3 Key Takeaways from Manchester City vs. Southampton
Manchester City trudged their way to another 1-1 draw in the Premier League against Southampton on Sunday. There was a lot to learn from City’s performance.
That was not an easy game to sit through. Manchester City played Southampton on Sunday afternoon, eventually drawing 1-1 with the Saints. Another two dropped points sees City stay top of the league on goal difference but are level with Arsenal and Liverpool and only one point in front of Chelsea and Tottenham.
City are now winless in their last five games in all competitions. Most concerning is that City haven’t held the lead in any of these five games.
Losses to Barca and Tottenham were excusable, but the draws against Celtic, Everton, and now Southampton were all gut wrenching for different reasons. At this point Man City might not even know what it’s like to play with the lead.
Southampton opened the scoring up with Nathan Redmond on a terrible back pass from John Stones. The Englishman didn’t notice Redmond and caught Kompany by surprise and gifted Southampton an opener. Eventually City fought back and equalized through substitute Kelchi Iheancho, but weren’t able to find a winner despite dialing up the pressure in the games dying minutes.
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After the game Pep Guardiola kept the team in the changing room for nearly an hour and didn’t realize disclose what went on. We can assume talks were had about the performance and what needs to be done to end this slide, but it’s one thing to talk about it and another to produce it on the pitch.
With the big Manchester derby coming up midweek, City supporters will be desperately hoping the Blues can change their fortunes and pick up and win and hometown bragging rights for Cityzens in Manchester. One thing is for sure, City have to be better, play better and work harder if they are to have success this season.
Below are three things we learned from watching Manchester City vs. Southampton on Sunday afternoon.
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Manchester City are slowly becoming “comeback kings”.
City haven’t led since their last win six games ago. Despite this lack of leading score-line, City have managed three draws, including this weekend. After falling behind early, City found a way back in the game early in the second half, showing the Blues are never really out of a game. City aren’t quite there yet, as a true comeback would have been to get the full three points, but at the end of the year points gained from losing position can often decide the title.
Leroy Sane is getting better.
This was arguably the best game from City’s young German winger. Whether being deployed on the right or left, Sane found success with his pace and dribbling to outfox Southampton’s fullbacks. Deservedly, Sane got the assist on Iheanacho’s equalizer, but even he couldn’t help City find a winner. Sane’s play was perhaps the reason Guardiola didn’t insert Nolito into the game sooner, and with only two winger positions and three very good options, Guardiola might have a selection issue on his hands this week.
The back three works, kind of.
Once again Guardiola deployed City in a back three using as many of his star midfielders as possible. The back three this time were Kompany, Stones, and Kolarov and the overall performance was nothing like the Everton game we saw this formation debut. Defensively though both games were actually solid for City, despite allowing one goal in each those were down to a single mistake, which is why the back three kind of works. This formation allows City to win both the midfield and forward battle, but the back line is sometimes left exposed, to combat this City’s defense needs to be turned on for the full ninety and any slight errors can lead to big chances. Cut the mistakes and City might have had two 1-0 wins with this formation, but carelessness and mental errors led to dropped points in both cases.