entering the dentists surgery knowing I was going to have a fucking great tooth
pulled out of my head. Can I have something to anaesthetise the pain? Oh yes,
our reward for smashing the Skates 4-0, is an away trip to Manchester City who
have won the League Cup in four years out of the last six. They always rest a
lot of players in the early rounds but their reserve players are so good that
they can do this virtually all the way to the final.
In the event, Pep put out a few I haven’t heard of but the forward line is
Aguero, Gabriel Jesus, Bernardo Silva and Mahrez. Bloody hell. Ralph plays
mix-and-match but it’s mainly experienced players in the line-up today.
McCarthy is in goal and from the other 10 players on the list it looks like
Danso is going to be put at left back again. Jake Vokins has made it as far as
the bench and there are places in the team for Jack Stephens, Stuart Armstrong
and Shane Long but there is no sign of Cedric or Moussa Djenepo again.
As the game starts it becomes obvious that we are in a 5-4-1 formation with
Hojbjerg stuck out at left back and a central defensive three of Danso,
Stephens and Bednarek. As City take predictable possession of the ball we are
basically playing 8-2-0 with Boufal and Long not touching the ball up front and
Armstrong and JWP not getting in touch in midfield. The only midfielder making
a mark is Romeo but this is by clattering players which is a marked improvement
from Friday night at least.
City need to score a goal every 10 minutes to keep up with Leicester’s rate on
Friday and it is with some relief that we reach 10 minutes without having
letting a goal. Progress. McCarthy has been busy though making comfortable saves
to deny Mahrez and Angelino. Also showing up well is Danso who shows a level of
determination not often seen from our defenders to make sure he gets to the
ball 1st to deny Aguero when he was second favourite to win it until the last
moment.
Angelino fires in a shot that produces another good stop from McCarthy but City
work the resulting corner short and the cross comes in from our right and
Otomendi gets airborne as opposed to Bednarek who doesn’t and easily nods it
past McCarthy for 1-0.
The pattern of the game doesn’t charge at all for another 10 minutes and City
sweep forward on the left hand side and work it all the way out to Bernardo Silva
on the right. His low cross is met by the unbelievably unmarked Sergio Aguero
about 6 yards out and he really isn’t going to miss that. Jack Stephens was
marking him and then for reasons unknown decided to go where he thought the
ball was going to go rather than stay with the man. If the ball had gone to
where Stephens had run then McCarthy would’ve just picked it up. Fucking
dreadful and 2-0.
The encouraging thing is that we don’t fall to bits butMcCarthy is called on
again to make a decent save from Bernardo. Half-time and we have barely had a touch in
their half but it’s a sign of how bad we have been recently that I am quite
happy with only being 2-0 down.
I was hoping we come out with more attacking intent in the second half but before
we could do that, we give the ball away in midfield and Aguero knocked
it inside to Foden who produced a lovely reverse pass to put Bernardo Silva
through but McCarthy came flying out, making himself as big as possible to put
off an excellent block. Who would believe that making use of big rather than
collapsing into yourself would be the way to go?
It didn’t keep them out for long though as Bernardo weaved his way past our
makeshift left back before knocking it in field to Mahrez. Mahrez is never shy
of having a shot and his effort hit Bednarek and looped up into the air and
only one person in the penalty area was going to react quicker than everybody
else and that was Aguero who got in between Stephens and McCarthy to knock into
the net.
The question was now, would we give up or would we keep on fighting and the
answer was partially given by Bednarek as he threw himself in front of a Mahrez
shot from point blank range, which looked for all the world like it was going
to be going in.
And then… hang the flags out… we had a shot. Shane Long flicked along ball on
to Boufal in the inside right position and he dribbled past two or three before
attempting to curl a left foot shot into the far corner but Claudio Bravo got
down to push it just past the post. Regardless, we have had a shot.
Boufal’s reward for having a shot was to get substituted and replaced by Che
Adams. He is accompanied of the pitch by Shane along with Nathan Redmond coming
on.
Hang on, suddenly it’s raining efforts on goal from us as Stephens connects
with a JWP corner on the volley. I’m going to claim it as a shot even though it
was going wide and Claudio Bravo had no need to save it.
They are shitting it now with Pep regretting leaving out all his good players.
Again we win a corner on the right hand side and JWP swings over and there at
the back post to bullet header into the roof of the net… Jack Stephens. You
really couldn’t make it up. Good header, shit marking but we have all of those
goal things the other teams get lots of.
Any ridiculous idea that anyone might have of us making it interesting is never
really going to come to fruition as City comfortably play out the last 10
minutes with no alarms at all. There is a feeling that everyone got what they
wanted out of this game. Pep got to play a few of his fringe players and got
through to the next round and Ralph avoided us getting fucking hammered.
I don’t have a problem with how we approached the game though I know many will.
You have to take it in the context of having just got fucking annihilated 9-0.
We actually played it how we should have played the Leicester game once Bertie
had been sent off. Keep it as tight as possible, stay in the game and then gave
a little go in the 2nd half. The Game plan went wrong today when we conceded
the 3rd but up until that point we were still in it. I also have no problem
with being out of the cup because I was feel that being near the bottom of the
league kind of takes away your ability to take cup competitions too seriously.
We were always going to get beat tonight, whatever team we put out and that
might be defeatist but it’s a fact of life when you’re playing any Manchester
City XI in 2019. I have to say that though there were mistakes in defence in
particular, at least they were honest mistakes through not being good enough,
or not being as good as the City players. No one can be accused today, of not
trying.
There were some positives in the team today. Surprise, surprise – McCarthy was
excellent which means that the two best goalkeeping performances from a Saints
goalkeeper this season have been McCarthy at Portsmouth and McCarthy at
Manchester City. There was one slightly wobbly moment earlier on when he
punched the ball against Bednarek But other than that he was absolutely flawless
and if he doesn’t start in the Premier League from here on in then I will
seriously be questioning whether Ralph has taken leave of his senses.
There was more encouragement in the performance of Kevin Danso who finally got
to play a whole game in the centre of defence and in the main, he did very
well, remaining focused and alert the whole game and using his strength and
size to good affect in exactly the same way that Vestergaard doesn’t. Having
had a tough time of it recently, it was good to see you and Valery looking like
a decent full back again. He gets caught out occasionally when he gets drawn
towards the ball and loses the man behind him but usually he is getting drawn
towards the ball because he is getting absolutely no help from whoever is playing
in front of him. You have to give full marks to the skipper as well it was
completely out of position at left-wing back but he certainly made a better job
of it than others have done this season. It wouldn’t surprise me if he stays
there until Bertrand is back from suspension.
Jack Stephens popped up with a goal, a thumping header and no less and proved that
defensively he is no worse than Yoshida and Vestergaard and will probably stay
in the team though Danso and Bednarek look like a pairing in the making if we
go with four at the back, as predicted last week.
Ralph was happier despite the defeat as you would be, seeing how we lost by a
margin of seven goals less. He knows that the upcoming league game back here is
a free hit and he will be pleased that we put in something resembling a decent
performance. It really is about baby
steps as there is no way you are going to get hunped 9-0 and then come away to
Manchester City and play expansive football.
Talking of the weekend, it is comforting to know that Manchester City will be
bringing back David Silva, Raheem Sterling and Kevin De Bruyne who will be all
fully rested and ready to go. I can see
the game being played along exactly the same tactical lines as tonight’s was.
We don’t have much chance of getting a result of course and I think most will
be happy if we put in another battling performance regardless of the result.
So we exit the Carabao Cup As we have done every season at some point. This
season though, there is the added bonus that the campaign will be remembered.
We might be out of the cup and we might be shit and we might have lost 9-0 a
few days ago but at least in the Carabao Cup, we went to Fratton Park and
fucking hammered them.
League 1 Minus 10 
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