[dsch]

There were 4 Southampton defenders around Mata so he had a 20% chance of getting on it, and he did. That's pretty lucky.

There are approximately 7*10^27 atoms in the human body. For all of them to line up and move precisely in order for Mata to score, the odds are absolutely astronomical. We've been incredibly lucky.

 

[Raw]

Expected people to be happy about this result. Turns out I was wrong, we can win 6-0 and some moron will still downplay our victory.

Really, it was one moment of poor defending that ruined it. If our defenders did their job for the 2nd goal, a lot of us would have been happy with that game. Personally I'm ecstatic, I thought we'd struggle to score 1 here, let alone 3.

 

[Sigma]

You must have been sitting on the pot for most of the game because we dominated for long periods. I agree we were poor for the first 20 minutes or so but the overall performance was good.

We dominated in the PSV game, we dominated in the Newcastle game, we dominated in the Aston Villa game but do you think those performances were good?

 

[KM]

There are approximately 7*10^27 atoms in the human body. For all of them to line up and move precisely in order for Mata to score, the odds are absolutely astronomical. We've been incredibly lucky.

 

[Sigma]

3 goals.

I should have said but I thought you would have deduced it for yourself:

what's different about the performance, not the result.

 

[Red-Jeff]

Because we move the ball so slowly our players therefore can move slowly up field. But once he got there he just stood still and did not react to the shot coming in from Memphis.

Maybe that is the point that of possession football with a slow buildup, getting people into dangerous positions so we can break down two banks of four.

 

[Red-Jeff]

I should have said but I thought you would have deduced it for yourself:

what's different about the performance, not the result.

Scoring goals is a part of the performance no?

 

[Nik70]

We dominated in the PSV game, we dominated in the Newcastle game, we dominated in the Aston Villa game but do you think those performances were good?

Against Newcastle and Villa we were toothless despite all our possession. Against PSV we were a little unlucky. In this game, once we got over the first dodgy period we had a little bit of a bite going forward and actually looked like we might score. Still a little slow in our build up but much better than earlier in the season.

 

[Mr. MUJAC]

I love reading these posts...just goes to show that many posters say things that make them look as if they have never ever played football in their lives.

Yeah...let's dominate for ninety minutes without out opponents ever getting into the game...what world do these people live in?

You do make me giggle!

 

[Red-Jeff]

I love reading these posts...just goes to show that many posters say things that make them look as if they have never ever played football in their lives.

Yeah...let's dominate for ninety minutes without out opponents ever getting into the game...what world do these people live in?

You do make me giggle!

It's ridiculous!

 

[Silva]

There are approximately 7*10^27 atoms in the human body. For all of them to line up and move precisely in order for Mata to score, the odds are absolutely astronomical. We've been incredibly lucky.

 

[Annihilate Now!]

You have possibly inadvertently proven my point. Both teams were even, no team deserved to win imo, it wasn't a great performance, their performance wasn't good as well, I just think that the reason we scored 3 goals is blinding the performance for some people. This was the same performance as Newcastle, with the exception that we won. The result is better, but the performance imo wasn't.

But I mean, we're away, in the PL, against a decent Southampton side, after an away game in the CL (albeit a short trip)... we can't reasonably expect that we'd go there and just blow them away. If anything, we should give the team a lot of credit as we managed to get back into the game after a pretty awful first 20-25 minutes where we could have been one or two goals down.

It wasn't a great performance no, but we should be encouraged by a lot of things we saw today. We got ourselves back into a game that looked to be getting away from us. In the second half we passed the ball around really well and didn't give Southampton a kick until they scored a goal which we defended poorly. Then we managed to cling onto a win with our backs firmly against the wall... again, all this was away from home in the Premier League.

Ultimately, two teams played a very entertaining game of football, scored some goals, and we came out on top... surely you can see why lots of people are happy with that! It's what makes football great!

 

[Sigma]

But I mean, we're away, in the PL, against a decent Southampton side, after an away game in the CL (albeit a short trip)... we can't reasonably expect that we'd go there and just blow them away. If anything, we should give the team a lot of credit as we managed to get back into the game after a pretty awful first 20-25 minutes where we could have been one or two goals down.

It wasn't a great performance no, but we should be encouraged by a lot of things we saw today. We got ourselves back into a game that looked to be getting away from us. In the second half we passed the ball around really well and didn't give Southampton a kick until they scored a goal which we defended poorly. Then we managed to cling onto a win with our backs firmly against the wall... again, all this was away from home in the Premier League.

Ultimately, two teams played a very entertaining game of football, scored some goals, and we came out on top... surely you can see why lots of people are happy with that! It's what makes football great!

I can see why people enjoyed that performance but I'm sure you can see where i'm coming from too. If we had put away a few chances in the Newcastle game and not scored as many today I'm sure the appreciation of each performances would be the opposite of what they are now. This result is good, but I don't think the performance is any better than what we have seen this season.

 

[Will Singh]

I'm happy with the 3 points as City and Arsenal dropped points so it was important. I'm very happy for Martial as he is as cool as you like.

The disappointing thing for me is our defence was shaky and it doesn't do any favours when you sub Darmian who has established a understanding with the defence which is already feeling the loss of Shaw. We need stability at he back so just replace Shaw with Rojo or Young and leave Blind where he is at CB. I'm not sure why Rojo came off but why bring on McNair and put him at CB and move Blind to LB when we could have just bought on Young for Rojo and not unsettled the defence even more?

 

[JackXX]

Overall a good away performance after the disappointment in Europe. Felt today was a massive game in terms of where we aim this season. This should give our players a nice confidence boost after those away losses.

Schweinsteiger was excellent when he came on. I think he's vital tbh I don't like the Carrick/Schneiderlin combo. They sit far too deep and it leaves a massive gap to our forwards. I think our best part of the game was when he came on. Carrick was pretty average today.

Martial was very good again. He's so composed in front and he seems to have an eye for a goal. Whenever there was a sniff of danger for Southampton he was there to make them pay.

I've been so disappointed with Rooney for what seems like 6 months now. There have been questions about his position and the service he's getting but now he's playing alongside Martial (already has 3 league goals in as many chances) he has no excuses. He has to start doing more by exploiting the spaces and making things happen. It's embarrassing that Mane does more than the player who should be one of our stars. He is anonymous at times and when he does get the ball he just looks so casual with his play. How about turning and linking up with the striker or wide players? He's just not contributing anything like enough to the team.

Was also very disappointed with Smalling for the Pelle header. Not sure why he didn't bother defending the cross. Confusion maybe but there was only one guy to mark and he's not exactly easy to miss.

 

[Jagga7]

I was out all day. I am majorly surprised we won! What a great result after such a tough midweek game.

 

[Annihilate Now!]

I can see why people enjoyed that performance but I'm sure you can see where i'm coming from too. If we had put away a few chances in the Newcastle game and not scored as many today I'm sure the appreciation of each performances would be the opposite of what they are now. This result is good, but I don't think the performance is any better than what we have seen this season.

Goals is a huge difference though... I mean, you could argue that if we had Martial on the pitch against Newcastle we'd have won that game too?

 

[Sigma]

Goals is a huge difference though... I mean, you could argue that if we had Martial on the pitch against Newcastle we'd have won that game too?

Yeah we might have won the game, but the performance would have still have been the same, the only difference being Martial would have scored one of the opportunities someone like Rooney or Hernandez didn't

 

[Livewire1974]

Great result and we cant really be complaining about scoring 3 goals away from home. DDG and Martial were top class. Rooney looked a passenger (again), slightly concerned about Darmian and Memphis. Just 2 points behind City, if we keep this run going we should be in the mix by the end of the season.

 

[Mockney]

I was out all day. I am majorly surprised we won! What a great result after such a tough midweek game.

You're doing it wrong.

 

[Ramshock]

Expected people to be happy about this result. Turns out I was wrong, we can win 6-0 and some moron will still downplay our victory.

look at you having reasonable thoughts. Will be none of that on here lad.

 

[Ramshock]

any video of the Mata goal with the 45 pass build up yet?

 

[Red-Jeff]

Scoring goals is a part of the performance no?

@Sigma

 

[Al-T]

We won at a tricky away venue. The performance wasn't perfect, but we won. And the overrated teenager that we paid over the odds for stuck two away . And our dissatisfied, unhappy goalkeeper turned in a mom performance. It wasn't perfect. Martial will wax and wane because that's what young players do but the signs are he'll also produce moments of coruscating brilliance. And we are second in the league, having scored six goals in two league games and just two points off the Berties. It's not perfect but it could be tons worse!

 

[Walrus]

There are approximately 7*10^27 atoms in the human body. For all of them to line up and move precisely in order for Mata to score, the odds are absolutely astronomical. We've been incredibly lucky.

 

[Sigma]

@Sigma

I think you know what I mean. If we forget about the goals scored, what's different about this game to the past games we've played this season?

 

[Cheesy]

I think you know what I mean. If we forget about the goals scored, what's different about this game to the past games we've played this season?

Why would we forget about the part which, you know, wins you a football game?

 

[Sigma]

Why would we forget about the part which, you know, wins you a football game?

For the sake of the argument that I am putting forward on which performance was better, which game did we play better.

 

[Cheesy]

For the sake of the argument that I am putting forward on which performance was better, which game did we play better.

I'd still argue that this was probably better than some of our previous performances though. We're far from complete as a side, and looked a bit weaker than we have defensively, but we actually had some end product to our chances, as opposed to constantly passing it around to no avail. That's the key point: we often weren't great, but were able to score when we needed to. Contrast that to the Newcastle game, where we often looked a lot more likely to score, but ultimately weren't able to do so.

 

[amolbhatia50k]

Delighted with the result. We were getting hammered at the start but once we scored we played quite well. Had we not gotten complacent at the end, it would have been a very impressive away performance. Lots of issues persist in our attack still, but Martial and Memphis really look like stars in the making.

 

[Spoony]

With DDG betweens the sticks and Tony Marshall upfront we've got a chance against any PL side. Such a shame Shaw's out, three young top quality players in the side is a great foundation to build on. We got of jailed today but heh, quality players allow that.

 

[Spoony]

Delighted with the result. We were getting hammered at the start but once we scored we played quite well. Had we not gotten complacent at the end, it would have been a very impressive away performance. Lots of issues persist in our attack still, but Martial and Memphis really look like stars in the making.

Why do you say that about Memphis?

 

[Red-Jeff]

I think you know what I mean. If we forget about the goals scored, what's different about this game to the past games we've played this season?

Why in the feck would we forget about the goals scored? Goals are the point of the game, therefore scoring goals is the most important thing you can do in a football match. Today we scored 3 goals and greatly improved on that aspect of our performances, not to mention away from home in a tricky fixture. That shows grit and determination. Even if the performance wasn't perfect, which I never said it was, it is a promising sign.

 

[Nik70]

I'm happy with the 3 points as City and Arsenal dropped points so it was important. I'm very happy for Martial as he is as cool as you like.

The disappointing thing for me is our defence was shaky and it doesn't do any favours when you sub Darmian who has established a understanding with the defence which is already feeling the loss of Shaw. We need stability at he back so just replace Shaw with Rojo or Young and leave Blind where he is at CB. I'm not sure why Rojo came off but why bring on McNair and put him at CB and move Blind to LB when we could have just bought on Young for Rojo and not unsettled the defence even more?

That was a puzzling decision. I thought Rojo was doing relatively well at that stage of the game.

 

[Sigma]

I'd still argue that this was probably better than some of our previous performances though. We're far from complete as a side, and looked a bit weaker than we have defensively, but we actually had some end product to our chances, as opposed to constantly passing it around to no avail. That's the key point: we often weren't great, but were able to score when we needed to. Contrast that to the Newcastle game, where we often looked a lot more likely to score, but ultimately weren't able to do so.

We were clinical today, that I can't argue against, when we were in we were brilliant. But we were lucky to get 2/3 goals. If we were lucky with a deflection or an offside decision or with a non block against Newcastle then we would be saying the same thing about that performance.

The goals don't for me mask that we were undoubtedly lucky.

 

[Sigma]

Why in the feck would we forget about the goals scored? Goals are the point of the game, therefore scoring goals is the most important thing you can do in a football match. Today we scored 3 goals and greatly improved on that aspect of our performances, not to mention away from home in a tricky fixture. That shows grit and determination. Even if the performance wasn't perfect, which I never said it was, it is a promising sign.

For the sake of the argument that I am putting forward on which performance was better, which game did we play better.

 

[Cheesy]

We were clinical today, that I can't argue against, when we were in we were brilliant. But we were lucky to get 2/3 goals. If we were lucky with a deflection or an offside decision or with a non block against Newcastle then we would be saying the same thing about that performance.

The goals don't for me mask that we were undoubtedly lucky.

But...we ultimately weren't. Those are all hypothetical's, really. Not to mention that a win against a decent Southampton side away is undoubtedly a lot more impressive than a win against a dire Newcastle side at home.

 

[Sigma]

But...we ultimately weren't. Those are all hypothetical's, really. Not to mention that a win against a decent Southampton side away is undoubtedly a lot more impressive than a win against a dire Newcastle side at home.

But what I'm saying is IF that happened the people would think that performance as the same as this one because the way we played in both matches were very similar.

 

[Red-Jeff]

My counter point is that goals are a part of the whole performance and are the most important part of a football match, discounting them when looking at a teams performance is absolutely ridiculous. It just seems like another way to build a narrative that is overly negative and dismisses the large strides the club has made after Moyes. The performance was not perfect but I definitely see progress when looking at the big picture.

 

[Varun]

But what I'm saying is IF that happened the people would think that performance as the same as this one because the way we played in both matches were very similar.

Which game you talking about? PSV? I thought we we were very good there as well and comfortably the better team. The Caf just couldn't look past the result initially.

Edit: scratch that. You are talking about Newcastle. I don't think k we were as good in that game but yeah, better side then as well. Doesn't matter much when you don't score though.