Man City 3-1 Liverpool: In game and Post Match debates

Joe was better than Stevie and Henderson, yet it was our left, the side that Joe should be protecting also that got annihilated. Him and Coutinho were waltzed around many times. He didn't provide meaningful cover in any position on the side and did an o.k. job in the middle.

Joe did alright for the first 20 minutes while we were on top I thought, but after that went downhill and by the 75th min (when he was subbed) was offering nothing. What was his role in that 3, surely the creative spark if he offered so little going backwards, well forwards he wasn't much better either.

I completely agree with Saint that Lallana can't come back quick enough, I expect much more from a Liverpool midfielder than Joe offers at the minute. I never want to see Coutinho starting on the left again unless we completely out class the opposition. I never want to see a 3 of such defence minded players and thankfully I don't think we will.

Many said the same about Hendo two season ago.

Hendo goes missing as well for large parts of games , can we truly say their good enough for us ?

Unfortunately i don't think Gerrard does too well with another midfielder beside him. I think he gets tempted to get out of position too much because of the possible cover from the other midfielder and he gets caught out. If we were to have two deeper lying midfielders Gerrard has to become a lot more disciplined in his play then when anchoring because he doesn't have the opportunity to burst forward.

Rather have Gerrard on his own anchoring or Henderson/Can in the position.

I haven't seen anything to suggest that to be honest mate, since Brendan made the switch back end of last season Stevie has pretty much played as a lone holder and having had the time to relearn the nuances of the position he has done a pretty decent job as well. I think his days of going AWOL in search of glory are gone now and would have no worries about him maintaining his discipline with a partner alongside him.

Seriously these excuses it's only a game don't worry about it , bad day at the office are for losers , of course every game matters if you want to win the league and most importantly you have to beat your rivals

I agree with the first partin that every game matters but in the grand scheme of things we will look back at this game as one we may have expected to lose and as been said many times on here the vast majority of teams will go there this season and lose.

The second part I totally disagree with as we could lose to each of the other top four this season away from home and still win the league.

I haven't seen anything to suggest that to be honest mate, since Brendan made the switch back end of last season Stevie has pretty much played as a lone holder and having had the time to relearn the nuances of the position he has done a pretty decent job as well. I think his days of going AWOL in search of glory are gone now and would have no worries about him maintaining his discipline with a partner alongside him.

Fair enough, i think he is very disciplined in the anchoring role but in a midfield two i never feel comfortable. Maybe a consistent runs of games with Henderson and Gerrard could help a good partnership develop, but that wasn't too effective in the past, maybe Can and Gerrard with Hendo higher up, who knows.

Not saying he was a world beater mate but the fact he is leading the mom poll suggests a few thought he did quite well last night. Personally for games such as last night I would look to play two holding players, least that way Stevie is getting left high and dry when we loose the ball with both fullbacks 50 yards up the pitch and the rest of the team legging it to get back and help. If we played two sitters you could the play Coutinho as an 8/10 rear than out wide where he is less effective.

Against lesser opposition I think we can play those three in the middle of the park because I would have confidence in our three attacking players to unlock the door but it's no so easy against the likes of City or Chelsea.

Like you I'm desperate for Lallana to get himself fit. He would have been an upgrade on Coutinho in the wide left ole last night and same applies to both Henderson and Allen in the middle of the park.

I think it is more to do with whether we play with 2 or 3 up front. If we play with just Sturridge  and Sterling joining him I feel they need more support from midfield than we saw last night. If we play as we did more often than not last season with Sterling joining Suarez (Balotelli) and Sturridge I think we can afford to have less close support from midfield which then gives the midfield more room to get their heads up and pick their passes.

As I said after the game last night, we seemed to be a player short in attack when we were on top and while I don't believe it was that which cost us the game (it was defensive frailties that did that), if we had managed to score it could have changed the game in our favour in a similar fashion to the way Citeh's goal changed the game in theirs.

I certainly agree that Coutinho is much better used in more central areas and anything that allows us to do that is a huge bonus.

I have returned to my thinking of last year that two strikers with a third forward (Stirling or Coutinho) playing off them is the way to go.... just when I thought I had come to terms with the single striker theory      

Solving our defensive problems may not be quite as simple.

As I said after the game last night, we seemed to be a player short in attack when we were on top and while I don't believe it was that which cost us the game (it was defensive frailties that did that), if we had managed to score it could have changed the game in our favour in a similar fashion to the way Citeh's goal changed the game in theirs.

I have returned to my thinking of last year that two strikers with a third forward (Stirling or Coutinho) playing off them is the way to go.... just when I thought I had come to terms with the single striker theory      

I agree with this especially. When you compare the offensively side of the team this season to last season, we've taken out Suarez and replaced him with Allen (just for that one game); same with Southampton, it'd have been Lucas out and Suarez in. I'm not talking literally but giving an example of how the offensive side to the team has changed from this season to last. Which I think was a big problem for us, Sturridge looked isolated and another striker would have gave them something to think about, hence why lambert made a big difference against City.

So I do think we miss that second striker/creative player which is why I think we should switch to a diamond. We played the last 30 minutes playing the 41212 and we scored against both Southampton and City and didn't concede.

Hendo goes missing as well for large parts of games , can we truly say their good enough for us ?

F**k sake if there's one thing Hendo doesn't do it's go missing for large parts of games. Yes I can truly say Hendo is good enough for us.

Popping into this thread looks like the league is over already!

Brendans system has the fullbacks playing far up the pitch and its for the midfield two to cover them.

However you dress it up, defenders jobs are to defend. When a full back is given licence to attack down the flanks, that doesn't mean,
 " get forward when you can, and if you fail to get past the first player to oppose you, or fail to get a cross in, or even lose possession with a poor pass, You just stroll back, don't worry about effort or urgency, get back in your own time, someone else will do your job until you make it. You just take it easy."  F.F.S.  how many times before he get's the message.?

Brendans system has the fullbacks playing far up the pitch and its for the midfield two to cover them.

It's a very poor system.  I'd never want my centre mids covering at fullback because a fullback decided he wants to be a winger for 5 minutes.  I'd much rather the fullback pass to the winger instead leaving the CM to assist the strikers and winning the ball in the middle when attacs beak down. If the CM covers fullback that leaves us exposed so the opposition can run through the middle very easily unchallenged and we can't defend until it's deep in our half.  I'm not a fan of complicated formations that clearly suck. I'd rather have our fullbacks not go past the half way line.

It's a very poor system.  I'd never want my centre mids covering at fullback because a fullback decided he wants to be a winger for 5 minutes.  I'd much rather the fullback pass to the winger instead leaving the CM to assist the strikers and winning the ball in the middle when attacs beak down. If the CM covers fullback that leaves us exposed so the opposition can run through the middle very easily unchallenged and we can't defend until it's deep in our half.  I'm not a fan of complicated formations that clearly suck. I'd rather have our fullbacks not go past the half way line.

That is the downside of two attacking full backs. But when ontop of a game the full backs being that high up the pitch allow us to box the opposition in their own half and gives us extra bodies making us stronger in attack, allowing us to have more options and oppertunities in breaking a team down.

Width is really important as it stretches the opposition out, wingers can provide width but a LB and LM linking up is a much more effective attacking threat then just a LM trying to attack as it gives defenders more to think about. 

I'm not a fan of the new system. Last year we were sensational in the attack, everyone was involved, the flow was quick, wingers chaotic, and midfielders lively. Now, the play is slower and we often go negative. The midfielders seem to be weak and same with the outside backs. Gerrard cannot be played as an exaggerated center defensive midfielder for the centre backs. They shouldn't have to rely on cover, I would trust Lovren and Skrtel just about more than 17 other partnerships in the Premier League. Moreno is good but can get caught too high. Coutinho covered him and though he did alright at it, we know Coutinho can't do that all year. Coutinho needs to be able to take people on and distribute...through the middle and not on the left flank. Excited to have Lallana back but it'll be awhile. Hopefully we can go back to last year's play

Any update on Moreno's injury so far?

F**k sake if there's one thing Hendo doesn't do it's go missing for large parts of games. Yes I can truly say Hendo is good enough for us.

I agree with that.

It's depressing we lost by such a margin. I saw some very worrying things, but I also saw many positives.

First of all, we didn't deserve to be 3-0 down by the time Lambert came on. We were the much better team in the first half. We looked sharper, our passing was slicker and we had superior posession. That is very impressive against the best team in the league dominated by top class players. I can't see any other team in the league who can do that at the Etihad. There are of course arguments about what is needed to win, and Mourinho's tactics are effective without posession, but I was impressed in the first half.

Lovren is a beast, Sterling rang rings around them and Sturridge looks very sharp. Moreno also looks like he can give us something we have truly missed since Riise left, proper pace, attacking and getting balls in from left back. Whoever said Hendo went missing was watching a different game.

Now come the worrying part. We've been undone by an individual error again. Every team has those days but we seem to have too many of them. Not sure if it's lack of concentration or organisation, but we are prone to basic mistakes too often.
Also, once we conceded, we looked like we could concede again very easily. This happened against palace last season and we fell apart. We have to learn to keep our concentration during set backs. When we go behind, we will naturally try to get back in the game but it leaves us vulnerable to counter attacks, so we have to learn to keep the ball better and be more patient when we're down.
Secondly, Sturridge looked really isolated up front. He did well last season when Suarez was banned, but we seemed to be just getting through games. I want to see more options up front.

I think Lovren's signing is inspired in many ways. He looked like he was giving out to people around him and having a go at his players. We've missed someone like that at the back who can kick people up the backside, and hopefully it will cut down on individual mistakes. Stevie's a great captain but more an arms round the shoulder guy. Lovren's vocal and we need it.
Balo also has to start (so long as he's behaving) and give Sturridge a partner. We looked more threatening with two up front against S'ton and City when Lambert came on and that's what I'd like to see.
We also need to get Can up to speed with prem quickly. Allen was great but against phjysical teams, he gets bullied. Can is a bit rough but we'll need his physical presence. Johnson needs to fo. Can't wait till Flanno is fit again.

Overall, I was disappointed with the manner of the loss because I think we're so much better a team than that. But I do not think it's as bad as the scoreline or some people suggest here. A few tweaks and a little more time for the new comers (by the end, we had  4 newcomers on the pitch) to work together, we will see a different side in my opinion. Glad we got it out the way and I'm genuinely positive about the rest of the season.

I miss this player already

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p6b3o9vpfwo

Upon reflection I think we are going to have to show some patience until at least Christmas. Brendan had a settled side bar injuries and now he has to bed in new players and work out which is his best team. We saw enough on Monday at City to know we can go to somewhere like City and out play them for long periods.If we can keep 4 or 5points off the CL spots come Jan I think we will be fine.

I miss this player already

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p6b3o9vpfwo

Life goes on. We look ahead. You can follow Barcelona if you miss him. We will follow Brendan. Maybe if he joins a PL team you wouldn't miss him as much?

Upon reflection I think we are going to have to show some patience until at least Christmas. Brendan had a settled side bar injuries and now he has to bed in new players and work out which is his best team. We saw enough on Monday at City to know we can go to somewhere like City and out play them for long periods.If we can keep 4 or 5points off the CL spots come Jan I think we will be fine.

disagree.  If we wait until Christmas we could struggle to make it back into the top four.  Rodgers needs to change things for the better pronto to find something that looks like it suits our team. It's what he's paid for. If we wait until Christmas to change things we're in for a dire season.

disagree.  If we wait until Christmas we could struggle to make it back into the top four.  Rodgers needs to change things for the better pronto to find something that looks like it suits our team. It's what he's paid for. If we wait until Christmas to change things we're in for a dire season.

Lets forget about last match. We were facing most completed team in EPL, they clearly got better bench and can replace any player in any time. And most off, they got stronger individual players that can take situation in their hands and deal with it. World class players, we had one last season but sadly he decided to take a fly to sunny Spain. We were playing well, hell, i see bright future for these young boys onto field.

We should more care for upcoming clash on sunday.

F**k sake if there's one thing Hendo doesn't do it's go missing for large parts of games. Yes I can truly say Hendo is good enough for us.

Henderson and Allen are 24 yrs of age , at this stage they should be at their best and showing Gerrard up , instead of the other way around Gerrard is making them look mediocre  at 34 yrs of age .

Henderson and Allen are 24 yrs of age , at this stage they should be at their best and showing Gerrard up , instead of the other way around Gerrard is making them look mediocre  at 34 yrs of age .

I wouldn't say that should be the case at all. Zidane was still showing everyone how it's done as he was nearing the end of his career (headbutt aside obviously).

Also why are you slating Hendo when he was one of our best players last season and battled very well to win and keep the ball against Saints and provide a quality assist from just inside our own half?