I’ll start with an apology. I thought we’d lose this game and, shameful as it sounds now, I would have gladly taken a draw beforehand. That’s not like me at all, I always expect us to win and I’m not sure there has been any game over the past five years where I tipped us to lose. I didn’t tip us to lose this, I couldn’t bring myself to say it so I went with a draw, but in my heart I thought we’d lose.
I would never say we couldn’t win because even when we were shit we still had it in us to regularly turn over United or Arsenal when they were the dominant force. These lads are clearly capable of beating City and they did it only a couple of months ago (feels like a lifetime). Of course I thought we could win, but it seemed unlikely and for it to happen we’d probably need a lot of things to go our way.
The way I saw it, our best chance of three points would be to ride our luck and win a basketball type game. Of all the potential scenarios, a clean sheet for us was the least likely. A 4-3 win I could maybe see, a 1-0 one though? No chance. Yet not only did we keep a clean sheet, we never really looked like conceding at any point. Of course City had some threatening moments but by and large Alisson didn’t have to do much and was never really extended. There was nothing lucky about this in the end. This was down to hard work, great defending and a brilliant gameplan.
I’d also like to apologise to James Milner for being worried about how he’d cope with Phil Foden. Last year he was given the run around by the simian featured fringe catastrophe. That was a big concern prior to the match, but Milner was rock solid and was not exposed even once. Foden actually looked really sharp and on another day could have caused us all sorts of problems (like last year) but Milner stuck to the task superbly.
In Millie’s defence, last season’s chasing wasn’t even his fault. He basically had no chance of stopping Foden because of the way we played. High line, no protection, loads of space in behind. He can’t run as quickly as Foden so what chance does he have? All City were doing was knocking it in the space and letting Foden run by him. This time that didn’t happen because the space wasn’t there and the protection was. More on that later, but yeah, sorry for doubting you, James. Shame on me. Won’t happen again.
When I saw the starting line up I initially assumed we’d gone back to 4-3-3 and I didn’t like it. The worry I had about Milner was compounded by the absence of Hendo. If we had played 4-3-3 then Elliott in that position on the right of the three would have been a big worry defensively. I would have put Hendo there in that scenario.
It was only when the teams came out onto the field I suddenly thought “hold on, this might be 4-4-2”. Then they lined up for kick off and I saw it was. Ok, that changes things slightly. In that set up Elliott was a better option than Hendo so it suddenly made sense. It was going to be interesting to see how we approached it though, especially the full backs. We’re so used to them playing so high but that would be a massive risk against City.
As it turned out, we played this game differently to any other that I can remember under Klopp. While certainly not being a defensive approach, it was unlike anything I’ve seen from us in years. Two banks of four, not defending on the halfway line and instead often getting behind the ball rather than pressing right up the pitch, while playing mostly on the break. It was more Houllier than Klopp. Not what we’re used to but I fucking loved it. We should have done it a week ago at Arsenal, but never mind. Better late than never.
We needed to adapt because playing the way we usually do would get us battered against City in our current state. It would have been suicide but even so, that’s what I expected us to do. Guardiola probably expected it too. We’ve never done this against him and usually it’s just “let’s go toe to toe and may the best team win”.
Well City are the best team right now (still fucking miles better than Arsenal despite what the table says), and going toe to toe with them would have been stupid. Thankfully we didn’t. We boxed clever. Not exactly rope a rope as like I say, it wasn’t defensive. It was just smart. Pragmatic. Sensible. Effective. We deserved to win this game because we defended brilliantly and we had the better chances. I read that we also only had 40% possession, which is virtually unheard of. What did City do with that 60% though? Not much.
We were really good in the opening ten minutes but City began to settle and have more of the ball. I never felt that we were ever really under the cosh though and we were coping well with whatever they tried to throw at us. The only time I was ever worried was when De Bruyne got the ball and was looking to feed Haaland. That didn’t happen much.
Virgil and Joe were really physical with Haaland and always got tight to him. Virgil doesn’t get into many physical battles but he played like a man with a point to prove here. Being up against the world’s best centre forward and the man in form seemed to bring the best out in him. He even slid top block a cross at one point. When do you ever see him getting his shorts dirty? He meant business here. Hopefully this is the kick start he needs to get back to being the man again.
Joe was boss as well, he was strong and aggressive all day. When he’s not having those mad moments he looks fucking ace. Great performance from him, very dogged and disciplined.
As a result of that, Haaland didn’t do much but there’s just a menace about him. He’s fucking massive and he’s fast as fuck, but he’s also got a knack of finding a yard of space in the box and getting his shots away. It’s really weird watching him though as he literally does nothing whatsoever other than try to run in behind and get on the end of things. City don’t want him playing any part in the build up and he doesn’t touch the ball in general play at all. His only thought is running in behind or getting on the end of crosses.
That isn’t a criticism. That’s the role they want him to play and he’s doing it incredibly. Considering he did fuck all in this game I still came away from it thinking that he’s really impressive. I wish he wasn’t. I’d love nothing more than to be able to talk him down and say he’s not all that, but I can’t. He’s fucking boss. He’ll probably score 50-60 goals this season.
He should have scored that header in the first half though. Or at least made Ali work to keep it out. The ball from De Bruyne was ridiculous. Joe is exactly where he should be and Haaland isn’t unmarked. But you can’t really do anything about a ball like that. Exquisite. He had a mother header too that he put over the bar. Not a great chance, and one that would probably have been ruled out by VAR because there was a blatant foul on Salah by Rodri that Taylor ignored. He doesn’t get any touch on the ball so VAR would have had to intervene there. Taylor not giving free-kicks to Mo was a recurring theme.
It’s to our great credit though that De Bruyne and Haaland did very little apart from that. The midfield did a great job of shutting down the passing lanes City use to get De Bruyne in space. Mostly it was Thiago, but Jota also played a big part in that. This is one of the best tactical performances I’ve seen from us in ages. I know there’s probably been loads of others, but they aren’t as noticeable when we’re better than the opposition. As fans we often just overlook that and say “we played well there”.
This is different. It wasn’t about us doing our thing and imposing ourselves on the opponent. We can’t really do that at the moment due to a variety of factors, but we found another way and this was a gameplan that had been carried out to the letter. We did what we’ve been unable (or unwilling) to do all season. We closed gaps, defended the box, kept our shape, didn’t leave space.
Before the game I wasn’t confident at all. At half time I definitely was. You’re always concerned about City just producing that moment of quality to carve you open, and that’s always a possibility, but that first half display really lifted my spirits and at that point I made it a 50-50 game.
Unfortunately for us the best chance of the half fell to the last man you’d want it to fall to. Was anyone surprised when Robbo blazed over the bar? I was more surprised at how close it was and that it didn’t end up in the top tier. Interestingly, that chance came from a Milner cross so maybe I’m overstating the lack of the usual adventure we see from the full backs. I think really though it was just a case of attacking when the opportunity was there rather than just looking to do it every time.
The second half was going the same as the first. City had more of the ball but were never on top. I never felt they were dominating or that we were hanging on. We were doing fine. Defending well and posing enough of a threat to keep them honest. And the longer it went, the more the crowd believed. The atmosphere was great all day and never really dipped. In the last half an hour or so though it was manic. The best it’s been in since pre-Covid probably.
Obviously the disallowed goal was a massive turning point in the game because the noise level went up several notches after that. The next five minutes were mental. The goal absolutely should not have stood because there were two fouls. There’s no way VAR can look at that and ignore it. Well, there is, because we’ve seen it before. The foul on Fabinho could have been waved away as they will sometimes just go with the on field decision, but the Alisson / Haaland thing is different. The ref can’t possibly make that call so it would always go to VAR, and we’ve seen before that they just won’t allow goals like that anymore.
The law changed and if the keeper has a hand on it that’s enough now. So the goal could not have been allowed to stand and PGMOL have cleared up since that even if Fabinho hadn’t been fouled they’ve have disallowed it for the foul on Alisson.
That said, at the time Guardiola doesn’t know about that so as far as he’s concerned it was being called back for a challenge that Anthony Taylor saw and waved play on. His main gripe was that Taylor had told them before the game he was letting everything go and that’s pretty much what he did. He’d let those kind of things go all game so I get why Guardiola threw a strop and I get why that little cunt Silva made that point afterwards.
None of that changes the fact that it was a foul though. Taylor letting things go is one thing, but when it leads directly to a goal it’s another. That’s what VAR is for. On reflection, I actually quite like how Taylor seemingly wanted to ref the game. He didn’t do it very well at times but overall I think he was fairly consistent in how he called it. I didn’t think it at the time because I was caught up in the moment and was yelling that much abuse at him I’m hoarse today. He missed some clear fouls but two or three mad ones aside (two not given on Mo, and one given against Gomez early) he didn’t overly favour one side over the other. He just decided he wasn’t going to give any fouls for pushing, pulling, nudging and he mostly stuck to that.
What that does is let the game flow, which is generally a good thing. But it also angers the crowd, the players and the managers. If it’s consistent then you can live with that, but when something the ref lets go leads directly to a goal then that needs to be addressed. And it was. I mean, he should be seeing the pull on Fabinho anyway but he might not have had a good angle and not blowing was consistent with how he’d refereed the whole game. When he saw it on the screen he only needed one look and immediately reversed his decision, despite being badgered by Guardiola.
Guardiola then went nuts, as he tends to do. This was a proper toddler strop. Stamping his feet, waving his arms and generally being a brat. Then when the crowd are mocking him he starts waving his arms, giving it the “come on then, let’s have it”. Next thing he’s crying about a coin or two that may or may not have been thrown but definitely did not hit him. Fucking big baby.
Tempers were getting frayed down there and it was no surprise that Klopp eventually ended up getting a red card. Fully deserved too, as he acknowledged afterwards when he apologised for it. You can’t do what he did and he’s said as much himself. I don’t blame him for doing it, but equally I think a one game touchline ban isn’t something we can complain about.
Besides, it was fucking hilarious. Look at Pep Ljinders’ face when he sees it unfolding. He panics and tries to run to Jurgen to calm him down, but the damage is done. It’s also hilarious the way Klopp then waits for the red card he knows is coming, before walking off down the tunnel. He should have been sent off and he probably should be punished.
Questions should be asked about why that linesman didn’t flag for a foul though. Taylor should see it as well, but the lino is literally two yards away watching the whole thing. You will never see a more clear foul than that and it’s genuinely staggering they let it go. They also missed that little cunt Silva throwing an elbow and a kick at Mo in the aftermath of it. God I hate him. Snide little cunt, I just hope that one day he gets what’s coming to him. By that I mean a two footed tackle to the jaw.
There’s something more to this incident though. In four games that Taylor has reffed us against City he has given Mo one free-kick, and that was for the scandalous tackle when Kompany hacked him down when he was clean through. Remember that, the non-red card decision that basically cost us the title that season? How is that even possible though? It isn’t just Taylor who doesn’t give Mo free-kicks, but clearly he seems to be the biggest culprit.
There was nothing City could have done to Mo in this game that would have resulted in a free-kick and if you don’t buy into that theory, just look at the incident that led to Klopp kicking off and then tell me I’m wrong. Taylor, like many other refs, just will not give free-kicks to Mo. Why that is, fuck knows. But it is a thing. We’re not imagining it.
Klopp’s sending off came when we were 1-0 up so it didn’t particularly harm us. It was beginning to feel like we’d missed the boat as we failed to take two absolute glorious chances. The first was when Mo ran clear after brilliant play by Elliott and Firmino. Anfield held its breath as he closed on in goal and it looked for all the world from my vantage point that he’d scored. Then the ball ran agonisingly the wrong side of the post. Aaaaargh! Looking at the replay, if he rolls that to Jota it’s a certain goal.
It was clear that it was corner simply by the reactions of Mo and Harvey. If he’d missed the target the first reaction would be disappointment and anguish. When the keeper saves you get a different response so it was obvious to me that it was a corner. From my angle I couldn’t see the ball deviating from its line, but Taylor should have seen that from where he was. He didn’t, and gave a goal kick. World class save by Ederson though. Really special that.
And it was from that goal kick that the disallowed goal happened. So to recap, City are feeling hard done by about a goal that came from a goal kick that should have been a corner, and that had two clear fouls that VAR picked up on. Apparently it was the crowd who disallowed the goal though. Fucking baldy weirdo.
Anfield is completely in his head and he always has the look of a fucking maniac when he comes here. Completely frazzled, stressed and out of control. He thinks the crowd have the power to influence the mythical creature that is Darren England on VAR, sitting in a room hundreds of miles away? I mean, we’re good, but we’re not that good. Still, when you’re home crowd is as shit as City’s I can see why he might be overstating the power of Anfield.
Anfield was bouncing now though after the Salah chance and disallowed City goal. Jota then missed a great opportunity when he headed over from a delightful Salah cross. He should score and I think the reason he didn’t was he got distracted by the keeper flying out at him. No wonder, imagine that face running at you at full pelt. Terrifying.
Salah was causing havoc now though and he produced another inch perfect cross, this time for Bobby who for some reason tried to leap in the air and control with his right foot instead of just heading it in. Weird that was. Bobby then returned the favour and released Mo, but he tried to curl one in the far corner when Jota was all alone in the middle waiting for a tap in again.
Klopp made changes at the right time and they were the right subs I thought too. Bobby had played his part but the game was now stretched and there was space for Darwin to run them down the channels. Fabinho had been booked and was now not able to put his foot in the way he had been just in case. Hendo coming on for him made sense.
The third change was maybe not as obvious as I thought Harvey still had plenty left in the tank. He was good on the ball, got up and down the pitch really well and did a hell of a job doubling back to help Milner. Made up with his performance and if Mo is going to play centrally now (which he should) then there’s a spot there that Harvey could make his own. Carvalho replacing him was kind of like for like though. We didn’t lose anything and probably didn’t gain anything either other than maybe a bit more energy.
Darwin made an immediate impact. I’d say 75% of what he did after coming on was fucking boss and really exciting. There was enough in the other 25% to keep his sceptics pacified though. Not picking out Mo when we had a 3 v 1 break was bad. Very bad. He also had a woeful attempted chip when he went through. He was well offside but he probably didn’t know that.
I’d rather concentrate on the good things I saw. He was electric and was just flying past people. With a bit of composure we’d be raving about what he did, so I see this as another positive step in his integration. It’s not like he’s the first player to not see an unmarked team-mate and he won’t be the last. Just ask poor Diogo, who must have felt like he was invisible any time Mo had the ball.
Of course none of that matters because Mo scored the winner so that’s all we’ll think about. And what a fucking goal it was. It’s one of those goals that is way better than people will credit. Sure, everyone can see it’s a good goal but it’s so much more than that. Cancelo is being blamed for it and it doesn’t look good from his point of view, but fucking loads of defenders in that situation would have been done by that too.
The way Mo uses his body isn’t talked about enough. He’s a fucking master at it. Probably even better than our last King was. King Kenny and his big arse is the stuff of Anfield legend, but no-one uses their body better than Mo does. It was a work of art how he got the better of Cancelo, but the first touch is fucking obscene too. It all happens so quick but when you slow it down and watch from the various different angles it just gets better and better. If I were to see Mo right now I’d go the full Bobby Baccala with Uncle Jun and just say “I’m in awe of you”.
Then there’s the actual finish. He learned from the previous one, which was an identical situation. This time he did the same thing, as did Ederson, only he lifted it enough to ensure it went over Ederson’s arm. Glorious goal, fit to win any game.
The whole place went nuts. The lads at the back went to celebrate with Alisson who had played the perfect ball to him, and everyone else went to Mo. Just great scenes and a moment that will live long in the memory. Who knows what kind of significance it will have in the long term but that’s for another day. Right now, all I know is it felt fucking amazing.
There was still a fair bit of time that we needed to see out but did we ever really look like letting one in? You can never relax because they can score at any moment, but they really didn’t pose much threat and looked like they ran out of ideas. There was more chance of us getting a second than them equalising, but until the final whistle goes it’s always nervy.
I think when it got to about 85 minutes or so I had a calmness come over me. I was still hoping for the second just to be sure, but I felt confident we wouldn’t concede. It was only afterwards that I thought about the lack of changes made by City. Where the fuck was Mahrez? Or Grealish? It’s a bit weird that Guardiola just kept doing the same thing.
As for us, well we sent on Trent for Mo and he went to right midfield for the last couple of minutes. Then with about 30 seconds left in added on time Jota went down in a heap and stayed down. City didn’t put the ball out but I wouldn’t have wanted us to if the roles had been reversed. They couldn’t have known Jota was quite badly hurt. He went off on a stretcher and Kostas came on for the closing seconds.
We saw it out easily enough and Klopp re-emerged from the tunnel at full time to go and try to shake Taylor’s hand. I think there was a cursory handshake but the ref wanted no part of it really, his body language said it all.
Klopp then went around all of the City players and shook their hands too, while Guardiola had a little chat with Mo. It seemed like it was cordial enough but you just never know with that little fucking cue ball head. Remember that time he was yelling in Nathon Redmond’s face after he’d played well against City one time? He’s just a strange little cunt.
Anyway, it’s always nice beating them and not even the fallout we’ve had since takes the shine off it. Instead of people talking about our performance, it’s been all kinds of nonsense about coins being thrown, songs being sung and coaches being pelted. I’m yet to see any evidence of the coins and I reckon the story about the coach is either complete lies or seriously exaggerated. It’s what they do.
As for the chanting, well the stuff coming from the away end was typically vile and ordinarily I’d be well in favour of the club calling it out. This time though? It didn’t sit right when we had a significant number on the Kop singing that Phil Foden’s ma is a fat slag. Horrible that, I hated it. It’s a terrible look and just gives City the chance to pull their usual “whataboutery”.
Incredibly, it seems to have gone almost unnoticed and I haven’t seen or heard it being mentioned in the mainstream media. So far anyway. We may have gotten away with that but I really hope we never hear it again as it’s proper scummy behaviour. As Jules said to me after the game, footy should be like the mafia where family is off limits. Call Foden whatever you like, but leave his ma out of it.
City fans are genuinely fucking terrible these days. They’re every bit as loathsome as United and in some ways they’re probably worse. With United at least there’s decades of bad blood that’s been built up. City fans used to be alright. The loveable loser tag they had was a fitting identity. Now that they’ve been artificially inflated into the stratosphere of big, successful clubs they don’t have any identity and have no idea who they are. So they’re just copying their neighbours and have turned into bad cunts.
Doesn’t help that the people who run the club are even worse and that the people in their press office are psychotic. Their response to the Hillsborough chants? Off the record briefings to journalists blaming Klopp for inciting their fans with “borderline xenophobic” comments in his pre-match presser. I mean fucking hell, is it any wonder their fans are the way they are when that’s how the club reacts. Then again, this is a club whose players celebrated a title win by singing songs about Sean Cox almost being killed.
I don’t know what the win means for us in terms of our league campaign. Hopefully it’s a catalyst for us to wake from the slumber we’ve been in and go on a winning run that propels up right up the table. Time will tell on that. For now though it’s enough to know that we’ve ruined their week and they’ll have to wait months for another crack at us. Stew on that you fucking vile twats.
Star man is tricky. Joe got it on Sky and I don’t have any argument with that, but I’ll go for Virg because we needed him to be the man he used to be and he stepped up. He played with the kind of intensity and chip on his shoulder than we’ve never seen before. Usually he cruises through games but coming up against Haaland seemed to light a fight in his belly and it was great seeing him this dominant again. Long may it continue.
Special mention to Milner as well. And Thiago. And Hendo. And Robbo, great having him back. Oh, and Mo who was back to being ‘best in the world Mo’ again. Shout out to Harvey and Jota too. And Fabinho, his best game in ages. And not forgetting Alisson, the big fucking leg. Have I missed anyone? Oh yeah, Bobby and the subs. Credit to them too.
Now let’s follow it up by beating West Ham and Forest and really start to build some much needed momentum. The injuries aren’t helping and if Jota is out for as long as its rumoured then that’s a big problem. If we stick with 442 then Mo needs to be up top, and that means Harvey, Fabio and the fit again Curtis rotating out wide. Unless Trent comes into that discussion too, which might be an option.
It’s a big chance for the young lads though so let’s hope they take it. It’s not totally out of the question that we might even see 16 year old Ben Doak at some point (certainly against Derby) because we’re really short in the wide areas and he’s got that ‘prodigy’ look about him. We’ll see I guess.
For now though I’m just going to bask in the satisfied glow of sticking it right up City and their cunt manager, cunt fans and cunt owners.
Team: Alisson; Milner, Gomez, Van Dijk, Robertson; Elliott (Carvalho), Fabinho (Henderson), Thiago, Jota (Tsimikas); Firmino (Nunez), Salah (Alexander-Arnold):
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