Man City vs Liverpool

You Obviously Love Owls I say, our players look knackered at the end of Arsenal game, I'd play:

Jones
Flanagan
Skrtel
Coates
Robinson
Allen
Shelvey
Suso
Coutinho
Borini
Assaidi



Fresh blood injected to the team, no lose situation really. if they surprise us, we get points, if not, then Man U will be pissed.

save Suarez and co.

While Sepi's line-up is it's worth thinking about can Suarez and Gerrard really play every game from now until the end of the season? Gerrard has played every minute of PL footy and Suarez has missed just one game due to suspension. And he looked really tired for the last 20 minutes against Arsenal. I'm not worried about other players as there's been rotation and missing through injuries (well, maybe Gleninho a bit), but it might be better to give Suarez and Gerrard a rest at some point than risk poor form of them in March, April, May due to fatigue.

Anyway, about the game, on paper it's a tougher place to visit than the Emirates. City are 9 - 2 - 1 at home. On the other hand they haven't looked exactly unstoppable for the past couple of months. If we put in a good performance we should be able to get a result.

One thing I want to say is that I don't want to see Suarez play on the wing in this match. Against Arsenal he was defending like a left-back at times and it restricted his attacking danger too much when he had to drop so deep with the rest of our midfield. It's fine against weaker oppositions, but it's pretty inevitable that City will put us under pressure and Suarez will just exhaust himself on the wing again and his attacking strengths will go to waste.

So personally I might go 4-4-1-1 with Suarez and Sturridge up front.
Or if Rodgers wants to stick with the 4-3-3 then leave Sturridge on the bench (or put him on the wing) and play

Wisdom - Skrtel - Agger - Johnson
Henderson - Lucas - Gerrard
Downing - Suarez - Enrique

It's really the best time to be playing City. Yaya is away. Kompany is injured. Aguero barely came back from injury. You couldn't choose a better time to visit Eithad.

I will say attack, attack and attack...i just feel that when we defend, we havnt got d nerves to hold on the opposition. I feel that when we play attack minded, we do better. I know allen has a dip in form but i think we can start with allen instead of gerrard, after all he had a great time against man city at anfield.
I dont know about gerrard but there is no way suarez will like to be on bench or play lazy, he wants to play every match, every second although he is tired. And that too in such a big match, he will be pumped up. I hope we dont play the same tactics we played against arsenal.

A win wouldnt do harm to our top 6 hopes. A loss wont do to bad either.
Would take a 1-1 if given now.

If Spurs win tomorrow, we must win.

Nishank wrote:A win wouldnt do harm to our top 6 hopes. A loss wont do to bad either.
Would take a 1-1 if given now.

I almost said in my own post that would take a draw if offered now, but then I thought that we can win this match and one point is probably not going to help us that much. I'd rather play for the win and lose 3 - 0 than try to defend a nil nil.

Messiah "Aggerswagger" wrote:If Spurs win tomorrow, we must win.

Dizzzagree. This is a hugely difficult game. We must win easier oppositions from now on. I won't be heartbroken if we lose this game, but we must win most of our easier games after this one.

Given our run-in after this match I can't see how it's a "must win." If we had more difficult away matches against top sides then perhaps (but even in that situation, a "must win" on the 3rd of Feb is frankly nonsense IMO) but we don't. We have one of the more straightforward sets for the remainder of the season (not saying easy, mind) so the result tomorrow really doesn't carry all that much significance at the moment.

I'm sure falling 10 points behind 4th place is nothing to worry about. I know our players aren't afraid of playing big in big games and I personally never had that chicken shite attitude of "it's ok if we lose against big sides, because they are better than us". Maybe, it's also the reason I get hurt significantly after every dropped point because I expect a win every match.

I stand by what I said, if Spurs win we MUST win to keep the 7th point gap.

Messiah "Aggerswagger" wrote:I'm sure falling 10 points behind 4th place is nothing to worry about. I know our players aren't afraid of playing big in big games and I personally never had that chicken shite attitude of "it's ok if we lose against big sides, because they are better than us". Maybe, it's also the reason I get hurt significantly after every dropped point because I expect a win every match.

I stand by what I said, if Spurs win we MUST win to keep the 7th point gap.

It's not a bad attitude at all, but in our current situation I feel we've got more important games ahead of us than this one. Dreams of a top-4 finish aren't crushed at City away this season, but they will be crushed if we don't win our easier games (like the three PL games that await us after this one: Baggies home, Swans home, Latics away).

I'm not delusional, I know we aren't as good as we used to be. But we are visiting Etihad at the best possible time of the year. How can you guys not believe that our team can win this is beyond me. The team City will field tomorrow won't even be slightly better than ours.

Messiah "Aggerswagger" wrote:I'm not delusional, I know we aren't as good as we used to be. But we are visiting Etihad at the best possible time of the year. How can you guys not believe that our team can win this is beyond me. The team City will field tomorrow won't even be slightly better than ours.

I do believe we can win, but it won't be a shock of any kind if we don't. Like I said, we've got 3 much easier-on-paper games coming up after this one and 9 points out of those would make up for not winning this one. Although we should play for the win in this one as well.

We are raped if they start with Dzeko, And BR pls sort out that marking during set pieces.

If we lose (and Spurs win), we will be 10 and 7 points adrift of CL and EL. Though a point (or perhaps all three) will serve ManU batter than us, we don't have any margin for error even for EL.

We have to field our best IX and fight for the best result. Whatever happens, happens.

Yes, in fact this game is most definitely a 'must-win'. Not only losing will have us comprehend a substantial gap for 4th place (which realistically is unlikely) but we will once again fail to beat a Top 10 team. Arbitrary numbers and judgements but the team needs to prove themselves if we can maintain our football vs superior teams while so far, we have shown that we can't judging by the far more subdued performances vs anyone in the top 10. It is paramount that we pull a result that can define a breakthrough vs these teams.

Not only that, but City will be without two of their most important player, Yaya and Kompany. Which is the equivalent of Darksied without his omega beam. Ethihad is not the fortress of dominance it once was before given that City have looked shaky, inconsistent and considerably vulnerable at times when pressured down the middle of the park and are by no means the force they were last year.


Doni
Wisdom-Skrtel-Agger-Johnson

Henderson-Lucas-Gerrard

-Sterling-Suarez-Sturridge

I'm guessing Enrique should be fit as then I would place him at LB with Glen at the right. Midfield is obvious given their fantastic form while the front should be composed of the excellent pace, movement instinct that they provide while Sterling's pace can cause problems to City who have trouble dealing with such requisites.

Losing or drawing would be very disappointing

Darksied without his omega beam

that seemed to be a perfect comparison !!!
I hope we attack with fill vigour, we can really unsettle them and dominate. But today the defending should be at highest level because it will be a close match.

Reina, Johnson, Enrique, Agger, Carragher, Lucas, Gerrard, Henderson, Downing, Suarez, Sturridge

Subs: Jones, Wisdom, Skrtel, Allen, Shelvey, Sterling, Borini

No sign of Assaidi

Confirmed Man City line up: Hart, Zabaleta , Nastasic, Lescott, Clichy, Milner, Garcia, Barry, Silva, Dzeko, Aguero

Carragher before Skrtel

I have a feeling Carragher is going to get raped tonight, please prove me wrong jamie.

I've a good feeling about today. (not that that means anything)

Carra will hopefully be able to deal with Dzeko. His physicality is a bit of a worry, but we should be better defensively overall with Glen back on the right and Jose back in at LB.

Excited and optimistic.

Need to start well.

22 mins gone. We've been really good so far. All over them.

What a hit. Well in Danny Boy.

oh mannnnnn, he looks quite confident!!!!