Rodwell had a good overall game BUT ....

What was clear yesterday is that the squad certainly suffered from a fragmented pre season. Silva especially isn't up to speed.

As for Rodwell I think he did ok but will take time to bed in but his glaring mistake will take all the focus.

Silva made countless mistakes but fortunately for him none lead to a breakaway.

Rodwell's 'glaring mistake' happened on the edge of their area, one of Vinny's happened on the edge of ours but there was no criticism because it was mopped up.

Give the lad a break.

I have not heard too much citicism our way, i havn't read any papers today though.
Just listening to Talksport and we have received a bit of praise for actually coming back from being behind.

This can all change soon as Adrian Durham wil be on soon.

Radio on the way home from the game was packed with callers saying we were lucky, even read opinions that 'after that performance, utd and chelsea have got to be clear favourites' etc.

I can't see anything parcticularly lucky about losing your star striker in the opening minutes.

And no Balo or Milner on the pitch for the penalty! Wondered at the time why Nasri wasn't taking it.

Rodwell had a good game, The mistake to give the ball away for the second goal was well away from our area, and the defence should really take the blame. Silva was not match fit and may have done better as a sub, Nasri, in my opinion had his best game since he joined us. We need to shake off a few cobwebs, but I think it was ok. Credit to Saints for coming out and playing football unlike the rags at our place last season

John

To be honest, I haven't seen much criticism of us and I agree that on a different day, we woul have converted a lot more chances.

Regarding Rodwell, I don't blame him for the second goal. However, I do think we helped in making Southampton better than they actually were. I think Rodwell looked good on the ball, but I'm not sure about his covering movement and positioning off it. They seemed to be able to get at the defence a lot more than usual and I don't think we have the same defensive stability in midfield with Rodwell there rather than De Jong or Barry, he was too far up the pitch at times for me.

It is his first game though, so I'll wait for a few more to pass proper judgment

We dominated that game - with some fantastic football - and Rodwell slotted in well for his first game - one mistake and how many mistakes did Silva make? Love David Silva but he definitely fell short of his true capabilities yesterday. Well done Nigel Adkins for going for it instead of 10 men behind the ball. We just couldn't find our shooting boots - but we will!!

Yeah I agree Melton I think we went some way in making Southampton look better than they actually were. It's a shame Rodwell's debut will be remembered by most (ie those that just saw highlights on MOTD) for that stray pass, up until then he had looked assured and confident on the ball, and put in a few good tackles - but, if that tricks most people into thinking already he's a dud buy then more fool them.

We didn't win enough second balls on the edge of our penalty area for me, we left Zab completely isolated in the closing stages, and we allowed them a lot more space and time on the ball in our final third than we usually allow teams - in essence we made life much harder for ourselves than it needed to be in typical City fashion.

No need to panic though, Mancini will be well aware of what he needs to do in preparation for Liverpool, and at times the football was simply sublime - was it David Silva's crossbar miss that must have had a few dozen passes in the build up?

Southampton seemed to second-guess everything we were going to do. Lucky or worrying?

Radio on the way home from the game was packed with callers saying we were lucky, even read opinions that 'after that performance, utd and chelsea have got to be clear favourites' etc.


so are you saying it was city fans that were moaning?

Look am not having a go at Rodwell as he played well but facts are facts it was his loose pass that started Southamptons quick fire attack and though we might have had 5 men back they were not in settled defensive positions but busy back tracking. It was a bad pass but Southampton made the most of it. That doesnt detract from him having a good game, nor does the fact that Silva played a couple of good creative passes exempt him from having a mare of a game. Just calling it as I see it. I dont believe in blaming players but I do believe in the fact that players are responsible for their actions. I will state again, he had a good game but ....

No oldnewtonheath it would have been rags moaning, there was even a bunch of bitter rags talking about how in the last two games the refs have been overly biased towards us.

Now that's rich.

one the one hand City were far from impressive and won by an offiside goal. On the other, it is an old addage that teams that win when playing badly have a good chance of winning the league. I would take playing shiite against Everton but scraping a scrawny win right now.

oldnewton:

utd fans were calling in to discuss a match they probably didn't even watch.

To paraphrase one particular rag: 'Tevez was offside and the ref let him off and all city's goals were lucky and Rodwell caused a goal and therefore bad signing and with rvp united will win as city are crumbling'.

He could barely breath.

right ok

Siempre, some of our play was simply outstanding. Had we converted even 1/3 of our chances and won say 6-2 would you say we had played 'far from impressive'.

I agree with Siempre there. I don't think two years ago that we would have come back and won that game, now though we seem to have built a confidence that there is time left to turn games around. We did create a lot of chances though, if we create that many playing badly, then some teams will have a really difficult game against us!

its picked up where last season left off, i lost count of how many games City won late on from losing or drawing situations, which is a sign of good team spirit.

How was Nasri's wining goal offside? Have they rewritten the rules.

14 shots, 65% possession and a 91% pass completion rate is "far from impressive"?!

Hmmm.