Liverpool (H) | PL | Post Match Thread

tolmie's hairdoo said:
Enjoyed our first-half display from our wide men, little wrong with our approach play, but just nothing in the box.

For me, Foden is playing for his entire City future as a regular starter, factoring in the Gonzalez signing and the need to buy a Kev replacement.

Once Rodri is back, someone will then move down the order and Foden is showing nothing to suggest he is ready to take the final step.

We had a lot of younger players out there and Foden is now an experienced, serial trophy winner, showing little in any respects.

Khusanov continues to impress. Doku and Savinho are excellent buys, but they now need support of real quality around them.

I do think if Rodri and Nico play together, the entire team will be elevated in terms of retaining possession and it will elevate the rest.

Need a right back, creative midfielder, striker and goalkeeper. Good to go.
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Yep...it's important we actually sign our first choice targets, and not find ourselves in a position of filling round holes with square pegs.
 
tolmie's hairdoo said:
Enjoyed our first-half display from our wide men, little wrong with our approach play, but just nothing in the box.

For me, Foden is playing for his entire City future as a regular starter, factoring in the Gonzalez signing and the need to buy a Kev replacement.

Once Rodri is back, someone will then move down the order and Foden is showing nothing to suggest he is ready to take the final step.

We had a lot of younger players out there and Foden is now an experienced, serial trophy winner, showing little in any respects.

Khusanov continues to impress. Doku and Savinho are excellent buys, but they now need support of real quality around them.

I do think if Rodri and Nico play together, the entire team will be elevated in terms of retaining possession and it will elevate the rest.

Need a right back, creative midfielder, striker and goalkeeper. Good to go.
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Agree with most of the points made.

Deeper issue for me is the way we play;
It's easy for teams to negate
Doesn't suit our new best players.

High line, inverted full back and short passes, that's it, that's the gameplan every week, that's down to the manager.
Whether we're playing Bournemouth or Real Madrid the opposition will set up the same way; defend deep, let City have the ball on the edge of the box, wait for a turnover and counter-attack, having Rodri back and buying new players doesn't solve our problems, we will still have trouble breaking teams down.
 
invisibleandalone said:
Some of the comments on here are absolutely mind boggling:- "Liverpool are just better than us", "they were playing within themselves". What a fucking crock of shite. I wouldn't go to watch Liverpool if they sat me in their most expensive hospitality seats for free. They are praised to high heaven for literally booting the ball up the pitch for salah to chase every game. Just look at their last few games, they must be getting very close to breaking the bank of good look over the last 5 games.
City completely dominated the game 66% possession, 16 shots to 8, shots on target 5 to 4. Please show me where looking at those stats were Liv the better team and playing within themselves. I personally thought Liv were shite and have been for the past month. Just because a team beats their opponent doesn't always mean they were the better team(except if you listen to Sky & match of the day studio responses). I was expecting a defeat today myself, simply because of the amount of missing players and players not fit but playing. Our performance didn't deserve a defeat. Liv have been very lucky in the injury department this season which has ballooned them into looking like world beaters, they're not !
A lot on this forum are brainwashed by the media and need the media to form an opinion. I know what I watched today and have completely blocked myself from all the media, knowing the bullshit that would be spouted.
Just wondering has Arnold been able to unravel his legs yet, because Doku had him tied up in knots today and was my M.O.T.M.
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And where did all that possession get us? I do agree with you, Liverpool weren’t great but they didn’t need to be. We played well and had some great performances, but those who performed great were merely making up for the ones (De Bruyne and Foden) who were utterly wank (again).

Possession is getting rewarded less and less in football, so using it as a metric of how good we were isn’t as valid as it once was.

Doku is a beast, Khusanov is too. The future looks good but let’s not kid ourselves about the present
 
I agree with those that say Lpool didn’t need to break sweat yesterday. They were better in all departments. It’s sad that the only enjoyment I got from the game was watching Doku play with ‘Trent’. It didn’t matter to the outcome though as 1) they just doubled up on him 2) his final ball is shite 3) even if it wasn’t shite there was nobody to receive it.

I still don’t know how ‘good’ Liverpool are. They will walk the PL this season but I guess the Champions League will tell us.

Khusanov did well - I found another bright spot.
 
tolmie's hairdoo said:
Enjoyed our first-half display from our wide men, little wrong with our approach play, but just nothing in the box.

For me, Foden is playing for his entire City future as a regular starter, factoring in the Gonzalez signing and the need to buy a Kev replacement.

Once Rodri is back, someone will then move down the order and Foden is showing nothing to suggest he is ready to take the final step.

We had a lot of younger players out there and Foden is now an experienced, serial trophy winner, showing little in any respects.

Khusanov continues to impress. Doku and Savinho are excellent buys, but they now need support of real quality around them.

I do think if Rodri and Nico play together, the entire team will be elevated in terms of retaining possession and it will elevate the rest.

Need a right back, creative midfielder, striker and goalkeeper. Good to go.
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You’re right about Phil, currently our most disappointing and underperforming player for me. There’s no excuse. With people like Kev, Bernie and Gundo, I can understand their legs have gone and it’s a season too far, Phil is just letting us down. There can’t be any fitness excuse now. He’s playing in a free role. Just crap.
 
Actually think that was one of the better performances of the season. Left when gundogan came on, pathetic substitutions from pep. Why play two rapid wingers with no striker is baffling. Kush looked solid. Like many have said, kev is finished and its sad to see. But we expected it, and id have taken 0-2 before the game. Wont get anything from weds, progress in the fa cup and big game against forest.
 
Benarbia’s Backheel said:
And where did all that possession get us? I do agree with you, Liverpool weren’t great but they didn’t need to be. We played well and had some great performances, but those who performed great were merely making up for the ones (De Bruyne and Foden) who were utterly wank (again).

Possession is getting rewarded less and less in football, so using it as a metric of how good we were isn’t as valid as it once was.

Doku is a beast, Khusanov is too. The future looks good but let’s not kid ourselves about the present
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The possession scenario generally crops up after a defeat, draw. It's like some sort of comfort blanket for some. I agree that it generally demonstrates that we haven't played as bad as some suggest, but it counts for nothing unless you win. What makes it even more redundant is when you hamper yourselves by continually providing the opposition with goals game after game. Like you say the future looks good, maybe more so at the end of the summer window.
 
We used to tire teams out when we had possession. Now it seems they can just take a rest. Far too few balls are played between the lines and when they are we lose the ball and open to a counter attack. Nico has helped stop them and Khusanov looks to be excellent too. But we looking a bit toothless at the moment against low blocks.
 
As much as I thought Liverpool did what they had to (and defended well as a team) and didn't seem to get into top gear, it's been interesting to read the comments from their players & Slot.

The way we play makes it a game of fine margins for us. David Mooney has mentioned it a few times that it feels like we need everything to go perfectly for us to score (slow build up giving time for them to pack boxes) whereas for the opposition it's just a lot simpler. Not sure if that will change as we have tended to give away high quality chances (albeit much fewer) in lots of previous seasons.
 
chaddblue said:
Is being 4th falling off a cliff?
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Starting with the loss to Spurs in October we went P13, W1, D3, L9. Champions of England going 13 games with 1 win.

Yes, I'd say that's falling off a cliff. We've barely recovered since and were it not for the points we gained early in the season we'd be nowhere near 4th.

And unless something drastic changes, we won't be staying in the top 4 either. And honestly, I don't see any drastic changes coming. I think Pep will carry on using KDB when the guy is shot after 5 minutes, carry on relying on Gundugan, carry on leaving Foden on when he's clearly having a mare or cant be arsed, carry on playing Lewis ahead of Grealish. Carry on not making subs when it plainly isn't working. etc etc etc.

And we will carry on dominating possession, labouring away fruitlessly in front of the oppositions' packed defenses and then watching them score for fun when they have the ball for 2 minutes. With this hopeless formula, right now there is barely a team I would be confident we'd beat.

Sorry but that's how I see it. Of course we should and will fight on, and it's far from the end of the world. But this season is finished IMO. I just hope next season is better.
 
Keeper! said:
They never got out of second gear, they did not have to.

We dominated the ball, so fucking what, we were shocking as an attacking threat, not surprising with two of our forward players invisible, we played most of yesterday with 9 men, Foden and KDB shockingly poor.
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Noo you silly, we had 65 % of possesion,we dominated them like some say.i think they would like to play that kind of city every weekend.van djik would clear everything and let salah do the work on the other side, easy win.
 
Not even that arsed because it's just where we are right now. The rest of this season will be same as its been for months. If we scrape into the Champions League then I consider it a bonus at this point.

It was always a long shot beating the dippers yesterday, you only have to look at our lack of wins over the top sides over the last 18 months. Head to head, we're not as good as those teams right now.

Time for the club and Pep to show what they're made of from next season.

The rags should used as an example of what poor recruitment can do to a once dominant team. The club need to get it right in replacing our finished players and Pep has a job to do with a new generation of city players, otherwise you can quickly slip away from being real contenders and champions.

I remain optimistic we'll get back. Just resigned to the fact we will have to endure a frustrating next few months
 
Groke said:
100% - comments like they never got of 2nd gear, or they toyed with us are absolute bollocks. Simple difference is they are clinical up front and capitalised on our suspect defending. Haaland plays and we win that. Liverpool will win the league by default, but they will be the shittest team to do so for a while.

Also, their fans are wank, Up there with the worst to visit the etihad this season.
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What chances we created that Haaland would have scored ???000. Liverpool played exactly how they wanted after getting the lead.Defend well and go for counter attacks, city offered nothing up front.yes, they are not the most attractive team and far away from citys peak team , but good enough to beat this years city twice without conceding a goal.
 
Rodri and Haaland, plus 5 months of excellent form from Foden, papered over the cracks last season. Without Rodri and Haaland, our only two world class players, we are a bit ordinary.

Add Foden having an off season, the many injuries in defence, the aging players... and making the top 4 starts looking like a significant achievement.

The same holds of Liverpool without VVD and Salah. Even with them in the team they finished 5th two years ago. The quality of the players is decisive.
 
Benarbia’s Backheel said:
And where did all that possession get us? I do agree with you, Liverpool weren’t great but they didn’t need to be. We played well and had some great performances, but those who performed great were merely making up for the ones (De Bruyne and Foden) who were utterly wank (again).

Possession is getting rewarded less and less in football, so using it as a metric of how good we were isn’t as valid as it once was.

Doku is a beast, Khusanov is too. The future looks good but let’s not kid ourselves about the present
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If you listen to Pep he explains the possession takes us to the point where we are in a dangerous position, then that’s where we failed with the final ball or decision making. Kev & Phil had nightmares & no Haaland.

I was shocked with Phil’s touch & everything from Kev, it was sad to see.
 
People seem to forgot we’ve played arguably the 2 best sides in Europe in the space of a week. Not too concerned after these losses because we were never competing anyway with these sides

Next few games will be a better measure of where we are and yes I’m still confident we’ll get top 4. Once week a game soon and a favourable run in on paper.

We’re getting over the hill of a horrible fixture list now
 
Roachy said:
The possession scenario generally crops up after a defeat, draw. It's like some sort of comfort blanket for some. I agree that it generally demonstrates that we haven't played as bad as some suggest, but it counts for nothing unless you win. What makes it even more redundant is when you hamper yourselves by continually providing the opposition with goals game after game. Like you say the future looks good, maybe more so at the end of the summer window.
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I agree with you mate. With slow build up play, we can have possession deep in the opponents half, but with them set up to defend, it's almost impossible for us to score. And then when we inevitably lose the ball, we are NOT set up to defend, and we concede often. We see this happening nearly every week. This is (obviously) why we miss Rodri so much - not only did he protect our back 4 superbly, he actually found killer passes too. It's no coincidence our stats with and without him are like chalk and cheese.

What I find really frustrating is that we are so drilled in the importance of keeping the ball, when we do occasionally break at speed on our opponents, we invariably approach their penalty area, and then stop and pass it backwards. Does my head in!
 
Littlewoods were well drilled and better than us on the night despite a decent performance by us.

Cold analysis shows Doc beating Arnold 9/10 but never finding a City player with a cross because they positioned 3 defenders in echelon from the near post to the edge of the 6 yard box blocking off the kill zone.

Their GK didn't have one driven cross to cut out and there was not a single pull back to the penalty spot or edge of the box.

Very exciting & entertaining but no decisive end product.

What surprised me was that in no stage of the game did Pep switch Doc & Sav both of whom had the beating of their full back, to see if they could hurt the dips.

Surely at 2.0 in the second half it would've been worth trying if only to win a red card or penalty.

We needed to score when we we were on top In the first 20 minutes or then before halftime.

Ultimately we didn't have enough and coughed up a couple of breakaway chances late on as we pushed forward, which were well defended and snuffed out.

Apart from one strange decision with an overhead kick,Kush had a good game for a non English speaking lad, one month in a foreign country and just 20.

His tackle in the first half was a thing of beauty and brutality.

He's a bit of a rough diamond and it's early days but there's a good, powerful and fast defender in there.
 
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