City v Liverpool Post Match Thread

[VOOMER]

Has anyone cared to mention that we have already played 8 more competitive games than the dippers, yet we still opened them up with almost every attack?

 

[dario2739]

Liverpool fan here just some thoughts about the match and the offside situations that has been discussed over the last few pages.

Coutinho was behind the ball when he "received" it from Sterling, so he clearly was onside. Same goes to Sterling's goal against Cardiff, he was aligned (is that how you say it?) at worst. Watch MOTD from last week, they stopped the action both occasions (Henderson passes to Suarez, Suarez passes to Sterling), it wasn't offside.

About our performance. Some of you said we played "out of our skin" and you weren't at your best, yet you beat us. Firstly I don't think you can separate these two and say you'd have humiliated us should you played the way you did before. You couldn't play yout best football mainly beacuse of the way we pressed, not just because your players had an off day. You could say Arsenal played attacking football too, which is true, but their pressing was awful that day compared to ours. Secondly, we did not play "out of our skin". We did well as a team, but none of our players had a good game personally, let alone play out of their skin. Coutinho, for example, is still searching himself and missed an absolute sitter, Sterling also. Kompany kept Suarez quiet too. It's a compliment to the Belgian as well of course but still, Suarez could've played better (even if he created a few for his teammates, he was far from his best). Our midfield also did well together, but none of them played at their best, all made bad choices in front of tha goal, and Lucas, for example, had 1 tackle all in all. Hardly a great performance. Defensively we were as shaky as always, maybe more, and Mignolet did awful at both of your goals. My point is that while we did ok overall, worked hard and our tactics was spot on, it was far from our best performance this season, and we could've played better.

It was a good game, don't get me wrong, but I think neither team played as well as they could have. I feel a draw would've been a more fair result, but you did just enough to see us off, and we weren't clinical enough to take a point, so a deserved win overall. You play some fantastic football, have a great squad and a clever manager so when you win the league in May (and I'm pretty sure you will), it will be fully deserved.
Good luck to the rest of the season.

You did press well, but so have some other teams.

You were more dangerous than most because of Suarez.

The difference in City's performance is that although teams usually create chances against us, when we get in positions of 3 v 3 etc by successfully pressing in their half, we usually pick out better options & score goals. Against Liverpool, we started to turn over a lot of ball in their half round about an hour, but constantly cocked up the final pass when easier options were open.

Had we done the same v Arsenal, that too would have been very close. They caused us many more problems than you did & scored three goals.

The difference is that we were more clinical v Arsenal & cashed in when they were pressed into mistakes.

The idea that had Liverpool scored again at any time, they would have got at least a point is also interesting. In both games, we went up a level when we needed to, & scored again.

What the dippers seem to forget is that due to Aguero's injury we had to set up slightly differently than we usually do at home - had Sergio played I think they'd have seen the usual City and the usual scoreline... let's not forget the fookers we're damn lucky not to be one down after about five minutes, had Nava's header hit the inside of the post... ok it's a big IF, but all of the Scousers arguments are IFs and BUTs!
Yeah Sterling was wrongly given offside, but after watching the highlights I feel Hart was quick off his line and could have done enough to put Sterling off, who knows... again all IFs and BUTs.
As for shirt pulling, well I watched the Dippers v Cardiff game on BT Sports last week – Skrtel was at it all game then too... Owen even commented on it a few times, so you'd like to think it would have been in the Ref's mind to look out for it... good to see Shearer on MOTD actually mentioning it too, correctly saying that if Suarez got a pen for it, then City should have had one for every corner!
End of the day, we had more possesion, more shots on and off target, more corners... and got 3pts – no IFs or BUTs about that!
Oh and as for Ref bias... one look at our record of games Mason has reffed should be enough to show Rodgers that we've never received preferential treatment from him before!

 

[Gillespie]

Liverpool a bit unlucky with the offside decision, though impossible to predict what might have been if the goal stood.

I don't rate Lee Mason highly as a ref but he's certainly not the worst one out there and you can hardly blame him for the linesman's ineptitude.

A good game, but on balance, I think a draw would have been a fairer result, though Rodgers might well have reflected on Mignolet's mistake which gifted Negredo a goal and not just the official's poor performance.

 

[LFC-Fans]

No you didnt.. we had more possession,more shots,and more goals...the one thing you did more of was shirt pulling!!
Nosferatu 3-Lescott 1.

One injury to bugs bunny and you are fooked

He's now lovingly known as the 'racist beaver'...

Whatever I've got no time for this. I am well chuffed with our performance. That's all that matters for me, and if we (not just Suarez) carries on playing like that. We'll have a great year!

 

[adrianr]

I wonder if Liverpool will do a Newcastle next year regarding europe stretching them.

Liverpool did play well but we pushed harder and with more danger, not by much i should add.
The fact our defense forced Suarez back to the diver is imo a complement to our defense.

Liverpool have a dilemma though now.
Henderson has shown why they bought him in the first place but we only see this with no Gerrard.
He inhibits Henderson imo so they are gonna have to start to fade Gerrard out soonish. He is not getting younger and seemingly impeding Henderson's progress.

A good match for the neutral including my red dad who thinks we deserved the win (just) but was also very impressed with Liverpool.
Did my nerves no good at all but we won and it showed we have the bollocks to get stuck in and not be knocked of our game.

I think we've had a discussion about Liverpool in Europe before and you're spot on. This season we've already played 6 more games in Europe alone, two against the best team in Europe, one in Russia being notable pains.

Juggling that with competing in the league really sorts the men from the boys, and it's also the point at which Liverpool's owners have to decide whether they want to invest heavily in the squad (again) to stay in the top four, whch I'm sure they will, or risk dropping back out next season when the rags inevitably get their shit together (assuming they get fourth, which with lack of euro etc and the quality they have they really should be doing).

 

[Dave Ewing's Back 'eader]

So Brendan Rodgers is outraged by the officials yet his own players Skrtel and especially Suarez spend so much effort on provoking opponents into wrestling matches and feigning injury and fouls.

Bodgers is just a shit Wenger. He's another one of those managers who never see anything in their own penalty area.<br /><br />-- Fri Dec 27, 2013 1:37 pm --<br /><br />

Liverpool fan here just some thoughts about the match and the offside situations that has been discussed over the last few pages.

Coutinho was behind the ball when he "received" it from Sterling, so he clearly was onside. Same goes to Sterling's goal against Cardiff, he was aligned (is that how you say it?) at worst. Watch MOTD from last week, they stopped the action both occasions (Henderson passes to Suarez, Suarez passes to Sterling), it wasn't offside.

About our performance. Some of you said we played "out of our skin" and you weren't at your best, yet you beat us. Firstly I don't think you can separate these two and say you'd have humiliated us should you played the way you did before. You couldn't play yout best football mainly beacuse of the way we pressed, not just because your players had an off day. You could say Arsenal played attacking football too, which is true, but their pressing was awful that day compared to ours. Secondly, we did not play "out of our skin". We did well as a team, but none of our players had a good game personally, let alone play out of their skin. Coutinho, for example, is still searching himself and missed an absolute sitter, Sterling also. Kompany kept Suarez quiet too. It's a compliment to the Belgian as well of course but still, Suarez could've played better (even if he created a few for his teammates, he was far from his best). Our midfield also did well together, but none of them played at their best, all made bad choices in front of the goal, and Lucas, for example, had 1 tackle all in all. Hardly a great performance. Defensively we were as shaky as always, maybe more, and Mignolet did awful at both of your goals. My point is that while we did ok overall, worked hard and our tactics was spot on, it was far from our best performance this season, we could've played better.

It was a good game, don't get me wrong, but I think neither team played as well as they could have. I feel a draw would've been a more fair result, but you did just enough to see us off, and we weren't clinical enough to take a point, so a deserved win overall. You play some fantastic football, have a great squad and a clever manager so when you win the league in May (and I'm pretty sure you will), it will be fully deserved.
Good luck fro the rest of the season.

If we did enough to see you off then we deserved all the points. How would a draw have been fair? Or is that how it works t'other end of the East Lancs?

 

[Danish Blue]

As touched on by a few here already, the big difference in the City performance for me today was the absence of Aguero. He, and Tevez to a lesser extent allow a whole different system which City have exploited with huge success at home. There were numerous occasions yesterday when we picked the ball up in the Liverpool half and then made a bad decision or play was too slow to capitalise. He is also the perfect foil for Negredo who was a bit too isolated at times yesterday. You may lose a bit of control in the middle of the park but by playing Silva and Nasri the difference is negligible and the effect on the opposition of Aguero means there full backs get forward a lot less with him constantly running the channels. It was a game tailor made for him yesterday, and with him in the team I feel we could have run out more convincing winners. I think we need to look at alternative systems when he isn't playing as the sharpness in the opposition half is not anywhere as intense.

Without Aguero we failed to drag the opposition back 5 around as much as other teams, where they have lost their shape Liverpool generally managed to maintain theirs.

It was a huge bonus however to have Zabeleta back and he made a big difference, and to be fair the sometimes hit and miss Kolarov was key in helping out his defensive colleague on the left on several times. Seems strange to me there was no place for Milner in the starting line up, had he played 60 minutes he at full tilt there may have been more space for a Nasri late on to make an impact, although Nasri has been decent this year and I suppose dropping him would have been harsh.

 

[JoeMercer'sWay]

I thought Everton pressed better than Liverpool did, I think 4 main issues prevented us being at our best: 1) we didn't have Aguero, 2) we didn't press their CB's nearly as well as we should have meaning they could play out to their strengths, 3) we had Lescott who was out of his depth, 4) With 1 up it was easier for Liverpool to break up our attacks.

I think all 4 are independent of what Liverpool tried to do yesterday, so really it was down to us not playing near our best as to why it was such a close game.

 

[cyberblue]

It was a cracking game to watch .but Liverpools Manager does himself no credit by critising the match officals .ok there player wasnt offside & got flagged for it .he may or may not have gone on to score .but Liverpool did score & couldnt hold there lead. Liverpool also missed a couple of sitters & the goalie dropped a clanger, so nothing has changed down the East Lancs .it aint our fault lets blame some one else. as for penalties we should have had one every time we had a corner

 

[wasntoffside]

If we did enough to see you off then we deserved all the points. How would a draw have been fair? Or is that how it works t'other end of the East Lancs?

You did because you scored one more than us. But as a team I don't think you played any better than us, you were slightly better statistically and took advantage of our mistakes but I think it was pretty even, so a draw would've been fairer. Then again, you won, so at the end of the day it was enough, wasn't it?