Liverpool - post match thread.

[Rammy Blue]

I see the knee jerk brigade are out in force. We controlled the game from start to finish. Klop and Milner admitted that their game plan was not to sit back and defend but our quality forced Liverpool to do so.

You can't claim it was Liverpool reverting to that tactic after their goal as we were dominating before the goal.

57% possession, more passes, more interceptions, better passing accuracy, more shots on target. On every single measure we were the better team, except on the most important, goals scored.

We do lack a cutting edge and I think the team lacks natural goal scorers but in no way did we deserve to lose that game. I'm just glad for once the referee wasn't directly responsible for helping the result.

I'm absolutely gutted but only a fool couldn't see the overall improvement to our game this season over last.

Wow.

That's one hell of a set of blue tinted glasses you've got, Xmas present?

 

[bugsyblue]

We've waited long enough for Pep to get here so we need to show some patience now but that is often in short supply with football fans; fortunately I expect the people with power at the club will support their new manager. He certainly needs support because he inherited a squad that needs a major overhaul to allow him to implement his style, even a style adjusted for Premier League requirements.

People refer to a manager's job being to make the best of his available resources, and I am sure Pep is trying to do that, but you hire Pep because he plays a type of football that matches the style that the club wants to establish as an integral part of its own identity. Therefore, the manager isn't here to conjure up a style that is based around his inherited resources, which is why you end up in a compromise / transition season.

You can blame management for not getting the squad into a shape for Pep's purposes but, whilst I think recruitment could have been better, that, as mosssideblue (iirc) alluded, is easier to say than do. People, with reason, complain about our full backs and ideally we would have signed at least two in the summer but the contract situations of the existing crop may have made it very difficult to open space up in the squad, a situation that will be a whole lot different next summer, so City may have acted as they have with that in mind.

I happen to think Pep is doing a lot more (right) than some want to credit him. I think for example, his game plan was fine for Liverpool but it is hard to justify when the result goes against you.

Spot on and nice to hear some sense being spoken in this thread. The pep experiment might not work but it would be criminal if us, the fans, not to give him the chance and time he needs.

 

[Blue Mooner]

Wow.

That's one hell of a set of blue tinted glasses you've got, Xmas present?

No, it was in the main just stating the facts from the game, on every measure we were better than Liverpool, unfortunately we didn't make that superiority count with goals.

 

[YaYa's Left Peg]

Why what has Klopp won? A game 1-0 at anfield against us? You'd think Liverpool has just beaten us in the fa cup final the way you're talking.

And you really don't sound like you want Pep to turn it around. You wouldn't be calling him 'my man' if you did.

I was going to PM you but...

My last post to you was flippant and disrespectful. For that I apologise.

Let's just leave it as us both wanting the best for City. I certainly do, and I'm sure you do as well. :)

 

[CrownPointBlue]

No I'm not kidding I said it on here while Milner was still with us, a good man manager tell Milner you want him as your right back, be a regular part of a great side who go on to win many things
Perfect right back, reads the game, can tackle, be great going forward, puts good ball in
We've really missed a chance to strengthen our defence

Milner was privately determined to leave but was too deceitful to publicly say so.

He fancied himself as a central midfield general...the yarkshire Xavi....and Rodgers promised him the gig.

He ran his contract down so as to get a £6M signing on fee & deny us a modest £8/9M transfer fee. He only came clean in the April.

Flopped as a midfielder,dropped to sub,played as a full back in an injury crisis & he's stuck like shit to a blanket. Clearly hates us now.

 

[bugsyblue]

I was going to PM you but...

My last post to you was flippant and disrespectful. For that I apologise.

Let's just leave it as us both wanting the best for City. I certainly do, and I'm sure you do as well. :)

Ditto mate. I know it can get heated on here but ultimately that's down to us all caring about the one thing important to all of us, City.

Happy new year. Let's hope 2017 is a good one.

 

[Adlab123]

So which two? Getting rid of aguero ain't a solution. If you give the lad the ball he scores look at his record for city and in the prem it's frightening. Get some fucking fullbacks bring back our goalkeeper or a proper keeper replace vk and replace Yaya are what needs to happen.

Spot on​

 

[jamesha]

Just read this bs in The Independent match report

"Klopp versus Guardiola pitched them where they found themselves in the Bundesliga. Guardiola at the club with the money, Klopp in charge of a club that prides itself on its passion with Borussia Dortmund’s ‘Yellow Wall’ replaced by the red wall of Anfield’s Kop. Like the clashes between Bayern Munich and Dortmund, this seemed like a game between two teams at their peak. We were half right. Liverpool before the interval were exhilarating while Manchester City delivered their limpest 45 minutes of the season."

For the 15 seconds from Yaya's free kick to them scoring I would say they were exhilarating but apart from that they were very dull. Cannot believe that people get paid to write this crap. Makes a mockery of the newspapers name.

 

[Prestwich_Blue]

Liverpool didn't have any shots on target! They had one chance and scored it, lady luck was shining for them, I'm guessing there's very few games, if any, where a team that hasn't mustered a shot on target has won a game but they did. That's football.

No one here is claiming it was a vintage performance but before the game we were being told Liverpool were going to blow us away with the famous anfield crowd behind them

They didn't, they got one goal with their first attempt, and then defended like Burnley might to hold onto the lead - and this is one of the allegedly top clubs in the premier league, not daring, or not able to go toe to toe with us.

That's the thing about yesterday, in that you can look at it from a number of different angles and come to entirely different conclusions. I simply don't agree with your assertion that we controlled it however. Liverpool allowed us to have the ball and sat back knowing we were essentially toothless. So you could equally say they controlled it. You could say we controlled the second half against Leicester but did we really? We certainly had more of the ball consistently in the second half but was there a time that you thought "It's just a matter of time before we score?" because I didn't.

 

[Scaring Europe to Death]

9 minutes to go and Navas is about to replace Zabaleta. The cameras zoom to Guardiola giving Navas some last minutes instructions, which strangely continue for another 4 minutes.
So what were those instructions?

1/I want to you to bomb down the right wing and create an open goal for Aguero?
2/Tell Otamendi to stop conceding stupid free kicks when Liverpool are running down the clock?
3/ Keep passing and eventually they’ll tire?

Buggered if I know. Did Navas actually touch the ball?

 

[jonmcity]

How a team with our resources, can end up with a defence like ours is frightening.

 

[CrownPointBlue]

W

Spot on and nice to hear some sense being spoken in this thread. The pep experiment might not work but it would be criminal if us, the fans, not to give him the chance and time he needs.

We're giving him a chance,I'd just wish he'd use more common sense,play to win the game,ugly occasionally,and stop forcing a confusing philosophy on current players who lack the ability or willingness to adapt.

A pig with lipstick is still just a pig and if you try and teach a pig to sing,you'll upset the pig and frustrate the teacher !!

 

[The-Dogs-Pollocks]

you should have told that to your own club when they bought, off the top of my head:
Alan Brazil
Peter Davenport
Garry Birtles
Ralph Milne
Kleberson
Forlan
That cokehead aussie keeper
Anderson
Zaha
Bebe
Jordi Cryff
Falcao
Di maria
Bellon
Taibi
N'Galula
Veron
Djemba Djemba
Poborski

You noisy red twat

I am as far from a red as it is possible to be. I've reported your post by the way

 

[Blue Hefner]

9 minutes to go and Navas is about to replace Zabaleta. The cameras zoom to Guardiola giving Navas some last minutes instructions, which strangely continue for another 4 minutes.
So what were those instructions?

1/I want to you to bomb down the right wing and create an open goal for Aguero?
2/Tell Otamendi to stop conceding stupid free kicks when Liverpool are running down the clock?
3/ Keep passing and eventually they’ll tire?

Buggered if I know. Did Navas actually touch the ball?

And then, waited another minute and brought Ianacheo on. Why not both at the same time? I've said earlier, I accepted Guardiola is a genius but no one could convince me that those subs at those times were a good idea

 

[Adlab123]

That's the thing about yesterday, in that you can look at it from a number of different angles and come to entirely different conclusions. I simply don't agree with your assertion that we controlled it however. Liverpool allowed us to have the ball and sat back knowing we were essentially toothless. So you could equally say they controlled it. You could say we controlled the second half against Leicester but did we really? We certainly had more of the ball consistently in the second half but was there a time that you thought "It's just a matter of time before we score?" because I didn't.

More possession does not = control. More goals = control.
To get goals, as my other half says, "why dont they shoot". My answer to her is "God knows"
Her response "Shouldnt the manager tell them to?"
I am then lost for a response for that one. But maybe she has a point. We just dont have enough shots. The oppo usually only need one,!

 

[Prestwich_Blue]

So which two? Getting rid of aguero ain't a solution. If you give the lad the ball he scores look at his record for city and in the prem it's frightening. Get some fucking fullbacks bring back our goalkeeper or a proper keeper replace vk and replace Yaya are what needs to happen.

Sanchez, Griezmann, Aubameyang, Lacazette, Icardi (who Pep had at Barca), Dybala, Bellotti, etc. None of those spend most of the game waiting for service a yard in front of the last defender, thereby making themselves unavailable for a through ball.

 

[deano ou812]

How a team with our resources, can end up with a defence like ours is frightening.

It's called taking your eye off the ball,should have been addressed a few seasons back properly..

 

[bluemc1]

If he is going to insist on passing about at the back he's going to need the best transfer window ever for us to make top 4 this year
That or he needs players there who can control the ball see a pass and won't flap under a bit of pressure, so if just go
.............Bravo:(...........
.fernandhino...Toure..Stones..Clichy..
Sterling.......Fernando.....Nolito....
...........KDB..........Silva........
.................Aguero............

Not ideal but can't be worse than what we are doing back there now

 

[The Light Was Yellow Sir]

That's the thing about yesterday, in that you can look at it from a number of different angles and come to entirely different conclusions. I simply don't agree with your assertion that we controlled it however. Liverpool allowed us to have the ball and sat back knowing we were essentially toothless. So you could equally say they controlled it. You could say we controlled the second half against Leicester but did we really? We certainly had more of the ball consistently in the second half but was there a time that you thought "It's just a matter of time before we score?" because I didn't.

I agree with this. The early goals give teams the opportunity to sit in and get in shape to control us. We are currently veering between overcommitting going forward (Everton and Middlesbrough) and hardly committing at all (Liverpool). The number of teams we play who stay in it at 1-0 down and then start to push in the last 10-15 minutes of the games seems to be lost on us. We seemed unprepared to lose 2-0 yesterday and so didn't chase it at all, even though Liverpool were retreating for almost the entire last quarter of the game but they were 'managing the game'. Game management seems to be lost on this group of players and has been for a couple of years now.

 

[Adlab123]

I agree with this. The early goals give teams the opportunity to sit in and get in shape to control us. We are currently veering between overcommitting going forward (Everton and Middlesbrough) and hardly committing at all (Liverpool). The number of teams we play who stay in it at 1-0 down and then start to push in the last 10-15 minutes of the games seems to be lost on us. We seemed unprepared to lose 2-0 yesterday and so didn't chase it at all, even though Liverpool were retreating for almost the entire last quarter of the game but they were 'managing the game'. Game management seems to be lost on this group of players and has been for a couple of years now.

Agreed.
So who should correct this and how.?