Liverpool Post Match Thread

[TonyM]

It's all these people putting down the eagle. Ye feckers!

 

[Blue Haze]

He still can't understand that his piss poor starting 11 cost us?

 

[@BluePhil8]

 

[Matty]

Simply awful from City today, in all areas. Prior to kick off the teamsheet had me concerned, with Kompany absent it seemed to me unfathomable that you'd leave Otamendi on the bench and go with a Mangala/Demichelis pairing. Demichelis had only started 1 league game all season I believe, and that was the 4-1 defeat at Spurs. Klopp's sides are all about energy, closing people down, high intensity, and not giving the man on the ball time. Why you'd go with Mangala, a player whose first touch means being closed down is always an issue, and Demichelis, who hasn't had pace for years and seems to be a player who has hit "the wall" that many defenders do where they go from being decent to way past their best very quickly indeed, is beyond me. A 2 man midfield pairing of Fernando and Toure was criminal as well given the tactics we knew we'd be up against. Fernandinho's energy and drive was required, and Toure/Fernando simply didn't have that.

Tactically Pellegrini got it horribly wrong, but the player were also simply woeful. The passing was slow and inaccurate, the game was played at snails pace, and we were second to everything, we lost the first ball, then the second ball and the third ball too. We had ample opportunities to clear the ball for all the Liverpool goals and failed to deal in a professional manner with any of the situations. It was the worst City performance I've seen for a very long time indeed.

You have to question Pellegrini's future after such an abject display. He'll see out the season you would suspect, unless the wheels truly fall off, but is he really the man to inspire us to Champion's League success, or to multiple league titles? There seems a real lack of drive, passion, and tactical awareness at times. Everyone knew how Liverpool would approach the game, it's a Klopp side, they play in the same way every week. Why we felt passing across the back in a slow manner was the right thing to do, given the players we had on the pitch, and the amount of closing down we would be facing, is a real mystery. It was a tactic doomed to failure before a ball was kicked, so why could many fans see that but not the manager?

 

[oneclubfrommanchester]

Juventus must be crapping themselves now :(

 

[MillisleBlue]

Juventus must be crapping themselves now :(

It's a roller coaster mate - we'll probably hammer Juve.

 

[1.618034]

It was over the minute the team was announced.

Woeful from then on.

 

[Pam]

Thoroughly fucking depressing.

 

[fredmont]

Team should have been kept behind to watch a re run of Salford City v Notts County. 100% effort. Tackles, chasing down, are our boys too precious for that sort of thing?

 

[paulsimpson]

Well, possibly our worst performance for a good number of years. Couldn't believe the lack of get up and go after the break, offered nothing up front. I said many times last season that MDM was finished, his pace had gone and todays abject performance should mean he doesn't play again, he's clearly past it. As is possibly Toure, his influence on this team is very much waning and for him to go off at half time says a lot.
Mangala was appalling, the guy, without a top class centre back like Otamendi or VK beside him is not good enough.
I was worried when I saw that team line up, lacking in pace and set up completely the wrong way. Our 2nd 4-1 humping this season, how many teams lose 4-1 twice in a season and end up champions? Not many I'll guess.
Kolarov, if he's not offering something up front, is a liability at the back. His crossing today was poor, again....since his goal at Everton he has been poor.
Who is behind our transfer policy in terms of having the final say? Mandala & Sterling are 2 colossal wastes of nearly £90million & Fernando resorted to type today as well. Yeah yeah yeah, I know...blah blah, "Sterling is only 12 and a half, give him time" etc etc...really? He was utter pish last season for Liverpool and has had 1 good season, or half a good season to date in his professional career...long enough for us to think spending nearly £50m on him was a sound move. At best, he is average.
I've been behind MP since day one and defended him but today.....poor tactical line up played right into their hands. Even when they were spanking us 3-0 and it was nearly 4/5 he felt things weren't bad enough to make a change...astonishing. When we won the league 2 years ago we lost 3 of our first 8/9 games, those defeats were games we should have won and played quite well in...our defeats this season have been different, 2 thumping 4-1's and a 2-1 defeat by West Ham which reeked of indifference and casualness.
Luckily, it's a very open league this season and we're still right in there but jesus, we need Silva and Kompany back and playing every week and we need a fit Kun to lift us, even a 3/4 fit Kun managed to score today, conjuring up something out of nothing & giving us some hope out of an almighty mess of a performance.
Yes, I'm probably over reacting but I'm really pretty pissed off after that shambles, doesn't exactly fill you full of confidence does it? Our record against the so called big teams continues to be rank under MP.

Superb post . Take a bow