A very brave performance, and fantastic to watch. There seems to have been a switch that went off and the cautious, adaptive approach that Rodgers was using earlier in the season seems to have turned to doing what we do and believing it will work. Most teams at the Etihad will be terrified of Man City's counter-attack and so play extremely cautiously. We just charged at them, and probably had the better overall chances. The difference between this loss and the world picking us as title favourites was the width of two goalkeeper gloves, one at each end.
The strange thing for me was that we were so competitive even with some obvious poor performances, Cissokho simply looked lost, Johnson a little dazed, and Sakho gambling on the river boat with and without the ball. I really like the effect on Suarez of having the captain's armband, I thought he gave a very mature performance. The new midfield were excellent, just holding your own against Man City is excellent. Skrtel will be given a hard time because of Kompany's goal but I thought ironically that he made a better attempt to compete for the ball on that cross than he usually does. Overall I thought he was excellent.
Coutinho is hurting my brain at the moment. In order to score goals you have to see possibilities on the pitch in a creative way and take risks to get success. Great players see possibilities that others don't, and then they have the self-belief to take that risk. Countinho plays just like that and he absolutely should, it's just that at the moment those risks don't seem to be working out as I would hope. There's no doubt that Coutinho should feel free to shoot from twenty yards, it's just that he's not coming close to scoring when doing it at the moment. Any time Countinho thinks he sees a through pass I want him to try to make the pass, and I know that most of the time it won't work out, but it is still frustrating when it doesn't. I also think he works harder defensively when the attacking part of his game is clicking.
4-1-4-1, three-quarter press, Henderson 1.5 positions, Sterling's pace vs. City defensive line, Sakho leaping out of line,etc..
For me, this game was very encouraging.
No more Moses. Ever.