There seems to be a lot of negativity about the Liverpool performance from the supporters which I don't feel is fair or justified.Easily the best side to come to the Etihad,I can't remember the last time any team came and dominated us at home it's such a long time ago. When Dalglish took over he inherited a mess and the criticism of the buys don't hold water as without the attraction of champions league football,the agueros and Mata's of this world were not on the menu so it was always going to be a case of buying to get back in the champions league before he could attempt to bring the class players in required to get to the next level Lack of a cutting edge is obviously the main problem as the one dimensional supply to Carroll is far too easy for defenders of Kompanys class to deal with and Downings doesn't seem to get the whip and bend on his crosses that were his forte at villa.Henderson and Adam appear out of their depth and I suspect you miss the balance that Lucas gives you.Gerrard and Bellamy made you a lot more dangerous but the game was up by then anyway. With an addition of a poacher like Bent in the transfer window,I see no reason why 4th spot can't be achieved Touch of class from the Liverpool fans to applaud joe hart as he took his place in net at the start of the second half,something that always used to happen years ago but has gone missing these days
Again we are good enough to hold possession and move the ball up field, we had a defensive mare tonight which was unusual from us. We run out of options in the final 3rd, there is no movement or great positioning to look for space in the box. We were all calling for Downing to play on the left more often and when he does he has no relationship with Enrique of any sort, Enrique was doing all of the work down that side tonight. Spearing played well I thought, and Henderson again had a mature performances. That first time through ball to Downing was another moment of genius that he seems to happen once a game, I think people give him a hard time over £16m...No worse than Arsenal paying £15m for Ox-Chamberlain and deffo no worse than Utd paying £18m for de Gea. I was one of the few who voted for a loss on the match thread, felt a bit pissed off with our inability to put the ball in the net and the margin we lost by but all in all we can't complain too much about coming away from City with 0 points. Let's see how much Mancini wants the Carling Cup.
to what Paul has said above but credit to Man City, they are clinical with their chances.Defence was a bit of a mess tonight but perhaps taking the game to City distracted us a bit tonight. Yaya Toure was just a menace tonight !
I think the person we missed tonight was Lucas, he reads the game so well and was the main player who kept Toure at bay at Anfield. I'm just happy to have one of the hardest games done for this season, with only Old Trafford to go to we're in for a good shout of getting top 4 if we can be more clinical this half of the season
Excellent post and many thanks for taking the time to post it! The only bit I disagree with is the poacher bit, not sure long term that is what we should be investing in!
I don't know who we can/will buy to be honest. Would Kenny buy a winger to push Downing out of the team in his first season? Same said for Carroll? Maybe someone to cover Lucas and play alongside Spearing maybe? Adam isn't good enough imo.
Toure gave a midfield masterclass to Spearing and Henderson buit hopefully they'll learn from it. I think the 3-0 margin was a little flattering to City but with our finishing and Kompany's performance we never looked likely to score. I hope we sign a striker or, heavens above, play a striker up front rather than on the wing!
I come away shocked as I thought we bossed the game and ended up losing 3-0! First goal was a rare mistake on Reina's part, second was bad defending and then the penalty...I wouldn't say Yaya dived, he lost his footing but the ref didn't see that and gave the pen. All in all, we didn't actually play too badly. Got FA cup on Friday so hopefully Stevie will get half hour there and will be ready to start the next PL game. I just hope to god he replaces Adam because he is giving me the right ump.
Paul. You're a very reasonable and constructive poster. Go to the official banter thread to view my synopsis of the game. I'd be interested to hear if you agree.
Good read this thread.. Saw the game and must admit whilst I was upset by the result, I wasn't too upset by the performance, similar story to most of this season, not clinical enough in the final third, but after the gift goal by Pepe, I thought we were more than equal to Man City in the first half.. And I don't by this 'they were in second gear' rubbish, a couple of factors, one, we didn't let them play with good pressing game high up and two, they had only played 48 hours ago (even then, they made six changes so not sure how valid that second point is..) Second half, even when they had eleven men, we were the better side, strange thing is they looked their best when down to ten men and tried to hit us on the counter attack. +tives Spearing played well, Stevie got more minutes under the belt, another mature display from Henderson -tives Adam looks like he's run out of a bit of gas and self belief, Suarez will be missed in the build up play, as seen by some of our play in the final third yesterday. Good thing is, other ManU we don't have to play any of the other top six away, whilst, with the exception of Arsenal, they all have to got to the Etihad stadium. Only three points off 4th, still hopeful that a champions league place is still up for grabs.
tbh i think most of the negativity is the lack of a goal from the chances we created, and the scoreline, not the performance. I had a feeling once Enrique made that bad pass after Barry got sent off that City were going to score on that break, and they did of course.... Agree with one of the earlier posters that City looked more dangerous without Barry
Liverpool are much better under Kenny. Its a shame that two of his biggest signings havn't hit in Carroll and Downing but perhaps another winger will mean that Downing won't be taking all the responsibility of providing crosses for the team. Adam was only 7million-ish which to be fair is more squad player value in current times than first team. Also remember that Kenny has had to sell to buy too and that net spend is only around 40m which while good doesn't make up for the Hogson fiasco and last 2 years of H&G where little positive investment in the side was made. I think a couple of shrewd singings in January then a few more inspired Suarez & Enrique like signings in the summer and Liverpool will look alot more like the team of old.
Thanks for the thread mate. Nice to hear something midly positive. Thats the trouble here. Everyone gets massively confident, then massively down! We are where we are - and thats an okay side with some very good players and some average ones. Credit to City though. Miles and miles ahead.
Yeah I agree. Every man and his dog can see it but the noises are that we will not be investing which I think is a terrible decision if it's true. Looks like title might be heading your way this year!
I do think we were a taf unlucky - 3-0 certainly flattered City. The first was a howler which 99/100 Reina deals with and the 3rd was never a penalty. How the ref could see when he had 2 Liverpool players in between him and Toure and he was about 40yards away is beyond me. I think he felt a bit under pressure after sending Barry off (which was maybe a touch harsh). The fact our 2 best chances fell to Dwoning & Kuyt (neither of whom have scored this season) kind of sums us up at the moment. Had Downing put that 1 away who knows, we would have had something to hold onto. Overall, not many teams are going to beat City at home, so let's move on and concentrate on taking as many poitns as possible from our next 4 league games without Suarez.
In my humble opinion, the game hinged on that awful miss. Such a waste of a wonderful ball from Henderson.
