City v Liverpool |Official Matchday thread |21st | 15:00

[bizzbo]

Is this the manager being over cautious and telling players to hold back or is it simply a lack of desire on the part of the players? Whichever it is it leads to shite boring football which will get us nowhere very fast.

I think it was a bit of both. I do think the balance is taking a while to sort out, but it was nearly there today. the mini break should work with three or four players supporting each other, you don't need six or seven if the players support each other and you find a quality pass, which is what was lacking more than anything else. barry and NDJ were clearly under instructions not to break too far forward, but some of the others just appeared a bit slow off the mark. zab made a few runs. bridge I wonder about.... the big disappointment was ireland, ireland, ireland.

a little bit of quality from him in the final third would have made the difference... and I would have expected him to support johnson a bit more (although the fullbacks should have done so too). how many more chances will he get? Tevez certainly will not be worried about losing his place in the team.

 

[Jnr Kisby]

This thread needs one of these

 

[blueskiza]

We defended really well today actually. It will all come together when we get Tevez back.

Toure has competition for his place. Kompany is a really solid centre back.

agree with you ther, toure is a class defender but we look fragile at times with him in defence,

 

[jmh]

Can we please stop with the "ref screwed us" bs? On here you have people saying Liverpool bought him. On Liverpool forums you have people calling him a disgrace for the 6 yellows. Both sides had one semi-legit call for a penalty. Neither was given. Mascherano should have been given his walking papers, but Walton did give them 6 yellows, including a couple that weren't really deserved. He was bad, yes, but he was bad for both sides.

Random thoughts:
-Very happy with Zaba's play today. I'm often pretty critical of him but I thought he was just fantastic. MOTM.
-Happy with the entire defense, in fact. They coped quite well, even when Torres came on.
-Johnson has a little bit of Robbie magic in him when he's got the ball. Let's just hope he's got a better work rate.
-Don't really understand the rationale behind bringing on Ibrahim, especially with Santa Cruz on the bench. He's just a young lad, but he really looked lost out there.
-Gotta hand it to Skittles. That was a brilliant tackle on Ade.
-Stupid Burnley (and Wigan through 60 mins)

 

[Whitterz]

Good Defence, good performance By Jonno.

1 point, need to win our game in hand !!!!!

 

[AlanK]

I was happy with our performance today, the crowd seemed to get behind the team a lot more, the atmoshere was better than any game i've been to this season but I wish more fans would stand up and show some passion, it definatley lifts the team.

 

[nikusha]

our defence looks works sooo much better without toure

our defence was good but there were two fuckin' mistakes made by Company

1) when he let Skrtel to shoot after the corner

2)when he was playing against Benayoun when.thanks god Benayoun didn't fall down.

 

[Citizen of Ottawa]

After the game today I had quite the sunken feeling in my chest, I thought we could have won that game. BUT! I quickly remembered all the good points I had pulled out of the match while watching it. For the first time in a long time I can honestly say that the back 4 was well organized and rock solid!! Bridge/Lescott/Kompany/Zabaleta was perfect today!! Lescott is the f'in man!! Every game he just gets better and better and better. Kompany looks so comfortable slotted in the back like that, rather than playing in the midfield. As for Stephen Ireland, too bad he went backwards rather than forwards, I blame that on being rusty. He should really be getting more starts so he can get his rhythm back. I also believe that if Carlos Tevez were playing in place of Adebayor, we would have won that match 2-0. You can just see certain situations unfold, situations that Tevez, (courtesy of his work rate), would have been RIGHT there to take full advantage of. That and Skrtel, (anyone else impressed by him today?), never would have caught Tevez.

As for the Ade penalty thing. That could have been reputation based? I notice that he drops a lot and quite easily. Just a notion.

In a nut-shell, too bad we didn't get the 3 points. But to see our back-end play like that.. I am very happy going forward. Very very very very happy indeed. Bring on Chelsea!! Anyone know if Tevez will be back for that one?

Also, I am gonna waste a Friday night by going to bed early so that I can be ready to watch City v Chelsea next Saturday at 7:45am!!!

 

[manchester_blue]

Bobby Manc got the team selection just right today. Well done sir.

Tevez, Toure and Santa Cruz (and Johnson) unavailable for first 11. Bellamy only fit enough for bench.

I thought everyone delivered and can be proud of themselves for today, we were the better team. We're still a youngish team in terms of working with one another and we will get better.

I just wish Tevez had been in there instead of Ireland. We would have done alot of better. Also Richards would have been better as a proper attacking force down the right working with SWP. Personally when Bellamy came on it would have been Ireland making way for him. Ibrahim didn't do much going forward when coming on but at least the lad was putting himself about and rushing Liverpool players into decisions.

I can't remember a midfielder with the engine Ireland's got that seems to think pressuring people is standing a few yards off them and watching what they do letting them pick out passes. Ireland needs to get STUCK IN! Not necessarily sliding in but putting your foot in there and forcing errors. I was watching him close all game and one of many such occassions remember him beckoning Zabaleta out from right back to come to the Kiverpool left back on the ball when Ireland was the closer player!?!?! Lucky Zabaleta understood his positioning better and knew not to break the back line up unneccessarily.
Ireland / Petrov get right up to the player and get your foot in for the team. This league has no room for pansies!

I wouldn't mind if Ireland was the type of player to turn it on in attack but he isn't doing it particularly in teh big games. When Adebayor put the cross along 6 yard box where was Ireland. Can't tell us he was too tired from defending and tracking it was teh first half. Come on Stevie! Don't do it soon it will be game over for a first team places you have no excuses.

Again, well done Bobby Manc and the rest of the team. Keep it up. Barry / De Jong with wingers and strikers sounds just the job for the rest of this season!

 

[lionheart]

Bobby Manc got the team selection just right today. Well done sir.
Tevez, Toure and Santa Cruz (and Johnson) unavailable for first 11. Bellamy only fit enough for bench.

But Toure, RSC and Johnson WERE available...and Johnson actually played, so what on earth are you talking about? I do agree with his team selection but still don't like SWP and Jonno swapping sides so often and so soon.