Monday 22 February 2010

Liverpool reax

Kevin McCarra, The Guardian

The sorriest aspect was the indifference to entertaining the woebegone spectators, with the home support summoning up the energy for a little light booing at the close. There was insufficient volume for it to be considered a protest against Mancini or anyone else. It may have been a yelp of annoyance over a perfectly good afternoon totally wasted.

Henry Winter, Daily Telegraph

Some culpability must lie with Roberto Mancini and Rafael Benítez, whose mindsets seemed focused on the draw. Both teams lined up 4-5-1: Emmanuel Adebayor and Dirk Kuyt led the lines while Gerrard and Stephen Ireland played between the lines. Liverpool’s lack of width, with Maxi Rodriguez peripheral, was particularly alarming. At least Mancini tried to stretch Liverpool through Johnson, Shaun Wright-Phillips and eventually Craig Bellamy.

Ian Herbert, The Independent

A match between two contestants each so badly wanting to avoid defeat was never likely to summon up much cavalier spirit. But when opportunities to break out arrived, City advanced with such diffidence it was scarcely believable that this was the core of Mark Hughes' ambitious, high-rolling side. It took them precisely an hour and 15 seconds to conjure any shot on target – Pepe Reina was still conscious enough to palm Emmanuel Adebayor's strike smartly around his right- hand post – though Mancini denied that his club's first thought is now always to defend. "For me, as a team, this is important we didn't concede any chances," Mancini said. "We played a top squad."

Matt Hughes, The Times

For such an expensively assembled side, City are not creating enough chances in the first place, and it was not until the final ten minutes that the visiting team were placed under concerted pressure. Adebayor demonstrated impressive pace to get away from Martin Skrtel as he chased a long ball over the top in the 80th minute, but was denied by a well-timed sliding tackle from the Slovakia defender. Adebayor was presented with another opportunity from the resulting corner, heading Vincent Kompany’s cross over the bar.

5 comments:

jackblue said...

Spurs, Villa, Arsenal, United, Everton, Chelsea. Those are 6 of our last 12 games. Anyone who thinks we can get 4th playing the way we are is smoking illegal substances.

wizzballs said...

luckily enough four of them are at home.

of course improvement is needed. but today was a step back from the brink. everyone was very organised and efficient, with the exception of swp and ireland, which sadly left us bereft of creativity and penetration. bellamy was below par as well. adebayor and johnson could not carry the show on their own. adebayor in particular looked dismayed by ireland's contribution. I am extremely worried about young Steven. There are far too many stories linking him with other clubs for my liking. being asked to play out wide or in a deeper deeper, is par for the course for an attacking midfielder. I fear he has lost his way if he is looking to explain his loss of form on things beyond his control.

Blue Moon said...

This game was summed up by an even in the 42nd or so minute... Adebayor played a ball to Ireland, who had no Liverpool defender between him and Reina. Rather than take a touch and go to goal, her pirouetted AWAY from goal. We have a team full of guys afraid to shoot, hell, even afraid to make a pass to put someone in a shooting position. Everyone wants to be the man that passes to the man that passes to the man that scores. We'll be lucky to qualify for the Europa League in this form...

Blue Phoenix - Moving on up! said...

There certainly seems to be something going on in that the team has gone in total reverse to the one where we were banging goals and conceding goals left right and centre.

I have to agree that Stevie turning his back on a goal scoring opportunity was a bit strange.

With that said I think it is inevitable that we would have a dry spell at some point this season and I am encouraged by the fact we are managing to keep a clean sheet against teams like Liverpool.

It has to be important for a Manager to make players aware of defensive responsibilities and if that means pulling the reins right back for a while then so be it. I'm not saying this is the case but I would prefer to look at it that way as it is very easy to be fickle about these things.

Lets not forget we are a work in progress and the Manager has only been doing his job for two minutes.

I think sooner or later we will start finding the back of the net again and our players will learn to adapt to the new regime.

One thing is for sure; we're not leaking goals like we used to and the full backs are starting to come into their own.

Slavan Bilic's assessment on MOTD last night highlighted this factor in the formation we use and I think we will continue to get better and better.

Once we have been able to perform consistently I think the manager will trust the players a bit more and we will start to see some more free flowing football.

As for finishing in the top 4 this season; well I think we have a chance but to do that the players will have to start learning and learning quickly too.

Stick with the manager and I think he will brings us results, unless we have a catastrophic end to the season that is.

Bring on Stoke...

Rios Dos Santos said...

Must learn how to defend first before attack.
We're not conceding 3 goals at home anymore.
I hope this is a foundation we can start to build on.
No more Toure please!

Let's hope we get out of this slump soon and finish the season on a high. I think we're due a good game..

Patience, patience...
Time is on our side...