Man City 2 Liverpool 2 (Apr 10 2022)

You know what I was thinking about after this? It wasn’t how bad we were in the first half. It wasn’t how we bravely came back in the second half. It wasn’t even anything about this game. I just thought about that fucking stupid, inexcusable loss at Leicester a few months ago, and how that has completely skewed things to the point that a draw away at City now probably isn’t really good enough.

I know we’ve dropped other points this season and some of you will look at Brentford away or Brighton at home. That’s fair enough, but to me those are just results that can happen throughout a season. The Leicester one just can’t happen though. Not when you’ve got literally everything stacked in your favour. Even if we’d drawn that game we’d be top right now. But we didn’t, we lost. And the consequence of that was we needed to go and win at City. And we never fucking win at City.

In the end the draw is probably not going to be enough for us, but it’s probably a result we should be quite thankful for based on how the game went. We were lucky not to be down by three or four at half time because we were shambolic at times in that first half. It wasn’t all bad and there were spells in which we did quite well, but mostly it was a mess.

The second half was much better and we probably shaded it, even if City still had the better chances. The performance from us was good and the character of the players is commendable, because at half time we looked in big trouble. I’d have snatched your hand off for a draw at half time because, if I’m being totally honest, I thought 4-1 or 5-1 was more likely than us getting something. As it turned out, I sold the lads short there.

I’m appalled though that we did that thing so many shit teams do and allowed City to score inside the first five minutes. It’s rule number one when you play them. You just can’t do that, but we did. And although the goal was a fluke we can’t complain too much because we would have conceded even earlier but for a brilliant save by Alisson from Sterling.

That doesn’t mean I have no complaints about the goal, because I do. And it’s more about the officiating than our defending. Firstly, and this is not the fault of the linesman but more the shitty changes they’ve made to the rules, there was an offside that wasn’t given in the lead up to the free kick that led to the goal.

Sterling is miles offside and the ball is knocked up towards him. He doesn’t challenge for it, but him being there meant that Virgil had to head the ball clear because he can’t be sure Sterling is offside as he won’t know where the rest of the defensive line is. So I really don’t like that, but in fairness we would benefit from something similar on our first equaliser, which I’ll get to shortly.

So the ball is headed clear and there’s a foul by Fabinho, who was miles off the pace for the entire first half. City took a quick free-kick, about six yards away from where the foul took place. Should that have been pulled back? Probably yeah, but I also feel that the attacking team should get some leeway in those circumstances. Six yeards of leeway? Not sure.

That advantage meant that De Bruyne had the ball on the edge of our box before we were in any kind of position to deal with him. His shot took a wicked deflection of Matip and left Alisson with no chance. Proper fucking spawn shit, and not for the first time as he did the same thing at Anfield earlier in the season. The net result of it was that we’d done the one thing you can’t fucking do against these pricks - concede early.

Thankfully their lead didn’t last long. We’d had a good couple of minutes where it felt as though we’d weathered the storm and were coming back into it, and then just like that we were level. Great move it was too. Starting with Thiago who shimmed away from a couple of opponents on halfway and then pinged a glorious ball out to Trent. He picked out Mo, and then I’m not sure if he was trying to find Sadio (who was miles offside) or Jota (who was running from deep). Either way, a defender got there first and headed clear but only as far as Robbo.

He stood one up to the back post where Trent arrived and showed fantastic awareness to cushion the ball back to Jota for a simple finish. Keeper probably could have done better with that but who cares. I’m not comfortable about that being given as a goal because Mané is clearly offside and it looks like the ball was aimed at him, but that’s how the game is these days. I think it’s poorer as a result, but if I had my way there’d be less goals as neither of the first two goals in this game would have stood.

I had hoped that the equaliser would deflate City and give us momentum, but it didn’t really. I think most of our problems were self inflicted, but that’s also doing City a dis-service because some of the things they did were brilliant. Not spectacularly brilliant, but there was just an efficiency and great skill in how they kept beating our high line over and over.

That being said, the bigger problem for us was we kept trying to play out from the back and their high press kept catching us out. They did to us what we usually do to our opponents. Not only were they pressing well, but they were far more direct than usual. Again, that’s what we usually do. Quick passes in for runners in behind.

It’s not City’s usual style but then they’ve changed massively how they play against us. We kept taking them to the cleaners and Guardiola has freely admitted that he’s spent countless hours thinking about how to beat us. Those hours have been well spent because their record against us in recent seasons is good, and even though they haven’t beaten us this season (not yet anyway, I fear the worst for this weekend though) the results aren’t really indicative of how those games have gone. 

It’s been really disheartening to me to see how they’ve been able to play against us in both games, and really they should have won both games based on how they played. Our first half display had me tearing my fucking hair out. Time and again we tried to pass it around at the back, but Alisson, Trent, Fabinho and even Matip on a couple of occasions just seemed flustered and kept giving it away.

It was doing my fucking head in, because when we did get it forward I thought Ederson and his defenders looked ropey as fuck. What I would have liked to see us do is completely sack off that passing it out from the back and just bypass their press and back our forwards to win enough one v one battles to cause them problems. 

I know this is how we play and that Klopp wants us to play our football and that approach clearly works against every other team in the league. It hasn’t worked against City for a few years now though. City completely changed their normal approach against us because it wasn’t working, and to me it now looks like they’ve got our number, even if a pair of 2-2 draws would suggest otherwise. The eye test concerns me because it feels like they’ve outplayed us twice now and we’ve been lucky they didn’t spank us.

We could easily have conceded four or five in the first half and we’re fortunate it was only the two. The second goal was shite from our point of view but once against highlights what City did to us that no-one else has been able to.

For all the talk of our high line and how ‘risky’ it is, hardly anyone has been able to exploit it. I’m not entirely sure why everyone always runs offside against us because it’s honestly not THAT difficult to time a run so that you stay onside, but whatever the reason, hardly anyone seems to be able to do it. Then City come along and their players were doing it constantly.

So many times I was yelling for offside only to see the replay and realise they were on. Even on those free-kicks when we ALWAYS catch the opposition offside they were continually timing their runs so they were onside, and they should have scored from one of those when Rodri stole in at the back post but put too much on his header across goal that would have led to a tap in for (I think) Laporte.

We were riding our luck while offering precious little at the other end. Mo was a non-factor, Sadio couldn’t even stand up and kept slipping over, while Jota did fuck all aside from the goal. He wasted the only other decent opening we had too when he took too long to get his shot away and allowed Laporte to get back and made a spawn challenge. I’m not sure if Jota was wanting to win a pen there or not but the hesitation proved fatal as the chance was gone.

City were threatening regularly and eventually made it count when Jesus beat Alisson to the ball and finished really well. I thought he was offside, as we’ve seen that movie so many times this season. I just expected VAR to bail us out but no, Jesus had times his run well and Matip had not got out quick enough. Trent had just about got out quickly enough but had ambled out while everyone else sprinted.

Again, there were four City players miles offside but because the ball didn’t go to them under the modern rules that doesn’t matter. Jesus ran from deep and that caught us out. This hardly ever happens to us but it seems clear that City have worked hard on timing their runs. If you get that right, then we’re fucked. It’s worked so well because hardly anyone seems capable of getting it right. City did though. 

It was just a sickening goal to concede, but then every goal against them is sickening because of how hard it is to claw it back. I just hate playing them, there’s very little joy in it even when we’re playing well because the tension is unbearable as the stakes are nearly always so high. This was a horrible experience. Saturday will be too, but to a slightly lesser degree because the FA Cup isn’t as important as the title. It’s still really fucking important like and I’m not diminishing how big that game is, just saying that there isn’t quite as much riding on it.

Then again, if one of City’s seven remaining opponents can do something against them that changes the importance of this result and could in fact make it a massive point for us. I feel as though it is anyway. It’s not the result I wanted, but coming from behind twice and getting a draw in a game in which we were second best for the majority of it is not something we can complain about. It’s arguably a better point for us than them even though the point is more beneficial to them than us, if that makes sense.

What I mean is, if I’m Guardiola I’m frustrated as fuck that my team didn’t win this game and put us out of the picture completely. The point keeps their fate in their own hands, which is obviously good for them, but it also means we’re still right there breathing down their necks waiting for any slip up. If they’d taken their chances and beaten us, the title race would be over. They didn’t, and it isn’t.

My half time team talk would have been to lay into them and basically say “That was fucking shit. sStop fucking about and get it to Sadio and Mo early. Get them turned around and play the game in their half. Now get out of my sight”.

Thankfully I”m not in charge and we have someone who actually knows what he’s talking about and, more importantly, knows how to get the right response from his players. Apparently Klopp’s team talk wasn’t about the things we were doing wrong, it was more about highlighting and what we did well and encouraging them to do that more.

Within a minute of the restart it had paid off as we were level. Great goal too. Hendo’s part in it shouldn’t be overlooked. Firstly he was in a good position to back up the play and pick up the second ball after Trent challenged for a header. Then, and this is the crucial bit, he was aware enough to see that Salah was a yard offside and he didn’t play that obvious pass to him. Instead he gave it Trent. He then gave it to Mo who then picked out a beautiful pass to Sadio who had stolen in behind Walker. What a fucking finish too.

Sadio couldn’t do a thing right in the first half but it’s a mark of the man that when he was presented with an opportunity like that he was able to put it away so emphatically. He was phenomenal in the second half, but then everyone (ok, not quite everyone *glares at Jota*) upped their level I thought. For a little ten minute spell after that goal we really had City on the ropes but we couldn’t land the knockout punch. 

The closest we came was a Jota snapshot that Ederson saved. Mo had an effort that was heading for the far corner until it deflected inches wide off the thigh of Stones. We didn’t even get a corner for that, even though there was a VAR check for handball! I can forgive Taylor missing it because sometimes from the angle you’re looking at it you can’t always see a deflection. That’s where he needs help from the other officials. There’s no way that they all missed it, but none of them thought to tell him he’d fucked up.

I’d been worried about him before the game, and also Tierney on VAR. As it turned out, they were fine. In fact, they had opportunities to screw us over if they’d wanted to, but they chose not to. Thiago and Fabinho between them could have had five or six yellow cards, and on another day Fabinho might have seen red for a studs up challenge that got Bernardo just above the ankle. I’m not saying that should have been a red, but there’s probably a 50-50 chance that you will get sent off for that. 

I have no complaints about Taylor or Tierney, and I’d even go as far as to say I think Taylor did pretty damn well considering the high stakes of the game and the pressure involved. He tried to let it flow and he only produced cards when it was absolutely necessary. Much as I don’t like him, there are a number of refs who I’d much rather be kept away from our games than him.

As I said though, we just couldn’t take advantage of that good spell we had and it kind of fizzled out. We weren’t helped by Jota though. Fuck me he was terrible. He just kept passing the ball straight to City players and putting us on the back foot. I’d have hooked him a good ten minutes before he eventually made way for Diaz. 

It could just as easily have been Firmino who got the nod but I can see the attraction in the Diaz choice, not least because it allowed Sadio to be more influential by playing in the centre where there was more space and he wasn’t having to constantly run against the fastest player in the league.

Diaz didn’t really do much though and with the benefit of hindsight I might have gone with Bobby instead. He did eventually get on for the last five minutes or so. Naby got a run out as well, as he replaced Hendo for the last 15. Not sure I agreed with that one. Thiago was a more obvious choice to go off as he looked like he was going to get sent off. Fabinho too for that matter. 

While I felt that we had more control of the game in the second half and looked the more likely winner, the best chances still fell to City. The difference between this and the first half was that their chances didn’t come because they had us under pressure. I didn’t really feel we were under much pressure after the break but they still carried a threat, mainly because of that fucking De Bruyne.

He’s the only City player I have any time for, but if I’m being completely honest I still don’t like the cunt. He seems like a top lad, he’s never been anything other than complimentary and respectful about our team and the fans, but I don’t like him and it’s completely because he’s so fucking good and he plays for them. There’s nothing bad I can say about the guy, but he’s fucking brilliant and he hurts us whenever we face him. So he can fuck right off.

The biggest moment of the second half was definitely the disallowed Sterling goal. I thought it was miles offside but because the linesman didn’t flag I was fearing the worst. They usually get those right so I knew it must have been really tight. And it was, but he was just offside because he was leaning forward and was just ahead of the heel of the last defender (Matip once again).

What I didn’t like about that though was Jesus was fucking miles off and it looks to me like that’s who De Bruyne was playing it to. Maybe he was picking out Sterling, but it looks to me as though he’s playing that ball for Jesus who is off. So our defenders are paying more attention to him than Sterling, but then Jesus stops and lets Sterling run onto the ball.

So again, correct decision under the modern laws to not flag Jesus off, but I still hate that as morally it’s offside to me.

Thankfully Sterling was just off and we did not have to summon up a third equaliser. I suspect that would have been beyond us but who knows. 

My gut feeling was that might be a pivotal moment in the game and that if anyone was going to win it, it would be us. We just didn’t really create enough though despite having good possession in their half, and then right at the end we almost got done.

Proper heart in mouth shit that was. Once again, De Bruyne split the defence with a brilliant ball that sent Mahrez clear. He cut inside onto his left foot and with Alisson having come flying out to try and put him off, Mahrez attempted to chip him. Good decision and if he’d been able to execute that it would have been a certain goal.

The ball went sailing over the bar and initially I thought he’d just overcooked the chip. Turns out that Matip got something on it and that proved to be a goal saving block from him.

So in the end, honours even and only time will tell if it’s a good result or not. If City win out then obviously this might be seen as a missed opportunity, but can we really say that? We can’t expect to go there and win and ordinarily a draw here is sound. But that fucking Leicester game….

Anyway, as I say, let’s see how the final games play out. I’m just glad we didn’t lose this because we probably should have. I am a bit disheartened by the way we don’t seem to really be able to hurt City the way we could a few years back when we’d have those explosive spells where we could blow them away. That hasn’t happened for ages now.

Something else that I want to address is that twat Martin Tyler. Honesty, I know everyone goes on about him but he’s getting worse. It isn’t deliberate and I don’t even think it’s a conscious thing. You can’t really fake what he’s doing, it’s just his natural emotion and reaction to things that gives away just how much he’s wanting us to lose. I’m not saying it’s always been like that, it hasn’t. “Collymore closing iiiiiinnnnnnnnn” was an iconic bit of commentary that did the moment justice.

In recent years though his agenda has become glaringly obvious. The excitement in his voice when the opposition have a chance or score. The indifference when it’s us. There were so many examples of it in this game but the one moment that stood out was when the ball fell to Grealish in our box. Not in an especially threatening position mind, but Tyler sounded like he was about to go into a full orgasm as he yelled “GREALISH!!!!” before absolutely fuck all came of it. As I say, that’s pure, natural, instinct. He doesn’t do it deliberately but it absolutely betrays the emotion he’s feeling.

Quite why anyone would be rooting for them cheating cunts is absolutely beyond me, but Tyler was absolutely hoping for a City win there. The sooner he retires the better, he’s so bad he’s got me pining for that old goat Motson.

Anyway, the result means it’s advantage City now. They’ll probably win every game now because they’ve done it before and there are only really two games where they might encounter any sort of resistance. West Ham and Wolves could give them some problems, but no-one else will. Some will look to the romance aspect of Stevie denying them on the last day to hand the title to us, but there’s one major stumbling block there. Aston Villa are fucking shit, and even if they weren’t, I find that “never, EVER, rely on Aston Villa for anything” is a smart policy to live one’s life by.

So all we can do is try to win our games and then hope for the best. In the meantime we have what should be a routine second leg against Benfica and then we have to do it all over again with City next weekend. Will that be more of the same or will things be different this time? They’ve got a tougher midweek test than us so that helps, but I fear that if we try to play them the same way we have the last few times then we’re in trouble, because they’ve got the answer to it now. So, basically we need to come up with a different question.

Star man is… fuck, I don’t even know. I thought Thiago was our best player in the first half but then he was lucky to not get sent off in a somewhat erratic second half. Sadio was horrendous in the first half but brilliant in the second. Matip and Van Dijk were probably our most dependable over the course of the whole game but neither were faultless. If pushed I’d go with Virgil but I don’t feel especially strongly about it.

Team: Alisson; Alexander-Arnold, Matip, Van Dijk, Robertson; Fabinho, Henderson (Keita), Thiago; Salah, Jota (Diaz), Mané (Firmino):