Manchester City 2 - 2 Liverpool In yet another game surrounded by controversy, the Champions Man City drew with Liverpool in a game that consisted of 2 contenders for 'goal of the season.' Before the game the pressure was mounting for Man City after Man United won against Fulham yesterday; in order to reduce the points gap to 7 points they had to beat Liverpool, who have had patchy form this season. Game Summary Man City started the game in an attacking manner, David Silva unleashing a shot that was just turned over by Reina. However very quickly the game settled out and both teams took turns to riposte. Liverpool looked quite direct in their play, rarely settling in midfield with the ball in the early stages preferring instead to switch the ball to Downing and Enrique on the wing. Suarez was starting to show his talent as he wound his way around an unfamiliar City central defence partnership. On the other side Milner and David Silva were looking bright and up for the game. The first goal came from a nicely worked cross from a throw in. Liverpool should have seen the threat and closed down the ball before it had got to the cross, but some quick passing from Milner and David Silva left 4 players in their wake. Milner drilled in a low cross that Agger just missed, allowing the lurking Dzeko to pounce on the ball. Immediately Liverpool went on the attack, and were rewarded 6 minutes later when Sturridge got the ball outside of City's box before drilling in an incredible shot past Joe Hart. It seemed to be all City up until half time, but some brilliant defending from Liverpool kept it at 1-1. After Half time, both teams came out strongly but it was Liverpool who settled on the ball and looked the more dangerous. A flash across goal from Suarez almost allowed Carragher to score his first goal since 2006 as he found himself so high up he risked a nose bleed. City then went on the attack, throwing players forward. They brought on Kolarov for the 19 year old Nastatic and changed their formation to suit more attacking play. However it was Liverpool who were the next to score after a stunning goal, reminiscent of the 2006 FA cup, by Gerrard. He controlled it nicely on his chest before powering in a half volley into the bottom corner of the goal. Liverpool subbed Skrtel on for Enrique to try and keep their lead with a 5-3-2 formation. However it took City only 4 minutes to break Liverpool down, and for Aguero to capitalise on a Reina mistake. From there until the end it was all Liverpools game with sustained pressure and attacking play to try and nab that last minute goal. However, it wasn't to be and the game ended 2-2, a fair result some would say. Game Analysis I felt that as a whole the team played very well, we came to the Etihad and attacked them. A lot of teams would be daunted by their record there but we weren't and I felt we gave it a good team effort. Our forwards in particular were chasing every ball and trying to force their way into the box, which is what we like to see from a front 2 pairing. For Sturridge's goal, you can see how many people are on the edge of the box, on any other day our midfield would have dropped back and prepared for a City counter attack, but we were resolute and it paid off. I hope we can learn from that for future games. Suarez was quiet today which I was disappointed by, despite some good linking play with Sturridge he still hasn't got used to the extra support he's getting up front and I think as time goes on he'll look up more expecting there to be someone there. Reina had a poor game for me, he was at fault for the 2nd goal and a Reina on form would have blocked the first. Unfortunately we haven't seen a Reina on form for a while. Our defensive play today was possibly the most positive thing we can take from the game, I'm not talking specifically about our defenders but the defensive side of the whole team who tracked back and defended very well. There were multiple times when you could Suarez in the LB position winning the ball, or Henderson, Gerrard and Lucas marking men on the edge of the box. For the first goal they were caught out by naivety I feel, with the first bit of quality City had produced all game, they weren't expecting it, especially from Milner. I'm also going to single out Agger here, I felt he had a worse than average game, but at the same time he did certain things very well. When we needed a goal, he was storming forward on his winding runs, however he was sloppy for the first goal and if you see his position for the second goal you'd see he was caught unawares by the whole thing. Overall, I think a 2-2 draw is a fair result, if not slightly bias towards City as they capitalised on a keeper mistake. My man of the match was Sturridge for his tireless running and stunning first goal. I'm bringing this back if I can remember to do one after every match.
Errors again... Agger then Reina. Nice to see a blast from the past from Stevie. Sturridge was excellent - probably his best all round game. Suarez lively but it's nice we weren't overly reliant on him.
I don't think it's fair to say reina screwed up against aguero. He came out when aguero was trying to control the ball, forced him out, and aguero hit a wonder goal. If reina hadnt have come out, we'd all be complaining that he didn't. He was screwed either way, and only looked bad because of the once in a lifetime hit by aguero.
He had a defender on him, and he made a decision to follow Aguero. Knowing Aguero's quality, he should have trusted his defenders to deal with it. Despite the fact he's 30, that looked like a sign of inexperience.
Skyrtel stopped tracking him which meant Reina had to try and pressure Aguero into a mistake. please log in to view this image
Anyone else notice on MOTD2 how Savage and Shearer practically sticked up for Sturridge's dive? If it was Suarez how things would be different.
Skrtel went towards goal when he saw Reina was going towards Aguero/the ball. If Reina had stayed in his goal Skrtel would have stayed with Ageuro. It would have been same position but with a keeper in net rather than a defender in six yard box!
I think it highlights the need for another left back. Enrique was knackered and he was looking sloppy (understandable after his recent injury) and we had to bring on Srktel. We lose a bit of balance to our defence and shape.
I thought you played well. It was a really good game & you could maybe say you were slightly unlucky not to leave with the 3 points. You've added a good finisher to your side (told you) & so your tidy play is now getting some end product. You still look like a side that you'd not mind playing against though, as you continue to give the opposition chances & your back line looks far from secure.
I think we've dropped 14 points in total now from winning positions, and here lies the problem we have.
to balance the argument, we've also won 7 points from losing positions. (some of which were in the same games in which we were winning in)
