I thought Crystal Palace a couple of weeks back were pretty good v City, too.
Manchester City 17/18 discussion | "If you're here for the Champions clap your hands" (#6505)
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I thought Crystal Palace a couple of weeks back were pretty good v City, too.
Was impressed by how they kept playing despite being 4-1 down. Nearly managed to pull it back, sign of a quality side. No doubt they'll still walk the league.
Ah yeah, my bad. Palace too.
When is a league win ever a non-event?
Except it really isn't that easy.
There is no such thing as a method to beat city. Few teams in the world can play like liverpool, and today's game was down to form(physical and mental), not tactics
You can beat city just fine sitting deep and playing on the counter. You can even beat them by pinning them back and force them to sit back and play on the counter. 2011 Barcelona would average ~58% possession against them
It all comes down to quality, and form. Tactics are determined by the qualities(and quality) of the players, not the other way around
You can beat city just fine sitting deep and playing on the counter. You can even beat them by pinning them back and force them to sit back and play on the counter. 2011 Barcelona would average ~58% possession against them
It all comes down to quality, and form. Tactics are determined by the qualities(and quality) of the players, not the other way around
I'm aware of all that matches before and been watching City's game too.
but this match will be something like an impetus of confidence to try and play them with attack rather than giving them the ball.
Like I said before, you scraped through quite a few games by the skin of your teeth. You're not as all conquering as you or the media would like to believe. The end of the season will bear testimony to that. Not saying you won't win stuff but you will come unstuck a few more times. I'm just glad no-one will be talking about your 'invincibility' anymore.
Bristol Rovers a couple days back showed exactly what was needed. Played possession football when they could but were not afraid to put the ball over the top. I kept thinking that's exactly how we play but we just have better forwards. City are showing great graft and belief though and that's something I've not seen from them at this level. Maybe they will do better in the CL than I thought they would.
Believe us, so are we.
British football journalists granted day of mourning tomorrow.
You wouldn’t understand.
This game goes to prove it wasn't luck though, we score a lot of goals, and many of them late. That's how we got through those tough fixtures and why we got two goals back tonight. Just wasn't enough to cover the amount of mistakes this time.
Amen to that.
Exactly this. Guardiola teams come unstuck when facing teams of similar quality.
When you give top attackers the chance to go 1v1 versus Stones and Otamendi they will punish you.
This Liverpool team are nothing special; they almost gave up a 3 goal lead in 10 minutes vs City. They gave up a 3 goal lead vs Sevilla. But what they do have is top class attackers that can hurt you.
You are relieved your team got beat? Sorry, but that's utter nonsense!
It's not like the unbeaten streak has been hanging over your heads and making you underperform and play poorly, so don't act like the shackles have been removed.
No matter what way you spin it, you did have a good chance at going unbeaten if you had I'd passed today's test, but you failed.
Even if you are relieved to have got beaten today, which you aren't, Pep and the players will not be happy which is the main thing.
At 4-1, I was starting to think they looked like a side that was losing form and had been figured out.
At 4-3, I realised they will smash anyone else in their path. Newcastle will come to defend and get smashed next week.
At 4-3, I realised they will smash anyone else in their path. Newcastle will come to defend and get smashed next week.
That game almost being a draw is down to Liverpool. They are THE team in the league that will batter you and also get battered in the same game.
Well when City won it in 2014 no one gave a shit because we were too busy laughing at Liverpool/Gerrard!
It’s an afterthought in the season.
Not sure why you're so upset by our posts. We were (or at least I was, can't speak for Rob) personally annoyed by the 'invincible' talk. We're glad it's over so we don't have to read about it any more. Never said it was effecting the team.
I’m not upset, but of course every City fan wanted the team to remain invincible.
Fair enough. I mean, yeah sure who wouldn't wish that? I doubt any of us actually put any stock in it though. It's basically impossible.
Thought they were still good in spells today. Kept fighting when other sides would’ve given up at 4-1. De Bruyne is fantastic but we all knew that.
As long as they win their next game they’ll be fine. If the gap suddenly dropped to 9/8 points then they might have problems.
As long as they win their next game they’ll be fine. If the gap suddenly dropped to 9/8 points then they might have problems.
If it was only that simple. You need a Mane and a Salah on the wing. You need 11 fully commited players, you need midfirlders to win most duels and pick up second balls and then you need them to play it quickly into the right channel.
Erm, in all seriousness, that was just you lot being utterly incapable of defending a lead.
City were shit, and the goals you gifted them were all very soft. You bullied them, and you should be proud of that, they deserve no credit from that game, and you deserve a fair bit.
I've got a few scouse supporting mates, and they all have no problem admitting this - it's common knowledge.
You're not used to winning trophies, let alone PLs, so it might difficult to grasp.
But there are definitely titles that are bordering on a non-event.
I'm sure you'd be happy to view Mourinho's most recent title with Chelsea as one? It was won in the first half of the season, they groaned over the line and then lost all momentum for the next season.
That's what we're talking about.
I've seen my club win plenty of trophies throughout my lifetime, thanks.
Their goals were the consequence of pressure they placed us on even after going 4-1 where a lot of teams would have just gone through the motions. Even immediately after the goal, Otamendi completely fluffs a chance to make it 4-2. They kept playing.
The idea that winning a league title can be considered a 'non-event' is stupid. It's a huge achievement and a benchmark for the very best teams. Maybe unspectacular is a word the original post was looking for. Or maybe not, seeing as City may still very possibly break the points and goals scored records this season.
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Been coming for a while. Still, City did well to come back to 4-3. If David Silva had been properly fit City woukd have won that.
Excellent tactics by Klopp to contain Sane, Sterling and De Bruyne while also overloading on Fernandinho 2 on 1 throughout the game.
You sound like you're looking to try and praise citeh to get a reaction on here.
Maybe you're bothered that your best result of the season has brought some amount of joy to Utd fans?
They got bullied and fell apart, his happens every season at some point with citeh. They get overhyped by the pathetic UK footy media, and then get their sorry, oil club arses handed to them.
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Why would I do that? Maybe I'm just seeing it as I saw it. Take off the tinfoil hat maybe.
I've openly said we were well beaten. Not the end of the world.
Found out, utterly bullied? Don't think so. Pretty sure that nobody found out anything that wasn't already known about us, as for bullied for maybe 10 minutes after going 2-1 down.
16 shots to 11. 7 shots on target to our 4, away at an field is hardly being bullied or found out.
Pep has a poor record against klopp in general though whether its at city or Bayern everyone knows that's the style his teams struggle against and klopp does it best.
Liverpool were deserved winners, in an entertaining game.
Glad they lost and will not go the season undefeated. With that said, if anyone was going to beat them it was Klopp's Liverpool at Anfield. City haven't won there since 15 years ago and Klopp somehow gets his players to play out of their skin against tougher oppositions only to lose to a random bottom half team the next week.
When you look at his record vs Klopp in germany you will see that he mostly won the games that mattered and lost the ones that didn't though
Agree, he won when the teams were close in the table and lost when he was about 15 points clear. I believe its 6 wins for Klopp, 5 for Pep and a draw. Don't think theres another manager with a record like that.
Lost twice in the supercup which, well...
Lost the home game in bundes '14, after they'd already won the title(won first leg in dortmund 3-0). Won german cup final. Won 2-1 in BuLi at home in 14/15, lost german cup SF on penalties, don't remember what he did in dortmund in BuLi
I know I'm just trying to make myself feel better. I still think its an impressive record vs him, not many can say they have a better record head to head vs Pep over that many games.
A very good game but City have some serious concerns going forward. They lost that game because of the midfield battle. This is the first game I have watched where Manchester City were dominated in the central axis. Aguero is the big elephant in the room and it is no surprise Manchester City won all their big games when Gabriel Jesus was the starting central forward. He is simply not good enough for the aspirations of this side and was easily their worst player yesteday both tactically and technically.
Liverpool dominated the centre because they constantly had a 4 v 3 in the centre as Firminho kept dropping deep, whilst the hapless Kun Aguero left Gundigan, Kevin De Bruyn and Fernandinho to their own devices and magnified Fernandinho's poor performances. Every time Aguero got the ball his first instinct was to put his head down and run into culdesacs. He creates no space for teamates, his covering of passing lanes is so poor and he has no awareness of what happens aroun d him. Alexis Sanchez or Gabriel Jesus would have made that a 4 vs 4 and helped City have some sembelance of control.
If Gabriel Jesus doesn't get back for the later stages of the Champions league, City will struggle to make the Semi finals let alone win the whole competition.
As for Stones, he has never been a good one vs one defender and the midfield offering no protection meant that he was up against the best one vs one front line in the Premier League.
Liverpool dominated the centre because they constantly had a 4 v 3 in the centre as Firminho kept dropping deep, whilst the hapless Kun Aguero left Gundigan, Kevin De Bruyn and Fernandinho to their own devices and magnified Fernandinho's poor performances. Every time Aguero got the ball his first instinct was to put his head down and run into culdesacs. He creates no space for teamates, his covering of passing lanes is so poor and he has no awareness of what happens aroun d him. Alexis Sanchez or Gabriel Jesus would have made that a 4 vs 4 and helped City have some sembelance of control.
If Gabriel Jesus doesn't get back for the later stages of the Champions league, City will struggle to make the Semi finals let alone win the whole competition.
As for Stones, he has never been a good one vs one defender and the midfield offering no protection meant that he was up against the best one vs one front line in the Premier League.
Agree, although I feel Pep can alter his tactics slightly to make better use of Aguero. Something along the lines of 4-2-3-1 or 3-4-3 diamond so he can play as an out-and-out striker? Bernardo Silva, with his cut-backs and through-passes, combines well with him and probably deserves a start.
If the league situation was tighter, I think Pep would have made some tactical changes. But with the current lead, it was probably for the best not to change a working system for the sake of one game.
Love posts like this. Ederson has been having a very good season, has his first truly poor game in a City shirt and out comes a 'always knew he was shit' comment. He hasn't been protected by an excellent unit, he's been a big part of an excellent unit, that was badly let down by all involved yesterday.
He's a poor defender. He was laughable when he first joined City because he actually HAD to defend. Whereas he's been hiding behind Pep's possession all season.
Don't get me wrong, the new style suits him to the ground and his passing is a key part of it. But take him out and put him in any other team in England he's back to being shite.
Hopefully other teams watch that Liverpool performance and try the pressing tactic upfront instead of sitting back all game. City looked like a midtable side when pressed with the terrible mistakes they made.
The score line could've been a lot worse if Liverpool weren't so wasteful in the 70-90min. In their forwards defense those they were shattered at that stage.
City's final two goals came from terrible defending. The final score flattered City imo.
Not even sure where to start with this one.
Firstly, if every team we now come up against tries to play the pressing game that Liverpool did then we'll walk to the title before April, so let's hope they do. Liverpool played that way against us because they're the best team in the league at it, because Klopp's got them well drilled and knows how to beat a Pep side with his system. If Newcastle suddenly decide to do the same next week we'll blast them into orbit, and the same goes for West Brom the week after. The way to beat us isn't just "the pressing tactic", it's about having the stamina and discipline to carry it out for ninety minutes at the highest possible level. Liverpool collapsed after the fourth goal and we nearly pulled it back to a draw because of how hard it'd been on them - I doubt other teams will score four to keep us at bay.
As for the Stones comments, ha. He was inconsistent last season and was occasionally weak and had lapses in concentration, which he's also struggled with since returning from injury. But to say he's been "protected by Pep's possession" (what does that even mean?) is ludicrous. Before his injury he was the reason we were so comfortable playing it forward through the middle. He knew which pass to make and when to make it. He's taken Kompany's place, which is something we never thought a CB would do before Kompany retired, and he's taken it because, beyond his ability to play comfortably at the back, he's been rock solid defensively this season. He's clearly not at 100% yet after six weeks out, I'm not sure how much the importance of SIX WEEKS can be stated.
But to come out with all these comments is hilarious. So you never rated Stones and a dodgy couple of weeks suddenly proves how your assessment of him was correct all along, good for you. If teams just pressed us high up the pitch we'd be worse off, as though other managers haven't tried it!