City vs Liverpool

Gary Baldi

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Blimey, what a game of football that was. Even had some proper clown defending from City and bits of naughtiness. And nicely, it re-opens the premier league title race up again.

And a good example of why Jose Mourinho has turned into yesterday's man, in a football sense.
 
Agreed, watched from a pub in Cyprus and was the dividing person between pool and city fans and credit where it's due both sets of fans said it was a great game and a fair outcome. A few pointers i picked out on:

Fernandinho - my word what a a player this guy is, his reading of the game is class, his work rate is phenomenal and his vision for a defensive midfield is ridiculous. Outstanding.

Sane - This guy reminds me of a few wingers we have had in the past. He has the arrogance of wandering around the pitch, moaning and not really caring and then suddenly he finds the net and he's alive again.

Both keepers are so so similar. Very erratic with their decision making, not the best at long distance passing, but my word they have some serious shot stopping ability. Two really good saves in the second half, one each from two keepers.

van Dijk - Can't be faulted for either goal and just eases through games, even had the balls to bollock his own keeper in injury time when a long ball didn't come his way. Classy defender, the premier League version of Nelson.

Stones - watching him infuriates me, he clearly has class and is comfortable with the ball at his feet but he takes so bloody long to pass! He got Kompany booked because of a poor simple pass and numerously played the ball straight into touch. His clearance off the line was impressive how.

So, all that from a neutral point of view just shows how engrossed I can get in non Oxford matches. Fair play to both sides, great game of football.
 
“City”, Does nobody ever mention the fact that it is Manchester City (and United for that matter)? It’s as if they have the divine right to just be called by the second part of their name and everyone should know who is being talked about. If I wanted to talk about i.e Stoke City, I would say “Stoke City” or Oxford City etc. Pundits are the same, “City” “United” blah blah. This isn’t a dig at you by any means GB but it winds me up. Anyway everyone knows there is only one United...?
 
I am surprised at the comment about the keepers being not the best at long distance passing.
They were signed in part for their distribution and at times their passing including long balls is unbelievable.
It was a very good game but Liverpool probably played too conservatively. Aguero is some player (ignoring the shot from on his own half with 4 minutes left!)
 
The City keeper was a bit of a flapper last night. The Liverpool goal would have been harder to score if he'd not taken a couple of false steps trying to punch or catch the ball that he was never getting near, and generally, he was not that commanding. It was interesting how the Liverpool front 3 really had very little of the ball and didn't ever quite get into the game - but they did make an impact.

But the overall quality of the game was high and far away from the premier league huff and puff of 10 years ago. And the atmosphere in City's ground was very good. Better than United has been for a long time. Or Spurs for that matter. Or Arsenal
 
“City”, Does nobody ever mention the fact that it is Manchester City (and United for that matter)? It’s as if they have the divine right to just be called by the second part of their name and everyone should know who is being talked about. If I wanted to talk about i.e Stoke City, I would say “Stoke City” or Oxford City etc. Pundits are the same, “City” “United” blah blah. This isn’t a dig at you by any means GB but it winds me up. Anyway everyone knows there is only one United...?
I've had this "discussion" time and time again with glory hunter fans, they just can't see the issue with it. Has bugged me for ages. I just say I'm a "United" fan these days when asked, and when the inevitable follow up questions start I get odd looks when answering, 'oh, a United fan? Why do you support them?' 'because I was born in Headington'...
 
Can still see Liverpool winning it, just like city last year they hardly drop any points against the also rans and that’s where you get the bulk of your points, those 32 games against the teams who won’t finish in the top four are worth 96 points, what you do against the other 3 is just the cherry on top.

They are both good teams, feel a bit for spurs who have there best team for 40 plus years but have come up against genuine class, if they had peaked at any other time this century they would have won a title.
 
I've had this "discussion" time and time again with glory hunter fans, they just can't see the issue with it. Has bugged me for ages. I just say I'm a "United" fan these days when asked, and when the inevitable follow up questions start I get odd looks when answering, 'oh, a United fan? Why do you support them?' 'because I was born in Headington'...

I don't see why it's an issue. Did anyone look at the title of this thread and wonder which City is referring to? We know it's talking about Man City so why not just say City? Right now, there is no other team with City in their name that's challenging for the title, and only one other City in the Premier League so, in context, we know who it refers to. Taking offence at it is just being chippy for the sake of it, I think.
 
I don't see why it's an issue. Did anyone look at the title of this thread and wonder which City is referring to? We know it's talking about Man City so why not just say City? Right now, there is no other team with City in their name that's challenging for the title, and only one other City in the Premier League so, in context, we know who it refers to. Taking offence at it is just being chippy for the sake of it, I think.
No, it's appropriating the name 'city' to one team. It then becomes a generally accepted term for referring to that one team. It's not right. If there was a thread for Liverpool v Stoke called 'Liverpool v City' would you know what that meant? Would still be in context...
 
I take your point, Ste, but I still don't think it's an issue. We just have to accept that people are going to refer to the big clubs in that way. It's not worth bothering about, in my view.
 
To get back on topic, I thought it was a very good game last night. Manchester got a couple of lucky breaks (for once) but deserved the win anyway. Good for the title race, too.
 
I only used City because it was blatantly obvious what I was on about (I thought so anyway :rolleyes:).
 
Given the amount of possession City had I thought Liverpools defence did exceptionally well. The full backs and Van Dijk were class but unable to cover for Lovren who was so clearly the weak link and only playing due to injuries to others.
 
Given the amount of possession City had I thought Liverpools defence did exceptionally well. The full backs and Van Dijk were class but unable to cover for Lovren who was so clearly the weak link and only playing due to injuries to others.

Missing Gomez at centre-half.
 
Chris Waddle suggested that Liverpool should have gone for it more. They did bottle it a little. The front three barely had a sniff.
I thought that Liverpool played for the draw and sat back even when Man C scored. Liverpool's goal changed the game temporarily.
 
Really? was the Liverpool keeper anymore busier than man city's?
 
I did like the way Waddle namechecked Briggs and Shotton in the pre-match ramblings on the radio. They were talking about tough defenders, he brought that pair up and these were little intakes of breath from the ex-footballers involved in the conversation! He also said they's never get away with it nowadays, and he was right!
 
About five years ago, I loved to hate on the Premier League.
It was predictable - Man U would win it two years out of three, otherwise it was Arsenal or a super-rich person's plaything, and you could write down the Top 4 at the beginning of the season and be correct 90% of the time - and the football was often mediocre.

Now, I still hate the concept of the Premier League, and the way they have syphoned off so much of the cash and become a global entertainment conglomerate......

......but I can't deny that both the quality of the football, and the depth of the competition, have improved massively. Obviously it was Leicester that blew it up in the biggest way; but what the likes of Pochettino and Klopp have done building competitive squads on budgets that are big, but not quite on the level of the Manchester teams & Chelsea - coupled with the new TV deal which has meant that the likes of Spurs never have to sell a player to their Premier League opponents again, if they don't want to - has really rendered the league more unpredictable, competitive and entertaining than it ever has been before.

The Premier League always used to call itself the best in the world. I think it now, finally, actually is.
 
The Premier League always used to call itself the best in the world. I think it now, finally, actually is.

No doubt whatsoever that it is the best league in the world at the moment. For sheer quality, competitiveness and excitement no other league comes close.

However, when you read about the Scudamore payment and clubs charging 700 quid per person for kids to walk out with the team (to give just two examples), then quite frankly the Premier League can go f*ck itself.
 
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