Man City (a) 3/1/2019

[Guest]

1 hour ago, VladimirIlyich said:

At the end of the day we lost because we can't find a fit centre half to partner our best in the world other centre half. And,just as importantly,we can still only replace one of our front three with a man made of spare parts which tend to break at a moment's notice. Gutted to lose after getting back into the game but these games do tend to highlight your weak points.

I disagree, Klopp should not have played that midfield trio. Milner, Henderson and Wijnaldum should not have played, regardless of the opposition. Only Milner is remotely capable of scoring goals in play, Wijnaldum was never going to score and should not be expected to either. Henderson? If footballers could score goals on command by pointing their fingers, we would have won.

 

We were unlucky with the post and goal line clearance so that team could have won but with Fab and possibly even Shaq from the beginning it's possible we would have had a couple of goals and then change the team to containment. Smash and grab, not grab and smash.

[Guest]

1 hour ago, El Rojo said:

Only 7 for VVD? Absolutely imperious again for me. He can't legislate for every mistake his team-mates make, but he almost does. I'd give him a 9.

 

Just on Henderson and VVD - there was a moment in the first half when Hendo had the ball in our half, out on the left, with TAA in a lot of space on the right, ten yards into their half. He played it five yards to VVD instead, who immediately took on the crossfield ball himself, by which time TAA had been closed down and the ball headed away. He's still afraid to make mistakes.

Even Trent was disgusted at that. Stopped running and flapped his arms. Henderson just carried on as if nothing had happened. He's the Captain and he can do what he wants.

[El Rojo]

1 minute ago, Shooter in the Motor said:

Even Trent was disgusted at that. Stopped running and flapped his arms. Henderson just carried on as if nothing had happened. He's the Captain and he can do what he wants.

It was a telling moment. It was an achievable pass for him - he's got good ability in that regard. Just too easy to pass on the responsibility to somebody else though.

[liverpoolsno9]

Hungover, pissed off. Hendo needs fucking off. As some have said above he takes absolutely no chances, very rarely passes it forward. That midfield last night was decent last season when pressing the fuck out of the opposition, when their not pressing and getting pressed like they were night, their composure and passing under pressure offers fuck all. Games like last night, when we need a cool head to calm things down. A bit of guile, some movement. They offered fuck all, shit themselves every time they received it, offered no options when we had possession, far far far too static, deep and negative. Backwards, sideways. Most of the time we were forced into them passes because there was just no movement, the passing out from the back, our midfield just wasn’t showing for it, we were getting pressed to fuck and had no options other than the long one out to Mane or Mo, City were good but we made made it easier for them. That midfield is just not smart enough, brave enough.  I’ve said before I like Hendo, but last night showed him up big time. And when Fabinho has played recently it’s also showed Hendo up big time. He’s done more in the last 3 weeks than Hendo has all season. We badly need Keita to get going and Fabinho needs to be starting every week. 

[El Rojo]

Odd to think last night was the same line-up as the Champions League Final, with the (significant) difference of Alisson.

 

Even based on his half hour last night, Fabinho should be starting most games.

[Aventus]

1 hour ago, El Rojo said:

Only 7 for VVD? Absolutely imperious again for me. He can't legislate for every mistake his team-mates make, but he almost does. I'd give him a 9.

 

Just on Henderson and VVD - there was a moment in the first half when Hendo had the ball in our half, out on the left, with TAA in a lot of space on the right, ten yards into their half. He played it five yards to VVD instead, who immediately took on the crossfield ball himself, by which time TAA had been closed down and the ball headed away. He's still afraid to make mistakes.

Happens every time he has the ball, I don't mind it too much if we're cruising or it's early in the match so not worth taking big risks. 

 

But 80 odd minutes into a game where we need a goal, it falls to Henderson, he has any number of players in front of him making runs and shouting for the ball. Hendo passes it sideways then aggressively points forwards like he's annoyed the player he's just passed to is wasting time by not passing it. And like you said, in these couple of seconds the players have either been closed down, or they are now in awkward positions because they've just made a run in behind the defence expecting the ball. 

[The Guest]

I’m still in raging hysterical fanny mode.  It feels like we’ve thrown the league away with a whimper.  We didn’t press or rattle them all night which is supposed to be the benefit of playing that midfield 3.  The side selection and subs were awful.  I’m still baffled that nobody can see the glaring problem Trent is to the team.

 

Probably because of previous experience it feels like for us to win the league we need to go out and have a massive lead and win it at a canter because if it gets down to the nitty gritty we will lose it.  These cunts will go on a 10 game winning streak now and I just can’t see us going stride for stride with them.

 

I seen a minute or so of Klopp’s press conference and it worries me.  All season he’s said don’t worry about the table, we just win our games and see where it lands us.  Last night he started talking about buying the position we are in now at the start of the season.  

[TheDrowningMan]

One thing I hope Klopp is doing is putting a sense of injustice in the players' heads. Kompany should have been sent off, the ref consistently favoured them and treated our players harshly in comparison. The (very) nearly goal in the first half. It seems to me that the teams able to win the league a couple of years on the spin had managers who successfully straddled the line between defiance and paranoia. Ferguson mastered it, Mourinho had the knack between 2004-6, but since the former retired & Mourinho continued his descent into self parody no-one has been able to pull it off.

[Lario]

Where's that cunt with the magnet conspiracy when you need him?!

[Trojan1892]

Henderson is an absolute fraud, the amount of times he needlessly puts our players under pressure is ridiculous, one good thing with Fabinho is he’s always looking at a positive pass and looks calm.

The trio of Henderson, Milner and Gini isn’t the the one never has been and is why with that midfield we’ve lost 4 games this season.

 

I just got a feeling that we showed City too much respect last night because every time we attacked they looked worried and the crowd were too, personally I think Fabinho and Shaq should have started, they don’t like being attacked and playing that defensive narrow midfield with little creativity just played into their hands imo.

[Trojan1892]

Gini, Hendo, Milner - the trusted 3.

 

City (a) L

PSG (a) L

Red Star (a) L

Napoli (a) L

Chelsea (a) D

Real Madrid (CL Final) L

Roma (a) L

[skend04]

2 minutes ago, Trojan1892 said:

Gini, Hendo, Milner - the trusted 3.

 

City (a) L

PSG (a) L

Red Star (a) L

Napoli (a) L

Chelsea (a) D

Real Madrid (CL Final) L

Roma (a) L

The one fair criticism of Klopp is picking that midfield time and again. It's bordering on the insane now.

[s(k)aturation]

7 minutes ago, Trojan1892 said:

Gini, Hendo, Milner - the trusted 3.

 

City (a) L

PSG (a) L

Red Star (a) L

Napoli (a) L

Chelsea (a) D

Real Madrid (CL Final) L

Roma (a) L

 

So, your sample size is based on three tournaments.

 

One in which we are currently 1st.

 

Another in which we are currently into the last 16.

 

And a third, in which we made the final.

 

It's a team/squad game, no?

 

Oh, and by the way, I fully agree we need to move on from that trio.

 

[Trojan1892]

6 losses with that midfield three, I dont care where we are now or where we were last season, that midfield just doesn’t work.

Stevie fucking wonder would recognise that.

[Oh Buoy]

The lot of you need fucking off before we even discuss Lovern or Henderson. Fucking hell, "thrown away the league". City can still drop points against gash teams, so can we. Still 4 points ahead and still in the driving seat on this. 

 

Pipe down. 

[Guest Alex_K]

Has to be some criticism of Naby Keita too here that he isn't forcing the issue & contending for the team in these games .. Klopp probably wouldn't omit Fabinho again (he made a big difference when coming on), but given the games he has struggled in were against sides with smaller technical players wasping about his feet, it does make some sense that Klopp would have preferred to keep him out of this fixture for the time being against the two Silvas & Fernandinho in midfield.

 

Klopp probably did pay City a bit too much respect last night .. but again, it is at least understandable going away from home against a 100-point winning side who even by one poster on here had been noted recently as better than 2009 Barcelona (!).

 

Smacked a little bit of Ferguson bringing Sun Ji Park into United's team when they went there during the title run-in in 2012 and trying to contain rather than attack .. hopefully we don't see similarly small margins defining our season at end of year.

[Strontium]

44 minutes ago, Trojan1892 said:

Gini, Hendo, Milner - the trusted 3.

 

City (a) L

PSG (a) L

Red Star (a) L

Napoli (a) L

Chelsea (a) D

Real Madrid (CL Final) L

Roma (a) L

 

Yeah, when you put it like that...

[DirkDiggledinho]

1 hour ago, The Guest said:

I’m still in raging hysterical fanny mode.  It feels like we’ve thrown the league away with a whimper.  We didn’t press or rattle them all night which is supposed to be the benefit of playing that midfield 3.  The side selection and subs were awful.  I’m still baffled that nobody can see the glaring problem Trent is to the team.

 

Probably because of previous experience it feels like for us to win the league we need to go out and have a massive lead and win it at a canter because if it gets down to the nitty gritty we will lose it.  These cunts will go on a 10 game winning streak now and I just can’t see us going stride for stride with them.

 

I seen a minute or so of Klopp’s press conference and it worries me.  All season he’s said don’t worry about the table, we just win our games and see where it lands us.  Last night he started talking about buying the position we are in now at the start of the season.  

Yeah, I think the reason you are getting wound up by Klopp's press conference is because he approaches everything logically and tries to find reason and learning in defeats, rather than throwing his hands in the air and declaring we have thrown away our only chance of winning the league while 4 points clear in 1st.

[TheHowieLama]

Has The Guest ever been OUT of Hysterical Fanny mode?

[The Guest]

14 minutes ago, DirkDiggledinho said:

Yeah, I think the reason you are getting wound up by Klopp's press conference is because he approaches everything logically and tries to find reason and learning in defeats, rather than throwing his hands in the air and declaring we have thrown away our only chance of winning the league while 4 points clear in 1st.

No I’m worried because I’d expect him to say I wasn’t worried about the table before hand and I’m not looking at it now either.  Things must be pretty flat if he’s trying to cling to that 4 points.  He knows like the rest of us that will probably have evaporated in a month.

[3 Stacks]

For me biggest takeaway from the game a bit further removed from the final whistle is that team selection was too conservative. We ended with more possession than City which is unheard of and we went chance for chance with them at the Etihad. They won but I don't think they played well, and neither did we. City don't seem confident and they had to work their balls off to edge it.

 

I think if you look at it objectively, if we'd have been braver and had more creativity in midfield instead of the classic workhorse trio we seem to favour in big games, we could have outclassed them. Oh well. 

[Bobby Hundreds]

We lacked bollocks and our forwards looked out of sorts. We should use this window to make a title challenge statement and sign some really boss players. It will give me personally a boost for the rest of the league and champions league campaign.  Love new signings, sign everyone.

[aRdja]

 

We really could’ve done with someone like that in midfield last night.

[liverpoolsno9]

7 minutes ago, Bobby Hundreds said:

We lacked bollocks and our forwards looked out of sorts. We should use this window to make a title challenge statement and sign some really boss players. It will give me personally a boost for the rest of the league and champions league campaign.  Love new signings, sign everyone.

Rhian Brewster will be like a new signing.

[an tha]

Ronny Rosenthal coming in when we last won title in 1990 was a masterstroke.

 

Getting in an able centre half or a forward who can provide more than the stiffs we have on the bench at the mo, could be the difference between success and failure.

 

I appreciate it isn't easy - but we do look like we might struggle for depth again as season wears on.