Poor performance, poor result, just poor all around. It was always going to be a struggle against Man City, but that was a proper thrashing. Unfair to pick out a player in particular - they were all poor - but defence and central midfield made a litany of errors. Really dispiriting stuff - first time this season we looked like a League One side from two years ago. It’s quite clear if we do somehow stay up this season, we need another summer of investment to keep developing and pushing on. That will easily be our worst defensive performance of the season. Maybe we made too many changes back there, maybe it was just a great day for City where everything clicked - either way, annoying. Hopefully we don’t lose too much confidence.
I actually thought for the first 25 we played well, and they hadnt found their mojo. If we had scored 1st, things might have turned different.
I don’t know - a couple of those shots looked saveable. It was another ropey Walton performance. Still better than the alternative, for now. I thought Godfrey was pretty poor. Quite clear he hadn’t played a lot of football this season as his first touch was often too heavy. He did try and get forward though, which is more than we can say for Davis - who has an annoying knack of stopping himself push into the final third and decides to play a backward pass. Both O’Shea and Burgess probably had their worst performance in a Town shirt. Morsy looked poor, but Cajuste definitely had a stinker. All too often caught out in possession. I think it’s fair to say Jack Clarke had his last start of the season. Philogene probably the only bright spark tonight, thought he looked okay coming off the bench - albeit by then City had put a few reserves on and were content to coast. Delap struggled without service, but that first half chance he had to get in the area was screaming for a pass to an unmarked player just in the area. Went for glory instead and wasted the chance. Possibly I’m being too harsh, but that performance really highlighted the weaknesses in this team and makes me think all three promoted sides are going straight back down again this season. If I was Woolfenden, Greaves, or Broadhead sitting this one out, I’d be right miffed!
Don't think there's many silver linings to that, a worrying tendency to let an opposition goal open the flood gates seems to be creeping back into our games. Forgetting the game I think would be the wrong approach though, watch it back, identify all the areas we were exposed, work on them. Train really hard, find a magic lamp and ask the genie for a 6-0 victory to us at Anfield.
The problem was, we need to highlight certain players, especially Hutchinson, every time he got the ball, he lost it, which then put massive pressure on the defence and midfield. Why Johnson was playing was beyond me....thank feck tuenzebe is back!! Philogene looked decent when he came on, agree also about Leif keeps turning back and playing the ball backwards and sideways, someone needs to show him his highlights reel from last season!!
One of those games, played well first few minutes. Man City showed their quality then we folded. Interesting to see it looked like McKenna went a bit more attacking today. And strangely majority of Man City attacks came from their left hand side.
I wouldn’t be disheartened at that. I watched the last City game against Brentford and you could see then they’d turned a corner. They’ll go on a run now and start putting a lot of teams to the sword. Whoever they played today was always going to be on the end of a thrashing.
Made it to the game and home again. Man City were very good once they got the lead and I don’t think there are many sides that could have lived with them. Player wise, there were 3 that stood out for me for the wrong reasons. As Spanish has already said, Omari was poor today - tries to do too much and is ineffective. Johnson is not good enough defensively (although he is ok going forward) with the arrival of Godfrey and Axel’s return from injury, don’t think we’ll see him playing there again. The 3rd player is Morsy - he has been the driving force behind back to back promotions but as much as I hate to say it, the PL is too fast for him. We need someone to play alongside Cajuste - it’s not Phillips and I don’t think it’s Morsy either. Can we get someone in during the remainder of the window?
Morsy has been exceptional for the past 3 years and on the whole this season the past month or so he hasn't been great but I don't think Cajuste has been all that recently, I think the ways we've played recently particularly with 3 CBs has made it a really tough ask for our midfielders. Some of the earlier games in the season we had good periods where we were dominating the ball and often playing probably the biggest part in that was Morsy... lets not write him off yet. I do think it is an area we would be wise to strengthen though.
Good, honest McKenna post match interview. We played well for 25 and then after 2 quick goals, the game got away from us against the best team in the division on their day. They were just better than us all over the pitch, as is to be expected from the 3 times champions. Lets not be too dispondent and remember where we have come from. These 2 games against Man city and L'pool wont define our season. We need to stay determined, players coming back, and hopefully another signing or loan and us fans need to keep the faith, as games get a bit easier. We've shown we can be keenly competitive against most teams in this league, but the gulf we know is big between us minnows who are developing, growing, building on recent succesfull seasons with League 1 players. If we are in with a shout come March, our new signings will be bedded in, I remain confident we can stay up.
Going back to a much earlier thread, I wish KM would try Delap and Hirst up front together. With Broady or Sammy wen fit, behind in the no 10 role. At the moment, the 3 behind the central striker, especially Clarke and Hutch give the ball away too often. Both Delap and Hirst would enjoy this partnership as they can score goals out of nothing, Hirst finds spaces and we all see that Delap doesn’t have close enough support when he tries to hold up the ball. It might be time to try a new formation, but perhaps not at Lpool!
Ooooo gaffer, don't ever mention 442, you will get laughed out of Town!!! I personally think it would suit us, the formations tried this season ain't bloody worked so....
Don't forget Delap played on the right for Hull alot last season with Philogene on the left....not beyond the realms on possibility.
