I, on the contrary, thought we need more control than directness. Our passing was thoughtless and lacking any sort of decisiveness, playing without considering the press. We couldn’t get out of our half. We were chocked like we ourselves do to other teams. Incredible pressing and ball retention by them in the first half. We need a calm presence in midfield and usually Fab and Hendo do provide that. Yesterday they were off it completely.
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No. Don’t know how you’ve interpreted that.
What happened with Milner was exactly what I was afraid for. Foden was way to much for him and we were lucky he was not sent off. In midfield Jones was poor and van Dijk, well he is not the old van Dijk that is for sure. We can’t complain about the draw.
On a brighter note, for me Salah is better than in his first season, he is even more complete now. Briljant.
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Kind of an odd game in that we should have both won it and lost it badly. I don’t think Milner at right back is the right choice when it is mainly the defensive side that we need - if he is playing as a wing-back then it’s not such a problem. He was, though, very lucky not to be sent off.
Salah phenomenal again. He seems to be our most consistently performing player this season.
I think this was one of the worst first half performances I’ve seen in recent years which leaves me with one question: what, exactly, did Klopp say at half time?
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When you play against the reigning champions, and a squad assembled with billions, you can’t reasonably expect to come out winner. They are again by far and large the favourites for this years’ title, and as they are in form currently, notwithstanding their defeat in Paris lately, I expected a difficult match for us. So it proved.
The first half was a display of total domination from them, and we were lucky to come to half-time still in the game. To be fair, we helped them immensely with a sloppy performance. Especially the midfielders couldn’t compete as they should have in order to get a grip on the game.
During the second half, our lads started to get some bite. They made tackles at last, tried to hurt Cheaty ands pressed them more aggressively. They finally gave a proper fight to their superior opponents on the day. Otherwise, it would have been a trashing again.
The first goal came a bit out of nowhere: pure class from Mo to get out of the relentless pressing he was subjected to, to launch Mané, who took his chance and scored an absolute worldie.
From then on, it seemed that the game was about to shift in our favour, but we couldn’t hold on long enough. A defensive shambles on the right (Foden was allowed too much space and time, not for the first time) allowed them to equalize too rapidly, and to start putting us under pressure again. Milner should have been sent off, that much is clear (Guardiola’s rage on the touchline was something to behold! 
). Then, just after that, Mo’s moment of individual genius, again out of nowhere, and we lead once more. But it wasn’t to last long. The equaliser was a bit lucky for them with that deflection, but still deserved.
Despite of Fab’s late chance, we can be happy to get out of this game with a point. Not good enough, and if that game is anything to go by, we won’t be champions this season. Of course, we will hopefully improve and many things can happen until next May.
Edit:
- Mo man of the match by a country mile. What a season he’s having right now… Hopefully it will last, fingers crossed!
- A good, strong, fiery atmosphere; that helped our lads without a doubt!
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It’s become a serious concern, it happened twice last weekend against Brentford and they are nowhere near City’s level.
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This isn’t just against City… It’s a huge weak spot, looks like Henderson is playing a different position and is constantly out of position…
A bit more pragmatism would be nice, especially when 2 out of the 3 which you changed your formation to suit are out injured…
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At the start he was talking about how Ferguson wouldn’t approve of the respect between Pep and Klopp. Who gives a flying fuck about Ferguson….just commentate on the actual game!!!
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In a spirit of equity, as I am normally critical of refs against us.
Milner should have been sent off yesterday.
But the ‘penalty’ incident simply wasnt a foul, Milner bumps off Foden outside the box and Foden through inexperience is unable to manufacture the foul. If that was Sterling or Ronaldo the trailing leg would buy a pen. Silva had a similar coming together with Jones (?) second half that went unmentioned.
Milner getting red might not have changed the result, Chelsea proved that against us already this season.
I thought Hendo to RB and Keita in to midfield at 50 or 60 mins was the best substitution.
Hendo, or Jones and to an extent Fabinho were poor yesterday. Milner was awful and Virgil is not back to his best yet.
If Trent was playing City have no ball on, as they targetted Milner all game. Also, and there are those who dont rate Thiago but we were in need of him so badly yesterday.
He changes play so quickly, he is a huge asset when fit obviously.
Overall, whilst dissapointing this is an ok result against quality opposition. They are streets ahead of Chelsea at the moment.
But we are unbeaten, a bit “sloppy” and not firing 100% yet.
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Our right channel is usually targeted even when Trent had played. I remember Sane and Rashford giving us trouble and that’s a strategy many teams deploy these days. The midfield typically helps us cover that threat. Milly struggled ofcourse, but even with Trent I think they would have used Foden and Bernardo like they did yesterday.
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I think Trent has improved in his positioning though. The rawness Sane exposed has been cured a bit.
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Haven’t seen any reference to Sterling being in an offside position right in front of Alisson for the 2nd equaliser. I thought that was grounds to disallow it? O.K, he’s on the floor but there’s no doubt whatsoever he’s in Alisson’s eye-line.
Everyone digging out the midfield, you need to factor in the opposition on this one. Yes, all 3 were poor on the day but there is absolutely no margin for error in any area of the pitch against these cheating twats. The quality they have in midfield, any drop-off in performance from your midfield and they will destroy you. None of our lads were on it yesterday and the first goal was diabolical from our point of view. They literally walked through us with virtually no attempt at a tackle, just the odd leg wafted in the general direction of the ball.
Loved both of our goals, Salah absolutely fucking world-class for his, brilliant movement and finish from Mane for his.
As for Milner, I thought he did as well as could be expected and actually improved 2nd half. I’ve noticed against City we tend to give their left sided forward far too much space and this was evident again yesterday. I was reminded of the 3-0 in the CL when they had us pushed back in the 2nd half, they were switching play to Sane and Trent was miles off him, he’d only go out when Sane had the ball at his feet. I remember screaming at him to get wider to cut off that ball but he never did and it caused us problems every time.
On the defence as a whole, I argued after Brentford that we simply cannot withstand any pressure at all without conceding and imo that was evident again yesterday (and to a lesser extent in Porto). Both times we took the lead yesterday City stepped it up and equalised within minutes. After the 2nd they visibly dropped off and seemed happy for a point and I’m glad they did because I think they could have got another if they went for it.
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I didn’t feel the same level of frustration about this result as Brentford. We should be beating everyone outside the top 4 home and away. That was two points dropped. City is different. Their squad is much better than ours. It’s deeper. They can play three massive games in 8 days, rotate and not lose the quality of performance. They played Chelsea off the pitch. I think they are a clinical striker short of walking the league. We are doing well to live with them.
Our lads gave everything. You couldn’t criticise the effort even if some of the individual performances were below par. Hendo and Fabinho were goosed long before the end. Fabinho kept stopping and looking down like he might be injured or totally knackered.
Easy to criticise JK and say he should have made changes and if it was any other opponent then I might agree but it was a hard game to be dropped in to. As Gomez found out you are not going to get time to play yourself in and Keita and Ox have done little this season to suggest they are capable of making a positive impact in a game like this. Not everyone’s going to like it but yesterday we missed Gini. Big game players who are super fit, know the drill and are reliable. In the circumstances a draw is a good result.
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After Matip’s performance it’s gutting that it was his touch that took De Bruyne’s shot away from Alisson. Looked like the bearded adonis had that covered.
Cracking game of football though. Did well to stay in it at half time and then came out as the fearless team we’ve all come to love for the second half.
Salah unreal, Mané brilliant, Jota causing problems. If those three had been on the other side the game would have been beyond us at half time. Thankfully they’re ours.
Jude, good to know you were watching. Bet you can see where you’d fit in nicely for us.
Can’t wait to see Thiago back. If only to give Henderson and Fabinho a bit of a rest but also because he can help win the midfield. Brave of Klopp to play Jones in such a game but Keita would have been a risk as well if he’s not fully fit. If Trent had been well he’d probably have played Milner in there. That may well have been enough of a change to see us compete more effectively right from the off.
Still unbeaten though so not to be sniffed at. Let’s put another run of wins together now that the top three have all played each other.
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I’d say City are the ones happier, 4 points from their two rivals away from home is a good return.
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Yes, I agree. Hopefully not, but I think we may rue not beating Chelsea. We really should have done. Would have seen us 3 points ahead of City and 2 ahead of Chelsea.
Had we taken 4 points from those games we’d have been feeling pretty good. As it is, City have taken 4 points from the same fixtures - away from home to boot.
They will definitely feel the happier.
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I do wonder if Trent would have struggled yesterday had he been fit. We looked really out of sorts on that side. Very little midfield cover.
One thing I have noticed on more than a few occasions is that when teams attack down our left we have troubles on our right. The cross / switch always causes issues.
The opposition overload or number up on our right and that puts us in trouble. Foden scored from this yesterday.
Also on numerous occasions we’ve seen TAA not tuck in and leaving a gaping hole between him and Matip. Yesterday, Milner had tucked in, Matip had a man but Foden was able to get round the outside. No midfield cover from us.
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Second league game in a row we’ve lost the lead twice after failing to bring any semblance of control / game management to the match. That’s a little concerning.
Always available for a pass, rarely if ever lost possession, led our lads a merry dance.