4-1 scoreline? Honestly we were defensively crap in that Southampton win!

Yestreday’s defensive performance would have even made the strongest of hearts beat vigorously. It was like an accident waiting to happen every second. John stones had the worst pass completion rate and Laporte was beyond crap. I don’t understand what it is with Laporte that he has these lapses in concentration suddenly. We saw it against Crystal Palce in October and also against Spurs in that loss at the Etihad. Pep might be scratching his head thinking how are we going to stop Liverpool with this sort of defense.

Southampton to their credit pressed us very well and had the better chances. The only difference in the tie was that we had the better quality players and we were much more clinical in the final third. The thing that scares the ghost out of me is how we are unable to resist the high press of teams in the recent past. Even Crystal Palace were succesful in high pressing our center backs and forcing them into errors. Something has to change, becuase we are going to play the best high pressing team in Europe and they are at full tilt. They will tear us to peices if we defend like this under pressure.

I feel that we are missing the calmness and leadership of Dias in organizing our defense. Whenever an attacker is driving at us, there is absolutely no communiaction in our backline. Our defenders look absolutely scared when that ball over the top is played. Also, we are no longer winning the second balls from the opposition’s goal kick. All of our defensive frailities were on display against Southampton and Pep has thankfully got the International break to have a long hard think about it and sort out our issues.

This is going to be a season defining International break for us. Pep has a race against time to sort out our issues against teams pressing us, with the best of that sort set to arrive at the Etihad in a blockbluster clash