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3pm sat for us for the leicester game, followed by spuds/shitty 17:30

or will they now be moved as the box office stuff is being canned?

think it stays as it is

Over all it's a fair result, perhaps we could have had it wrapped up with more clinical finishing in the first 30mins, but we were very poor for much of the 2nd half. A draw away at city is a good result.

My main concern is getting through the season without the players burning out and picking up injuries, and the toll it takes on the squad and the understanding that has been a big part of the way we play. I know the conditions were difficult but our players are supposed to be some of the fittest in the league and some of them looked out on their feet towards the end of the game, and we're not a quarter of the way through the the PL season yet.

On what grounds? No intention to block the cross with his arm, quite the opposite.

Handball rules are crazy.. And always will be.

Under the current rules yes, last year or two years ago that probably isn't given most of the time.

As the rules stand it had to be given, you knew that before the ref even went over to have a look.

Guardiola saying the conversation with Klopp at full time was about how 5 subs are must this season and they should keep fighting for it.

Not a bad game, I would have preferred a 4-3-3 with Jota, Mane and Salah up front, and an extra midfielder instead.

That said we brought the ball forward really well, it was just tiredness that meant we weren't as whip sharp as we were against Atalanta.

Now we have a lovely big rest (internationals notwithstanding) before we face top of the table Leicester!

Happy with that overall, 1-1 toughest game of the season out of the way.

We could've killed them in the 1st half, just missing the final pass / shot.

It's not going to happen unfortunately. IMO it's needed, we are seeing the players pick up more injuries than we have done in recent years, already probably half have the squad have missed games because of injury.

Agreed, but the worst part is that the majority of the key injuries we’ve had so far have been impact injuries (Alisson, Thiago, Virgil). We haven’t even begun to see the worst of the fatigue related injuries yet, although Fab and and now Trent have already gone down to them.

Fucking Leicester next. We seem to be playing teams in the top 6 every fucking week. When do we get a shot at Fulham and West Brom ffs :haha:

When we’ve no players left and all their players are rested post internationals.

Watching the gomez handball again...
Instead of trying to pull his arm away he could have just pushed his chest out, and it would have been easier to do.

:haha:

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We are right at the top having had, what I’d say was a pretty challenging start to the season.

Aways to Chelsea, Everton and City all out of the way already. Plus Arsenal at home.

Just noticed we got Leicester, Atalanta on the Weds and then Brighton away in the fucking 12.30pm on the Saturday. Fuck right off.

We can relax a bit in the CL, three draws and we're still cruising.

Leicester are no pushover but I think we're better than them. Brighton should be three points, but Wolves will be the hardest test IMO.

Man City vs Liverpool - Premier League (20/21 - Game 8)
 

All 3 games will be tough games.

I think we have to rotate heavily against Atalanta and hope for the best to be honest.

both jurgen and guardiola are complaining about the 5 subs rule yet neither used all 3 yesterday, kind of defeats that argument

Well the counter to that is a player going down in the last ten minutes after you've used them all and not being able to do anything about it.

I actually agree with the 5 subs rule tbh the amount of football at the moment is absolutely ridiculous was just pointing out that neither used all the subs available

I'm certain it will be moved. Just need to decide which broadcasters get each game, before deciding when to show them.

That being said, 8pm Sat or 12pm Sun are about the only 2 slots that we could play if it was moved.

Those games are after international. I'm hoping the break the is kind to us and gives us back a full squad with Fabinho, Thiago, Keita and Ox back too.

The 5 subs rule has to come back.

The tv games for the next month have already been picked

It 100% should come back, but I don't think even if it gets put to another vote that it will. Too much self-interest and not enough actual care for the welfare of the players :shake:

Why not make subs 4 & 5 under 19? Removes some of the advantage held by "big" teams and provides a chance for the youngsters to get some game time.

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Yeah, i get that.

FWIW, i agree. We shouldn't be running players into the ground but i am a little sympathetic to the smaller clubs that don't have the bench that ourselves and City can put out every week. It definitely favours the bigger clubs.

Atalanta are no Napoli that's for sure. 12 points sees us through and we can achieve that with a win against the Scandinavian midgets. So no need to expend effort against the Italians. Worst case scenario we still have the final Ajax game if things go really tits up, which is as unlikely as Trump winning Arizona.

I know. But if they agree that the 3pm's are going to be free to air again, they'll be moved once they agree who is showing what, surely? That's how it has worked so far.

We'll definitely need to rotate quite a bit vs Atalanta and at least it's at home so no travelling.

Thiago, Matip, Fabinho, Keita, Tsimikas all back and ready now will give us that squad depth to cope.

Seems odd that Guardiola made an issue of highlighting the 5 subs rule in a game where he only made 1

Not a great way of backing up your viewpoint :shake:

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No the 60th minute against tired legs I would have thought so.

Quality of opposition has to be taken in to account, neither manager could risk losing yesterday (Mancs especially); but if that have been Fulham & they wanted to rest a few, then they would have used more subs. I don't think you can use yesterday as a barometer at all.

Regarding the peno, I can understand why it was given, my issue is with the refs basing there decision making on watching the play back in slow motion, which is flawed, in reality (real time) Gomez didn’t have time to move his hand, which was not in an unnatural position, which technically makes it not a peno.

Gomez had his hand kind of outstretched, just his natural running posture, he tried his very best to pull his arm in but the var bastards felt it was still outside his body silhouette.
I'd say the ball actually hit his arm as it was turned and it was then back inside his silhouette if looked at from the angle the ball was kicked from.
He should have just chested the ball.