Liverpoool v Man City Post Match thread

[Vermilion]

And the award for best overreacting-knee-jerk-post-of-the-night goes to.....





Congratulations JohnDoe, you had some stiff opposition there.

Seriously, did anybody really expect us to get anything out of this game?

We're in transition at the moment getting used to a new managers style and tactics, playing away at a team that is expected to challenge for the title. The best we could have hoped for is a draw.

Most people seem to be expecting us to finish 4th, 5th or 6th. With that you don't expect to be getting much out of away games against the top three.

Yes the tactics were wrong, and yes the players were abject. But these sorts of performances are fairly normal for any team that's just changed its manager and not invested in the squad for over 2 years. I fully expect Roy to learn from this - I doubt we'll be seeing 442 away from home any time soon.

If we lower our expectations of this season to one of transition and "getting by", the best we should be hoping for in these sort of away games is the occasional draw. I realise that's not a Liverpool way of thinking - it is however a realistic way of thinking until we get new owners and are in a position to rectify the issues in the squad.

However to try and make out that we are worse than Newcastle....

Me personally, no, but many others did, just read the pre match, and comments i've heard like 'City are ****'.... 'they won't/can't gel'.... 'are not a team'...'just mercenaries' etc etc.,

I really do think some fans thought Roy would come in and do an Arry/Spurs like ressurection, i just didn't see it at all, sorry to say i still don't.

West Brom now becomes a very high pressure game, lose or draw that and morale could plummett.

As for Roy learning from that, his away form in the Prem has never been too good has it, you'd think he'd have learned plenty by now.

[paulc]

We were ****!
I was sat in the posh bit next to friends n family and wags, even de jong's brother said he was shocked at how poor we were and disappointed as he only came to see liverpool, I was very lucky to meet a couple of players and even wayne bridge said he's leaving after about an hour as he was surprised how one-sided it was and was looking forward to seeing us play, must say though babel's missus has a cracking set, now I know why his mind seems to be elsewhere haha, I didn't want to sound like I was showing off or name dropping but my point was that these guys only come to see games against the big teams but were let down at how crap we were.
Got to meet balotelli who's such an arrogant cunt its untrue, if he'd achieved something in football I'd understand understand but he's not!
I think it was a combination of pre-match unrest of mascherano's antics, city being buoyed by the owner being there, torres' lack of fitness and us just bein ****, as one poster said earlier it wasn't a 3-0 game but agger got torn a new one by johnson who I would love at anfield!
I'd still expect us to get 4th though!

Hahah this has cheered me up!

One of you geeks on Twitter should request a photo from him

[Exiled_red]

Last nights performance was abysmal, I know people have been complaining about the way we played in recent seasons but the absence of an out and out defensive midfielder cost us badly last night, the team was a quite attacking one and I think that was a mistake. Very few teams go away from home with two out and out strikers, and even less do so with no real holding defensive midfielder. I think Roys tactics last night were very naive. I don't want this to turn into a Roy bashing post but I think after the comments in his post match interview I'm a little concerned about his thinking. Last season Hodgson's Fulham only won one game away from home, comments about picking up points away from home against the lower clubs maybe ok for Fulham, but we need to pick up more points against our rivals and equally prevent picking up points against us.

Hopefully Roy will learn from his tactical mistakes and we can get the system right and pick up point away from home and at home.

[Rich]

I don't even think the team on paper was that attacking - certainly not when you consider where people were being asked to play.

Up link up play, no pass and move, players woefully out of position. Still, the morning after, staggered that the club hasn't worked out that Kuyt cannot play in a midfield four. Staggered.

[Tee]

Ngog and Torres are not a strike partnership, not by any stretch of the imagination. I would rather have gone with Kuyt and Torres, with Maxi on the right.

[red g]

I don't even think the team on paper was that attacking - certainly not when you consider where people were being asked to play.

Up link up play, no pass and move, players woefully out of position. Still, the morning after, staggered that the club hasn't worked out that Kuyt cannot play in a midfield four. Staggered.

i jsut feel utterly depressed this morning. So much was wrong with that team i don't know where to start. But why he didnt play Maxi and Babel on the wings? hard work over talent again!!!

Also how he ever thought Lucas would cope against those giants **** knows. Men V Boys at least Poulsen would have got a bit in there face.

Wel we didnt get the Rafa style 62nd minute sub.....oh no, lotworse!!! no subs till 75mins.

Roy better get looking in that bargain bucket for some players sharpish

[Exiled_red]

I don't even think the team on paper was that attacking - certainly not when you consider where people were being asked to play.

Up link up play, no pass and move, players woefully out of position. Still, the morning after, staggered that the club hasn't worked out that Kuyt cannot play in a midfield four. Staggered.

It wasn't a defensively minded team, two strikers and no real defensive midfielders, the 'wide' players were midfielders and not additional fullbacks as we've used in the past.

[Fredo]

What more can be said after all what's been said in this thread? Roy got his tactics wrong, as someone has said, Ngog and Torres as a pairing was a disaster and Steven Gerrard is more effective playing in tandem with Torres, their understanding is quasi-telepathic at times (a move involving both players was an illustration of this in the first half) and have been the cornerstone of what's been good about this side the last two years. Kuyt was lost on the right; very ineffective. We didn't have any semblance of width as our full backs were constantly exposed by Milner's and Johnson's tireless work.

The thing that I've noticed, as a comparison to the previous manager, is that we do seem to be defending deeper, therefore allowing the opposition more of the ball. The statistics tell us that our ball possession is somewhat inferior to what we've been used to under Benitez, which to me indicate that our pressing game has been somewhat forfeited.

Then, Tevez ran us ragged with his tireless running. He was running the show for City and it's incredible when you realise that he isn't built like a typical battering ram but he was the main focus of their attacks - he was taking up positions where our midfield have great difficulty picking him, he was all over the place. Our formation should have taken into consideration all that, you've got to flood the midfield and try to combat (outnumber) City's power in there.

We were comprehensively beaten. I've heard Roy saying that we've been unlucky in his Press Conference. I don't think we were and I just hope that he realises that he needs to address this. Man to man marking seems to have a definite flaw judging by what I've seen last night. I don't think we would have conceded that second goal with the zonal system - there was a big gaping hole that Tevez exploited.

[Craig_H]

And the award for best overreacting-knee-jerk-post-of-the-night goes to.....





Congratulations JohnDoe, you had some stiff opposition there.

Seriously, did anybody really expect us to get anything out of this game?

We're in transition at the moment getting used to a new managers style and tactics, playing away at a team that is expected to challenge for the title. The best we could have hoped for is a draw.

Most people seem to be expecting us to finish 4th, 5th or 6th. With that you don't expect to be getting much out of away games against the top three.

Yes the tactics were wrong, and yes the players were abject. But these sorts of performances are fairly normal for any team that's just changed its manager and not invested in the squad for over 2 years. I fully expect Roy to learn from this - I doubt we'll be seeing 442 away from home any time soon.

If we lower our expectations of this season to one of transition and "getting by", the best we should be hoping for in these sort of away games is the occasional draw. I realise that's not a Liverpool way of thinking - it is however a realistic way of thinking until we get new owners and are in a position to rectify the issues in the squad.

However to try and make out that we are worse than Newcastle....

Why the **** not? We aint ****ing Blackpool.

[the rev leeroy brown]

last night showed up some serious problems with us that is for sure but what i was shocked at was how quickly we crumbled after the first goal. almost immediately we went into our shell and became nervous, anxious and lacked confidence - i just dont get it.

jova was ****ing abysmal last night - no cover for dagger and couldnt put a single decent pass together. hopefully just a one off cause he started brightly in his first couple games.

dagger - NOT A LEFT BACK - please dont play him there anymore.

lucas / ste - not effective. lucas is not a hardy defensive midfielder like mash but is defensive minded ( not the same thing ) which is why the lucas / mash partnership dodnt work either. hate to say it but we have ballsed up big time letting aqua go. he would be a better fit in a midfield 2 with poulsen IMO.

ngog / torres - didnt work too well last night but if we are going to play 442 which i was happy with last night as it showed ( at least on paper ) real intent on trying to win the game rather than go looking for a draw, then ngog has to play with torres cause he isnt a lone striker by any stretch of the imagination.

kyut - his mind was clearly on inter milan. didnt seem interested and was ****e.

mash - he can rot in the reserves for all i care. leaving your club in the lurch by refusing to play is pathetic. i've lost all respect for the man. be a ****ing man baout hte situation like xabi was and play your game - mash = cunt

[The Birdman]

What gets me about 4-4-2 the most is Roy hardly played it away from home with Fulham last season, it was always more of a 4-4-1-1.
Neither Ngog or Torres were going to drop deeper to play in and about De Jong.

After sleeping on it I honestly don't think he could have picked a worse team.

[RichC]

Wasn't good was it I wonder if the Masch pulling out stumped him and he felt he needed to change the tactics to get what he saw as the best side on the pitch.

Just a thought but I do think Masch pulling out really screwed us over last night.

[Vermilion]

Wasn't good was it I wonder if the Masch pulling out stumped him and he felt he needed to change the tactics to get what he saw as the best side on the pitch.

Just a thought but I do think Masch pulling out really screwed us over last night.

I think even if he'd played we'd have lost, City looked good, hungry and powerful.

That's what money buys you in this game, and City have buckets full, they will continue to improve too imo.

[Redspin]

Roy certainly made some poor choices last night especially with pairing of Torres and Ngog, using both Kuyt and Jova in the same team and playing Agger as LB against AJ but I don't think we were overrun as result shows.

To me 3:0 was not a true reflection of how the game played out.

Yes they controlled the possession just like Gunners did against us (we better get used to as we don't have enough quality and creativity to control the ball possession against better teams) but they did have the luck on their side (and we were unlucky once again) and pretty much everything they threw at Pepe ended in the net.

If Torres took the advantage of the half chance he had in 2nd minute and if Stevie, Ngog and Torres scored right after their second one, things could be have quite different..

Situation with Masch that escalated just before the game definitely did not help neither.

All in all, it's still early in the season to start making big conclusions and as long as we pick up at least 5 points in next 3 we may not be too much off the projected course.

I'd happily let Arsenal have the ball all day long as they were clueless in possession and only created one chance against us in the 86th minute

Against City the scoreline does flatter them somewhat. We gave away a crap early goal from shocking defending then two set-pieces - the poor defending using the silly man-to-man marking at a corner for one and then a daft penalty for the other. Those incidents apart they created hardly anything in open play and it was Hart who was flinging himself around making crucial saves, not Reina.

It was 4-4-2 that did for us yesterday and there's no way we'd have played so limply had we played 4-2-3-1. It goes without saying that I didn't hear any criticism from the Sky Sports drones about the failure of the man-for-man marking at a corner, nor any criticism of Hodgson for not making substitutions early (Gray always but always sneered at Benitez for waiting until the 65th minute at the earliest), nor any criticism for playing the thoroughly discredited, 80s throwback system of 4-4-2.

[Fierce]

last night showed up some serious problems with us that is for sure but what i was shocked at was how quickly we crumbled after the first goal. almost immediately we went into our shell and became nervous, anxious and lacked confidence - i just dont get it.

jova was ****ing abysmal last night - no cover for dagger and couldnt put a single decent pass together. hopefully just a one off cause he started brightly in his first couple games.

dagger - NOT A LEFT BACK - please dont play him there anymore.

lucas / ste - not effective. lucas is not a hardy defensive midfielder like mash but is defensive minded ( not the same thing ) which is why the lucas / mash partnership dodnt work either. hate to say it but we have ballsed up big time letting aqua go. he would be a better fit in a midfield 2 with poulsen IMO.

ngog / torres - didnt work too well last night but if we are going to play 442 which i was happy with last night as it showed ( at least on paper ) real intent on trying to win the game rather than go looking for a draw, then ngog has to play with torres cause he isnt a lone striker by any stretch of the imagination.

kyut - his mind was clearly on inter milan. didnt seem interested and was ****e.

mash - he can rot in the reserves for all i care. leaving your club in the lurch by refusing to play is pathetic. i've lost all respect for the man. be a ****ing man baout hte situation like xabi was and play your game - mash = cunt

Add to that Carra's ridiculous hoofing of the ball every 2nd or 3rd touch. ****ing hell Jamie, there are 9 players in front of you, surely you can pass it to one of them on the ground?

Anyone with any semblance of footballing knowledge would see that midfield couldn't cope with those 3 strong defensively minded midfielders. It was obvious after 30 mins, why wasn't Poulsen introduced?

Woeful performance from the lot of them

Hodgson, it's early days, but you need to learn from this. Man City are NOT the team to be experimenting against