I guess a point is better than zero. had to watch the second half on my phone - it’s looked slow and boring! we have a real Firmino problem - he seems to have fallen off a cliff in terms of all form.
when you think about it, we were without Virgil, Fab and Thiago, then lost Trent. take those 4 out of any team ! and we still came away with a point. a good day's work overall.
He’s normally a slow starter but he’s not doing much. Once he fails to play that false 9 role, he’s almost redundant as his goal return isn’t that high. Maybe a spell with the national team might help him up to get up to proper match rhythm.
Lester gets a PK the picture image of the handball against us. For a while they played on, then went to the screen. Just as harsh as ours, except Vardy scored. Same WTF comments from the comms. The only people who think this is a good rule, other than the scorers. Are the gamers.
Manchester City have drawn three of their past five games in the Premier League, as many as their previous 70 matches in the competition. Liverpool have only won three of their past 10 away games in the league, after winning 16 of their previous 17. After a run of 35 consecutive Premier League wins when scoring first between February 2019 and July 2020, the Reds have now failed to win four of their past seven such games. Salah has scored eight league goals for Liverpool this season. No Reds player has ever scored more in the first eight matches of a campaign in the competition (level with Fernando Torres in 2009-10 and Robbie Fowler in 1995-96). City defender Walker has conceded two penalties in the league this season, as many as he had in the previous 11 campaigns combined. De Bruyne has been directly involved in six goals in eight Premier League games against Klopp's Liverpool (one goal and five assists). Only Leicester's Jamie Vardy (seven) has had a hand in more against Liverpool in the competition since the German took charge. De Bruyne's penalty was the first to miss the target in a Premier League game since October 2018 - when Riyad Mahrez smashed the ball over the bar in the reverse fixture at Anfield.
What and spoil a chance to spoil a game. Not a bad idea but then that means a Subjective decision from the ref.
Disagree about top heavy. We were playing 4-4-2 and Mane and Jota have the ability to get up and down.
Sounds like old Gerrard-Alonso problem where we selected two good players to play in midfield leaving us rather unbalanced. City wasn’t that better, that said.
If there is any game where we would settle for a point it would be City away. Klopp really went for it with the team he picked. We were all over them for the first 25 minutes and if we had done better with some of our chances we could have put the game away. After that, City started to have most of the ball, but I thought we were still getting the better chances. The last 20 minutes or so, both teams looked exhausted and happy with a point. Klopp asked Mane and Jota to play in two positions at once. When they had the ball we were in a 4-4-2 and Mane and Jota had to track all the way back to help the fullback. The one time in the first half that Mane did not get back to cover Walker, Gini came over, left DeBruyne in way too much space, and they scored. When we had the ball, Mane and Jota were forwards getting into their box. I heard that this was the first time that Matip and Gomez have started together. If that’s true, that is crazy. Let’s hope they can both stay fit enough to continue to partner each other most games. Both played really well. I hope Trent is not out too long. Just like Van Dijk, anyone that replaces him is a major drop off.
This result def the best we could hope for given the re-tooling we're in the middle of with the injuries.
Watched again minus the stress and I reckon delanomo you're right. In attack we looked like 4-2-2-2 but in defence it was 4-4-2. We had an excellent opening spell in which we really ought to have score more than the one goal. City then seemed to have our measure with both fullbacks being more threatening and restricting the forward progress of Jota and Mane. A few times, de Bruyne found himself unmarked in front of the box (City score from one such chance) as one the Mane and Jota failed to track back forcing one of Wijnaldum and Henderson to cover the flanks. It also seemed to me that, defensively, City looked more cohesive as team than Liverpool but was just less impotent or lacking in ideas in attack. I think there is merit in this system as long as players maintain focus-- at one point yesterday, we resorted simply to lumping the ball forward. I also think part of Firmino's problems is his team-mates behind him's inability to see him move into space or, if they do, they don't trust themselves to find him. It think this can be worked on as well as his overall fitness which is still some way short. Still, as has been said, most Liverpool fans would have taken a draw at the beginning of the match. Now it feels slightly like we could have done better. But onwards, hey?
Give a 'penalty' from the spot of the handball. And make it such that it must be a shot on goal - de Bruyne can't just knock it across the box from where it hit Gomez' arm in order to create chaos.
That's always seemed like a good idea to me. Unless it's obviously more likely intentional than not, then give the indirect free-kick..... It's also an exciting solution (something the spectator might favour)