Pre-Match | Liverpool vs Manchester City | PL matchday 23 | Sunday 7th Feb 2021 | Anfield 16:30

Would Klopp risk Ozan and Fabinho as central defence partnership for this we could do with hendo energy in midfield.

I just want to dream, and I want songs to sing. It’s been an odd period. Everyone at odds with each other, lots of bickering and polarizing opinions amongst our supporters.

Last night I was watching some of our Club’s most proudest moments down the years and it made me smile. So, to that end, absolutely no pressure, no expectations. It’s a massively fun fixture, just want the boys to pin their ears back and have a go. Make no mistake we are the underdogs here.

Win or lose they’re still our boys and our club.

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The PL is out of our hands. We should focus on getting the 2nd spot and the CL trophy. And try to enjoy the balance of this season.
YNWA

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—————-Ali/Kelleher(who ever fit)———-
Trent(just about)-Kabak—Fabinho—Robbo-
—-Gini————-Hendo——Thiago———-
——Mo————Bobby————Sadio(if fit)-

Need Hendo or Fab in the midfield to sort out this build up play. Surely Kabak can hold out for a game even if not had many sessions with the team (training not drinking sessions anyways). Bobby could be dropped but that gives space for Origi so I’d rather not. Maybe Shaq. Or Minamino (oh wait).

We’re doing Gandalf wisdom??

‘A little red wine for me.’

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Hopefully Fabinho and Mane are back. Am presuming Allison was one game through illness.
If so Fabinho with Davies or Kabak at CB. Good as Nat has been he would be destroyed by City’s pace. Hendo with Thiago and Jones in midfield. Milner looked beat on Wednesday and Jones offers more than Ox or Shaq at the moment.
Gini was poor the other night. He has been very good most of the season but he might be effective off the bench at some stage. If Mane is out I would consider 442 with Gini back in and Jones furthest forward.

I am resigned that the league is gone. But we need to start playing for top 4. And to play into form for CL. The season isnt over.

Oliver is ref for this, and his admission of a massive fuck up in the derby should ensure a degree of fairness. Surely he cannot be involved in shafting us again.

The last couple of days post Brighton have been numbing. How we are where we are after a great two years is disheartening, when football was the go to place in difficult times.

Injuries, decisions, lack of crowds…all valid reasons as to why we have dipped. But we are supporters no matter what.

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Never known a season for injuries like this. Add that into the mix along with no crowds and VAR football has become rather shit. Still, a win here will cheer us all up. Lose and title has gone. Win and its probably still gone but its the hope that kills you.

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City team news by WhoScored:

  • Pep Guardiola has ruled out any chance of Sergio Aguero returning here, as he continues to recover from COVID-19. Kevin De Bruyne and Nathan Ake are also still sidelined.

  • Manchester City have experimented with a back three in recent weeks to get both Aymeric Laporte and John Stones in the side with Ruben Dias. We could see that formation in play at Anfield.

  • Joao Cancelo will certainly start here but it’s unclear whether he will be on the left or right. Kyle Walker has dropped out of favour of late.

  • It wouldn’t be a surprise to see City play without a recognised striker. In that instance don’t read too much into who plays where as they will all interchange and swap positions throughout the game.

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I thought he was always out of favour. Certainly is on here.

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Interesting read, this bit stood out;

"One thing to be said here is that another consequence of this spell is that it has restored Guardiola’s aura among the squad. All still saw him as a genius, of course, but his intensity had started to tire a few players. That isn’t an insurmountable problem, but does become more pronounced when you’re not winning. Now, City are winning again – relentlessly – and it’s a direct result of Guardiola’s specific changes.

That football intelligence has impressed the squad anew, and there’s just a contented atmosphere. Guardiola himself is more relaxed. The attackers are not anxious with chances. There’s an assurance. Note how Kevin De Bruyne’s absence hasn’t been calamitous, or even commented on that much. Bernardo Silva and Ilkay Gundogan have instead stepped up."

Basically Pep has lowered the inensity around the squad, in preparation and training and it’s lead to them relaxing.

It’s been something I’ve wondered, we always seem leggy, and injuries aside are we still doing such intense training which needs toning down this year. Not discounting obviously Pep had all last season to develop and identify this new approach. Maybe this is what we are looking at currently with us.

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We are doing “intense training”? Bar the post-NY break we’ve been playing every 3-4 days, where’s the time for such training?

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There is non. All they do is recovery traing and preparing for the next match.

Not true, since Brighton we’ve had 2 days full training in the schedule.

I remember back to the Fulham game we’d had somethihng like 7 days inbetween and looked more tired than when we’d had 2-3 days.

Two days? Your incredibly flexed bow rests on two days?

We had the [insert adjective here] Danish CL away game in between…

No offense but I literally said “I have wondered if”, it’s a question, I have no idea if we are or not.

Klopp has historically trained the team very very hard.

And he’s constantly on the record saying “when do we have time to train?” to daft questions from journos, usually as: recovery, light training, match prep, go again…

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Alisson will do individual training today.

Mané and Fabinho will take part in parts of team training.

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48 hours to go, hopefully they will make it.

Yeah, Klopp said we will have two proper sessions until City. One today, another one tomorrow. Sounded like Fabinho and Mane would at least take parts of it. Hopefully it will be enough and there will be no bad reactions.