Following on from Monday nights turgid arsenal/Chelsea goalless and entertainment free encounter was never going to be after The Lord Mayor's show,and the neutral was treated to an intriguing thriller whilst the City & Liverpool fans took turns chewing their hands in a tense end to end affair. Pellegrini paid Liverpool a compliment by setting out tactically different for the first time at home,playing a lone man to forage up top and increasing the midfield presence,no doubt largely caused by the overpowering and outclassing the Tottenham midfield on liverpools last away day. City started well and dominated the opening exchanges but liverpools engine room of Henderson Lucas and the impressive Allen gradually got to grips with yaya and Fernandinho to dominate us and began feeding the impressive movement of the front 3 which was causing serious problems with the defensive high line and but for a dreadful linesmans decision would already have been breeched. A goal was coming and it duly arrived as the movement had city all over the place and allowed Coutinho to fire home to give Liverpool a deserved lead. The inability to defend set pieces will be something to look at for Rodgers as regards January recruitment is concerned as Kompany headed home from Silvas corner following weak marking and gave City a foothold in the game they scarcely deserved. Big games often have pivotal moments and when Hart saved from Coutinho after a delightful Liverpool move,instead of going into the break 2-1 up they found themselves on the receiving end of a swift counter attacking goal by Negredo,fed by a lovely ball from Navas,although Mignolet hardly covered himself in glory. Second half developed into an old fashioned cup tie,City retreating and looking to just counterattack,while Liverpool continued to fully test the City back line through the wily Suarez,Sterling & Coutinho trio until it was like two shattered boxers as both sides visibly tired through their efforts. Rodgers took off Coutinho to the delight of the City fans to replace him with Moses,who never got beyond the periphery of the game and seemed largely disinterested,surely a goner in the window? City managed to hold on to a priceless three points in a game where Liverpool deserved at least a share of the spoils Rodgers aftermatch comments about the officials were largely justified although ill advised Mason,in my view,was too weak for a game of this stature and allowed City to cynically break up the play far too often in the middle of the park,attempting to stifle liverpools build up play Clearly the linesmans flagging was a poor one and it's a pity yet again it's the officials who are the topic of conversation the morning after rather than the superb game of football between two very good attacking sides Liverpool were easily the best side at the Etihad this season,after the mauling Bayern gave us and certainly don't look out of place in the top4 Be interesting to see what comes of the January window as if Rodgers can get a couple of decent recruits in to back up an already decent but small squad,top 4 is there for the taking Regards PPLF
For the first twenty I thought Navas and Zabaleta combining were going to bang in a fair few and we were in for a proper spanking, but we held the line (just about, comedy from Cissokho getting all flustered) and kept you at bay (you lot also went wide with a few chances). After that we woke up started to move through the gears and it evened out, then we scored and that was a kick up the undercarriage for you. Great game with lots of pacy counterattacking and Vincent Kompany's forehead putting in its usual cameo and Sakho losing his mind and getting the willies for 15 minutes in the second half. If we deserved a pen for shirt tugging on Suarez then you should have got one for Skrtel's attempts to strip off your forward line. He needs to concentrate on the ball more than getting souvenir shirts... that happens after the final whistle Martin. You lot have a very strong squad with key players to come back from injury still and time to get your away form consistent.
city sat way too far off us in the first half. theit pressing was on our cbs and our midfield in the centre circle got away scot free. thats where our success came from. frankly the state of citys first was pathetic. they reacted well like champions to going a goal down but we gave them easy set piece after set piece and skertl flogged it.... the second was even worse I could see both cissohko and johnson being very very lazy and actually blowing a lot getting back after 25mins... our ENTIRE midfield went chasing up the field leaving two cbs exposed... then even after than mingolet also flogged it. In short the second goal was in large part to lucas being awol up the pitch... where our full backs thought they coudl go without getting back (citys fast break killed us) tactical naivety again... then the second half happened.... in short they killed us mostly. we got a few chances and sterling missed a sitter but hey. in general play we were not up to it... nor should we really be. 2-1 loss is not disasterous but it shows the flaws.
MITO that's a load of bollocks! City were lucky to get their equaliser and even luckier to score their second. Before you start on Lucas just stop and think about the responsibiility of Allen in a situation where Lucas is further forward than usual. After that let's be honest, their 2nd remains a goalkeeping error. As for us not being up to it in general play then I certainly cannot remember stretches of play during which their players could relax in their superiority.
