Liverpool (H) - Post-Match Thread

The central midfield is the real problem

when another side ups the tempo they are bypassed easily

when they sit off they can’t break them down and give the ball away
 
mccity said:
A positive here is that given that the entire world (including this forum) now thinks City are a midtable team, we can quietly get on with our football for the 1st time in a long time without feeling any substantial pressure.
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Unfortunately that doesn't apply to us.

It's regarded as a moral victory to the other 19 teams in the league when they take points off us.

Teams turn up when they play us regardless of our position in the league.

The broadcasting media will give us far more shit for being in the bottom half of the league than they will our inferior neighbours the rags.
 
cookster said:
And what happens if Foden comes on and distrupts the shape and we concede?

In your head he comes on scores the winner and that's all on Pep lol.
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The sad thing is we’ll never know will we.... I’ll say one thing before I give up for the night.. Foden was warmed up and ready to come on at 80 minutes to disrupt the shape.. ironic eh
 
That was just a nothingburger match imho...Sterling was terrible, kev full of mistakes(maybe time catching up with him?), gundo and rodri utterly annonymous, bernado did nothing, Kyle walker is just all physicality and lacking brain.

The only standouts were laporte, dias, and cancelo(who was motm for me). Gabby did ok and scored a belter but what else was there after that?

I remember one of the first interviews pep did when he came he mentioned mentality, well he needs to take a look at his team and himself and start asking serious questions. This is suppost to be a winning team...not one that gutlessly sits off for a draw, at home, against a team without their main defender, and with a meandering CB on a yellow for a huge chunk of the game.

This city team is in desperate need of real pace and trickery. Sterling has a turn of pace but has zero confidence it seems and his decisions on the ball are awful. Also rodri position is still a big problem...he's workmanlike at best nothign more. We need real talent there and wingers who can actual run and be a threat. What is the point in sticking with the exact same main tactic when its seemingly so easy to play against(they played 4-2-4 with 2 bang average defenders). We need a REAL plan B not one where you make slight adjustments. This is pep guardiola we are talking about...rodri and gundo are his go to in a tough game??? FML.

Shocked at the match tbh we were like a wilting spinach leaf.
 
Since when have we ever stopped trying to go for a win at home ? Looks like everyone was happy to accept the draw. Has the hunger gone ? No VVD, TAA off injured with 30 to go and we go tippy-tappy...slow, slow, no subs slow.
 
SidJames said:
We are playing like a side looking to secure a top 6 finish.

And it is on Pep.

We should have beat them today.
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We are not playing like a team looking for top 6.

You are right that we should have beaten them given that we missed a penalty at 1-1 but they would have reacted and who knows how that would have gone.

They worked very hard in the end to not get beaten.

Two top sides today cancelled each other out - the two top sides in the country.
 
Prater70 said:
Anyone heard anything about a bust up in training yesterday? Subs bench didn't make sense, three centre halves not much in attack.
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Yeah I heard the same. Bernardo nutmegged pep and pep two footed stones for laughing.
Did you hear the same?
What the fuck it has to do with the match who knows but who cares hey?
 
pudge said:
I wouldn't mind a draw in normal circumstaces but that was certainly two points dropped
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This. Completely this. At 65 mins I knew we would not lose. They were literally dead on their feet and had no desire to win the game. They were 100% playing for a draw. So why not go for the win? They were tired. We were controlling the game. We were at home. They were missing half their back line and their main defensive midfielder.

Why, oh way not try and win it then. I would understand Gundog and Rodri combo if that was one of the thought processes behind it. Stay in the game, pass them to death and tire them if the idea was then to unleash fresh legs and a cutting edge on them for the final third.

But instead he just happily let it peter out.
 
Our big players cost us again.

The defining feature of every big game woth a bad result we have under Guardiola is that when there is a moment for one of the standout plauers in the side to step up and do it when it matters, they fail.

Pep can buy anyone, out think any coach, try any selection or formation but whether its Aguero or Laporte or Sterling or KDB or Walker, they melt when they've got 1 chance under pressure.
 
Perhaps I am too easily pleased. Perhaps memories of the bad old days of 90s won’t go away. But we’ve lost once this season. Just once. We seem to have finally got a good centre half partnership. We are effectively through to the knock out stages of champs league. No we are not great but we’ve just drawn against the best team in the country (unfortunately). Yes Villa beat them but they have lost the next 2. We are not doing too bad but we do need the likes Mahrez Stirling Bernardo KDB to improve a little. And to score a penalty v Liverpool !!
 
Good news: we seem to have built a reliable back-four now.

Bad news: I never thought I'd say this about a Pep team, but we need that defence, because the energy levels going forward have really dropped.
 
My take on some of the big decision today - Their penalty, was a penalty for me, it was impetuous from Walker, he’d got the wrong side and knowing what Mane is like any contact from that angle he was going down. There was contact, it’s a stonewall penalty for me despite Mane being easily coerced into hitting the deck. Problem with was that we had a certain free kick on Sterling that wasn’t given before this Liverpool break.

Our penalty, based on the one given this afternoon in the Leicester game, it had to be given if we want officials to be consistent.
 
New midfielder needed. Pep won’t play foden or Bernie in that role so we need to replace Gundo. Each week we see the same problems. Long term I would play Kev as the pivot and 2 am in front. Sign the contract pep. Feels like this year is his sabbatical.
 
Good points:
- we managed to take control of the game after 20 minutes
- our CB pairing looks impeccable, the whole back four looks very very good
- have nothing against Kyle, he played well, once you let Mane into the box expect anything happens. I am sure Raz doesn't get that penalty in all 38 games in the league
- Cancelo, going from strength to strength, the only player who was actually trying something
- Jesus, he was very good, considering not so many games this season, he is like 60% of our defending from the front
- still we didn't lose and made them look like playing against Atletico M

Bad points:
- KdB has been crap since the start of the season, not by his standards, but by the standards of any player playing his position in the top team. He is still putting in a huge effort, but it all results in literally nothing.
- Raz is the same, since Arteta left he is been a shrinking violet and totally forgot how to play on the left side. He's been horrible this season actually apart from the very few bright patches
- Rodri was not good in the first half, so far he shown he didn't have in himself ability to play in tight places, either receiving the ball or doing something with it, it was strange to see the whole sequence of Gundo moving to the back and centrally to receive the ball once Rodri was pressed out of existence.
- I expected much more from Ferran
- Pep has definitely being scarred by smash and grab losses he endured in the PL during his time in general and by Klopp in particular
- if we just had a bit more determination, quality and composure( but we lost all of these some time in the summer of 2019), this lot was for taking, big time taking.


Anyway, for me they are still the only team to beat this season in order to win PL and we are only 2 points behind with a game in hands.
 
This result in isolation isn't that bad, it's just made to feel worse because of the Leicester/Leeds/West Ham results.

We should've won and were the better team after the first 25min - just yet another missed fucking penalty cost us.

The defence is starting to look really solid but the attack is going in the opposite direction, exaggerated by De Bruyne playing some of his worst football since he joined us. He looks knackered before the match even kicks off!

Jesus back should help things.. a run of him, Torres and Foden in the team should help liven us up going forward.
 
nobody and i mean nobody can question the miss pen from KDB it happens. he's won us more games bigger than today vs liverpool and will win us more games in the future. its a fair draw and my only moan ? will be city and pep did not push for the win late on, but its the top 2 team so nothing was given away and city keeping it tight and liverpool looking for hitting city the break

how many would have taken the point before the kick off ? i would have bitten klopps hand off before kick off
but liverpool have a look of being champions and just don't have the fight and belly this season to do it all again

if we could just only have a fully fit squad today city take the points home. we miss aguero and mendy in the line up and liverpool looked leggy in the last 20 minutes. foden could have been given game time in that free role in the middle and he would have open them up. but pep was happy with the point so we have to move on and go stronger after the international break ?

city get players back we are still the better team and we just need a bit of luck and magic and away we go
all it takes is one big win and city will be flying
 
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