Match thread v Manchester City

[Steveo]

It's not easy to get the workrate. It takes some special kind of manager to get them to get even close to the 100% marker. Klopp did it for huge stretches... Fergie did it and look at the rewards.. What else do we think led Fergie to say after meeting Jurgen that he was genuinely worried.. He could see that same charisma. He knew it. This fella will get them running through walls.

I think we know what last season was. It's up to Slot and co to try and rekindle it because it isn't there now and hasn't been since late March.

Neville had a bit of a point to say we looked leggy.. at least to my eye we did at times.. who knows what effort Tuesday took..?

[teesred]

Yes that's absolutely right. It takes someone special to be getting it game after game after game. Very rare thing.
I'm genuinely worried now, I thought after Real maybe we'd steadied it but today is evidence that we haven't.
If we'd lost narrowly and been competitive then it wouldn't have been so bad but to be pretty much pissed on and an absolute whimper of a show was really infuriating.

[teesred]

Stat from today's game which I'm sure won't shock anyone but here it is anyway ....
City covered 118km to our 110.
8k might not sound much but at that level it's a fucking casm.

[CCTV]

Its funny how people blame Slot for performances, whilst questioning his involvement in the squad turnover.
Wirtz said Slot was pivotal in him signing for LFC over others. And whislt neither Wirtz nor Isak have done much of note yet, both were seen as best in class players.

Isak yet to be seen really and Wirtz BL/CL pedigree in doubt, whilst Diaz BL/CL pedigree is cited as a sign of how badly missed he is this season. But many other pivotal PL champions from last season are well below par at present.
Fairly sure Mo would be Kane-esque in the BL too.

Virgil, MacA & Salah are not performing consistently. And that spells trouble as the defense is poorest. Alisson should be back after the break so that should help, not to blame Giorgi for the outfield performances but Alisson is better.

[Nineteenx]

System plays a big part we were at it v Villa & Real because of the system

But the press and counter press played at that high level gives you the tempo and intensity because you’re all pressing picking up and counter pressing g as a unit throughout and Slit’s changes fucked that up

City were better today because Linda has thrn pressing like we used to, they were miles better in their press and counter oress so had great intensity and were first to second balls because they were positioned to be

Slot had too many players getting ahead of the ball looking to be in space and it makes it easy for decent pressing sides of which there are many in the Orem to mug us off and face greater intensity

We’d usually have 3 forward pressing their back 4 and all our players would be picking up ready to join the attack or win second balls or Nick the ball back while stopping the opposition playing out

We struggled to play because they pressed so well I said in the match thread we’d need to hit Ekitike with the ball and back it up when in flight to win the second ball and attack from there to beat their press but we never tried that

It needs to be an up and down ball he can win in front of of the defender or do enough to put them off and stop an effective clearance thrn you had a situation when you suddenly gave a player in space between their lines they’re not set for with runners to pick out

But we didn’t do that because Slot thinks the world revolves around tappy crappy over passing and he can succeed at something in a league he’s been in a year that Guardiola had to give up after 19-20 because too many teams were pressing too well and set traps to nick it and made them look like teams have made us look

I warned and warned and warned last season about the dangers of tappy crappy and having a complete imbalance of players ahead of the ball looking to be in space for tappy crappy and too few picking up

The change of formation has fucked it up it will take 5 or more Dane’s to get it back bear the levels we used to, he and the recruiters have fucked up our title defence

[Nineteenx]

Goal incorrectly ruled out sitter missed by Gakpo and Salah and 2 goals gifted to them and a third because Kerkez doesn’t know where the fuck to be playing Robbo’s role

[Nineteenx]

Bradley should have been 1v1 all over Doku too we met him turn and run at us every time that was poor

The press wasn’t good

Salah needed to come short so we could have Ekitike make the runs in behind ahead of him and Bradley or Konate had an out ball and player to release in behind City’s young LB

If I could see that clearly why couldn’t Slot

[Kev0909]

Well the high lasted long

we're a bit shit ain't we

did anyone expect us to win today? this is the team that lost to utd at home, yes we beat real madrid at home- but I mean it was to early to get excited and thinking we're back, I thought we'd lost but not 3-0 maybe 2-1 and a draw if lucky

Also not sure Ekiteke had a few good games and people make him out to be gods gift- best of a shit start but no way is he better than a fit firing isak, sorry

Seems we're still counting on Mo.

I know we was against a tougher team in the week, but we even had a extra days rest.

[jr81]

Bradley should have been 1v1 all over Doku too we met him turn and run at us every time that was poor

The press wasn’t good

Salah needed to come short so we could have Ekitike make the runs in behind ahead of him and Bradley or Konate had an out ball and player to release in behind City’s young LB

If I could see that clearly why couldn’t Slot

Just watching match of the day. They showed multiple times where bradley was stuck between Doku and O'Reilly. He didn't know to go to one or the other. He was left 2v1 on a few occassions from the analysis they showed. Doku was pulling inside and O'Reilly going on the outside.

[RedMagic]

Just watching match of the day. They showed multiple times where bradley was stuck between Doku and O'Reilly. He didn't know to go to one or the other. He was left 2v1 on a few occassions from the analysis they showed. Doku was pulling inside and O'Reilly going on the outside.

Right from the off everybody could see that Doku was the danger Man. Getting Bradley to concentrate on Doku or not was down to Slot. He either didn't tell Bradley to do that at some point during the game when it was obvious that Doku was ripping us to shreds, or his pre game instructions weren't good enough or clear enough. Either way the fault lies squarely on Slot's shoulders.

[jr81]

Right from the off everybody could see that Doku was the danger Man. Getting Bradley to concentrate on Doku or not was down to Slot. He either didn't tell Bradley to do that at some point during the game when it was obvious that Doku was ripping us to shreds, or his pre game instructions weren't good enough or clear enough. Either way the fault lies squarely on Slot's shoulders.

Wouldn't disagree with you. Could be that slot had it all prepared as well but the Ayers couldn't do it. 2 clips showed braey and grav lined up against him and skinned both of em. At times, players can't be stopped. Doku was like that today. Although for his goal, Konate gave him too much space. Similar for the 2nd goal. No closing down.
Is slot telling them to sit off on the edge of our box? Who knows? But sometimes the players need to take matters into their own hands and stop sitting off.

[Kev0909]

watching MotD glad Gakpo came on and missed a sitter, next highlight he's giving it away leading it to 3-0

Utter dross, Bayern you want the 3rd LW?? Mane,Diaz, have gakpo too.

[redebreck]

Stitched up (again) by the match officials.
PGMOL hate us, dont they?

[Ravo19]

Stitched up (again) by the match officials.
PGMOL hate us, dont they?

We were crap.

[Steveo]

Stitched up (again) by the match officials.
PGMOL hate us, dont they?

Penalty to them was harsh BUT can see why it's given... Knee does seem to stop him shooting.

Our goal was a goal.. Robbo isn't interfering and VAR is a load of utter double standards bollox on that. 1:1 and a different game - in terms of scoreline anyway.. but we 'd have been way lucky to have been level.

Think of it like this...City missed a penalty and still beat us 3 nil. and on the play it didn't flatter them. We were dogshite.