Topic: PL: Man City 1 v 1 Liverpool Haaland 27’ TAA 80’

[Hazell]

Yep, I think their latest golf purchase is a very astute move. 

Oh Al, never change.

[Fromola]

They used to cope with 1500 kick offs in the 80’s when we took 10000+ to Maine Road.  And that in the bad old days of crowd violence.  I am sure GMP would be embarrassed to admit they could not police a 1630 kick off.  Just a feeble excuse.

It's bullshit. We played Leeds at home on Saturday night last season (as an example). 21/22 we played City away at 16:30 and United away was a Monday night last season.

It's not that difficult to get 3000 Liverpool fans in and out of their shithole.

We've been unnecessarily screwed over with the kick off time (mainly with the South Americans) and City have spun it to their advantage by getting players out of international duty.

[storkfoot]

It's bullshit. We played Leeds at home on Saturday night last season (as an example). 21/22 we played City away at 16:30 and United away was a Monday night last season.

It's not that difficult to get 3000 Liverpool fans in and out of their shithole.

We've been unnecessarily screwed over with the kick off time (mainly with the South Americans) and City have spun it to their advantage by getting players out of international duty.

Yeah but we had twice as many coppers in the streets in the ‘80s. They used to cope with Liverpool and Everton playing at the same time!

[the_red_pill]

I was confident of a draw heading into this. I just wanted more - a win, but I was largely convinced we can get a draw based on previous history/form. So glad we at least keeping pace with them.

City's got Villa away and Spurs coming up, so hoping for points dropped there in any case...

For now though the table's shaping up and Villa's the surprise package. United's form's also picking up so they'll be in the conversation for 4th and more assured of nicking points off us.
If we make the right signing in Jan, I'll be on the title-chasing train, but for now I'm just enjoying this. This City side have a few losses in them...

[Eeyore]

It's bullshit. We played Leeds at home on Saturday night last season (as an example). 21/22 we played City away at 16:30 and United away was a Monday night last season.

It's not that difficult to get 3000 Liverpool fans in and out of their shithole.

We've been unnecessarily screwed over with the kick off time (mainly with the South Americans) and City have spun it to their advantage by getting players out of international duty.

Blame the bellend who lashed the cup full of coins out of our end last Xmas.

[Andy @ Allerton!]

Not convinced it would have been in this case though. Did they even say what was wrong with him?

He's a c*nt

[Hazell]

He's a c*nt

And there's no cure for being a c*nt.

[DangerScouse]

Blame the bellend who lashed the cup full of coins out of our end last Xmas.

Yep, exactly Al and their c*nts who bricked our bus.

[wampa1]

It's not that difficult to get 3000 Liverpool fans in and out of their shithole.

Yeah, they cope with getting 3000 City fans in and out every home game.

[Eeyore]

Yep, exactly Al and their c*nts who bricked our bus.

Yep the fixture has become toxic.

[12C]

I get the benefit for City.

But why would Ederson go along with this? Surely most players, and particularly players from certain regions and countries, view representing their country as the pinnacle.

Why would City players allow Pep to pull them out of internationals but our players, for example, wouldn’t (even though likes of Konate pulled out but was fit to be on bench yesterday)?

Doesn’t quite add up to me

Money mate.
That’s why Aguero never left until he was finished.
Remember it’s every Latin American players dream to play for Real or Barca, because…
Yet one of the most talented of all time stayed in Manchester because…

[slaphead]

Money mate.
That’s why Aguero never left until he was finished.
Remember it’s every Latin American players dream to play for Real or Barca, because…
Yet one of the most talented of all time stayed in Manchester because…

But then we can't sit here and say their players who missed the international break done so because of money and at the same time we want our players to be the same can we ?
Out of curiosity, how many of their players didn't go on international duty yet were in the squad on Saturday?  And how many of ours?
 

[CowboyKangaroo]

Definitely true of Klopp and probably true of Guardiola - no evidence of it at all though, and I'm sure a player like Ederson would have enough autonomy to resist the pressure if it existed and he wanted to play for Brazil.no thanks, that'd be awful for clubs. i was annoyed when england's FA didnt believe Gerrard and LFC about his injury and forced him to travel to London to duplicate tests of their own to prove it. International FAs need to be neutered, not given more power to fuck over careers like they did to Sturridge and KeitaSo how would you police and punish it? Suspensions for the players? Good luck investigating it and finding enough evidence. Recent examples of players "cheating" the rules are Ederson and Gravenberch (I'd not call that cheating, but it fits the criteria). What should have happened to us about that? Think by law of unintended consequences you'd have players being honest and transparent would get punished. Like Matip as the less recent example (where he was subject to extended suspension).

I'm not suggesting that punishment is practical or even necessarily desirable. Simply that being dishonest to circumvent the rules is unethical, and that it is reasonable to feel aggrieved by the alleged (/probable) unethical behavior.

[Barneylfc∗]

But then we can't sit here and say their players who missed the international break done so because of money and at the same time we want our players to be the same can we ?
Out of curiosity, how many of their players didn't go on international duty yet were in the squad on Saturday?  And how many of ours?

They'd 6 players in the squad that didn't join the national side. They made no subs so only 2 played

Ederson
Ake
Carson
Gomez
Ortega
Stones

We had 5 in the squad, with 2 starting and 1 coming off the bench.
Jones
Matip
Gravenberch
Konate
Gomez

[slaphead]

They'd 6 players in the squad that didn't join the national side. They made no subs so only 2 played

Ederson
Ake
Carson
Gomez
Ortega
Stones

We had 5 in the squad, with 2 starting and 1 coming off the bench.
Jones
Matip
Gravenberch
Konate
Gomez

Thanks Barney. Were all of those players called up?
Actually hold on, is that Scott Carson !

[Barneylfc∗]

Thanks Barney. Were all of those players called up?
Actually hold on, is that Scott Carson !

Scott Carson, winner of 2 CL titles in Istanbul. Yes 

[slaphead]

Scott Carson, winner of 2 CL titles in Istanbul. Yes 

Jaysus. I just googled him, can't believe he's only 38. He looked that when he played for Leeds.

[Ciara (with a capital "C")]

I felt like I was crying it in at the end - 'we never score from corners!' and 'we could play all day and not score here' but there was something in me that felt the game was still there for us, we just needed a moment or a chance and for it not to fall to Nunez.

There definitely wasn't an air of invincibility about them on Saturday - I would have been annoyed had we gone there and not got something, as it didn't feel like we were under enormous amounts of pressure. They had moments but it wasn't sustained pressure nor was it that control they exert which can just choke the life out of you, I thought we coped with them quite well. When you consider the 12:30 KO, how many players we had playing in different time zones and the opposition, I am delighted with the point.

We have 6 league games to see the year out and if we have anything about us, we need to be seeing 14pts there at least, maybe more. And one of them has to be a win v Arsenal - actually, two of them have to be wins against United and Arsenal. We could set ourselves up for a big January if we can round this year out on 14+ points if we end it with 2 wins against them at Anfield. A trip to Burnley after that is not the fixture it once was. I hate looking beyond the next game but I think it's clear the League winners are not hitting 95 points, never mind any more than that. And that's what is so intriguing about this season - we have Chelsea, Spurs, Villa who can all potentially take points off City and Arsenal home AND away. This levels the playing field for teams to get closer to City, so in a season where our first XI is not necessarily a 90+ pt team, we could have enough to mount a very serious challenge. We can't be dropping more points like Luton away.

The players will know we are in a race and Saturday's result should give us everything to throw at this. Next fixture at home v Fulham needs to be a routine Liverpool win - no scares, no putting doubt in our own minds or City/Arsenals about this Liverpool side. We just need to get the job done.

Hoping Ali's injury is not too severe at all - he is crucial to this period coming up. As is Darwin. I really, really like the guy and think he can play an incredible part this season but he has scored 1 league goal since West Ham on 23rd September and that was Forest at home. He has a few cup goals inbetween and assists, but he needs to bring goals to the League games.

[thaddeus]

A very good point for us.

We're never very good after international breaks.  We're never very good with 12.30 kick-offs.  A few saving graces though in that we were playing a team who also have a lot of international players - albeit some of them didn't bother - and it's not a long trek for us.

Our midfield, certainly defensively, is still a work in progress and Man City exploited that a few times.  That said, their only goal came from an individual error and had almost no build-up play.  We had less of the ball but created some decent openings and Trent scored a very good goal.

A few of us on here were worried about Kostas beforehand but he had a very solid game.  Doku got some space and joy on the other side but that was very much a game of cat and mouse as he didn't track Trent at all.  As it played out all of Doku's good attacking play didn't lead to anything but Trent popped up with our equaliser - funny old game.

[Fromola]

Money mate.
That’s why Aguero never left until he was finished.
Remember it’s every Latin American players dream to play for Real or Barca, because…
Yet one of the most talented of all time stayed in Manchester because…

They all end up leaving on a free when they're done (David Silva, Toure, Kompany) or after Guardiola decides to move them on. Bernardo has been looking to go back to Spain every summer but Barca won't get near what City pay so he always stays. They'll make sure Haaland stays.

[fowlermagic]

Considering their home form and how they started the game and our lads struggling a little to play their best I thought a point was massive. Jurgen said if they play well and we were average then don't expect much as we needed to be at our best to get a result. Well even the lads surprised Jurgen as we were well off our best and got a point. That's a huge plus

[rossipersempre]

Money mate.
That’s why Aguero never left until he was finished.

He's still on the payroll (pic taken over the weekend at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix)).

[Son of Spion]

He's still on the payroll (pic taken over the weekend at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix)).

Is he a racing driver now, or has he just gone Grand Prix full kit wanker? 

[redk84]

+i liked VVD's reaction to their goal. He seems fully up for it this season
+i liked the fact Trent scored in this game...and imo on the day he was much better defensively than in attacking play
+Tsimikas looked the part - was not a liability at all
+Our new midfield handled their world beating one
+Our "terrible" defence didn't seem to concede that many big chances at all
+ended their winning-run
+added to the small doubts around city this season (though i think that's a bit premature)

A good day in the end. But what matters most is what comes next - especially those 2 away games...because as good a day as this was if we want to be challenging anything past 3rd place we need to be beating the bottom 10 and that away record of ours needs sorting.

The firepower in this team needs to start scaring the shit out of these teams

[rossipersempre]

Is he a racing driver now, or has he just gone Grand Prix full kit wanker? 

He was just a spectator. They had him walking around the paddock in this outfit. No different to this.

[Son of Spion]

He was just a spectator. They had him walking around the paddock in this outfit...

Ah, thanks. I've not heard anything about him since he retired, so did wonder if he'd gone into driving after seeing the picture.

[Cafe De Paris]

That Grand Prix outfit is like something you buy for your baby to wear.

[Zimagic]

Just watched James Lawrence Allcott's video on the game. What struck me most was how much TAA is being asked to do to an extremely high level and what the team is allowing other teams, even City with Doku, to do on the right side to facilitate Trent coming into the midfield. I wonder how we would line up if we had both Trent and another would class right back.