John McCormick writes. It’s a bank holiday, so no post delivered. Never mind, after the match Gus went out of his way to drop in a hand-written note to M Salut, and possibly some other supporters. This is what it said:
Dear Colin,
A wonderful goal opened up the game, before we made a little mistake allowing Jovetic to have an impact and score.
We didn’t recover quickly and at 2-0 it looked like a long way for us to come back, but then we started going forward and creating chances, which gave the team confidence on the ball.
When we scored at 2-1 I knew we had a chance of coming back.
It was a key moment at 2-2 but we needed to go back to basics and do the right things at the back, but unfortunately we didn’t do that.
Costel [Pantilimon] made four or five fantastic saves.
We took a risk and we have to say we were brave enough when we had half an hour to go for it to try and score the goals that would get us back into the game.
The goal from Toure today was impossible to stop, the second is from close range and the Frank Lampard header is also difficult to save – Pantilimon kept us in the game right until the end.
We need to find the balance in the team so that we defend well and be solid, but at the same time be able to go forward and create chances so that balance creates plenty of opportunities.
Thanks for your support,
Gus Poyet
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We couldn’t go back to defending the way we had, the personnel on the pitch at that time weren’t capable of that performance. Giaccherini and Alvarez, in particular, don’t have the physical or mental attitude for that kind of ‘siege’; they both want to break forward quickly as soon as we have possession, and that leaves gaps. Those two were players were instrumental in us getting the 2 goals, unfortunately it also meant the game opened up completely.
Notice I haven’t mentioned Coates, least said soonest mended!
Agreed Lee. There have been a lot of people spouting rubbish about yesterday. I can’t recall seeing a SAFC team defend in such a disciplined and organised way for so long. It wasn’t attractive but we kept them out.
I take your point about going with the same tactics after we equalised but had a feeling that we were going to win it when we leveled. I wasn’t that surprised we conceded the third but felt that the tide was with us at that moment.
Our first half display was very, very good (albeit not too pleasing on the eye) and if people can’t see this then they don’t really understand football. Wish we had gone back to the way we played in the first half AFTER we had scored the equaliser and then hoped to nick a winner on the break.
The 3 ex City Players played with their hearts on their sleeves, Johnson, Rodwell and Pantilimon were every where in a difficult game. If we have to go behind before we play I’m not sure if we have our tactics right. We looked like rabbits in the headlights until City scored, but after that we played we attacked and we fought we were unlucky today. Coming back fron 2 down and 2fantastic goals they were showed character and we need to unleash that force more often