Topic: Chasing the Title

[Linudden]

The problem for Newcastle is they don't have the tools to exploit City's weaknesses. Press em', press 'em high, play with aggression and speed on the break...

...is something that Rafa wishes he could do with his team.

He'll give 'em a game, though. Always does.

There's always a thing though parking buses with 51 k behind you. If City don't get one inside the first half they might get really frustrated and also lose their heads in defence. Thus, it might not be a 0-0, but rather a 1-1 if Newcastle grab a goal on the break as City get frustrated. Then City might equalise late on. So there are a few scenarios that might work in our favour in that game, even if I'd give City a 75 % chance to win. I'll probably go with 0-2 in the Premier League prediction contest myself 

[Sharado]

I'd love to be proved wrong but I just feel some here have a false sense of hope just because it's Rafa managing them. It's still a 17th placed team lingering above the relegation zone.

It's Rafa. Siempre es possible.

[lionel_messias]

I'm loving this one-game-at-a-time-mantra.

So right now, all we have to worry about is training, getting the lads fit and ready for Leicester City at Anfield.

That's it. All other permutations, calendars and worrying about City is irrelevant.

Keep doing our job, one 95 mins at a time, until the games run out or something is achieved because of maths.

[spider-neil]

I doubt there'll be many, if any, points dropped against the bottom 10 teams by either of us from now in. Think the starting elevens and squads just have too much quality and approaches to breaking teams down.

Football isn't played on pitches, not paper. All it would take is a team defending like their lives depended on it and one set piece at the other end to create a shock upset. This is why football in the second half of seasons is almost entirely different from the first half of the season as there is more at stake at both ends of the table.

[wige]

Football isn't played on pitches, not paper. All it would take is a team defending like their lives depended on it and one set piece at the other end to create a shock upset. This is why football in the second half of seasons is almost entirely different from the first half of the season as there is more at stake at both ends of the table.

The respective points totals and City's sustained levels over a season and a half pretty much back it up though?

While teams may well be defending for their lives, the teams in opposition, ie City and ourselves, are playing and attacking for our lives too. Add to that being, generally, superior physically and technically and having more resources to call on, City in particular.

Of course - upsets will always happen. Also, as the race begins to conclude the mental aspect will become even more of a factor.

I'm not sure what you're disagreeing with to be honest? Do you think there'll be many points dropped by either of us against the bottom 10? If not, wouldn't that be down to the quality of the respective squads? Quality covering physical, technical, tactical and mental aspects.

[nico 8]

Football isn't played on pitches, not paper. All it would take is a team defending like their lives depended on it and one set piece at the other end to create a shock upset. This is why football in the second half of seasons is almost entirely different from the first half of the season as there is more at stake at both ends of the table.

Exactly. The longer you stay in the cups further impacts on your performance and ability to collect 3 points. Man City have the depth to compete on all 3 fonts but it is statistically shown (Tomkins) that cup runs affects your league form / ability to collect 3 points. All it takes is on incorrect call, slip or reduced energy levels and points are dropped. As much as I would dislike it, there is no doubt that a champs league run  will adversely our league run.

[Petadroli]

I'd love to be proved wrong but I just feel some here have a false sense of hope just because it's Rafa managing them. It's still a 17th placed team lingering above the relegation zone.

Palace are one point ahead of Newcastle and won at the Etihad. They almost got something from us at Anfield too.

It's a late night game three days after a Cup game. It will be City's 19th game in about 60 days. It's in front of 50k Geordies. The Newcastle Manager is Rafael Benitez.

[Raid]

They key for Rafa and Newcastle is to stay at 0-0 in the early stages, City seem to be very good at getting that early goal and settling into their rhythm.

The longer they can frustrate them and get the Toon crowd up may lead to a shock draw.

[Sharado]

They key for Rafa and Newcastle is to stay at 0-0 in the early stages, City seem to be very good at getting that early goal and settling into their rhythm.

That's precisely the problem. City have scored a fucking shit load of goals before the 20 minute mark this season. Most teams give up once that's happened. If you're 0-0 or even just the 1-0 at half time you've got a punt. I think Newcastle probably need to be 0-0. The next step is then around 70 minutes. If they aren't losing at the 70 minute mark, or if there's just a goal in it, then the doubts that did for city against leicester, chelsea and palace will kick in. I don't think it's likely that city drop points against newcastle, but I really don't think it's impossible.

[Cormack Snr]

Finished all me jobs at 3-30 today so sat off for an hour in me Corpy van in Everton Valley and made my predictions for us and City..  We will win the league by 4pts...

City                                       
                                                                                  50pts
12/01/2019: Manchester City v Wolverhampton      W     53pts    £13 on 1/5       £15.60
19/01/2019: Huddersfield Town v Manchester City  W     56pts    £18.72 on 1/7   £21.39
30/01/2019: Newcastle United v Manchester City    W     59pts    £21.39 on
02/02/2019: Manchester City v Arsenal                  W     62pts
09/02/2019: Manchester City v Chelsea                  D     63pts
23/02/2019: Everton v Manchester City                  W     66pts
27/02/2019: Manchester City v West Ham United     W    69pts
02/03/2019: A.F.C. Bournemouth v Manchester City  W   72pts
09/03/2019: Manchester City v Watford                    W   75pts
16/03/2019: Manchester United v Manchester City     D    76pts
30/03/2019: Fulham v Manchester City                      W   79pts
06/04/2019: Manchester City v Cardiff City                 W  82pts
13/04/2019: Crystal Palace v Manchester City             W  85pts
20/04/2019: Manchester City v Tottenham Hotspur      W  88pts
27/04/2019: Burnley v Manchester City                       W  91pts
04/05/2019: Manchester City v Leicester City               W 94pts
12/05/2019: Brighton v Manchester City                       W 97pts



LIVERPOOL FOOTBALL CLUB

January
                                                          54pts
12 – Brighton and Hove Albion (A) W     57pts     £10 on 3/10      £13
19 – Crystal Palace (H)                 W     60pts     £15.60 on 1/5   £18.72
30 – Leicester City (H)                  W     63pts
February
2 – West Ham United (A)               W    66pts
9 – Bournemouth (H)                    W     69pts
23 – Manchester United (A)            D     70pts
27 – Watford (H)                           W     73pts
March
2 – Everton (A)                              W    76pts
9 – Burnley (H)                              W    79pts
16 – Fulham (A)                             W    82pts
30 – Tottenham Hotspur (H)            D    83pts
April
6 – Southampton (A)                      W    86pts
13 – Chelsea (H)                            W    89pts
20 – Cardiff City (A)                        W   92pts
27 – Huddersfield Town (H)              W  95pts
May
4 – Newcastle United (A)                  W   98pts
12 – Wolverhampton Wanderers (H)  W   101PTS

[Red Beret]

City aren't going to lose many more games this season, so I'll happily take a few draws off them.

[lfc_col]

City aren't going to lose many more games this season, so I'll happily take a few draws off them.

Hopefully neither are we

[RedForeverTT]

Great news about our record profit, first club to ever have £100m profit. That’s why a great run in CL trumps winning League and FA Cup combined. It will be nice to win them but the money is not in there.

I think apart from City, no teams in the PL has the strength to compete in all 3- 4 competitions and that includes us. So maybe target PL this year with a good run in CL as a bonus to keep the cash flowing in. I personally think we do not have the strength to challenge on 2 fronts.

[PhaseOfPlay]

Great news about our record profit, first club to ever have £100m profit. That’s why a great run in CL trumps winning League and FA Cup combined. It will be nice to win them but the money is not in there.

I think apart from City, no teams in the PL has the strength to compete in all 3- 4 competitions and that includes us. So maybe target PL this year with a good run in CL as a bonus to keep the cash flowing in. I personally think we do not have the strength to challenge on 2 fronts.

Please tell me you're under 30 years old!

[Raid]

Great news about our record profit, first club to ever have £100m profit. That’s why a great run in CL trumps winning League and FA Cup combined. It will be nice to win them but the money is not in there.

I think apart from City, no teams in the PL has the strength to compete in all 3- 4 competitions and that includes us. So maybe target PL this year with a good run in CL as a bonus to keep the cash flowing in. I personally think we do not have the strength to challenge on 2 fronts.

We have a maximum of six additional games to get back to the Champions League Final. I think as professional athletes they can handle that.

I agree we would have faced issues if we'd progressed in the other two competitions.

[Caligula?]

Great news about our record profit, first club to ever have £100m profit. That’s why a great run in CL trumps winning League and FA Cup combined. It will be nice to win them but the money is not in there.

So you'd find more satisfaction in just a nice CL run even if we don't win it as opposed to winning the league this season?? 

[Sharado]

Great news about our record profit, first club to ever have £100m profit. That’s why a great run in CL trumps winning League and FA Cup combined. It will be nice to win them but the money is not in there.

I think apart from City, no teams in the PL has the strength to compete in all 3- 4 competitions and that includes us. So maybe target PL this year with a good run in CL as a bonus to keep the cash flowing in. I personally think we do not have the strength to challenge on 2 fronts.

Know what you mean. I've been drinking for 6 and a half hours with all my mates since those profits were announced, looking forward to the parade for it too.

[Roger Federer]

So you'd find more satisfaction in just a nice CL run even if we don't win it as opposed to winning the league this season?? 

Surely he means the league cup?

[newterp]

Surely he means the league cup?

Yeah I agree. Just oddly worded.

[latortuga]

I doubt there'll be many, if any, points dropped against the bottom 10 teams by either of us from now in. Think the starting elevens and squads just have too much quality and approaches to breaking teams down.

I think the "slips" will come in the games you'd expect them to, versus the rest of the top 6 and possibly away to those in 7-10 - I think even those are doubtful.

This break, and relaxed fixture list, has come at the perfect time for us:

- Bit of sun
- Intense but controlled training sessions
- Time to get players fit
- Time to give the right rest to the right players
- A chance to get away from everything here
- Team bonding ahead of the run-in to the season.

Also Klopp will have the opportunity to meet collectively and plant any motivational or stress relieving seeds he may feel are needed - focussing minds for the challenges ahead and reinforcing the one game at a time mantra.

I've pretty much fully embraced this myself. Don't *really* care about City's results, don't *really* care about who we play next, don't *really* care about when, if, where, how, who points are dropped. All that will take care, and happen when it happens, or doesn't. I just wanna watch this team play football. Can't wait for Leicester. I don't really wanna think past that right now.

And yet we suffered our worst set of results following last years trip to Dubai - WLLWD.  Devils advocate would say it may not be as big a boost as you make it out to be if the alternative is City who continue to rotate their squad but remain in England playing competitive football.  We won our first game which was the thrilling 4-3 home game with City, but if I recall correctly we seemed to have heavy legs in the last 15 mins of the game when City penned us in and put 3 quick goals in our net.  Hopefully it was all just a mere coincidence. 

[Peabee]

Please tell me you're under 30 years old!

Millennials would rather win the “most profits earned” trophy mate. 

I’m assuming they meant league cup not the league... ??!

[deFacto please, you bastards]

And yet we suffered our worst set of results following last years trip to Dubai - WLLWD.  Devils advocate would say it may not be as big a boost as you make it out to be if the alternative is City who continue to rotate their squad but remain in England playing competitive football.  We won our first game which was the thrilling 4-3 home game with City, but if I recall correctly we seemed to have heavy legs in the last 15 mins of the game when City penned us in and put 3 quick goals in our net.  Hopefully it was all just a mere coincidence. 

Playing against a side like City and pressing like we pressed in that match and last season in general [which we don't do as much this year] is why we had heavy legs in 15 minutes. It's impossible not to be tired in a match of that intensity, especially how we played that day.

[latortuga]

Playing against a side like City and pressing like we pressed in that match and last season in general [which we don't do as much this year] is why we had heavy legs in 15 minutes. It's impossible not to be tired in a match of that intensity, especially how we played that day.

That could be true, though we seemed very comfortable in the 1st leg of the UCL with a similar level of intensity.  IIRC City had 0 shots on goal in the that game.

While I did reference the City game, my point was more about the overall results in the weeks following our Dubai trip.  I'm sure if there's something to it the club will have picked up on it and adjusted training accordingly.   

[RedSince86]

Great news about our record profit, first club to ever have £100m profit. That’s why a great run in CL trumps winning League and FA Cup combined. It will be nice to win them but the money is not in there.

I think apart from City, no teams in the PL has the strength to compete in all 3- 4 competitions and that includes us. So maybe target PL this year with a good run in CL as a bonus to keep the cash flowing in. I personally think we do not have the strength to challenge on 2 fronts.

Early contender for WTF post in 2019.

[latortuga]

Early contender for WTF post in 2019.

He meant to post it on ArsenalMania   

[newterp]

It's pretty obviously he meant the League Cup and the FA Cup - not the PL title.

[1892tillforever]

City's greatest ability is scoring first and dictating games. They have scored first in 20 of their 23 games and only conceded the first goal twice (there is also a 0-0 against us). They got 1 point from those two games btw. In all 20 of those games, the first goal was in the first half. They have led in 16 of their 23 games at HT. Oddly enough, they have only won 2 of the 7 games they did NOT lead at HT.

It is a shame that more teams can't hold out for longer really.

[harleydanger]

That's precisely the problem. City have scored a fucking shit load of goals before the 20 minute mark this season. Most teams give up once that's happened. If you're 0-0 or even just the 1-0 at half time you've got a punt. I think Newcastle probably need to be 0-0. The next step is then around 70 minutes. If they aren't losing at the 70 minute mark, or if there's just a goal in it, then the doubts that did for city against leicester, chelsea and palace will kick in. I don't think it's likely that city drop points against newcastle, but I really don't think it's impossible.

I agree. I think city panic if the game is not finished by 70

[deFacto please, you bastards]

That could be true, though we seemed very comfortable in the 1st leg of the UCL with a similar level of intensity.  IIRC City had 0 shots on goal in the that game.

While I did reference the City game, my point was more about the overall results in the weeks following our Dubai trip.  I'm sure if there's something to it the club will have picked up on it and adjusted training accordingly.   

I am not sure how you can call that comfortable. We were up 3 goals to nil, but it wasn't comfortable, we still had a lot of work to do, a lot of pressing to make sure that we kept them at bay, just because the scoreline was significant doesn't mean it was a piece of cake for the lads out there.

Our Dubai trip imo isn't the reason we were god awful against West Brom in the cup defensively after taking a lead nor why we couldn't sore against Swansea, and had hit the woodwork towards the end of the game.

There is a vast difference to how we played football last year and this year. It's not just one match.

A trip to Dubai doesn't guarantee anything, it doesn't change the work that needs to be done on the pitch or prevent players from making mistakes. It's just a better place to train and recover, nothing more nothing less.

[G Richards]

Nicely timed trip this. Bit of sunshine and training and hopefully time to get one or two back in that defence. The game against Crystal Palace was like a lot of games pre-VVD and we didn’t have the same sort of control.

Hopefully having Man City trying to catch us will keep our level high. In years gone by you could usually lose a few and draw quite a few as well, and still win that title. I think the level is too high at the minute, so dropped points will need to be kept to a minimum.

Cormack’s effort above looks very sensible and I’d take that any day. I suspect there will be points dropped by both ourselves and Man City in games that you might not expect. Not many, but enough to make all the difference. Hopefully we will be on the right side of it.

[RyanBabel19]

It's pretty obviously he meant the League Cup and the FA Cup - not the PL title.

Still a little strange in my personal opinion. Some extra money over 2 trophies in the same season, i'd take the silverware every day of the year

Remember the seaon we won both the league and FA cup
Remember the season we didn't win anything but made extra profit

[sinnermichael]

Bloody hell the punditry in this country is dire:

https://youtu.be/BvK9Zj4Fe_k

[Bobinhood]

Listen, lets get a grip here. Rafa is actually able to deploy Manquillo. Its just like old times. 


Hes gonna try and win a point like a CL final. If it works it works and if it doesn't we will move on to the next game anyway. Go Rafa.

[woof]

No point looking at what City will do, etc.. We have to focus on ourselves. Last I looked, we're still 4 points ahead. We need to win every match. The Palace game wasn't great but we need to 'bounce' back from that & make sure our defence is back to being water-tight again. Our back line injury list is growing so that's a concern. We have some positive news and that is Ox is finally coming back soon-ish.

Let's face it, a team like City would never have too many blips in a season. They've had it and I doubt they will have more of it in the second half of the season

[latortuga]

I am not sure how you can call that comfortable. We were up 3 goals to nil, but it wasn't comfortable, we still had a lot of work to do, a lot of pressing to make sure that we kept them at bay, just because the scoreline was significant doesn't mean it was a piece of cake for the lads out there.

Our Dubai trip imo isn't the reason we were god awful against West Brom in the cup defensively after taking a lead nor why we couldn't sore against Swansea, and had hit the woodwork towards the end of the game.

There is a vast difference to how we played football last year and this year. It's not just one match.

A trip to Dubai doesn't guarantee anything, it doesn't change the work that needs to be done on the pitch or prevent players from making mistakes. It's just a better place to train and recover, nothing more nothing less.

It was comfortable in that they never looked like scoring up to the final whistle as reflected by the 0 SOG. 

I tend to agree that it probably wasn't a factor, but I think we won't be able to categorically rule it out as having influenced our results in some way until we've played the next 3 games.

[deFacto please, you bastards]

It was comfortable in that they never looked like scoring up to the final whistle as reflected by the 0 SOG. 

With all due respect do you think that was done comfortably? Just because they didn't have shots on goal doesn't mean we didn't work our arses off to prevent them to get into those positions. Against a side like City you don't play comfortably. The result was accomplished due to the hard work we put in in every aspect, that took a lot out of us and it took a lot of work, that doesn't mean it was comfortable.

[latortuga]

With all due respect do you think that was done comfortably? Just because they didn't have shots on goal doesn't mean we didn't work our arses off to prevent them to get into those positions. Against a side like City you don't play comfortably. The result was accomplished due to the hard work we put in in every aspect, that took a lot out of us and it took a lot of work, that doesn't mean it was comfortable.

I mean it felt comfortable for me, I always felt like we had them covered, but of course we worked our socks off.  They seemed to just have one tactic, give it to Sane to run at TAA and we just double teamed the hell out of him.  By the end they just seemed defeated by the scoreline and the fact that Sane couldn't really get at TAA. 

[ScouserAtHeart]

We're the ones with the 4-point lead. Let them worry about when we'll drop points.

[redk84]

And yet we suffered our worst set of results following last years trip to Dubai - WLLWD. 

Just had a quick look back at that sequence of results...
The losses were to Swansea away (awful) and West Brom in the FA Cup (a mad match with VAR).....and the draw to Spurs at Anfield with that Lamela dive in the last min and that Wanyama thunderbolt.

Not saying the above means you are wrong that the Dubai trip meant we were "off it" somehow, because I dunno why but I also have a bit of a feeling in the back of my mind that we are not as good unless we are playing regular competitive football too. i don't know how true that is or if that was true for us in the past and it is something I should leave in the past because we are a different animal this season.....

But yeah I guess this time around atleast the break will give some of our injured players a chance to get back to fitness and that can be nothing but a good thing

[Alan_X]

And yet we suffered our worst set of results following last years trip to Dubai - WLLWD.  Devils advocate would say it may not be as big a boost as you make it out to be if the alternative is City who continue to rotate their squad but remain in England playing competitive football.  We won our first game which was the thrilling 4-3 home game with City, but if I recall correctly we seemed to have heavy legs in the last 15 mins of the game when City penned us in and put 3 quick goals in our net.  Hopefully it was all just a mere coincidence. 

Hardly our worst set of results of last season. You've included the West Brom VAR debacle in there but if you take the ten games after Christmas we won 8, lost one (Swansea) and drew with Spurs, scoring 24 goals on the way.

I'd say losing 5-0 to Man City away and 4-1 to Spurs away sandwiching three draws and a 3-2 win at Leicester was a far worse sequence.

The one league loss following last year's trip to Dubai was against Swansea where we dominated play (72% possession) and had 21 shots (4 on target).