City v Liverpool Post Match

[SebastianBlue]

apart from that spell around the time of their goal when we went into headless chicken mode for a few minutes.

I've got a real problem with this - it's not the first time it's happened. You can see that the team is just so used to attacking and moving into spaces further and further up the pitch, that when we do need to sit tight like that for 10 minutes, we inevitably end up looking worse defensively than we do when we're attacking at full throttle. We could've and should've buried them when Dinho came on. Passed through them and scored one or two more. Instead everyone decided it was time to play hoof ball. Bizarre and unnecessary with that many ball players on the pitch.

Unfortunately a lot of that "change" coincided with Silva being taken off, which I am sure was for a very good reason but still affected the flow of the match drastically. He was a bit off in the first half but in the second he started to really take hold right before he was substituted. Couple that we three new players coming on in fairly quick succession and we began having difficulty gaining and retaining possession which served to exacerbate our defensive woes described above by Taconinja.

 

[BillyShears]

apart from that spell around the time of their goal when we went into headless chicken mode for a few minutes.

I've got a real problem with this - it's not the first time it's happened. You can see that the team is just so used to attacking and moving into spaces further and further up the pitch, that when we do need to sit tight like that for 10 minutes, we inevitably end up looking worse defensively than we do when we're attacking at full throttle. We could've and should've buried them when Dinho came on. Passed through them and scored one or two more. Instead everyone decided it was time to play hoof ball. Bizarre and unnecessary with that many ball players on the pitch.

This will perhaps sound odd, but I think we didn't adjust well once Sterling went off and Sturridge moved to our left side. Clichy moved farther up the pitch instead of dropping back as far as he had when Sterling was in the game, and that left MDM one-on-one with Sturridge and that cost us.

I'll have to watch that again - didn't jump out at me at the time. I'm really looking forward to seeing Mangala play. That left hand side has been a bit of a problem for years now. It'll be interesting to see how having someone who is very quick and technically very good play alongside Clichy/Kola will help them.

Another thing - as against Newcastle I'm rapidly coming to the conclusion that what we see as 442 is actually 4312 with Silva and Nasri alternating between who makes up the third man in midfield and who goes looking for the space in between the lines.

 

[sir baconface]

Well sod all you happy clappies I have serious concerns.

Demi needs to re grow his pony tail so I can recognise him.
The close cropped shaven headed black players who all look the same need to take a leaf out of Ballotellis book on hair fashion then I know who is who.

And to cap it all I thought Sergio passed to Sergio to score his goal.

I sit at the top of the third tier, very top. I really need to go to Specsavers.

Hope you didn't shag ma-in-law when you got home?

 

[sir baconface]

Great post. ( Although I was watching the match in the middle of a field in S.Wales with shit 3G, so for most part was watching 22 blurry blobs and no ball).

Porn hub?

 

[Henkeman]

Not really sure that can be levelled at Smith. He's one of the few who consistently purrs about City.

I watched the game this morning and overall Smith had nothing but praise for City and as you say,he really does think we`re the bees knees.

Disagree. I'm not really an "agenda" sort of guy, but honestly if anyone believes that the commentary would've been the same were it United putting Liverpool to the sword or Arsenal even, then they're just wrong. The biased and negative nature of the commentary from both of them was beyond the pale from so called neutrals. Actually I can only speak for the first half, because second half I watched the local broadcast rather than the English one because I was sick of listening to those two muppets talk down everything we did.

I don't really follow the general view on Tyler, but lots do, so fair enough. But you're really wrong about Alan Smith. In print, on air he's extremely favourable towards City. He was one of hardly any who tipped City for the title last season.

 

[SebastianBlue]

Well sod all you happy clappies I have serious concerns.

Demi needs to re grow his pony tail so I can recognise him.
The close cropped shaven headed black players who all look the same need to take a leaf out of Ballotellis book on hair fashion then I know who is who.

And to cap it all I thought Sergio passed to Sergio to score his goal.

I sit at the top of the third tier, very top. I really need to go to Specsavers.

Hope you didn't shag ma-in-law when you got home?

Does he have trouble telling the white players apart, too?

Only Kompany and Fernando are hard to tell apart sometimes because they run in a similar style, often take up similar positions (or interchange), have a similar skin tone (that radiant coffee colour I disparately want and yet have to settle for milk with a dash of espresso) and I'm often using a stream which makes everything pixelated.

 

[Stoned Rose]

Our 2nd goal had 20 passes.

Against 'the best footballing side' in the league last year.

Just sayin.

 

[SebastianBlue]

Our 2nd goal had 20 passes.

Against 'the best footballing side' in the league last year.

Just sayin.

But we failed to dive at every opportunity, maliciously batter players just for the fun of it, and winge to the referee that he had only given us 85% of the 50/50 calls.

We were ****.

 

[cleavers]

Well, given the time of the season, the opposition, the difficult fixture list start, and the world cup returning players, I thought we were very impressive last night. Its been said that we had a "difficult" first 40 minutes, but that wasn't how I saw it, I thought we largely contained Liverpool in that period, without really breaking out of second gear, using counter attack as our main weapon. As half time approached, I thought we upped it a bit, and while the pundits will have our opening goal down as "against the run of play", I didn't think it was. I just thought we were growing into the game.

Liverpool have lots of threats, even without Suarez, and we pretty well contained them to nothing in that first half, they had quite a bit of possession, but did little with it, and bearing in mind that Zab, Kompany, and MD have only been back for 15-20 days in pre-season, that they looked very good, and Clichy was good, though I wish he'd learn to get beyond his man and get crosses in, if only we could combine the best of both Kolorov and Clichy, we would have one special player.

Attacking wise we have amazing options, we truly do, Our front four are obviously good, and we can pretty well play any combination, but add to that we can use Silva, Nasri, or Toure up front as well, its pretty devastating, and I suspect Fernandihno could also do a job further foward too. I thought Dzeko was excellent last night, his hold up play was good, he worked back defensively well, and his movement was good, Jovetic is the new signing we needed up front last season, it might be a year late, but he's going to be a real star in this league if he can stay healthy, allowing us to use Sergio far more wisely, its a great problem to have.

Fernando is just what we needed, yes it will take him a little time to get up to speed in the PL, its way quicker than he's used to, but the signs are very good for me.

Above all else, we really do look a team, and its now a team where the sum is greater than the parts, if we can avoid the injury list of last year, and we don't win this league, it will take something very special to stop us.

 

[r.soleofsalford]

Well, given the time of the season, the opposition, the difficult fixture list start, and the world cup returning players, I thought we were very impressive last night. Its been said that we had a "difficult" first 40 minutes, but that wasn't how I saw it, I thought we largely contained Liverpool in that period, without really breaking out of second gear, using counter attack as our main weapon. As half time approached, I thought we upped it a bit, and while the pundits will have our opening goal down as "against the run of play", I didn't think it was. I just thought we were growing into the game.

Liverpool have lots of threats, even without Suarez, and we pretty well contained them to nothing in that first half, they had quite a bit of possession, but did little with it, and bearing in mind that Zab, Kompany, and MD have only been back for 15-20 days in pre-season, that they looked very good, and Clichy was good, though I wish he'd learn to get beyond his man and get crosses in, if only we could combine the best of both Kolorov and Clichy, we would have one special player.

Attacking wise we have amazing options, we truly do, Our front four are obviously good, and we can pretty well play any combination, but add to that we can use Silva, Nasri, or Toure up front as well, its pretty devastating, and I suspect Fernandihno could also do a job further foward too. I thought Dzeko was excellent last night, his hold up play was good, he worked back defensively well, and his movement was good, Jovetic is the new signing we needed up front last season, it might be a year late, but he's going to be a real star in this league if he can stay healthy, allowing us to use Sergio far more wisely, its a great problem to have.

Fernando is just what we needed, yes it will take him a little time to get up to speed in the PL, its way quicker than he's used to, but the signs are very good for me.

Above all else, we really do look a team, and its now a team where the sum is greater than the parts, if we can avoid the injury list of last year, and we don't win this league, it will take something very special to stop us.

from rawk "The biggest problem we have on here is that too many posters are trying to assess our shortcomings after loosing to the best team in the country"