Manchester City 2-1 Liverpool: In game and Post Match discussion

We were unlucky. 1cm away from scoring, and they must have cleared their line about 3 times on top of that. Hardly a crisis. If your response to losing our first league game in the 21st round against one of the world's best teams, away from home, is to go hysterical, then it's your problem, not the team's. Seriously. We'll move on. Still top by a good margin.

The over reaction is as ridiculous and as childish as I expect from a few on here Diego.

Some of you lads need to get a grip.

A tight game where we lost by one goal to the best side in the league, apart from us, and you're losing your sh*t.

We didn't play well, our tactics and selection weren't quite right in hindsight but the world hasn't ended.

We're still four points clear and if anyone gave you that at this stage before the league started you'd have grabbed it with both hands.

Fact is two very very good sides have played 190+ minutes this season and scored 3 goals.

We had more than one chance this game to equalize or take the lead and we didn't capitalize.

Great football match and "this time" we came up a little short.

It's January and we have everything to play for.

Disappointing but wer'e still 4 pts ahead.

Because City was leading and slightly more defensive. Don't confuse correlation with causation.

I just look at results and evidence, we were better with Fabinho than we were with Milner.

They're at home, 7 points behind us so naturally they might have had that extra incentive tonight.

Don't think they were any more hungry just the odds of them winning slightly higher than for us in a tight game.

Spot on - we didn’t quite hit our stride but neither did they.....their one off the post went in, ours didn’t.

That’s all.

I don't want to see Lovren and Hendo near the side next season. The fact Henderson is the captain of this club is a joke. Lovren is like Sakho and nowhere near the level of this club. His level is Crystal Palace. Trent has been avarage all season. I would like a new young right back to rotate with Trent. He's only 20 and has been playing a lot of games.

Front three didn't do enough for me against make shift back 4 didnt see anyone run at or commit Laporte or Kompany when on yellows. Fernandino destroyed our Midfield head and shoulders best player on park. Got to pick ourselves up now . Need to get a result at Wolves don't want to lose two on trot before Brighton

I fully agree but to me that seemed to be how Klopp wanted us to play; allow City to have the ball and then set traps to ceate mistakes. It worked on a number of occasions but we were so wasteful with the ball. There had to be a point in that game where we pressed the crap out of them and forced them to make mistakes that way but we rarely ever did.

Fabinho showed he should have started.

We are four points clear. Let's relax. We go again!!!

Obviously massively disappointing is my immediate reaction.

But you have to look at the bigger picture and put things into perspective. This is our first defeat of the season... in JANUARY.. against a top team at their ground. We are still 4 points ahead of them with some fixtures coming up that allow us to potentially go on another winning run.

It’s not as bad as some of you are making it out to be. It’s not ideal tonight, but my god I would’ve snapped your hand off for the league standings to look like this at the start of season.

Also, they can’t take any more points off us, so let’s win the next
16

We were unlucky. 1cm away from scoring, and they must have cleared their line about 3 times on top of that. Hardly a crisis. If your response to losing our first league game in the 21st round against one of the world's best teams, away from home, is to go hysterical, then it's your problem, not the team's. Seriously. We'll move on. Still top by a good margin.

Just a blow isn't it. Fact is if we lose any game City will probably win so the 6 point thing is a little bit much.

The thing is if we want to win this thing, I really believe we have to throw the champions league away. This is a tight race now and the bookies probably have us second favourite.

Still not sure we can go running around in Munich and Madrid midweek and keep winning these big games at the weekend.

City the better side on the night, pressed us constantly in our final 3rd, never let us settle into an easy pattern of building play up from the back, pressured us into long 50/50 balls, and Lovren and Allison into some dodgy distribution at times.
We got a bit more control in the middle when Fab came on, struggled up to then to get the ball down and up into the final 3rd constructively - though once City went 2-1 up, was likely they'd drop off a little bit, so that's a factor too I guess.
Dejan was poor enough, could argue he was slow for 1st goal, set up Sterling for a 3rd he should've put away, and gave the ball away in ropey positions a good few times. Maybe a bit harsh, but at this level the edge in quality matters.
Sounds a bit wet, but the luck wasn't with us tonight either, a fair few times in the box the ball didn't fall/bounce for us, or ran away from us when we had them under some pressure.
Good save by Allison from Sergio kept us in it to the end, but we just couldn't manage to bundle over an equaliser at the frantic end.
Disappointing as had hoped to get a result, but at the end of the day, we're still 4 points clear, and it's not like we were well beaten, far from it.
Bounce back hard in the next game...

Game of small margins Sane hits the post and it goes in, Mane doesn’t.

Overall City probably edged it and Klopps conservative midfield didn’t help, seen Milner too often against top midfielders completely bypassed and not sure how Henderson stayed on for 90mins.
We looked much better once Fab came on and he probably should have started.

Might get slated for this but had Trent improved defensively at all both goals came from his side and not even going to mention the disastrous Lovren, the sooner Gomez is back the better.

Alisson was top class again.

"Perspective" to think about a situation or problem in a wise and reasonable way:
NObody wanted this result and our performance was a bit hit and miss but the next game in the league is the important one.
I expect Jürgen will have questions about how his selection and tactics turned out but we had chances to win that game two defensive mistakes cost us so how is that anything to do with tactics or team selection

I don't want to see Lovren and Hendo near the side next season. The fact Henderson is the captain of this club is a joke. Lovren is like Sakho and nowhere near the level of this club. His level is Crystal Palace.

I hope you have good insurance or government health care as your knee just jerked out of it's socket.

We cannot judge Sturridge. The guy has no game rhythm, just plays 2-3 minutes here and there. Do this to Salah and Mo will look as pathetic as Daniel.

Front three didn't do enough for me against make shift back 4 didnt see anyone run at or commit Laporte or Kompany when on yellows. Fernandino destroyed our Midfield head and shoulders best player on park. Got to pick ourselves up now . Need to get a result at Wolves don't want to lose two on trot before Brighton

This. Pressure should have  been put on Kompany. He deserved a red card for his tackle. but the ref is never going to send the home cpt off.

Be no shame losing there at our best. The fact we could have won it playing way below par is whats getting to me.

Anyway the match is done and when all is said and done were top with 4 to spare. We can recover from this quite easy and push on.

Thought Robbo was class as always and Fab when he came in was boss. We gave 1 player in there now who sadly causes us a lot of grief. Sort that and I think well be set

First of all, let's get MOTM out of the way. I thought Trent was outstanding. Robertson was a close runner up but most of our attacks came down Trent's side and he had Sane in his pocket for most of the match.

As for the match itself, I'm livid at the boys right now. Thought that was our worst performance in some time. Far too much sloppy passing, way too many sideways and backward passes when we were a goal down (both times) and a general all round lack of hunger and desire from them. City wanted it more and it showed on the night. Mane stank the place out, beyond his missed chance in the first half. He looked half arsed and gave the ball away too often.

Not impressed with the selection of Milner over an in form Fabinho, and why he waited so long to bring Shaq on is beyond me. Subs again showed a lack of depth up front and something that needs some attention moving forward. Studge's legs have gone and he offered nothing when he came on late in the game.

All that being said, we're still four points clear of City so our title dreams remain firmly in our own hands. The real test is how they react to this defeat. It's vital they pick themselves up, dust themselves off and get back to winning ways at Brighton.

Said it before and long time ago, Lovren is the weak link, his positiining is terrible and has cost us numerous times. All over the place except where he is supposed to be.

If klopp had been more ambitious and put someone in midfield that can hurt them, city will be in big trouble. A big part of the fans would see their defence being their weakest link and yet we dont pump the ball into their box enough and yet dally in our own half and on the wings to allow them to pin us back. Frustrating, frustratimg.

I don't want to see Lovren and Hendo near the side next season. The fact Henderson is the captain of this club is a joke. Lovren is like Sakho and nowhere near the level of this club. His level is Crystal Palace. Trent has been avarage all season. I would like a new young right back to rotate with Trent. He's only 20 and has been playing a lot of games.

Pick your teddies up and go to bed

When I was younger in the 70’s and 80’s , we would lose a game in the league and it would feel like it does tonight . Shows how far we have come to feel like that again. Surprised , hurt , disbelief. This is good , we are so used to winning and have lost one league game away at the champions ground .
They battled like their lives depended on it and good luck to them but we will be champions this season .

Thought Robbo was class as always

Gave him MOTM, thought he was great again.

Inches... literally a game of inches. The inches were the difference between Manes shot hitting the post and coming out and Sanes shot hitting the post and going in. The inches were the difference between the ball being completely over the line and Stones clearing. The inches were the difference every time the ball bounced inside their 6 yard box and they got it away in desperation.

Far from a horrendous performance, far from a horrendous result. Just one of those wars of attrition. In fairness to City they put absolutely everything into that.

I don’t think there are any scape goats or individuals to blame here (although Twitter looks fuckingtoxic and definitely disagrees), the bare fact is that their game plan worked better than ours. They pressed us into oblivion, and completely took our midfield out of the game. I had no reservations about the mid field 3 at the start, so I would be a hypocrite to critcise the choice now, however after 25 mins it was clear they weren’t going to work here. Fabinho was the right call and came on with enough time to make an impact, and he did. He sat in and allowed both full backs to get further up the pitch which lead to our goal.

Their other plan was clearly to target Trent, they’ve tried it before but it worked well for them tonight. Whenever we tried to get over to cover Trent, they recycled the ball very quickly and used those spaces well. It would be easy to pick on Lovren but I don’t actually think he was terrible, they really pressured that side and with the exception of the goal (he did check behind him but Aguero was in his blind spot) and that moment of madness when he played both Sane and Sterling in for 2 good chances he was far from terrible. No one was, but unfortunately it’s in those moments we someone to be amazing and it just didn’t happen tonight. 6 and 7 out of 10’s everywhere. Whereas City had 2 moments of magic and 3 or 4 players putting in a 9/10. Just not our night.

The media will milk it, but it means just as little as if we had won, its 3 points, no more, no less. There’s still a lot of football left to play, a lot of points to pick up and we’re still 4 ahead. In a weird way this is one of the best ways we could have lost our unbeaten run, from here on every game would have the added pressure of the unbeaten tag. It’s gone now, F**k it. There’s a reason it’s not done every year, it’s football, you lose some games, just make sure you win more than the rest, and we’re still doing that.

One bump in the road, we dust ourselves off, have a very well deserved rest against Wolves and We Go Again!

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