City Liverpool Thread

[KunDB]

City XI | Ederson, Walker, Otamendi, Laporte, Fernandinho, De Bruyne, Silva (C), Sane, Sterling, Bernardo, G Jesus

Subs | Bravo, Aguero, Kompany, Foden, Gundogan, Zinchenko, Delph

Good to see Laporte start, with three at the back.

We are fans and we have to dream and believe, c'mon City.

[Neil Mcnab]

Kun would be a starter, unless he is injured?

[KunDB]

Kim still carrying an injury. It was touch and ho whether he would make the bench, apparently.

[goat]

well well

[Hesperus]

Perfect start.

[Rowley Birkin QC]

Having a good crack at this. Come on City!

[The Blue Blooded Maniac]

At a gig so glued to SSN! It sounds promising at least!!

[Hesperus]

Really bad decision for the Sane goal from the officials. Peps been sent to the stands for the 2nd half for protesting.

Come on City. Another half like that and anything could happen.

[Rowley Birkin QC]

Have a feeling if we get the second, the third will come right on its heels.

[Rowley Birkin QC]

Well that's made it a bit harder...

[The Blue Blooded Maniac]

Shit

[bluepill]

well ref was never going to let it happen was he

[Hesperus]

Oh well. We were never going to keep a clean sheet I guess.

[goat]

ref just taking the piss

[Lekos]

All over. Even the players know it.

[KunDB]

Tonight and Saturday screwed up by sheer incompetency on the part of officials whose wrong decisions dictated the results.

[bluepill]

one day we'll get forward without sane being off side

[goat]

big questions need to be asked in summer, the arabs must be getting well fucked off with this in europe

[bluepill]

taking silva off? da fuck

[Lekos]

Tonight and Saturday screwed up by sheer incompetency on the part of officials whose wrong decisions dictated the results.

Also us missing loads of chances.

[goat]

2 shots on target in first half wasnt it?

[Lekos]

Whack the Roma game on. Decent.

[bluepill]

probably a better idea than watching this bollocks

[goat]

nevermind whisky or koskenkorva, ken will be on the toilet duck by now

[Hesperus]

Good first half but we look poor upfront and and the back.

8 goals conceded in three games and Spurs to play next. Could well be 4 defeats on the trott.

[KunDB]

Shit defence is a key factor in this failure, and a lack of sharpness up front as Lekos said.

[Hesperus]

We need to buy a quality striker. Sorry, but I’m just not convinced by Jesus.

[goat]

jesus gets goals but breaks when he gets in his stride

[Lekos]

The Roma Barca game is excellent

[goat]

that dzeko bloke looks alright

[Rowley Birkin QC]

Ah well - at least Dzeko is still in it.

[Swiss]

I keep telling myself, not as bad as 96/97/98...

[goat]

Ah well - at least Dzeko is still in it.

and jesus navas for fucks sake

[Hesperus]

Big knock to the confidence this.  Can’t fault the team selection tonight and we gave it a go. Never felt that we wouldn’t concede though.

Disappointing.

[nimrod]

Fucked over yet again by the refs.

[nimrod]

But also you need to be able to defend to win the champions league and the simple fact is we can't

[KunDB]

The bottom line I am afraid to say is Liverpool have improved past us. Over 3 games we have failed 3 times against them. They are stronger in defence and sharper in attack. Yes we are much better in midfield, but why would we not be when we have packed the midfield with talent and quantity. At the end of the day goals win games, not possession.

[Rowley Birkin QC]

Think we need Roma's entire defence.

[nimrod]

Taking Silva off was crazy, we lost our midfield dominance

Pep has to share some blame for these 3 losses.
But the squad needs changing for next season, some players are not good enough for this level, we could get good money for Jesus, Sterling and Otamendi, we should sell them and buy better.

[Rowley Birkin QC]

Silva substitution surprised me as well. He seemed to be going well. If anything I thought it was KdB who was starting to look tired.

[silvablue]

Taking Silva off was crazy, we lost our midfield dominance

Pep has to share some blame for these 3 losses.
But the squad needs changing for next season, some players are not good enough for this level, we could get good money for Jesus, Sterling and Otamendi, we should sell them and buy better.

I think it is easy to over react after such a disappointment, but there has to be clinical analysis. Good as our season has been the frailties have been identified and I think top of the list is defence then lack of sharpness from key players up front, possible including Sterling and Sane and Silva. One we could carry, but three or more lacking sharpness is just too heavy a burden.

We need real quality in defence, world class quality.

[nimrod]

I think it is easy to over react after such a disappointment, but there has to be clinical analysis. Good as our season has been the frailties have been identified and I think top of the list is defence then lack of sharpness from key players up front, possible including Sterling and Sane and Silva. One we could carry, but three or more lacking sharpness is just too heavy a burden.

We need real quality in defence, world class quality.

Agreed but we already have the worlds most expensive defence, will the Arabs sanction even more on defenders ?

[Lekos]

Taking Silva off was crazy, we lost our midfield dominance

Pep has to share some blame for these 3 losses.
But the squad needs changing for next season, some players are not good enough for this level, we could get good money for Jesus, Sterling and Otamendi, we should sell them and buy better.

Sell Jesus? 21 years old, first season out of Brazil and 16 goals. I think you've over koskenkorva salmiakki'd your coffee mate.

We need Mendy back as well. Laporte is no left back.

[KunDB]

I am delighted Pep has finally decided to strike back publically at referees who are incompetent, and appear imo to have a bias against City.

After the match tonight he clearly criticised the actions, more accurately inaction, of Martin Atkinson and the repeat failings of Spanish referee Antonio Mateu Lahoz who once again acted incorrectly denying City in an important CL tie. He noted, quite rightly, that referee Antonio Mateu Lahoz was hell bent on being the centre of attention. Peps sending off was just plain bias, imo.

[nimrod]

Sell Jesus? 21 years old, first season out of Brazil and 16 goals. I think you've over koskenkorva salmiakki'd your coffee mate.

We need Mendy back as well. Laporte is no left back.

I just dont rate him so highly, yeah he's scored a few tap ins (like Sterling) but against bigger teams he just seems to run around a lot (like Sterling)
Maybe loan him our or something but he's not in Aguero's class imo, we need to buy better.

Hope Roma win it now, Dzeko and Kola

[gavin]

It was a decent effort in the first half. To pull back such a lead we needed one or two things to go for us and they didn't, again. These players have done a very good job over the season.

[lee]

lets not be to down lads...city init

[lee]

bet paddys flag was air rifled to fook in the first half!!

[nimrod]

lets not be to down lads...city init

Yeah its City 

Just wanna beat Spuds now

[Lekos]

I just dont rate him so highly, yeah he's scored a few tap ins (like Sterling) but against bigger teams he just seems to run around a lot (like Sterling)
Maybe loan him our or something but he's not in Aguero's class imo, we need to buy better.

Hope Roma win it now, Dzeko and Kola

He's definitely not in Aguero's class (at the moment) but they are also differebt style players.  Crisp finish from him for the goal today (unlike Sterling).

He's not the finished article but i think he's pretty decent.

[Lekos]

bet paddys flag was air rifled to fook in the first half!!

Haha

[nimrod]

He's definitely not in Aguero's class (at the moment) but they are also differebt style players.  Crisp finish from him for the goal today (unlike Sterling).

He's not the finished article but i think he's pretty decent.

If he hammers in a hatrick at Spuds I'll call myself a cnut

[goat]

If he hammers in a hatrick at Spuds I'll call myself a cnut

Nah I wouldn't mate

We will for you 

[nimrod]

bet paddys flag was air rifled to fook in the first half!!

Where is he tonight

I miss his threads 

[nimrod]

Dont normally agree with Sourness but he has a point.

[lee]

i reckon football would be better without scottish football pundits

[nimrod]

i reckon football would be better without scottish football pundits

And without EUFA

[silvablue]

The big failure over these three games against Liverpool is Peps tactics. It reminds me of King Kev. Sometimes you have to be pragmatic, rely on a strong defence and accept you cannot alway control games.

[Hesperus]

I don’t think Pep will compromise his philosophy to be pragmatic when needed. As such, we are likely to always see these types of results from time to time.

I don’t ageee with it, but as others have said it works 90-95% of the time, where we play amazing attacking football.

[Lekos]

Pretty much what Hesp said.  We should't change the way we play just because of one team. 

[gavin]

I think our main issue was that he did compromise at Anfield and then he had to change the other way because we were 3 down.

[KunDB]

I think our main issue was that he did compromise at Anfield and then he had to change the other way because we were 3 down.

I think the problem was the compromise was the wrong compromise; the wrong players (Laporte, Gundogan) added in positions that they are not familiar with and do not excel for a key away game. Peps tactics at the Eitihad were askew and smacked of desperation and bad judgement; we needed a solid defence to keep a clean sheet more that we needed a blitz attack.

We need a solid defence and a consistent defence, Otamendi has been awesome this season in the main but when the chips are down he is down on the ground with a failed last moment desperation tackle that does not win the ball. Vinny is a legend, but past his sell by date. we need a solid twosome at the back and less rotation of full backs.

[gavin]

I still think that the major turning point was not the selection but not scoring a second before half time. We'd conceded 6 in the previous two games so it is not as if we'd been solid anyway.

[Hesperus]

A 2nd before half time would have made a difference but realistically the damage was done in the first leg. History, statistics and probability would suggest a 3 goal deficit with no away goal would make it a almost impossible task.