Liverpool 2:2 Manchester City: In game and post match analysis.

I'm impressed by what I saw. Allen, Shelvey, Kelly, Borini and Sterling were playing as if they were the leaders of the team.
Reina has been awful! WTF happened to him!? Suarez was not good at all, he failed to combine with Gerrard and did not made important assists which could have won us the game.
Again, he should not be leading out attack!
I'm sure we'll improve though; although I was afraid we'd lack depth I saw we used the space well although I think it should be Suarez playing on the wings. Borini has very good vision and movement.

My rating
reina - 0
kelly - 7.5
Skrtel - 8
Coates - 7
Johnson - 7
Allen - 10
Shelvey - 8
Sterling - 7.5
Gerrard - 6.5
Suarez - 4 (the goal was awesome though)
Borini - 7(due to his position)

Suarez 4 Reina 0
FFS I give up.

Unbelieveable, he worked his socks off and scored a magnificent goal, some people tut tut !!!

Going for Shelvey here. Played a cracking game!

I know Allen was awesome and Sterling will grab the headlines, but Jonjo has certinally proved me wrong with this performance and deserves some credit..!

I'm impressed by what I saw. Allen, Shelvey, Kelly, Borini and Sterling were playing as if they were the leaders of the team.
Reina has been awful! WTF happened to him!? Suarez was not good at all, he failed to combine with Gerrard and did not made important assists which could have won us the game.
Again, he should not be leading out attack!
I'm sure we'll improve though; although I was afraid we'd lack depth I saw we used the space well although I think it should be Suarez playing on the wings. Borini has very good vision and movement.

My rating
reina - 0
Suarez - 4 (the goal was awesome though)

That's just a shocking comment. FFS lad

Yesterday was one of the best performances I have seen from a Liverpool team at Anfield in a long time. Well organised, everyone knew their role and, but for 1 or 2 mistakes which I am sure we will not see too often.

Must admit, before the game, I didn't know what to expect from the team. However, we got a great performance from every single player and that is all we ask for.

Reina looked comfortable, but for missing the ball for City's goal. Kelly played very well at right back. Coates and Skrtel had a good partnership going. I think it is the best I have seen Coates play.However, he still jumps in a bit at times, and it means he is easily beaten. Allen was immense,  playing the easy passes and picking up loose balls, closing players down. If we can get 11 players playing like Allen, then we will make it very difficult for the opposition. Must admit, when I saw Lucas was being replaced by Shelvey, I felt very uneasy. However, Jonjo handled it expertly, giving very little away and standing his ground a bit better, as opposed to jumping recklessly in to tackles. Those who said Saurez had a bad game need to screw their heads back on. He was up against Vincent Kompany, for me the best defender in the league, and Kompany didn't know whether to get tight or drop off him. If he got tight, he would foul Luis. However, if he sat off him, Saurez could turn easily and bring others in to the game. Just shows how much Suarez is a handful for defenders. Borini did okay. It will take him a bit of time to get used to playing in England again but I like him a lot and feel he has a great partnership with Suarez. I still Saurez as a winger and not a striker, however.

Special mention for Raheem Sterling. I was delighted and pleasantly surprised to see him start the game. I even said that he wouldn't play the full 90, after playing 90 in Edinburgh on Thursday night. However, he caused mayhem at times in the City defense. He had a good partnership with Johno and tracked back when needed. He came inside and went wide and the City players could not handle him at times. One of the best things for me, however, was when he tackled Yaya Toure, a guy far heavier than Raheem. Yaya did not know how to handle him. Overall, I was made up for Raheem, especially as he formed such a good partnership with Luis.

If we play like this in every game, I will be happy. Yaya Toure said after the game, 'Hardest game I've played in since I've been in England." That is all I need to know. That means a lot coming from Toure. If we doi this every game, opposition will hate playing against us.

Have to say, however, I was a bit disappointed in Stevie G's performance, not for the first time in the last few games. I think he needs to learn that he isn't the player he was 3-4 years ago. He needs to adapt to his own body and understand that there are some things he can no longer do. I know that may seem like a harsh assessment but he did a few things yesterday that he can't continue to do in each game.

Went for big Jonjo, thought he was immense. He had a poor game last week but thought he really turned it around this week-end.

He may not have been MOTM but after I and many others were so scathing of his performance against West Brom, I thought Gerrard did really well yesterday once again.

I admit I am rude but who cares? I'm not a journalist... but for me in this game Reina has not done what is expected from a GK like him, even more when you have Kelly and Coates in the back four. He has been very poor and has not been tested very often; the two times he got out to get the ball, he missed it in a terrible way. On the first goal he is the one to blame since Kelly thought Reina would get the ball and the ball was coming very quickly.
And on the second goal, he never looked like stopping Tevez although it is very difficult vs such a great striker.

As for Suarez, the 4 is due to the fact that he did not do what is expected from a striker leading the attack; I cannot remember if he had a shot on target from open-play and many times failed to combine with the midfielders, did not pass when players like Kelly and Borini were totally free to score. He did not harass the CBs like Borini and Sterling did to their respecting fullbacks. I admit I'm rude but I'm just saying what I'm seeing and saying my opinion and I'm trying to be objective. If Downing had produced such a performance(goal apart hahaha) , they'd get abused.
I'm a fan of Suarez and had an eye on him when he was at Ajax since the season he scored 49goals/season.

I also think BR only mistake so far is playing Borini o the wings, but I'm impressed by him. YNWA

Poll added....better late than never 

You're always better late than never Cas (in the best possible taste of course).

As for Suarez, the 4 is due to the fact that he did not do what is expected from a striker leading the attack; 

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He did not harass the CBs like Borini and Sterling did to their respecting fullbacks.

Haha your on a wind up surely now fella?

He f**king ran himself in to the ground! We're we watching the same match?!

Like.. Score a goal?


Haha your on a wind up surely now fella?

He f**king ran himself in to the ground! We're we watching the same match?!

Played a F***ing blinder, ok it didn't all run perfect but some people are getting really blase' about Luis' magical touches, we'd be a sight poorer without him.

I admit I am rude a bit of a blurt but who cares?

Your welcome.

Yesterday was one of the best performances I have seen from a Liverpool team at Anfield in a long time. Well organised, everyone knew their role and, but for 1 or 2 mistakes which I am sure we will not see too often.

Must admit, before the game, I didn't know what to expect from the team. However, we got a great performance from every single player and that is all we ask for.

Reina looked comfortable, but for missing the ball for City's goal. Kelly played very well at right back. Coates and Skrtel had a good partnership going. I think it is the best I have seen Coates play.However, he still jumps in a bit at times, and it means he is easily beaten. Allen was immense,  playing the easy passes and picking up loose balls, closing players down. If we can get 11 players playing like Allen, then we will make it very difficult for the opposition. Must admit, when I saw Lucas was being replaced by Shelvey, I felt very uneasy. However, Jonjo handled it expertly, giving very little away and standing his ground a bit better, as opposed to jumping recklessly in to tackles. Those who said Saurez had a bad game need to screw their heads back on. He was up against Vincent Kompany, for me the best defender in the league, and Kompany didn't know whether to get tight or drop off him. If he got tight, he would foul Luis. However, if he sat off him, Saurez could turn easily and bring others in to the game. Just shows how much Suarez is a handful for defenders. Borini did okay. It will take him a bit of time to get used to playing in England again but I like him a lot and feel he has a great partnership with Suarez. I still Saurez as a winger and not a striker, however.

Special mention for Raheem Sterling. I was delighted and pleasantly surprised to see him start the game. I even said that he wouldn't play the full 90, after playing 90 in Edinburgh on Thursday night. However, he caused mayhem at times in the City defense. He had a good partnership with Johno and tracked back when needed. He came inside and went wide and the City players could not handle him at times. One of the best things for me, however, was when he tackled Yaya Toure, a guy far heavier than Raheem. Yaya did not know how to handle him. Overall, I was made up for Raheem, especially as he formed such a good partnership with Luis.

If we play like this in every game, I will be happy. Yaya Toure said after the game, 'Hardest game I've played in since I've been in England." That is all I need to know. That means a lot coming from Toure. If we doi this every game, opposition will hate playing against us.

Have to say, however, I was a bit disappointed in Stevie G's performance, not for the first time in the last few games. I think he needs to learn that he isn't the player he was 3-4 years ago. He needs to adapt to his own body and understand that there are some things he can no longer do. I know that may seem like a harsh assessment but he did a few things yesterday that he can't continue to do in each game.

Nicely put Paul, looks like what I was watching, everyone in the pub I was in admitted Liverpool were unlucky, and there were some City fans there as well.

How good is that to see one of the new lads way ahead in the poll.

I admit I am rude but who cares? I'm not a journalist... but for me in this game Reina has not done what is expected from a GK like him, even more when you have Kelly and Coates in the back four. He has been very poor and has not been tested very often; the two times he got out to get the ball, he missed it in a terrible way. On the first goal he is the one to blame since Kelly thought Reina would get the ball and the ball was coming very quickly.
And on the second goal, he never looked like stopping Tevez although it is very difficult vs such a great striker.

Again:

Of the 5 goals he's given up this season, how many could he have stopped? 1 was a screamer, 1 was a penalty, 1 was off a corner, 1 tipped off Skrtel before landing on Kelly's lap, and 1 Skrtel put him in a terrible position with one of the best strikers in the world.

How good is that to see one of the new lads way ahead in the poll.

Oh yeah! Nice to see a signing make such an impact on arrival. Like Suarez when he arrived.

what I liked and I think brendan would be pleased about is City dominated us for about 20mins but didnt really create much.
But we stuck at it kept our shape played our game and i thought the second half we dominated them and when we scored we kept going forward.
With that sort of attitude we will win a lot more games than we would normally lose.
Onwards and upwards for me.

Like.. Score?


Haha your on a wind up surely now fella?

He f**king ran himself in to the ground! We're we watching the same match?!

Agreed, ridiculous comments about Luis and Pepe 

That free kick is a thing of beauty though!  Genius!

How good is that to see one of the new lads way ahead in the poll.

Great to see and very well deserved. I was purring over how Joe Allen played and has settled into the team so quickly.

My thoughts having now watched the game back on TV. I'm still really positive about the performance and the way the team went about it's business and have to say that I am very excited about the coming season and seeing how this side develops as they get to grips with what BR is asking them to do.

- First up I thought the decision to start young Sterling took balls, I really didn't see it coming but had a big smile on me face the moment I heard his name announced and it wasn't just me, several around me were all clearly surprised and excited to hear he was getting the start. The decision proved a good one as the kid had another promising game and he gave Toure a torrid time on more than a few occasions. Having a player on the pitch who scares the shi...te out of other teams when he gets in to one on one situations makes a MASSIVE difference to every body else in the side and it's been too long since we've had a player like this in the team in the wide areas.

- For long spells yesterday our possession and tempo was superb, lots of quick passes, triangles and most importantly COMPOSURE all over the pitch. The lads did the things you need to do to make a short passing game work ie. giving good angles, the right distances and showing for it quickly. We're still not quite there (particularly against this calibre of opposition) but I'm excited to see us improve, particularly with players like Sahin to come in.

- Joe Allen was fantastic. Watch how quickly he addresses the ball and then plays the pass. The speed at which he does this is incredible. Add this to great awareness and the fact he's feisty little bugger and it looks like we have hit gold.

- Get off Reina's back. This system is big change up for our Goal-keeper, in fact i'd say even more so than for the two CBs. I don't know how many touches he had on the ball yesterday (to feet) but I reckon he made more passes than Jordan Henderson managed in any game last season. Several of which were under quite a bit of pressure with City attackers bearing down on him, at one stage he had to field a 25 yard chip pass (one of Allen's rare errors) with Tevez right on top of him but he didn't panic and dealt with it as the whole stadium let out a collective sigh. I was impressed with his play yesterday.

- I'm not completely convinced of Borini as yet, despite scoring the other night in the Europa League he looks a little short on confidence at the moment BUT I do like his movement (he made dome excellent runs yesterday) and his tenacity.

- Stevie was hot and cold yesterday but he covered so much ground and popped up just about everywhere. His passing wasn't always at the standard you expect BUT he was part of a midfield 3 that was generally dominant and he played his part in that.

-  I love the look of our midfield 3 going forwards. It took us 5-10 minutes to settle once Lucas went off but Allen, Shelvey and Gerrard had a good balance about it and when you throw Sahin and a Lucas (when fully fit) into the mix you can see several combinations there that should ALL work. It's very exciting.

- We are absolutely sorted at Right-Back. Jonno is comfortably my first choice but I'm more than happy with Kelly as well. I'm not so sure about the left-back spot. Enrique was good last season BUT this system asks different questions of it's full-backs and i'm not sure I like Enrique's one-footedness high up the pitch where losing the ball could prove very costly. I wonder if young Robinson might challenge him for the job by mid-season should the youngster impress in the Europa League.

- Coates had some good moments yesterday BUT he is worry for me long-term in this system. There were a couple of panicky moments where the big man went to ground TWICE in the space of 10 seconds with City on the attack and I absolutely shi...t meself. Imho we could do with another left footed CB to spell to Agger. 

All in all a good performance. I'd expect a few more soft goals to be given away as the season progresses and I like the way the manager has spoken after the game because he knows there are going to be problems along the way and some of our players (particularly the back 5) have some real adjustments to make and different pressures to deal with this system. I'm certainly excited to see how we perform in the coming weeks.

Like.. Score?


Haha your on a wind up surely now fella?

He f**king ran himself in to the ground! We're we watching the same match?!

Wow, great view of the goal. Ridiculous amount of curve on that shot. Perfection actually. There was nothing City could do about a shot like that. Nothing at all.

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Haha your on a wind up surely now fella?

He f**king ran himself in to the ground! We're we watching the same match?!

I love the way he runs off to celebrate as soon as he's kicked it, that old 'got it' feeling when you know 100% that it's in.

I don't know but from what i saw the first city goal was reina's ball , but there was a slight deflection from Martin, which took the ball off reina's catch /punch
  cant understand why pepe is being blamed for that goal , and some guy here giving him a '0' ..it was just bad luck in my humble opinion

 YNWA

I'm impressed by what I saw. Allen, Shelvey, Kelly, Borini and Sterling were playing as if they were the leaders of the team.
Reina has been awful! WTF happened to him!? Suarez was not good at all, he failed to combine with Gerrard and did not made important assists which could have won us the game.
Again, he should not be leading out attack!
I'm sure we'll improve though; although I was afraid we'd lack depth I saw we used the space well although I think it should be Suarez playing on the wings. Borini has very good vision and movement.

My rating
reina - 0
kelly - 7.5
Skrtel - 8
Coates - 7
Johnson - 7
Allen - 10
Shelvey - 8
Sterling - 7.5
Gerrard - 6.5
Suarez - 4 (the goal was awesome though)
Borini - 7(due to his position)

7 to borini coz of his positioning and 4 to suarez eventhough he scored a wonderful goal? :O