Was probably a bit ****ty of me to say "your" thinking, it encompasses a large majority of bigger team supporters (including myself at times). I should have just said there are no bankers in the PL for anyone
Honestly, Ming's would probably have conceeded the 2nd goal, I never trust him one on one. but the free kick is the kind where he really shines and he most likely would have stopped that one. There again, the time that Karius punched Mandy is the type of cross Ming would have flapped at and probably would have conceeded. We probably would have conceeded twice with Migs too. We deserved at least one penalty and the win to be honest, but such is life. We're having a mid season dip, seems an annual occurrence for us. All is not loost.. we won't get the title but still opportunity for a season to be proud of. With a bit of luck we might have a book written about our road to 2nd again.
So here we go again, just like the Palace game there's absolutely no discussion of OUR penalty claim. Don't get me wrong, we had our own chances to make the ref irrelevant, but when you think about Alan Smith at Sky and MOTD for the umpteenth time,,, well it's bent, isn't it? #bbcsalford
Do you really believe we could top the table again? I think it is unlikely. We could catch Arsenal, especially if they have some cup/CL distraction but I can't see us catching Chelsea. I hope I'm wrong but they look really solid at the moment. In fact I (the pessimistic in me) am conscious that 3 teams are bunched up - LFC city and Spurs - to compete for 3rd and 4th. Arsenal and Chelsea seem to have moved to take the 2 top places. The red mancs seem to be out of it (at least for the time being).
I think we can, easily. Chelsea are going great at the minute but their attack looks to be reliant on Costa & Hazard being available for the rest of the season. Costa has been known to have problems with his hamstring, one unfortunate injury and their attack looks in trouble IMO. The small positive for us out of the last 2 games is that even without Coutinho we've proven we can score lots of goals, could the same be said of Chelsea if Hazard was injured? I'm doubtful. It just relies on us cutting out silly mistakes like the Matip one today and the many mistakes from the Bournemouth game last week.
Chelsea have 2 potentially tricky games coming up away to Sunderland and palace. Neither are walkovers at their own ground. Also so they say bigger teams cope better around xmas but Chelsea depth isn't looking brilliant. They've stuck to a very rigid starting 11 for last few months. Over xmas can they continue to do that? If not and have to rotate rotate some key players and positions like Costa hazard Moses Pedro etc, do they have the personnel to come in off the cold to slot straight in? 6 points is nothing ATM. Obv rather have 6 point advantage than catching up but we've seen how we've dropped 5 points in space of a week. It's easy in this league to drop and catch up. United have won 3 of their last 10 league games... 6 points off 4th. Everyone at the top is and will drop points, but like many have said before you can only win your own games. If we win all our games, we'll only win the league if Chelsea lose 1 more than us so concentrating on winning your own games and if that's not enough to win you the league or get top 4 etc, then applaude the team that better you.
In case peeps missed it chelsea have won 9 in a row. This league is theirs to lose.. why? City have shown thry simply have not got it sorted. we cant defend and arsenal are arsenal... I personally felt our intensity was lacking and gave them every encouragememt after 10mins. In case anyone missed it our second goal was a complete flog by their **** keeper. Oh and finally in case anyone missed it 3 shots on target.... We actually got lucky to get back into a game we should have scored at least 3 in first half had we bothered our holes.
Shots on targets and clear cut chances - we've lost out on these two metrics in the last two games. Frustrating how we have so much possession but are creating less.
Crossing today for LFC: Milner - 15 attempted, 2 successful (13.3%) Henderson - 10, 3 (30%) Firmino - 6, 0 (0%) Clyne - 4, 0 (0%)
Matip is classy I'll give you that one. I think this guy is just gonna get better and better, he seems much more experienced than his age and ok that second goal yesterday was possibly his **** up (50/50 between him and the goalie if you ask me) but it didn't totally ruin him for the rest of the match like it does with most of our defensive players when they make one mistake, he just put it out of mind and continued in his usual manner which is a great sign Milner is industrious, lots of huff and puff and the best option we've got in our weakest position that we've incredulously not sorted out for years but lacks quality end product. He's an option for now but he's not getting any better, he's at his peak with us (probably past his peak in terms of his whole career) and we badly need to rectify this situation Mane can be an exceptional player in time, he's extremely quick both in terms of running and with his feet on the ball but - and it's quite a big but - he lacks awareness and his decision making when on the ball is terrible, there are times he should just get rid and he'll take a touch and another touch and another touch and nothing comes off when he should just be looking for an out. He seems to be an all guns blazing type of player, too frantic and not giving himself time to think, trying to do too much. If he can get that awareness into his game he'll be an awesome player
