Liverpool 1 Manchester City 0 (Oct 16 2022)

[tlw content]

 

 

 

Report by

Dave Usher

 

I’ll start with an apology. I thought we’d lose this game and, shameful as it sounds now, I would have gladly taken a draw beforehand. That’s not like me at all, I always expect us to win and I’m not sure there has been any game over the past five years where I tipped us to lose. I didn’t tip us to lose this, I couldn’t bring myself to say it so I went with a draw, but in my heart I thought we’d lose.

 

I would never say we couldn’t win because even when we were shit we still had it in us to regularly turn over United or Arsenal when they were the dominant force. These lads are clearly capable of beating City and they did it only a couple of months ago (feels like a lifetime). Of course I thought we could win, but it seemed unlikely and for it to happen we’d probably need a lot of things to go our way. 

 

The way I saw it, our best chance of three points would be to ride our luck and win a basketball type game. Of all the potential scenarios, a clean sheet for us was the least likely. A 4-3 win I could maybe see, a 1-0 one though? No chance. Yet not only did we keep a clean sheet, we never really looked like conceding at any point. Of course City had some threatening moments but by and large Alisson didn’t have to do much and was never really extended. There was nothing lucky about this in the end. This was down to hard work, great defending and a brilliant gameplan. 

 

I’d also like to apologise to James Milner for being worried about how he’d cope with Phil Foden. Last year he was given the run around by the simian featured fringe catastrophe. That was a big concern prior to the match, but Milner was rock solid and was not exposed even once. Foden actually looked really sharp and on another day could have caused us all sorts of problems (like last year) but Milner stuck to the task superbly.

 

In Millie’s defence, last season’s chasing wasn’t even his fault. He basically had no chance of stopping Foden because of the way we played. High line, no protection, loads of space in behind. He can’t run as quickly as Foden so what chance does he have? All City were doing was knocking it in the space and letting Foden run by him. This time that didn’t happen because the space wasn’t there and the protection was. More on that later, but yeah, sorry for doubting you, James. Shame on me. Won’t happen again.

 

When I saw the starting line up I initially assumed we’d gone back to 4-3-3 and I didn’t like it. The worry I had about Milner was compounded by the absence of Hendo. If we had played 4-3-3 then Elliott in that position on the right of the three would have been a big worry defensively. I would have put Hendo there in that scenario.

 

It was only when the teams came out onto the field I suddenly thought “hold on, this might be 4-4-2”. Then they lined up for kick off and I saw it was. Ok, that changes things slightly. In that set up Elliott was a better option than Hendo so it suddenly made sense. It was going to be interesting to see how we approached it though, especially the full backs. We’re so used to them playing so high but that would be a massive risk against City.

 

As it turned out, we played this game differently to any other that I can remember under Klopp. While certainly not being a defensive approach, it was unlike anything I’ve seen from us in years. Two banks of four, not defending on the halfway line and instead often getting behind the ball rather than pressing right up the pitch, while playing mostly on the break. It was more Houllier than Klopp. Not what we’re used to but I fucking loved it. We should have done it a week ago at Arsenal, but never mind. Better late than never.

 

We needed to adapt because playing the way we usually do would get us battered against City in our current state. It would have been suicide but even so, that’s what I expected us to do. Guardiola probably expected it too. We’ve never done this against him and usually it’s just “let’s go toe to toe and may the best team win”.

 

Well City are the best team right now (still fucking miles better than Arsenal despite what the table says), and going toe to toe with them would have been stupid. Thankfully we didn’t. We boxed clever. Not exactly rope a rope as like I say, it wasn’t defensive. It was just smart. Pragmatic. Sensible. Effective. We deserved to win this game because we defended brilliantly and we had the better chances. I read that we also only had 40% possession, which is virtually unheard of. What did City do with that 60% though? Not much.

 

 

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[alles ist gut]

Top, top Bobby Baccala analysis there, Dave.

[Arnaud]

Best report of the season, Dave !  We may need you upfront, time to get fit by training on five-a-side ….

[johnsusername]

I used to enjoy watching David Silva play - lovely footballer, and seemed like a nice fella. That Bernardo Silva is a right fucking prick though. Proper small-man-syndrome. Little rat.

 

Also...

 

[etho]

I'd give Nunez a go on the left

[rubble-rouser]

[dockers_strike]

Good report. city are bad meffs. They had nearly £140m on the bench with just Mahrez and Grealish.

[DalyanPete]

City and their cunt manager, cunt fans and cunt owners.

 

 Think the word I'm looking for is, "Apt"

[Pete]

 

[DaveT]

6 hours ago, dockers_strike said:

Good report. city are bad meffs. They had nearly £140m on the bench with just Mahrez and Grealish.

Grealish and Mahrez cost a combined £160m, didn’t they? Grealish cost more than our entire bench (taking Nunez’ fee at the pre-bonus £64m).

[Pete]

City are the equivalent to that Chav bloke who won the lottery a few years back.  Let's hope they end up like him again. Totally skint & fucked.

[stringvest]

That’s a great report Dave.  I think the great performance without the ball Thiago put in, negating the space and the opportunities for the City mf was missed by most, so thanks for picking that up

[Guest]

 

[TheSire]

I kind of agree on Taylor as although he let some physical challenges go he wasn't biased as he was waving play on for both teams.

 

God knows how the linesman just shits out and allows the foul and elbow on mo late on though. Cunt.

[Peter Cormack]

After we scored Taylor gave city free kicks galore, he gave us none that I can remember. After Diego’s injury Taylor should have blown for time as the 6 minutes were upand no game time had been lost; instead he gave his team an extra 4 minutes to try and equalise. He is a 100% manccunt. As for The abu dhabi national side and its supporters; they make Chelsea look like reasonable human beings. Top, top simean facial analysis Dave and a great report

[s(k)aturation]

22 minutes ago, Shooter in the Motor said:

 

 

 

Fuck the roar on the goal sounds loud.

Awe-inspiring.

 

 

 

[dave u]

18 minutes ago, Peter Cormack said:

After we scored Taylor gave city free kicks galore, he gave us none that I can remember. After Diego’s injury Taylor should have blown for time as the 6 minutes were upand no game time had been lost; instead he gave his team an extra 4 minutes to try and equalise. He is a 100% manccunt. As for The abu dhabi national side and its supporters; they make Chelsea look like reasonable human beings. Top, top simean facial analysis Dave and a great report

 

Having watched the game again, I think Taylor tried to even it up a bit after the disallowed goal. Look at the free kick he gave them that we scored from. Soft as fuck and utterly not in keeping with how he reffed the rest of the game. Before that he was just not giving anything to either side really. After it, he suddenly remembered he had a whistle. Except when Mo was being fouled.

[Guest]

2 hours ago, Pete said:

 

Great episode.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Negged.

[Guest]

 

[DaveT]

I’ve watched the game back again, in the cold light of day, and with particular focus on Taylor’s decisions, or lack of. I’ll happily argue that the suggestion that he let things go for both sides just doesn’t bear scrutiny. As I said in the match thread, the only clear cut foul that we committed that he let go was a shove by Milner on Foden. Yet he penalised us loads for minor stuff. How many times did our lads throw their arms in the air in exasperation - if anything we normally under-react to decisions going against us, as opposed to most other teams. Our CBs were quite physical - but fair - with Haaland (who didn’t  complain ) whereas Mo and Diogo were fouled repeatedly by Ake and Akanji and we got fuck all. Bernard the Rat could have been booked 4 times…. studs-up follow through on Jota, judo throw on Salah, then the sly kick, and clattering Gomez after he’d cleared. Even de Bruyne, surprisingly, resorted to shithousing when he took out Carvalho…. and of course suffered no consequence.

[fredo49]

Organised, pragmatic with a few cynical fouls thrown in -  at last.

[tokyojoe]

Great report Dave, some absolute gems in there. I think 'mythical creature that is Darren England' is my favourite.

[Carra_is_legend]

Great report as always Dave, just have to disagree with you on Taylor's consistency point. 

[Pete]

3 hours ago, Shooter in the Motor said:

Great episode.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Negged.

Negged?  For what? 

[johnsusername]

Never mind 'letting the game flow' or whatever bullshit Taylor is spouting about his performance, I'd quite like referees to blow the whistle when fouls are committed. I know, crazy talk.