Man City (A) - Sun 10th Apr 2022 (4:30pm)

[m0e]

So we drew against the best team in world football, at their own ground, to stay 1 point behind them...

 

And people think we need to be replacing players?!

[dockers_strike]

5 minutes ago, m0e said:

So we drew against the best team in world football, at their own ground, to stay 1 point behind them...

 

And people think we need to be replacing players?!

I know, the same players who reeled in a 14 point gap on city. Bizarre world, isnt it?!

[Mark M]

Sky & BT both have their selection of bad pundits for various different reasons.

Richard’s might be the worst of them all if he’s not there for comic value laughing out loud at nothing when he try’s to make a point he just starts talking without knowing how he’s going to finish his point. 

[TheHowieLama]

There is a reason he is on. It has naught to do with what he says.

[Red Shift]

3 hours ago, an tha said:

So onto next week....

 

What do we change to avoid what happened in 1st half today?

 

For me we need more legs in midfield.....maybe Keita (i know, i know) for Hendo...?

 

A tactical tweak to plug the gaps - the wide open spaces of Wembley will suit them of course.

 

I think the game had been on the squad’s mind for sometime. Its been billed as the great showdown for weeks. Next weekend I think we’ll see a much more settled team, especially if we’ve secured that European Cup Semi. City have a tough away second leg midweek too. Only 1 goal in it & you can bet Atletico will be studying today’s game.

 

I have a good feeling regarding Wembley, and I’m not convinced Jurgen will want to change anything - it will depend on the Anfield game to a degree - fitness etc.

[George Costanza]

27 minutes ago, TheHowieLama said:

There is a reason he is on. It has naught to do with what he says.

He's an absolute fraud. Ticking boxes for BBC & Sky though despite being a complte moron with nothing remotely good to add as a so called pundit

[gkmacca]

1 hour ago, m0e said:

So we drew against the best team in world football, at their own ground, to stay 1 point behind them...

 

And people think we need to be replacing players?!

Well, they'll likely go out in the summer and buy a couple of £100m players, as they do, so, yes, we still have a hell of a struggle, because they're allowed to flout every rule and let the genius that is Guardiola buy his way past any competition. That's what the 'sport' is these days.

[lifetime fan]

47 minutes ago, TheHowieLama said:

There is a reason he is on. It has naught to do with what he says.

Unfortunately so. 
 

Exactly the same when Ian Wright first started out. He was used as the ‘entertaining clown’ and  never actually given the opportunity to show any more intelligence. 
 

Wright put it down to a racial bias and blamed himself for going along with it. 

[dockers_strike]

13 minutes ago, George Costanza said:

He's an absolute fraud. Ticking boxes for BBC & Sky though despite being a complte moron with nothing remotely good to add as a so called pundit

His telling contribution about the game: Liverpool cannot be called a great team if they only have 1 PL title to their name. My club (who can afford to put a £100m player on the bench for the best part of 80 minutes of this game), can be called a great team because they've won multiple titles.

 

It fell to Neville to point out Liverpool have spent a fraction of the money city have and who have a seemingly bottomless pit of money with which to buy those multiple titles preventing Liverpool from winning them.

 

The man's a fucking moron. He guffaws all the way through games when city are winning then acts the grumpy arse when his team lose or are pegged back.

 

All the stuff by oppo fans about too many ex Liverpool players being pundits is blown away just to have utter fools like Micah Richards spout his myopic shit.

[gkmacca]

41 minutes ago, TheHowieLama said:

There is a reason he is on. It has naught to do with what he says.

Ian Wright, to his credit (but only after trying to blame the BBC and god knows who else), eventually realised his cheeky/chuckling persona was making him look an idiot (and also a token presence), so he started making an effort to be himself, and as a result he's become a decent pundit. Richards won't ever do that, because he's as lazy a pundit as he was a player, he knows he'll keep getting work from doing this horrible Uncle Tom-ish schtick, and he just is a fecking idiot. But it's painful to watch.

 

(As is, if you like well-made suits, the shocking kecks of all the pundits on Sky - jeez, they looked like they were made of lycra! Especially Keane's, splayed out like a couple of grey savaloys. What the heck is it with ex-footballers? They play for a decade in the baggiest Tom Finney-style shorts, and then buy expensive suits with trousers that resemble two fingers of surgical gloves!)

[Saintslfc13]

1 hour ago, m0e said:

So we drew against the best team in world football, at their own ground, to stay 1 point behind them...

 

And people think we need to be replacing players?!

I think the issue is that we are the best team in world football and we just drew against the most funded team in world football.

[benwasmydog]

I think a lot of people forget where we were ten years ago. Enjoy. 

[Colonel Bumcunt]

9 hours ago, m0e said:

So we drew against the best team in world football, at their own ground, to stay 1 point behind them...

 

And people think we need to be replacing players?!

I think the calls for Henderson to be replaced aren't single game, or single season, accusations. It's just today was another stark example of what your number 8, in an elite side, should be capable of. KDB can do that against us, Hendo can't do what KDB does against a conference side, let alone players like Fabinho. 

 

[El Rojo]

11 hours ago, Josef Svejk said:

Fabinho was freakishly awful, granted. 

 

But Henderson looks shot. And we have nothing / Naby from the bench. 

 

That's slim pickings at this level. 

We don’t have the trusted reserves in midfield in a way that we do in defence or up front. More an issue of exhaustion than it being a problem area, for me. 
 

Will be interesting to see if Jones and Elliott get minutes over the next while.

 

Surely Keita will start against Benfica. Even Milner should come on early if we’re cruising. 

[Scott_M]

My views on our midfield yesterday…

 

Fabinho was clearly their pressing victim. Every time he got the ball facing our goal he had 2/3 players on him. 
 

Fabinho had a really poor first half, he got it together second half. 
 

A lot of things were by passing Hendo in the first half and similarly to Fabinho, improved in the second half. He was getting better as the game went on and I was surprised he was taken off (same as Mane). 
 

I thought Thiago was pretty good throughout. 
 

I do agree with the comments that we are a bit “one paced” in there. 
 

However, there is a flip side to this as well. IMO, Guardiola did a number on us in the first half’s of both games this season. The game at Anfield was the same. They bossed the middle of the park by flooding it with their pressing and then getting it forwards quickly. 
 

They also had some other interesting tactics with their late runs, creating overloads on our full backs and when we had the ball, generally leaving it 3v3 with our defenders and hitting the space behind the one which attacked (again with a late runner). 
 

It’s not often Klopp gets outfoxed but I feel it’s definitely happened in the 2 games this season. He needs to think how to avoid that on Saturday. 
 

Final point… in both games (first half’s especially) this season, City have played absolutely brilliantly.  They’ve been the better side in both games. We’ve been below expectations for large parts of both games…

 

…and City still haven’t been able to beat us. 

[Paulie Dangerously]

Paulie's thoughts:

 

Watched on my phone at the airport. First half they battered us, stretched us apart and could've scored 4 or 5 easily. BUT we hung on in there and at half time we were still in it. 

 

For the first 20 minutes of the 2nd I thought we rattled them, our early goal shocked them and I felt we should be going on to score another. We didn't and they got a strangle hold again. 

 

I always felt that for us this was must win, but for them it was must not lose as they'll back themselves to win the last 7. 

 

Ref was shit but on the other hand, thiago could be been booked earlier than he was, likewise Fab (I think) both were flying into tackles. 

 

 

[sir roger]

I thought the ref was pretty good.

 

I think he realised the importance of the game and that it shouldn't be ruined with red cards and loads of VAR and reffed with a light touch. Good to see a full game without a single incident of players pretending to be injured or wasting time. 

[Scott_M]

23 minutes ago, sir roger said:

I thought the ref was pretty good.

Agreed. Could easily have sent Thiago off and I’ve seen straight reds for tackles like Fabinho made as well.

 

I loved our shit house tackling yesterday. 

[Mark M]

48 minutes ago, Scott_M said:

My views on our midfield yesterday…

 

Fabinho was clearly their pressing victim. Every time he got the ball facing our goal he had 2/3 players on him. 
 

Fabinho had a really poor first half, he got it together second half. 
 

A lot of things were by passing Hendo in the first half and similarly to Fabinho, improved in the second half. He was getting better as the game went on and I was surprised he was taken off (same as Mane). 
 

I thought Thiago was pretty good throughout. 
 

I do agree with the comments that we are a bit “one paced” in there. 
 

However, there is a flip side to this as well. IMO, Guardiola did a number on us in the first half’s of both games this season. The game at Anfield was the same. They bossed the middle of the park by flooding it with their pressing and then getting it forwards quickly. 
 

They also had some other interesting tactics with their late runs, creating overloads on our full backs and when we had the ball, generally leaving it 3v3 with our defenders and hitting the space behind the one which attacked (again with a late runner). 
 

It’s not often Klopp gets outfoxed but I feel it’s definitely happened in the 2 games this season. He needs to think how to avoid that on Saturday. 
 

Final point… in both games (first half’s especially) this season, City have played absolutely brilliantly.  They’ve been the better side in both games. We’ve been below expectations for large parts of both games…

 

…and City still haven’t been able to beat us. 

Don't think he got it together at all really - He was very fortunate not to have been sent off - he should have got a yellow first half & didnt.

Second half he should have got a yellow didnt & then soon after put a really bad challenge in on a Citys player ankle - that could easily have been a straight red. As for his general play first and second half he was laboured and sloppy as fuck on the ball - Very unlike him as hes the best in the world in that role.

 

[Barnesey]

We kept trying to play out from the back but didn’t cope well with their press. Occasionally we played it long to sadio and we gained good ground and so it was no surprise we adapted second half. 
 

strangely, even if we were second best yesterday, I fancy us at Wembley. Won’t have to suffer their orcs either

[Scott_M]

28 minutes ago, Mark M said:

Don't think he got it together at all really - He was very fortunate not to have been sent off - he should have got a yellow first half & didnt.

Second half he should have got a yellow didnt & then soon after put a really bad challenge in on a Citys player ankle - that could easily have been a straight red. As for his general play first and second half he was laboured and sloppy as fuck on the ball - Very unlike him as hes the best in the world in that role.

 

He was certainly better second half. He wasn’t at his best but he was better. 
 

Definitely could have been sent off. If he’d had been given a straight red for that tackle on Silva, it wouldn’t have been over turned. 
 

He was clearly rattled at being the pressing victim but did improve. 
 

I loved the shit house tackles yesterday. 

[Scott_M]

1 hour ago, Scott_M said:

Final point… in both games (first half’s especially) this season, City have played absolutely brilliantly.  They’ve been the better side in both games. We’ve been below expectations for large parts of both games…

 

…and City still haven’t been able to beat us. 

I forgot, they’ve also needed 2 spawny hugely deflected goals against us. 

[No2]

1 hour ago, sir roger said:

I thought the ref was pretty good.

 

I think he realised the importance of the game and that it shouldn't be ruined with red cards and loads of VAR and reffed with a light touch. Good to see a full game without a single incident of players pretending to be injured or wasting time. 

He was shit. It isn't his job to save games, it's his job to implement the laws. Yesterday worked out for him but its the Mike Reily system of avoiding making decisions which has refereeing as bad as it is. They don't make big decisions anymore, the tactic is get out without being the story. Every big match this season has been the same, only VAR has made any big calls.

 

He let both Thiago and Fabinho away with 100% certain yellow cards. Fab smashed Silva's ankle because the referee gave him the opportunity to, same with Thiago. It worked out for us but that wasn't anything like a good performance. 

[magicrat]

We saw the high press’s faults well and truly exposed yesterday. With the pace City have the balls over the top were a killer . Klopp can’t rinse and repeat the strategy on Saturday and expect to get away with it . 

[magicrat]

What we really need is Atletico to give them a roasting, hopefully with ET , and crock a few of the cunts