if they get caught out of position and get forward really well.

Central defense is still a worry though. Lovren's trying too hard to impress and it's making things worse. He's trying to win absolutely everything and diving into challenges all over the place. The lack of stability at the back is no doubt a contributing factor and hopefully we can field a settled back line for a prolonged period and they'll start to learn from each other and know who's going for what and who should be covering.
McBain said:
Give over, Allen's delayed reaction says it all.

Could stay on your feet and throw yourself on the ground = cheating.
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I've said this time and again, until officials give decisions based on the challenge rather than the reaction then players are only being encouraged to go to ground when they're fouled, even if they can stay on their feet.

Had Allen not gone down there then there's no chance the ref's awarding the pen. It was a minor foul but it was a foul none the less and inside the box you're always going down in those instances.
 
BaZ87 said:
In Moreno and Manquillo (particularly the former) it looks like we've got a pair of handy fullbacks on our hands. Both defend aggressively, have the pace & energy to recover if they get caught out of position and get forward really well.
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Don't really understand how we managed to get Manquillo on loan and the purchase price so low. Surely he would've been worth keeping for Madrid? Must admit I had visions of Josemi when he randomly arrived but it's hard to fault him so far.
 
Pigeon_Killer said:
Don't really understand how we managed to get Manquillo on loan and the purchase price so low. Surely he would've been worth keeping for Madrid? Must admit I had visions of Josemi when he randomly arrived but it's hard to fault him so far.
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The deal's reportedly far from straight forward with the potential fee to sign him varying depending on how successful he is and reportedly clauses that allow Atletico to recall him too.

Without knowing what other options Atletico have as cover it's difficult to say whether it made sense to let him go out on loan but at the very best he was 2nd choice their.

Whatever the thinking and terms of the deal though, he looks a very handy signing for us.
 
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