Man City vs. Liverpool FC || December 26

Could be going into this game top of the league if Arsenal drop points on Monday. Our best player has just been tied down to very long contract that puts us in the driving seat of any sort of negotiations. And we are on the back of four straight wins with 3 or more goals in every game.

City are missing their two most important players this season in Aguero and Zabaleta. Their defense is terrible, much much worse than ours.

With all that said, on paper this is going to be by far our toughest match this whole season. I really do feel like it's the best time to play them with the injuries and what not, very confident.

This will be some game.

If we take anything from this game, it'd be a massive statement of intent to the rest of the league that we aren't just top 4 contenders, but rather title contender.

On the other hand, almost every one and their dogs expect us to lose here (more like expect City to win considering their ridiculous home form), so the pressure will be on them.

Their form at Etihad is scary as hell.

They've scored 4 against United, 6 against Spurs, and 6 against Arsenal. :X

The only positive going into this game is Dzeko and Negredo didn't click at all, and just looked terrible.

Flanagan is going to have to have a massive game if he comes up against Navas. He's faster than Walcott, and has better movement. :X

Some would say we have punched above our weight against city recently, and i'd have to agree.

I honestly can't see them losing this one, regardless how good we play. They have the squad to change up a game if they are on the back foot and can maintain pressure for most parts of a game.

No chance either of the defenses will hold the other team to nil. It's going to be who will outscore the other, won't be surprised if there is more than 6 goals in this game.

Aguero and zabaleta are out so that's a massive plus, but holding toure, negerdo, nasri, navas and silva will be our biggest challenge. The quality in their attack is unreal.

Hopefully BR doesn't do a 3 man back line to counter their attack, lets just go all guns blazing, hopefully sahko beasts this game, his looking more solid now and is starting to cement a spot in the 11.

Head says 4-2 city

Heart says 2-1 liverpool

Navas is going to have a field day against Flanagan, I'm afraid. Even Noone gave Jon plenty of trouble yesterday.

David Silva isn't getting nearly enough mentions, not just on here but everywhere. The guy's an amazing player and for me as good as Aguero. He can pick open any defence, not just with his passes but also by his intelligent movement in and around the box.

We will lose to them at skills, but it shouldn't be impossible to outwork them. Anyway, they are clear favorites and already 8-0-0 at home. Getting anything from this one would be a great result.

I don't think we've ever played a bad game against City with Rodgers in charge.

All different now with Mancini being gone and with City under Pellegrini, but let's hope the trend continues. Their attack presence is definitely the main concern.

They've scored more goals at home than anybody else with 35 scored; that's only 7 off what we've scored all season (we have 42 both home/away).

With that said, their whole defence is shaky. They're playing Clichy at RB with Zabaleta out, and I'm not sold on Demichelis, Kompany is definitely carrying their back line. Since our defeat to Hull, we've scored 17 goals in 4 games conceding 3. I can definitely see us scoring atleast once, it's just how much we can prevent City from scoring. We don't want to play an open free-flowing game, we'll get dominated by City's power and pace.

Well the trend of losing to Sunderland at stadium of light didnt change under Pellegrini so...
anyways, if there is no red card for any side, it will be close scoreline, in the end city might nick it just because of their at almost all the parts of the pitch, except defence. So this is where we can capitalise, If City lets us create chances, we will surely score 1 or 2. Stopping them will be difficult but if we get a draw, that will be one more brick towards top 4 in the table

Pre match facts:

-Liverpool have only won one of their last 5 BPL away games (2L, 2D)

-6 of the last 9 PL matches between Liverpool and Manchester City have been draws (Two City wins, one Liverpool, all 3-0 whoevers played at home).

-Man City have failed to score in their last 2 PL games played on December 26 (0-0 with WBA in 2011 and 0-1 v Sunderland last year, 2012)

-Liverpool last won on December 26 back in 2009 when Rafa Benitez was manager (2-0 v Wolves)

-Luis Suarez already has 10 goals in December 13; no other player in the history of the PL has scored more than 8 in a single month of PL action within a season.

-Suarez has 29 goals in 26 PL appearences in 2013. Should he score one more, it'll be only the seventh time that a player has scored 30+ goals in a calendar year in teh PL.

-Suarez has made 149 touches in the opposition box this season, more than any other player despite missing the opening 5 games.

-Yaya Toure has scored 4 direct free kick goals in his PL career; with all of them coming this season.

-Manchester City are the only team in the PL this season yet to drop a point at home (P8 W8). They have also scored in each of their last 58 PL home games!

I may get some stick for this but I'd rather get 2 points from the next 2 matches rather than 3. That would ensure that we take 2 points off of both rivals in their home stadiums rather than taking 3 off of one and 0 off of the other. In the second half of the season we have every major club bar United at Anfield... if we can come away from the first half with only one loss on a top club's (Arsenal, Chelsea, City, Everton, United, Spuds) ground and only one left to play we'll be in a very good position.

Few if any teams will be leaving Etihad with 1 point let alone 3. And Chelsea at Stamford Bridge are no joke either. 2 draws from these 2 matches and I'll be plenty happy. Got a sick feeling in my gut that regardless of the City result we may end up dropping points at The Bridge due to a controversial refereeing decision, though.

City have only conceded 5 goals at home this season so far, 3 of which came against Arsenal. f*cking hell

I think we should all keep in the back of our minds that if a very disappointing results does happen, this match will not shape our season in any way, shape, or form.

Having said that, though, I feel very confident we can get a good results. The midfield trio of ours with Coutinho dropping between the lines and cutting in and helping out gives me a lot of hope against their midfield. Their defense is worst than ours and Suarez should have a field day with Demichelles. Negredo-Dzeko don't scare me at all (very fortunate that Aguero is out). It's only their midfield that could really hurt us, but Allen and Lucas against Yaya and Hendo harassing Silva. I like our chances.

Must win game. (Just pissing off stevieg here =P)

McAgger wrote:City have only conceded 5 goals at home this season so far, 3 of which came against Arsenal. :lol:f*cking hell

I think we should all keep in the back of our minds that if a very disappointing results does happen, this match will not shape our season in any way, shape, or form.

Having said that, though, I feel very confident we can get a good results. The midfield trio of ours with Coutinho dropping between the lines and cutting in and helping out gives me a lot of hope against their midfield. Their defense is worst than ours and Suarez should have a field day with Demichelles. Negredo-Dzeko don't scare me at all (very fortunate that Aguero is out). It's only their midfield that could really hurt us, but Allen and Lucas against Yaya and Hendo harassing Silva. I like our chances.

It can demoralise the team if we do get absolutely smashed, though.

They've scored 5 of the goals against Arsenal with Aguero off injured. And another 4 without Fulham away from home where they've struggled in the past. Aguero wasn't the sole goal scorer of the team, they have goals from everywhere in their team. Although, Dzeko and Negredo didn't work against Fulham (they're two similar type of players and just didn't "click") Negredo is class and he can hurt us. I think Navas will start the game and Dzeko will be dropped.

I think if we can defend their set pieces threat, and not give away silly free kicks, we'll come out with a positive result. We can't go all guns blazing against them like Arsenal do. We'll lose if we play an open flowing game against them. (They just have goals from EVERYWHERE in their team it's ridiculous.)

RedOranje wrote:I may get some stick for this but I'd rather get 2 points from the next 2 matches rather than 3.  That would ensure that we take 2 points off of both rivals in their home stadiums rather than taking 3 off of one and 0 off of the other.  In the second half of the season we have every major club bar United at Anfield... if we can come away from the first half with only one loss on a top club's (Arsenal, Chelsea, City, Everton, United, Spuds) ground and only one left to play we'll be in a very good position.

Few if any teams will be leaving Etihad with 1 point let alone 3.  And Chelsea at Stamford Bridge are no joke either.  2 draws from these 2 matches and I'll be plenty happy.  Got a sick feeling in my gut that regardless of the City result we may end up dropping points at The Bridge due to a controversial refereeing decision, though.

I don't think you'll get any stick at all, to be honest.

With that said, City is the true "test" of this team. Their the title favourites right now, and are the team to beat. They've DOMINATED the likes of Manchester United (current champions), Spurs (they're a mess, but still a top 4 threat) AND Arsenal (title challengers) this season. They've dropped silly points away from home, but they've seem to get their stuff together and are now looking to push on for the "gap" in the league.

We went back to the way we were playing last season in the last couple of games, and I'm sure we'll persist with it. Keep in mind Yaya Toure has publicly stated that the game at Anfield was the most "hardest game I've played in since I've been in England." That should give players confidence going into the game... hopefully.

Flanno may be out to injury.

Zabaleta back for them

Yeah saw BR's presser, Flanno might still be ok though, he said they'll assess him

Allen in an interview wrote:"It's a massive challenge but one to look forward to. The run of form we are on and the way we are playing, we are certainly looking to go to City and get a result.
"City have an incredible record at home, as do Chelsea, but records are there to be broken. We have got to be ambitious that we can be the team that goes there and do that."

let's see how much of that we will see on the actual day

i dont care about city's form really, i think we have something to give it to them

That Lucas was the best DM in the world for me What could've been

I think Flanagan's going to have to play on the right hand side.

Johnson NEEDS to play on the left. Especially if Navas starts. Noone was running circles around Flanagan with his pace in the first half against Cardiff, Navas is one of the best "traditional" wingers in the game right now. His movement, pace, crosses, is just unreal.

Natalie Portman wrote:Flanno may be out to injury.

Zabaleta back for them

 
WE'RE GOING TO WIN THIS GAME BASED ON THE EVIDENCE OF:
 
First Enrique out. Liverpool win the next game.
Then Sturridge out injured, surprise surprise, Liverpool win the next game.
Agger ill/injured, Sakho replaces him, Liverpool win the next game.
Gerrard out, people are wondering if we're a better team without him in the team as Liverpool win their next game.
 
 

EDIT: Liverpool have cancelled their Xmas party to focus for their clash against City. It's happening boys. Who are Manchester City.   

Unusual pick for a big game. Looking at the 16 games he's refereed he's never been given a game where we play a top 4 team.
Ref:  Lee Mason

Worst game? Arguably the 3-1 loss to Fulham when Carra and Degen got sent off.

Best game? 4-0 win against Burnley in 2009. No yellow or red cards issued.

Latest game? Villa - Liverpool 1-2

Counting on my main man Luis

I honestly don't mind if we lose this one as long as it doesn't get embarrassing. But a draw would be great and a win incredible. Can't wait for tomorrow!

Even without Aguero i am **** scared of City attack particularly if Flanagan is out.

Think we can get a draw if we finish of our chances

on a serious note guys, i will be very disappointed if we dont get anything from this fixture, no one really gave a game to these people till now, well except Bayern. If we play our possession game as BR said in the conference, i can see us hurting them very badly

HEIL MEIN REDS wrote:on a serious note guys, i will be very disappointed if we dont get anything from this fixture, no one really gave a game to these people till now, well except Bayern. If we play our possession game as BR said in the conference, i can see us hurting them very badly

I'm not sure if you're taking the piss right now or people are slowly agreeing with my "pessimistic" posts.   

We arrive there with no fear," said Liverpool's manager. "We outplayed Manchester City last year, home and away. We had two draws and we should have won both games but we will go there with every respect for them. I believe with the squad they have, it is their title to lose.

"For us, we will go there and play our game. We will go there and be aggressive and to press the football. We had 23 shots on goal against Cardiff [on Saturday]. They will have seen from Cardiff and from Tottenham [whom Liverpool beat 5-0 at White Hart Lane this month], that we can score goals."

Rodgers revealed his belief that City are not unbeatable at home in the Premier League grew after attending Bayern Munich's 3-1 win at the Etihad in the Champions League in October.

Rodgers, who took several Liverpool players with him to see that group game, said: "Bayern played with a three-quarter press [as Liverpool did at Tottenham]. They played with a controlling midfielder. Man City played 4-4-2, which was surprising on the night. They played two centre-forwards. Bayern had a holding midfielder, they had the quality and they got a result in the end."

http://www.theguardian.com/football/2013/dec/25/manchester-city-liverpool-brendan-rodgers

GAME ON