Man City game

[Rich]

Walking past you plank!

[pondus]

What's with this Man City obsession in the media, ooooh they will break into the top four because they have so much money in the bank, Robinho this, Robinho that. You don't play better football because you have £469 000 000 in the bank. They bought one player after the takeover, one player ffs. And it was Robinho...
Come Christmas they will be some 15-20 points behind the league leaders (us ), and nobody will even notice them anymore. (Until they spend half of their money in january )

COME ON YOU REDS!!!! Three points Sunday and we are on our way

[Kenneth]

What's with this Man City obsession in the media, ooooh they will break into the top four because they have so much money in the bank, Robinho this, Robinho that. You don't play better football because you have £469 000 000 in the bank. They bought one player after the takeover, one player ffs. And it was Robinho...
Come Christmas they will be some 15-20 points behind the league leaders (us ), and nobody will even notice them anymore. (Until they spend half of their money in january )

COME ON YOU REDS!!!! Three points Sunday and we are on our way

Didn't we draw 0-0 last seaon when they didn't have Robinho? A game that summed up our season really. We spanked than and didn't win. If they decide to attack more, which I think they will, they have enough to hurt us and score some goals.

[Woobus]

Didn't we draw 0-0 last seaon when they didn't have Robinho? A game that summed up our season really. We spanked than and didn't win. If they decide to attack more, which I think they will, they have enough to hurt us and score some goals.

If they are allowed to attack us, I am sure United and Everton hoped to attack a lot more than they did. Thanks to the work of Keane and Kuyt upfront the other teams have been on the back foot from the off recently.
We can hope they try to attack more as I think if they come out to play we should be able to take them.

[barnes10]

Didn't we draw 0-0 last seaon when they didn't have Robinho? A game that summed up our season really. We spanked than and didn't win. If they decide to attack more, which I think they will, they have enough to hurt us and score some goals.

they also defended as a team. something they won't do if jo, gary coleman and elano are playing. isnt dunne out too? he had the game of his life in this fixture last time.

if our defence is wobbly again they'll score but we've kept far better sides than them from scoring.

we've strengthened our attack and are on a bit of a roll.

away win.

[dww]

I think we have to play Keane with Torres. The key to the rest of the team to me is the decision about whether to play Mascher. If we play him I would be hesitant to play Kuyt on the right although for me he has been one of the best performers in the last few games.

I liked the balance of the team against PSV but really the setup is best against teams with a crap midfield. I haven't seen enough of City this year to know whether their CM area is anything to worry about. I'd be very tempted to play the same team again but suspect we will see Mascher in for Alonso at the very least.

[Woobus]

I liked the balance of the team against PSV but really the setup is best against teams with a crap midfield. I haven't seen enough of City this year to know whether their CM area is anything to worry about. I'd be very tempted to play the same team again but suspect we will see Mascher in for Alonso at the very least.

I was reading something earlier which had Rafa saying Mascherano was fit for PSV but he decided to rest him for the City match. Would think he will definately play but not sure who he will drop for him.

[Pablo]

I think we have to play Keane with Torres. The key to the rest of the team to me is the decision about whether to play Mascher. If we play him I would be hesitant to play Kuyt on the right although for me he has been one of the best performers in the last few games.

I liked the balance of the team against PSV but really the setup is best against teams with a crap midfield. I haven't seen enough of City this year to know whether their CM area is anything to worry about. I'd be very tempted to play the same team again but suspect we will see Mascher in for Alonso at the very least.

If we were to go down that route and drop Kuyt and bring in Mascherano who would you play RM in place of Kuyt?

[JohnDoe]

I think we'll see Masch get in ahead of Alonso, to deal with Robinho.

Very tough trying to pick a team at the moment.

[Nicey]

Is Torres 50/50 with a potential calf prob ?

[dww]

If we were to go down that route and drop Kuyt and bring in Mascherano who would you play RM in place of Kuyt?

My natural inclination is always to say Gerrard but he doesn't like the position so probably Benayoun, I thought he did well in the role against United.

I'd like to say Babel as I think the pace from deep would be very effective but so far this season he hasn't looked like he has learnt to make the intelligent runs needed to make the best use of the Mascherano/Gerrard axis or help the team tactically. As such I don't want him starting and certainly not on the right where he has played less for us and so is less likely to know his job.

[SB]

I saw this on a site called Bitter and Blue so naturally I thought it was a neverton site (you guys probably know of it but I've never seen it before myself )


Saturday, October 04, 2008
Liverpool preview

A big game ahead this weekend as we seek to take the confidence from Thursday's UEFA victory into the Premier League and banish last weeks defeat at Wigan.

Liverpool is never an easy fixture and even moreso given their impressive start to the season. On their travels they are yet to concede on their travels and are right up with the leading pack (with Mark Hughes labelling them as genuine title contenders), conversely whilst we have hit 15 goals in our last 5 home games.

Rafa Benitez has also seen a good start in the Champions League and appears less prone to the rotation policy that has been so criticised in previous seasons - something that probably cost them, particularly at the beginning of the Premier League campaigns.

It should result in a good battle between our attack minded midfield and Liverpool's tight defence, whilst our defence needs to be on top form against Fernando Torres - who, as I blogged over at Football Rants, is the real difference maker for this Liverpool side and their title ambitions.

Our defence does concern me at times though and the Dunne-Richards partnership is struggling to regain the form shown at the beginning of last season, and the in-form Spaniard (not to mention Robbie Keane) will provide a stiff test.

Vincent Kompany will have a big job on his hands with Steven Gerrard and I do wonder if Mark Hughes may be tempted to draft in Gelson or Didi Hamman to provide additional support. I still don't see room for Martin Petrov and think he will have to be content on the bench.

I don't see many goals in this game and historically one goal has usually settled matters in the contest, and although it wouldn't surprise me if that was the case once again, I'm going for a 1-1 draw.

[Robbie-9-Fowler]

Phew, Vassell's out.