Man City (N) - FAC Semi Final, Sat 16th Apr 2022 (3:30pm)

[Trumo]

And so onto the next meeting with the Emirati sportwashing empire. There’s no doubt that ourselves and City have looked like the strongest sides in the country this season. It’s also a valid call when talking about the European and indeed global game. Both sides play football on the front foot, but both go about it in different ways. City are all about dominating possession and strangling the game before creating overloads out wide, whereas we can switch from measured possession to insane pressing to physical dominance at set pieces within the same game. We can do what they do to a degree, but mix it up much more with a bit of ‘ugly’ stuff to get our rewards. What do we need to get our rewards here?

 

Drive. Energy. Resolve. Skill. Panache. Intelligence. Electricity. Gumption. Edge. Luck.

 

I don’t ask for much.

 

The two sides met in the 3rd round at Maine Road in January 2003, with a solitary Spud goal enough to progress through to the next round. That 2002/03 team was going through a dreadful spell at the time and the cup ‘run’ would soon come to an end on a dismal night against second tier Crystal Palace at Anfield.

 

Better was the 5th round game at Anfield in mid-February 2001. The manager rested the likes of Owen and Robbie and gave starts to Jari and Vladi, alongside Big Emile. Those three practically ran amok against a City side, managed by Joe Royle, that were struggling on their top flight return and would be relegated again at the end of the season. Vladi was clipped by City keeper Nicky Weaver in the box, and Jari calmly (did he ever not do anything calmly?) dispatched the spot kick into the bottom corner, sending Weaver the wrong way. The stylish Finn then sent Big Emile through with a first-time ball over the top and the former Leicester man fired the ball into the far corner to put the Reds 2 to the good. Andrei Kanchelskis (I had no idea he played for City!) got one back, firing a loose ball through a crowd and into the corner beyond Sander in goal. It’s a similar goal to Vladi’s effort in Istanbul. The scoreline did not reflect the disparity between the two teams (as mentioned before, City were near the foot of the table, while Liverpool had recently beaten Serie A champions elect Roma in their own back yard). Weaver brought Vladi down again inside the area in the second half (a more clear-cut call than the first one), and the Czech got up to score the penalty himself. We made absolutely sure of the win shortly before the end when Ziege’s free kick from the right was headed into the far corner by his countryman Babbel. City had time to grab a consolation via Shaun Goater in stoppage time. We would travel across the Mersey to the Wirral to take on Aldo’s Tranmere in the quarter finals. Here's the whole City game.

 

 

April 2001 saw Anthony Hopkins return to the top of the box office in his most famous role - Dr Hannibal Lecter. Hannibal was Ridley Scott’s adaptation of the Thomas Harris novel, with Julianne Moore in the role of FBI agent Clarice Starling. Like the book, it’s a bit of a mess, and like the book, there are two big issues. The first is that Lecter features way too prominently, and the second is the sexual tension between him and Starling. The best thing about firstly Michael Mann’s 1980s film Manhunter (based on Harris’ ‘Red Dragon’) and Jonathan Demme’s Oscar hooverer The Silence of the Lambs was that Lecter was a conduit between an FBI agent and a lunatic serial killer (Francis Dollarhyde and Jame “Buffalo Bill” Gumb respectively). He was there to help the FBI agent unravel the psyche and track down the wanted man. In both the film and book of the latest instalment, Lecter veers dangerously towards a parody of himself. Gary Oldman and Ray Liotta aren’t helped either by a clunky script. Every single one of the people involved in this have done much much better elsewhere. Definitely a sequel that wasn’t needed. Brett Ratner’s take on Red Dragon the following year is a much better film, but still not a patch on what Mann and Demme delivered.

 

 

Of course we need to be ready for everything City have got to offer, and we need a couple of our lot to step up a gear or two. Not easy with the busy fixture list, but this is an opportunity to make our first FA Cup final in a decade, which would lead to our first opportunity to win the thing for the first time in SIXTEEN years! The attitude and application need to be spot on, and hopefully we get the rub of the green too. Hopefully our high defensive line is tighter than in the last couple of games, and opefully our shooting boots are on. Let’s make it count. Pressure, what pressure?

[Aventus]

I think we'll see a very different game from what we did last weekend, they'll do their usual thing of trying to get the early goal but  overall it's going to be a lot more even, I think we'll just have too much energy for them going into the end stages given the rest we've been able to take advantage of and the possibility of their injuries to key players. 

A lot of what went down last Sunday was because of key players not being at their best rather that city being so much better, if the likes of fab can get it together then we'll have a much stronger game. 

 

An uncomfortable win, wouldn't be surprised with extra time though.

 

Smash 'em lads

[m0e]

3-1, Salah with a brace

[Creator Supreme]

They'll twat us 7-0, they're head and shoulders above us in every position even if they have a few out injured.

 

I was at that game in 2001. It was comfortable but we still threw a couple of easy goals away!

[an tha]

Feel this will be very tight again....hard to call either way IMHO.

 

Game could hinge on a moment of magic or a mistake - can't see it being anything other than tight.

 

Could really do without extra time here - of course if it is needed then so be it, but really could do without it.

 

Team for me:

 

Alisson

 

TAA

Van Dijk

Matip

Robertson

 

Fabinho

Thiago

Henderson

 

Mane

Salah

Firmino

[Aventus]

15 minutes ago, an tha said:

Feel this will be very tight again....hard to call either way IMHO.

 

Game could hinge on a moment of magic or a mistake - can't see it being anything other than tight.

 

Could really do without extra time here - of course if it is needed then so be it, but really could do without it.

 

Team for me:

 

Alisson

 

TAA

Van Dijk

Matip

Robertson

 

Fabinho

Thiago

Henderson

 

Mane

Salah

Firmino

Probably the team I'd go with, but I do wonder if Jurgen has something a bit different in mind though. He won't want a repeat of that first half, so might want to counteract what they did. 

[Anubis]

Get in. Get our final tickets. Slap Pep on the head.  Get out.

[johnsusername]

We should treat this City team like the one from 2001 and just batter them. Can't we just pretend they're still shit? 

[dockers_strike]

We have to play better than we did in the league game. Im concerned Fabinho is going to be found wanting for pace again.

 

Id imagine barring injuries, Jurgen will go with the same team as in the league but maybe have Diaz starting instead of Jota. Bobby on the bench for me.

[an tha]

2 hours ago, Aventus said:

Probably the team I'd go with, but I do wonder if Jurgen has something a bit different in mind though. He won't want a repeat of that first half, so might want to counteract what they did. 

I just feel Firmino links play well and will come deeper to help us win the ball and for me that is needed v these.

[Mook]

I think we should play Clive Bunker (ex Jethro Tull) up front. Most of the City players won't know who he is and shit their keks.

[AngryOfTuebrook]

You can't be overly confident against a team this good, but I think there are a few things going in our favour.

 

We were nowhere near our best at the Etihad, but they couldn't beat us.

Tactically, they caught us out; we will have worked on the specific points where they were able to do that.

Kyle Walker gave Robbo the runaround last week; he's likely to be missing this week.

We were able to more or less rest loads of players in midweek; they had a gruelling contest against a bunch of horrible snides.

 

It will be close, but I can see us edging it.

 

Just get these beat, Reds.

[Captain Turdseye]

Firmino looked pretty sharp midweek…

[DalyanPete]

8 hours ago, AngryOfTuebrook said:

 things going in our favour

I would add, taking a free kick from the correct position. Pissed me off seeing refs this week do the white jizz spray compared to where city too their one.

Get these beat and deflate them.

[AngryOfTuebrook]

Negative LFT.

(I'd been worried because Mrs O'T has had the dreaded lurgey all week.)

 

Ain't no stopping me now.

[Aventus]

5 hours ago, DalyanPete said:

I would add, taking a free kick from the correct position. Pissed me off seeing refs this week do the white jizz spray compared to where city too their one.

Get these beat and deflate them.

I was more annoyed with our lads for taking our eye off them. Should have got right into them and blocked the quick free kick,or feigned an injury so the ref stopped play. Little bit of shithousing goes a long way sometimes. 

[VladimirIlyich]

14 hours ago, AngryOfTuebrook said:

You can't be overly confident against a team this good, but I think there are a few things going in our favour.

 

We were nowhere near our best at the Etihad, but they couldn't beat us.

Tactically, they caught us out; we will have worked on the specific points where they were able to do that.

Kyle Walker gave Robbo the runaround last week; he's likely to be missing this week.

We were able to more or less rest loads of players in midweek; they had a gruelling contest against a bunch of horrible snides.

 

It will be close, but I can see us edging it.

 

Just get these beat, Reds.

I think it could be another draining game. Extra time and penalties are a real possibility.

[DalyanPete]

26 minutes ago, Aventus said:

Little bit of shithousing goes a long way sometimes. 

Sadly lacking from our game but makes us better people 

[DalyanPete]

32 minutes ago, AngryOfTuebrook said:

Negative LFT.

(I'd been worried because Mrs O'T has had the dreaded lurgey all week.)

 

Ain't no stopping me now.

Enjoy the win.

[dockers_strike]

4 minutes ago, VladimirIlyich said:

I think it could be another draining game. Extra time and penalties are a real possibility.

My fear as well.

[Aventus]

7 minutes ago, VladimirIlyich said:

I think it could be another draining game. Extra time and penalties are a real possibility.

Hopefully if it does get to extra time we will have the much fitter key players considering how the European games played out.

 

If it wasn't for us needing to play the red mancs on Tuesday I'd say extra time would be much more damaging for them than it us for us. 

[Bobby Hundreds]

I think it will be a repeat of the last two games unless we change something up tactically they will dominate us and we will need to be clinical.

[Creator Supreme]

20 minutes ago, Bobby Hundreds said:

I think it will be a repeat of the last two games unless we change something up tactically they will dominate us and we will need a miracle.

 

[neko]

Can someone explain to me why there are no trains between Liverpool/Manchester and London right now ?

 

Sounds really stupid to play at Wembley.

[JagSquared]

Feels like we haven’t beaten these in ages. Any news on their injuries?