City- Post match thread.

[Kenneth]

Really?


I went through this crap last year, but unfortunately I can’t retrieve my old post to get the stats.

For this argument, lets look at the draws before Christmas…

Villa 0-0: 442
Stoke 0-0: 442
Fulham 0-0: 442
West Ham 0-0: 442
Arsenal 1-1: 4231

It was after the Hull game (I think) Gray mentioned the two defensive midfielders, and suddenly everyone blamed all our draws on playing 4231. Ironically we scored two against Hull in that game.

Picked the Stoke game at random. This was the team:

Liverpool: Reina, Carragher, Hyypia, Skrtel, Aurelio, Benayoun (Babel 76), Leiva Lucas, Mascherano, Riera (Torres 60), Gerrard, Kuyt

4-4-2 you say? Questionable even if you include Gerrard in the two, which is dubious. And we left Keane on the bench.

And the main claim about not piling pressure on **** teams by a strong attack, I think this suggests it's true.

[RedReet]

What Stoke game is that? from Offical...

Alonso
Arbeloa
23 Carragher
38 Dossena
8 Gerrard
10 Keane
18 Kuyt
25 Reina
11 Riera
37 Skrtel
9 Torres

[Kenneth]

Right, that was last year's. Jan 2009. I haven't really been following the conversation tbh

[Craig_H]

The point is more about approach. How do you play against teams which park the bus? Do you pack your midfield and try to pass it round them or get players into the box? We drew alot of games because we struggled to score against teams which parked the bus because we didn't have a plan B. United won the league because they often played with 3 strikers and threw balls into the box

Nail on the ****ing head.

I've lost count of how many times i've seen us trying to break a team down, and we get the ball wide, i look into the middle and there'll be 2 players in the box - trying to outdo 6 opposition defenders

Then you watch the mancs when they're chasing a goal - they put the ball into the box, and there's 5 or 6 manc players in there.

It's not rocket science.

[el matador]

You're welcome to your opinion but the fact remains that he was and is a defensive midfielder.

How many times does he cross the half-way line? How many times does he get in the final third? How many times does he score? How many times does he make goals?

The answer to all of them is "not a lot"

We never really missed him when he was out - he only played 27 league games last season for example. It's just that some people have now re-invented him as a Kaka-esque vibrant, incisive player, which he never was. He sat alongside Mascherano and broke up play and gave the ball to more attacking players.

He's doing exactly the same at Madrid where, it must be said, he hasn't exactly been tearing up trees this season

Do you remember players like ronnie whelan or jan molby. These guys werent spectacular or scored loads of goals but they were in title winning teams. When people talk about the best liverpool players of all time whelan doesnt get a mention because he didnt score goals or get assists but ask any liverpool fan of that generation and they will tell you what a brilliant player he was for the team.

A winning team doesnt need 11 hollywood stars. It needs a couple and the rest have to be steady eddies.

Some players dont need to be visible to to be effective and a lot of xabi's best work was done very early on during posession where he always picked the right pass into the right player at the right time.

He dictated the tempo of the game. He played the game at whatever pace he wanted slow quick, slow slow quick. Only players of the highest calibre are able to do that and xabi is of the highest order.

If you are talking about real madrid then you are once again totally wrong on every single level. He has just scored his first goal this weekend, he probably doesnt have any assists and if he's so crap why does every single pass from the back go into his feet first ? why have real madrid scored more goals that anyone else in la liga and conceded less than any other team too ? They are only two points behind probably one of the best barcelona team of all time.

Why do all of his team mates look for him to build the play. Even donkeys like lassana diarra now pass the ball to him and let him get on with it. He has single handedly gelled the defence to the attack and if you look at our team we look like two different teams in one.

Our defence and midfield are playing as one team and the forwards look like they are seperated from the rest. We have absolutely no cohesion and that's down to xabi leaving. Lucas isnt anywhere near the player alonso is and never will be.

The ability alonso has cant be coached, you either have it or you dont.

[wiw]

Can a team win the league playing crap football?

Chelsea and Utd in recent years have won the league by basically perfecting the 1-0 result

[wiw]

What I mean by that is, it's about attitude as much as anything else, and to have the mental stremgth to win at any cost..something we had in spades last year but have **** all of this year

[cream]

Chelsea and Utd in recent years have won the league by basically perfecting the 1-0 result

People come out with this rubbish all the time. Don't think anyone has won anything playing the crap football we have been doing lately.

[wiw]

People come out with this rubbish all the time. Don't think anyone has won anything playing the crap football we have been doing lately.

Of course not, this season isn't the norm though is it. We're coming out of a dip whether we like it or not, confidence isn't going to come back straight away

[Craig_H]

Do you remember players like ronnie whelan or jan molby. These guys werent spectacular or scored loads of goals but they were in title winning teams. When people talk about the best liverpool players of all time whelan doesnt get a mention because he didnt score goals or get assists but ask any liverpool fan of that generation and they will tell you what a brilliant player he was for the team.

A winning team doesnt need 11 hollywood stars. It needs a couple and the rest have to be steady eddies.

Some players dont need to be visible to to be effective and a lot of xabi's best work was done very early on during posession where he always picked the right pass into the right player at the right time.

He dictated the tempo of the game. He played the game at whatever pace he wanted slow quick, slow slow quick. Only players of the highest calibre are able to do that and xabi is of the highest order.

If you are talking about real madrid then you are once again totally wrong on every single level. He has just scored his first goal this weekend, he probably doesnt have any assists and if he's so crap why does every single pass from the back go into his feet first ? why have real madrid scored more goals that anyone else in la liga and conceded less than any other team too ? They are only two points behind probably one of the best barcelona team of all time.

Why do all of his team mates look for him to build the play. Even donkeys like lassana diarra now pass the ball to him and let him get on with it. He has single handedly gelled the defence to the attack and if you look at our team we look like two different teams in one.

Our defence and midfield are playing as one team and the forwards look like they are seperated from the rest. We have absolutely no cohesion and that's down to xabi leaving. Lucas isnt anywhere near the player alonso is and never will be.

The ability alonso has cant be coached, you either have it or you dont.

Fantastic post.

But Redspin is red-tinted in the extreme, so you're wasting your energy mate.

If Alonso was still our player, Redspin would consider him world class, but we sold him, so he's nothing special now.

[Craig_H]

Of course not, this season isn't the norm though is it. We're coming out of a dip whether we like it or not, confidence isn't going to come back straight away

Neither was last season, unfortunately.

Positionally speaking, this season is more likely to end up as being closer to the norm, than last season (IMO).

[redkop]

Liverpool boss Rafa Benitez: "We were working very hard and we had control for most of it, but they had some counter-attacks and the fans got a bit excited. I think a draw was a fair result, we have to be a little bit better in attack in future."

Yes working hard is good but working smart and being creative in attack is even better. We need to be very much or many times better in the attack next time. Wonder what they do on the training pitch to break teams down? Or just the side and back passes?