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Man City (a) 3/1/2019


Bjornebye
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2 minutes ago, TheDrowningMan said:

Very poor performance - unless Gomez is going to be ready for Brighton, there has to be a top class CB purchased in January. If he’s ready, a RB should be the priority - we’ve got a fantastic keeper and two great defenders in Van Dijk and Robertson, but the team would be so much stronger if it wasn’t liable to get exposed on the right by high quality opposition.

 

As for the wider implications, the title isn’t entirely out of the question but City are now overwhelming favourites for it. I’ve always thought that finishing within ten points of a team assembled under such dubious and expensive means would be a fine achievement in itself, but finishing above them would probably be the single greatest achievement in the club’s history. Rest everyone who started tonight against Wolves and really look to put Brighton to the sword.

Not entirely out of the question. That’s very good of you.

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Just now, Strontium Dog said:

The problem is that Henderson is the captain, so Klopp clearly feels obligated to play him in our biggest games, and yet again he's shown that he's not got the quality to go toe-to-toe with the very best teams.

Klopp doesn't feel obligated to play anyone. We don't know what he saw in training this week or how much he values experience in these big games. With hind sight Henderson offered very little but Lovren was the weakest link

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An awful lot of knees jerking here.

 

Gutting, crap result, but always a strong possibility away against the runaway champions and the only side who's shown so far they're able to match us for quality.

 

Second goal was class, wouldn't really be sticking the knife into anyone for that. Lovren was poor for the first yes, but the finish was class and it wasn't an absolutely unforgivable error. He's not really up to the standard of a title-winning team, but then I don't think that's really news to anyone and neither are Mangala or Otamendi. We shouldn't forget there's two better players ahead of him and but for bad luck with injuries he would never be playing.

 

Not sure which season it was, but I remember one year Ferguson's United dropped points against pretty much every top side, but gave next to nothing to the smaller ones. That's what we have to do, the title will not be won on this game, we still have the upper hand.

 

We move on.

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2 minutes ago, Strontium Dog said:

The problem is that Henderson is the captain, so Klopp clearly feels obligated to play him in our biggest games, and yet again he's shown that he's not got the quality to go toe-to-toe with the very best teams.

Nonsense.

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2 minutes ago, Strontium Dog said:

The problem is that Henderson is the captain, so Klopp clearly feels obligated to play him in our biggest games, and yet again he's shown that he's not got the quality to go toe-to-toe with the very best teams.

Klopp’s as ruthless as they come. He’s not playing him out of sympathy or loyalty, he obviously thinks he offers something. Tonight might challenge that belief. 

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1 minute ago, DirkDiggledinho said:

An awful lot of knees jerking here.

 

Gutting, crap result, but always a strong possibility away against the runaway champions and the only side who's shown so far they're able to match us for quality.

 

Second goal was class, wouldn't really be sticking the knife into anyone for that. Lovren was poor for the first yes, but the finish was class and it wasn't an absolutely unforgivable error. He's not really up to the standard of a title-winning team, but then I don't think that's really news to anyone and neither are Mangala or Otamendi. We shouldn't forget there's two better players ahead of him and but for bad luck with injuries he would never be playing.

 

Can't remember which exact season it was, but I remember one year Ferguson's United dropped points against pretty much every top side, but gave next to nothing to the smaller ones. That's what we have to do, the title will not be won on this game, we still have the upper hand.

 

We move on.

This..

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At the end of the day City were the better side on the night (and we know they are the best team in the league), so the way I look at it is this:

 

1. Mentally treat this as a blip, and carry on as we were;

 

2. We’ve got our hardest away game out of the way. I personally was hoping we’d come here still a point behind them and in with a shout, but we’re actually four points ahead, and that’s still massive;

 

3. The unbeaten monkey is off our back;

 

4. Let’s go out and teach all the gobshites who’ll have been cheering City on tonight a lesson;

 

5. We’re still top with a four point lead - all to play for.

 

Now go and get me Fekir and Werner, Mike.

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5 minutes ago, El Rojo said:

Thought TAA was fine. 

 

Hard to disagree with the Lovren and Henderson criticisms. Both really poor tonight. 

He was absolute dogshit.  It seems to completely go over everyone’s head every game he plays.  As soon as the player he’s up against or the ball itself goes past him that’s it he’s done until the ball goes dead.  Watch him for the goal it’s a prime example of it.  He just walks around watching the ball like a school kid which is exactly what he is.  We cannot carry that sort of braindead attitude.  If he gets back in position then Aguero doesn’t have the space to score the goal but fuck it who cares Lovren will get the blame and everyone will forget about me.

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9 minutes ago, Shooter in the Motor said:

Not sure why we started with the midfield that has demonstrated that it cannot score goals. Completely outplayed in the middle and even when we got back into it, luck decided to change sides. Post, two goal line clearances and a world class save to deny Salah a second equaliser.

That midfield stopped David Silva from having any sort of influence. Lovren had an off day. Alisson was ropey. Honestly though, I thought the forwards were the poorest. They lost their individual battles time and again. All three of them. They barely gave the midfield a breather. 

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The penny HAS to drop with Klopp that a midfield of Henderson, Wijnaldum and Milner is not strong enough to enable our attack to function and our defence remain solid. We had that trio in Rome, in Kyiv and in all our CL away defeats this season. Keita actually started against Napoli but had to be subbed early with Henderson replacing him, so that game involved the above trio for the most part. Towards the end of last season, we didn't have the alternatives we have now so I can't see why Klopp favours these 3 in such games away from home. It's less of an issue when we're at home, but away it is strangling us if our opponents are prepared to up the tempo and play in our half. Roma did that, Real Madrid got huge strokes of luck, and Napoli, Red Star, PSG and now Man City got the better of us.

 

I see Lovren getting a lot of stick, and tonight he didn't help his cause. He gets all sort of shit for 'running his mouth' in the press even though the media vastly exaggerate anything he says to make a clickbait headline that gets people on his back and/or motivates the opposition to show him up. I'd rather he simply not speak to them from now on because it won't matter how valid anything he says is, it will get twisted and send some of our more rabid hoards foaming at the mouth again.

 

As for the game, we were very unfortunate at key times in attack. In many ways, it reminds me of the City game in 2013/14 when a combination of poor officiating, a great deal of luck defensively for City, and defensive lapses from us cost us points in a game where we were good enough to get at least one point.

 

Treat this as a minor setback, remember we are still several points clear in the table, and kick on again.

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If we're being completely honest with ourselves, we're fucking brilliant. 

 

21 games. 1 loss that was more based on luck than being outplayed. City were due a win over the twatting they got from us last season so let them have their day in the sun. We're still 4 points clear and the race is back on.

 

They're celebrating like it's a title win but look at City last season, they lost to us and United. It's no stumbling block, we just keep to bring the focus back on to the next game. Wolves to get the first blow and Brighton to take the next beating. 

 

I'm not worried. Sucks to lose, feels fucking boss to be 4 points clear at the top. 

 

Just like to sum this all up by saying Fernandino is a bellend. 

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1 minute ago, El Rojo said:

Klopp’s as ruthless as they come. He’s not playing him out of sympathy or loyalty, he obviously thinks he offers something. Tonight might challenge that belief. 

 

Well I'm struggling to think of an explanation for why Klopp keeps trusting him. Loyalty to the armband is the only thing I can come up with.

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Just now, Fugitive said:

It really is time to give Keita a proper run of games. If he is not up to it, we need a top class central midfielder.

Yep, give him a shot and replace in the summer if he doesn’t meet expectations. Starting with Henderson for any reason other than you’re playing in a domestic cup or have an injury crisis is a proven folly. 

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3 minutes ago, KevieG said:

Lovren had one of his mental breakdowns there. Need Gomez back. 

 

Hendo reverted to type. Conservative and weak.

 

Fabinho made a big difference. Needs to be a starter now.

 

We are still in this. 

 

 

 

 

 

We're not just in it we still have a strong advantage. We were never favourites to win this game and a loss away was always a strong possibility. I can't get my head around people acting like City are now ahead of us.

 

Next weekend we play Brighton, these are the games we have to win.

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