Southampton 1 Liverpool 3 (Apr 5 2019)

[DaveTucker]

What frustrates further is they've lost 4 fucking games this season and only 1 against the top 6. I thought when Palace, Leicester and Newcastle all beat them in relatively short space of time it would set a benchmark for teams to have a crack at them. Instead they've already revived their air of invincibility. Bizarre. Hopefully Palace will be buoyed by their previous win next Weekend.  

[Lario]

19 hours ago, 3 Stacks said:

Disagree 100% with this sentiment. City squeeze the life out of opponents until they give up and often give them absolutely no chance. As good as we are, teams have more of the ball against us and can often exist in matches far more than against City. It's not a coincidence or a question of trying less or more. That's a bad way of looking at it. 

 

That's tripe.

 

Have a look at City's recent results. They're normally a goal or two up within the first 10 minutes. Definitely a sign of surrender if there ever was one.

 

Edit: No doubt City can smother the life out of teams too! But consistent early goals points to teams rolling over. Conversely our "lucky" late goals are a sign of our lads never giving up and pressuring the fuck out of teams until the bell is rung.

[Mark M]

23 minutes ago, DaveTucker said:

What frustrates further is they've lost 4 fucking games this season and only 1 against the top 6. I thought when Palace, Leicester and Newcastle all beat them in relatively short space of time it would set a benchmark for teams to have a crack at them. Instead they've already revived their air of invincibility. Bizarre. Hopefully Palace will be buoyed by their previous win next Weekend.  

I'm also hoping City playing a big game on Tuesday night and Palace having a full week off will help Palace at the weekend.

 

[Lario]

Also, Bobby deserves way more credit for the 3rd goal than the report gives him.

 

He was after busting his bollox for near on 90 minutes, chased a "quarter to five" ball into the corner, made shit of the defender, and then played a perfectly weighted pass (with his bad leg) on a plate for Henderson.

 

Probably a sign that we're just used to Bobby doing what Bobby does. But he's fucking vital to this team.

[TheHowieLama]

His run created some space for Salah's as well.

 

MOTM for me Firmino was.

[3 Stacks]

1 hour ago, Lario said:

 

That's tripe.

 

Have a look at City's recent results. They're normally a goal or two up within the first 10 minutes. Definitely a sign of surrender if there ever was one.

 

Edit: No doubt City can smother the life out of teams too! But consistent early goals points to teams rolling over. Conversely our "lucky" late goals are a sign of our lads never giving up and pressuring the fuck out of teams until the bell is rung.

It's concerning how many Liverpool supporters actually believe teams try less hard against City. Big lack of lucidity and its basically having an excuse ready for if they beat us to the title. Fine if it makes people feel better but it's not really reality.

 

We're talking about a side that got 100 points last season, probably the best this league has ever seen. There may be a psychological aspect to their dominance, but the obvious reason teams fold against them is because City have so many technical players and such a ball-dominant system that teams just can't get on the ball enough and get torn apart.

 

They're basically 2010 Barcelona without Messi.

[Mark M]

19 minutes ago, 3 Stacks said:

It's concerning how many Liverpool supporters actually believe teams try less hard against City. Big lack of lucidity and its basically having an excuse ready for if they beat us to the title. Fine if it makes people feel better but it's not really reality.

 

We're talking about a side that got 100 points last season, probably the best this league has ever seen. There may be a psychological aspect to their dominance, but the obvious reason teams fold against them is because City have so many technical players and such a ball-dominant system that teams just can't get on the ball enough and get torn apart.

 

They're basically 2010 Barcelona without Messi.

There's literally evidence of teams doing this.

Everton, West Ham, Watford in recent matches all took first team regular players out before they played City.

The Watford manager made 7 changes and said he'd prioritised the FA cup match they had coming up instead.

[3 Stacks]

Meh.

[Lario]

Warnock went on record saying he was gonna play the Cardiff U23s against them the last week.

[Guest Alex_K]

5 hours ago, 3 Stacks said:

It's concerning how many Liverpool supporters actually believe teams try less hard against City. Big lack of lucidity and its basically having an excuse ready for if they beat us to the title. Fine if it makes people feel better but it's not really reality.

 

We're talking about a side that got 100 points last season, probably the best this league has ever seen. There may be a psychological aspect to their dominance, but the obvious reason teams fold against them is because City have so many technical players and such a ball-dominant system that teams just can't get on the ball enough and get torn apart.

 

They're basically 2010 Barcelona without Messi.

 

Agree here - we are an absolutely great football team. We're probably already one of the top 10 sides of the Premier League era ever - regardless if we win this title or not. Its belittling of our achievements though to suggest that the financially-doped golem we are competing with are where they are because of other teams "rolling over" - as if there was something for other teams to achieve in playing that way.

 

The reason teams so consistently register 0 shots on target against City is because they cannot get the ball. They - quite literally - cannot get the ball. And they cannot get the ball because City have constructed a side in the Barcelona tiki-taka way -- overseen by every key executive football personnel from the involved in Barcelona's construction from the manager upwards -- staffed with two-dozen of greatest technical footballers on earth in every area of the pitch who keep 90% of the ball game-on-game. And the reason they are staffed with two-dozen of the greatest technical footballers on earth in every area of the pitch is because we publicly know they have illegally thrown £1.4bn at the project -- and who knows what else has been spent outside the public eye in foreign off-shore accounts to keep the likes of Silva and Aguero there while every other domestic team are abandoned by their Latin superstars the moment they hit their prime.

 

So what we are doing is a fantastic, almost unparalleled achievement - but it doesn't need to be belittled by suggesting that other teams lie down against City. They play a different way to us. We afford team's much more of the ball than City do - and the impact of that is that we leave ourselves open to far more games lived on the margin. We've shown ourselves that there is a way to get at City - but no other sides are gifted with the genius of Salah, Mane and Firmino leading from the front that bring our strategies against City to action.

[Pureblood]

Would the other teams not have a better chance of getting the ball if they played their best players, though?  Also, if they have their best players on the pitch they have a better chance of capitalising on the few chances that may come their way.  Crystal Palace, for example, were clinical when they played at the Etihad earlier this season.  But without Andros Townsend and regular penalty taker Milivojevic on the pitch, it's less likely that they would have taken three points that day. 

[dockers_strike]

29 minutes ago, Alex_K said:

 

Agree here - we are an absolutely great football team. We're probably already one of the top 10 sides of the Premier League era ever - regardless if we win this title or not. Its belittling of our achievements though to suggest that the financially-doped golem we are competing with are where they are because of other teams "rolling over" - as if there was something for other teams to achieve in playing that way.

 

The reason teams so consistently register 0 shots on target against City is because they cannot get the ball. They - quite literally - cannot get the ball. And they cannot get the ball because City have constructed a side in the Barcelona tiki-taka way -- overseen by every key executive football personnel from the involved in Barcelona's construction from the manager upwards -- staffed with two-dozen of greatest technical footballers on earth in every area of the pitch who keep 90% of the ball game-on-game. And the reason they are staffed with two-dozen of the greatest technical footballers on earth in every area of the pitch is because we publicly know they have illegally thrown £1.4bn at the project -- and who knows what else has been spent outside the public eye in foreign off-shore accounts to keep the likes of Silva and Aguero there while every other domestic team are abandoned by their Latin superstars the moment they hit their prime.

 

So what we are doing is a fantastic, almost unparalleled achievement - but it doesn't need to be belittled by suggesting that other teams lie down against City. They play a different way to us. We afford team's much more of the ball than City do - and the impact of that is that we leave ourselves open to far more games lived on the margin. We've shown ourselves that there is a way to get at City - but no other sides are gifted with the genius of Salah, Mane and Firmino leading from the front that bring our strategies against City to action.

What, so when the likes of Mick McCarthy played his Wolves U23s at Old Trafford years ago when they were fighting relegation, he did it to give his U23s experience and not to rest his established players for the 6 pointer relegation battles that laid ahead?

 

It's pretty clear a number of teams over the years have not pulled their tripe out against the perceived dominant team in the league in whatever era, be that united, chelsea and now city. United even used to say it about us when we were in our pomp telling other teams they were gutless when they played us.

 

You only have to look at last season and how city romped away with the title and we were one of the few to beat them in the league. chelsea didnt turn up at city last season and were even worse this time.

 

[3 Stacks]

Chelsea beat them at Stamford Bridge, mate.

 

And, yeah people say the dominant teams have it easy out of jealousy. That's nothing new either.

[Guest Alex_K]

15 minutes ago, dockers_strike said:

You only have to look at last season and how city romped away with the title and we were one of the few to beat them in the league. chelsea didnt turn up at city last season and were even worse this time.

 

 

We were one of the very few teams to beat them because we ourselves are a world class team that -- at that time -- were on the cusp of becoming the 90+ point goliath we are now. There is no mysticism at play. Great teams can be beaten by other great teams.

 

City could well have dropped -- come the end of this season -- around 35 points in 76 games. Their record - if they do win the league - will likely read 64 wins, 6 draws, 6 losses in 76 domestic games. It is an insanity never witnessed before in the history of english domestic football - but an insanity founded on far more rational causes than the league conspiring to keep the title out of Merseyside.

[dockers_strike]

1 hour ago, 3 Stacks said:

Chelsea beat them at Stamford Bridge, mate.

 

And, yeah people say the dominant teams have it easy out of jealousy. That's nothing new either.

Why do you think chelsea beat them at stamford bridge but got thrashed, what 6, 7-0, were 3 down in the first 20 odd minutes at city and did virtually the same thing albeit with a different score last season? And this is chelsea dont forget, one of the teams that you'd expect to go toe to toe with them not some Southampton, Burnley, Watford, West Ham etc, etc?

 

 

[Stickman]

it would be just kind of nice if a team scored first against City to put them under a bit of pressure. I think in the league Wolves and that was in Auguest are the only side that have actually gone one up in game with them which is an incredible stat (if I've got it right that is).

[A_S]

1 hour ago, Stickman said:

it would be just kind of nice if a team scored first against City to put them under a bit of pressure. I think in the league Wolves and that was in Auguest are the only side that have actually gone one up in game with them which is an incredible stat (if I've got it right that is).

Which makes the Sadio attempt off the post, then the near comical OG all the more frustrating. 

[Stickman]

2 hours ago, A_S said:

Which makes the Sadio attempt off the post, then the near comical OG all the more frustrating. 

 

Even though they are massive favourites for the league as I don't buy into this fixtures piling up for them (we could actually end up playing more games than them from this point) the one hope is that apart from that Wolves game which they drew, every time they have gone behind during a match they've got beat.

I also forgot the Chelsea game which they went behind in