Football - Stolen Taxi for Pardew

[Consigliere]

10 minutes ago, Winterfell is Burning said:

Liverpool showed that the best way to beat City is by going on attack rather than sit deep and wait mistake. That means Mourinho will now use the same tactic against them and abandon his negative way of playing!...Oh, April Fools ended 3 days ago. Never mind, then.

Well, even if Mourinho did try to attack we probably not going to be as successful against City as Liverpool. What has been proven is that Klopp's gegenpressing style is very effective against Guardiola's teams since he has the better head-to-head record against Guardiola with inferior (at least on paper) teams. Liverpool, Spurs and City press at a level we can only dream of and effective, co-ordinated counter-pressing takes some time to implement.

[Iskaral Pust]

24 minutes ago, Horse of Kent said:

Special credit to Alexander Arnold who has been targeted recently, but dealt with Sane perfectly.

This deserves repeating.  A lot of talk this past week, myself included, was about Trent’s vulnerability to Sane, especially after recent games.  He did really well, assisted by a good game from Lovren and Ox, and assisted by the threat of Salah pushing Guardiola to play an ultra defensive LB. 

[A Horse Named Stranger]

10 minutes ago, JordanJH1993 said:

Ex Premier League referee Chris Foy has had a look at offside decisions and says the ref got both offside calls correct. The Sane one was much closer, but still offside.

He did, however, point out a tackle Robertson made on Sterling and says it should have been a penalty.

Just watched the third replay of the Salah situation. He was offside and by a good margin. Sane was indeed just close, and if in doubt the officials are asked to decide in favour of the attacker. I still think Sane was onside after watching several replays. So that goal could've easily stood on another night.

[Jordan La Cabra]

25 minutes ago, Notone said:

Just watched the third replay of the Salah situation. He was offside and by a good margin. Sane was indeed just close, and if in doubt the officials are asked to decide in favour of the attacker. I still think Sane was onside after watching several replays. So that goal could've easily stood on another night.

Sorry, I got my original post wrong. I meant to say that he agreed the Salah one was offside and thought the Sane one was also offside. He said the linesman wasn’t in line with the play for the Salah one, which is probably why he didn’t see that Salah was clearly offside.

 

[Iskaral Pust]

I saw some criticism of Pep for “tinkering” with the team.  I think that’s pretty harsh, and contains a lot of hindsight bias.  Laporte at LB didn’t work out well but going into the game it looked the best bet of the available options, especially as he shut down Walcott with ease at the weekend.  Delphi has struggled since getting injured and Danilo might have conceded even more.  The only other change was Gundogan for Sterling.  Considering Pep gets criticized for playing too open away from home in the late stage CL games, Laporte and Gundogan were an attempt to keep it a bit tighter in the away leg.  Plus, Sterling got bossed by Robertson in the last game and Pep had good reason to look at Sane on the left and overloading the MF with KDB, Silva, Fernandinho and Gundogan as his best chance to control possession and create chances. 

I don’t think Pep undermined his team with those changes, and it could have been worse if they were even more open with Sterling and Danilo starting.  Liverpool are just a difficult match-up for City’s style.  Just like Utd are a difficult match-up for us. 

I’ve no doubt they’ll be charging hard at us next week. 

[Mark Antony]

I think TAA does deserve some credit. One of his better games for Liverpool so far. But Sane was especially awful, he botched so many chances that should have been converted whether it was a poor shot or a misplaced pass. 

[Iskaral Pust]

3 hours ago, Mark Antony said:

I think TAA does deserve some credit. One of his better games for Liverpool so far. But Sane was especially awful, he botched so many chances that should have been converted whether it was a poor shot or a misplaced pass. 

It makes me wonder how City would fare if more teams pressured their back line and cut off their passing channels.  They’ve had so many opponents just cede them time and space.  Silva and KDB had their least effective game all season.  Liverpool are hardly defensive specialists. 

I think next season for City could feel a bit like this year for Chelsea: after blowing everyone away with a new tactical style, opponents start to adapt and it gets tougher. 

[baxus]

4 hours ago, Iskaral Pust said:

It makes me wonder how City would fare if more teams pressured their back line and cut off their passing channels.  They’ve had so many opponents just cede them time and space.  Silva and KDB had their least effective game all season.  Liverpool are hardly defensive specialists. 

This is what made the biggest impression on me last night. Liverpool did it pretty well in the whole first half, but there was a period of few minutes after Ox's goal where Liverpool's players were in every single lane City's players tried to pass through. It was straight out weird to see City cancelled out so completely. Of course, it couldn't have lasted throughout the whole match but it was still very impressive.

Seeing Liverpool's back down from the very beginning of the second half was a bit nerve-wracking but they did very well. Adding VVD and replacing Mignolet with Karius did a lot about their defensive problems. It's still a work in progress, of course but it's a major improvement. Just think about how crazy someone claiming that Liverpool will keep a clean sheet against City this season would've looked back in December.

It's been a great first leg and a great result for Liverpool, but it's still far from over.

[The Winged Shadow]

As someone who was on TAA and Ox's case a couple of games back, I gotta hand it to both of them. They played perfectly today. Ox was always there to help TAA and cover the cutback, which allowed TAA to better position himself and win/clear the ball when Sane didn't cut back. Even when Sane was 1v1 against TAA, he handled the situation well. He is really improving defensively and it showed today. So that is a really good sign.

Still can't believe it. I dreamt that I woke up (several times!) to a scoreline where Pool got thrashed by City (felt very inception-ey!). So to finally wake up for real and see a 3-0 scoreline was unbelievable. Don't think I've ever stressed out this much over a match before! Of course, it's still not over. City already scored 5 and 3 goals against Pool, and I expect they will come back hard at home (specially after the bus attacking fiasco). Still a fair way to go though, and considering this is still Liverpool, and how much they love blowing 3 goal leads, the second leg could very well be disastrous!

I expect heavy rotation and rest for the Everton game. I expect the front three might come off the bench (assuming Salah is ok), with Ings and Solanke starting. Maybe even a 4-4-2 formation. Despite being a huge derby game, they have got to rest the players and hit city in the first half of the next game with the same intensity they showed today. Can probably needs to get some game time next game to get some rhythm before the City game.

 

3 hours ago, baxus said:

Just think about how crazy someone claiming that Liverpool will keep a clean sheet against City this season would've looked back in December.

December? Try yesterday! I don't think anyone expected Liverpool to keep clean sheet against City. Hell, it was even better, it was zero shots on target! (although they did create some really good chances).

[Iskaral Pust]

Everton and Utd are big beneficiaries this weekend.  City don’t lose much if they rotate heavily because they’ll win the PL the following week instead.  But Liverpool stand to lose any chance of second place and possibly get a bit more nervous about holding top 4. 

Where do City go from here?  Obviously they need to carry the game to us but they’re well able to score three or more.  How do they set up to prevent us from scoring?  (A lot depends on Salah’s fitness)  What changes to their line-up?  I definitely expect Sterling to return and probably Aguero if fit.  Jesus was their main striker until his injury, and offers better interplay with attacking midfielders, but was nullified too easily last night.  

[baxus]

2 hours ago, The Winged Shadow said:

December? Try yesterday! I don't think anyone expected Liverpool to keep clean sheet against City. Hell, it was even better, it was zero shots on target! (although they did create some really good chances).

Sure, it would've been quite an optimistic statement even yesterday, but in December, with Liverpool defense being in the state it was in, it would've been interpreted as a sure sign of a deranged mind.

[Jordan La Cabra]

A couple of questionable offside decisions inside seven minutes at the Emirates. 

ETA: 1-0 Ramsey. Some silky football on display from Arsenal already.

[BigFatCoward]

Be nice for Wenger to win a decent trophy and ride off into the sunset. When arsenal are on it they are really on it. 

[Iskaral Pust]

Some nice goals by Arsenal.  Ramsey's second was filthy (better than a scorpion?), and he was unlucky not to have a hat-trick.

They always improve their play just enough to save Wenger's job, although not enough to overtake Spurs this year.

[Consigliere]

Arsenal have looked very impressive in the EL (much more convincing than we did). Atleti is their biggest threat. That is one team with the playing style that Arsenal struggle against and the Costa/Griezmann partnership has been formidable.

[AncalagonTheBlack]

Our line-up:

Karius, Clyne, Lovren, Van Dijk, Klavan, Milner, Henderson, Wijnaldum, Mane, Ings, Solanke.

Subs: Mignolet, Firmino, Moreno, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Masterson, Alexander-Arnold, Jones.

Quote

Nathaniel Clyne makes his first appearance of 2017-18 as he begins at right-back, while Ragnar Klavan lines up on the left-hand side of defence.

Georginio Wijnaldum returns in midfield, while Danny Ings and Dominic Solanke are drafted into attack to join Sadio Mane.

Mohamed Salah is left out of the matchday squad after picking up a knock in midweek (groin), but there are places on the bench for Academy youngsters Curtis Jones and Conor Masterson. Roberto Firmino is also among the substitutes. Andy Robertson misses out with a calf problem.

 

[The Winged Shadow]

Moreno injured during warm up, explains why Klavan is playing there.

edit: very sloppy passing from Liverpool :/

[AncalagonTheBlack]

Ings and Solanke have done fuck all so far with Solanki missing a sitter.Klopp needs to change something or wake these players up.Everton are dire and there for the taking.

[ljkeane]

Well that was rubbish.

[lmanion]

That was so bad