Match Day Thread Man City v Saints - Wednesday 10th March 6pm, Sky Sports

Of course, you are right we all have our own definition of what is a must win game.
To me though, there are must win games at any stage of the season. Back in January Arteta was saying Arsenal's game against Palace was a "must win game" for them. I am sure Ralph will have Brighton as one of his must win games

 

That was the third game this season that we have conceded 5 or more goals. Pretty amazing that we aren't in the relegation zone and still have a better goal difference than 5 other teams shows that we've scored a decent amount!!!

 

With a settled and fit first choice defence and defensive mid I think we are pretty decent defensively too. Not top of the table stuff, but safely upper mid table. In a world with a sliding door scenario, I wonder how we would have faired this season with a normal level of fixture congestion and with minimal injuries.

 

We're not defensively shockingly bad in the slightest, when we play our full first back four. We are unsurprisingly shaky defensively when we don't.

On Sunday (and hopefully for the rest of the season) we will.

 

Snap.

 

So Adams scored in the last 2. That's good!

Bugger for Macca. It's incredible what a bad run does to a keeper. Shades of Forster appearing.

And what that form does to the defenders in front of him.

 

Exactly what I thought watching him (seen some highlights now too as well as out 2nd half). He seemed ( in my mind) to only half heartedly dive. I know he stopped two goals and the rebounds were followed up, but even that seemed half arsed. IMO of course.

 

Anyone who lacks confidence looks like they're not very good though. Reaction speed slows because you're unsure of yourself. You make bad choices because you're constantly second guessing. With keepers its the toughest thing in the world. Look at that Karius dude for Liverpool. Totally destroyed.

It was pretty rough to put Macca in for this game, he was always going to be facing a battle. Made some great saves but still conceded 5 and because me and my boys sat and watched youtube vids of Mahrez last night he was always going to be the destroyer. Sorry.

 

The nice thing about this is, we'll be able to see how we fair with both first choice sides playing, when we meet them in the cup final.

EDIT: Though I'd love the chance for revenge (x2) against United.

 

I’m not even convinced it was the back 4 that cost us yesterday as I watched Mahrez dance from the edge of the area past 4 different players and Adams pass back across his own defence.

I actually thought Salisu grew into his role but nowhere near as good as his CB role. Bertie more solid than Bedders and Stephens made himself pretty useful too.

I think against a lesser side we would not have conceded so easily. Let’s face it, this game was against runaway league leaders.

 

I wish Ralph would stop dicking around with playing people out of position. Getting something out of City is always a difficult task but I just felt that we should have snatched a point up there had we not had some stupid mistakes. There were moments when we played well yet it strikes me as odd to rest players such as Tella when they have previously shown that they can make a difference.

 

Because we've got far more important games coming up. I don't think starting Tella would have made much difference! And it would have been foolish to risk KWP. It would have been interesting to see what would have happened last night had we played our strongest available team but I suspect we would have lost anyway.

 

I wouldn’t say Brighton is a must win, but it’s a very important one. Maybe it’s more of a ‘must not lose’ game.

Fulham play Man City on Saturday, so you’d imagine even if we lose to Brighton we’ll still be 7 points above the bottom three. However things can change quickly if results don’t go our way.

So while this might not be a must win, it’s these kinds of games that you need to be winning in order to avoid having must win games further down the line, if that makes sense

 

I thought Ralph would play McCarthy yesterday, purely because we were likely to concede a few. As harsh as it is, probably better for it to be against him rather than Forster, who now seems to be the number one choice.

Forster will now be back against Brighton off the back of a clean sheet vs Sheff, rather than shipping five vs City.

 

Makes sense to me and never underestimate the positive effect of a win or draw as opposed to the negative one of a loss

Exactly

 

Line who? Bertie and Stephen’s? Both worked ok and was a sensible decision with games coming up, players needing a rest and the alternatives that hadn’t worked today.

It was more a case of “I wish Ralph had a bigger squad.....”

 

Perfect sense

 

We need a volunteer for Sunday’s matchday thread.....who’s doing it?

PS
Not me, I am bad luck.

 

As I mentioned after the team was announced, it was good management. Fraser had come through a tough time with some reported mental health issues. What Ralph did yesterday was probably better than good; removed the risk of undoing the great steps Fraser has made. It is the one area we had the “luxury” of making a change that was fairly like for like.

 

Didn’t realise we had 51 corners last night.