07 Apr 2024 23:32:31
So frustrating! We should've and could've won today, we weren't up for it enough, I don't understand it at all personally. First half we could've been 4-5 nil up, wasted chances and could cost us dearly.
BUT it's far from over, Arsenal have a few hard fixtures, I'd just of liked it more for us not having to rely on others dropping points but I suppose it was always going to be the case, if we'd of won today I'd of found it difficult believing we'd of gone on to win every single game left.
I'll say it now though, I don't think City will drop points. I believe we'll drop more and so will Arsenal. This concerns me because I don't want them to win it lol I'd much rather see Arsenal win it if we can't.
08 Apr 2024 01:45:17
Agreed Salah, it was a frustrating game to watch. We were all over them in the first half and in the beginning of the second. They then scored a goal out of nowhere and suddenly, are right back in the game. Before we knew it, we were trailing behind them and had to play catch-up despite our dominance. It could have been much worse but a draw isn't the worst result and I believe we can still push on for the title.
It is concerning though that our finishing is so off lately. We are dominating games and creating chances but are just not able to finish teams off. I'm not sure how we can improve things though, but I hope Klopp and the team sort it out soon.
08 Apr 2024 02:37:24
I agree with everything you said Salah mate. I don’t know what’s happened to our finishing recently. Especially when you look back at the turn of the year when we were winning and scoring 3 or 4 goals almost every week. In fact, I just had a look at our fixtures and from the 1st of January when we beat Newcastle up until 21st of February, we played 11 games in total. Out of those 11 games we scored 5 goals in 1 of those games. 4 goals in 5 of those games. And 3 goals in 1 of those games. That’s over half of those 11 games with a minimum of 3 goals.
The only other months besides January and February this season that saw us scoring quite a few goals was September. We played 6 games that month and we scored 3 goals in all those fixture bar the one right at the end of month, which was the 2-1 loss against Spurs (less said about the match the better) .
City will win their remaining matches like you said. It’s now down to Arsenal slipping up. Frustrating because it was in our hands but they have the toughest run in out of 3 at the top of the table. There are 4 fixtures where if it’s going to happen, it will have to be there. That’s Wolves away. Wolves are a Jekyll and Hyde side. They will ever get pummelled by Arsenal or they might nick a result. Chelsea at home is literally a copy and paste of the Wolves explanation. Spurs away is their hardest game in their run in. And lastly United away. They struggle against United at Old Trafford. Hoping one of them happens so we can bring the league home this year. Of course for us fans but to give Klopp the send off the man deserves.
08 Apr 2024 04:08:03
I'm still sticking with my prediction that City will drop more points and end up in 3rd.
And Arsenal won't go perfect the rest of the way either.
Still over to ourselves to collect as many points as possible, preferably all of them!
Salah - on a separate note. How do you quantify "we weren't up for it enough"? We created heaps of chances but didn't score so are you saying that the lack of scoring is why you're saying we weren't up for it?
08 Apr 2024 05:44:59
Ed1, why do you think for the past few matches we are struggling to close out games? That's two time against UTD where we should have win comfortably, but instead we lose and draw those two matches. Also our records against the big 6 sides this season are really poor.
{Ed001's Note - it has always been a problem under Klopp, probably because of the speed we attack at leaves players rushing things.}
08 Apr 2024 05:57:17
Just wanted to add that Arsenal has a huge advantage in the run in and that is their injury list. I can't recall a single first 11 player, except for maybe Timber, who has been out for an extended period. They are basically able to name the same starting 11 each game and this, I feel, has resulted in them being extremely consistent. It does remind me of the seasons we won the champions league and PL title and had very few players out injured and were thus able to keep churning out results.
08 Apr 2024 06:38:05
To say we weren’t up for it enough is a bit of a stretch to say the least. We absolutely battered United and only for a brain fart we gave them a glimmer of hope.
We lacked composure in certain moments especially in their box but I thought there was absolutely nothing wrong with the attitude of the players.
08 Apr 2024 06:58:39
Biggest worry is we learned nothing from the other week.
08 Apr 2024 07:24:51
I think to say we weren't up for it is way wrong, I thought we v sharp and aggressive when needed especially in 1st half. fa cup game yes i thought we slack and utd deserved the win whereas utd got lucky yesterday imo.
I think our problem is, and it was discussed on here Saturday on some of pages, that we just have 2 many not playing up to there potential. Not that they playing awful it just 2 many not playing well enough to close out a league. I would say only vvd, mac and kelleher playing to there full potential over last few weeks.
08 Apr 2024 07:40:48
The league is lost for me and I think we’ll finish third. Too many games were wasteful in front of goal and make games like Brighton harder than they need to be. The midfield aren’t clinical enough either, particularly Szoboszlai who looks redundant at points.
08 Apr 2024 07:44:11
Excellent observation Ed001, I do feel Bobby was cool in the box more often than not. Sure Salah has always been like that but still had a good conversion rate, Mane was fairly cool too.
08 Apr 2024 07:57:08
Oh the negativity, win our remaining 7 and City are irrelevant and its not even a given that Arsenal would have to drop a single point for us to clinch the title. Touchwood we'll be more or less full strength injury wise within the next week or so and we've a good set of fixtures to attack. Trust me City and Arsenal fans aren't half as negative as you lot at the moment, have a bit of faith in the lads. no one gave them a chance in August, have had horrendous injuries and decisions to deal with and are JOINT TOP so im going to give them the benefit of the doubt.
08 Apr 2024 08:12:14
Ron maybe its just as simple as our main goalscorer for 7 years having a bad patch after injury and probably the best finisher in the club out injured. If Jota plays in that game yesterday we win. Huge players like trent and diogo to help towards goalscoring returning imminently.
08 Apr 2024 08:30:02
Ed’s comment is intriguing - can think of numerous games, finals etc where have dominated and just not taken any chancels. Against real think courtious got a load of praise for what was poor finishing.
May be speed of play or how quick we play - but just seem to lack that calm composure. The counter after they scored, Nunez should be able to finish or even easier later off for Szo, but completely fluffed it. Curious if is an instinctual or innate ability or can be coached, as see in combat sports (famously McGregor vs Aldi) where just seem as relaxed or calm as someone knitting their 1000th sweater.
08 Apr 2024 09:05:05
Was it really the speed of the ball which made szob and Mo miss them chances yesterday? we always had erratic finishers like Firmino, mane nd Gini but usually we could rely on Salah, at the moment he's struggling.
08 Apr 2024 09:12:06
So many great points made on this thread and I agree with a large mejority of them. To say we were not up for it is just ridiculous. Our approach to the game was NOT the problem, IMO. It was that it seems as Ed01 said, the sped we play at could be a problem in the final third and Darwin and Diaz are guilty of this specifically. Jota on the other hand, is not.
Also and may be others can chime in, there seems to be a case of buck-passing when on the counter cos the amount of times I've seen the forwards do the "Not me so you have it" or playing the unecessary extra pass instead of taking responsibility and just whacking it is concernining. Diaz had a chance to blast it towards the goal andd then inexplicably passed it to Darwin who looked shocked and the attack died. Lack of confidence? We got to do better here, for sure.
All this being said, all hope is definitely not lost. Like @Salah and JNkunku have said, I think City will win all their games BUT if we win all of ours then they win nada. Arsenal have a worse schedule than we do so their chances to drop points are there. Us? We have NO margin for error now (and we did this to ourselves) so we got to win all our games. To do this, we MUST improve massively in the final third and cut out the Quansah-like mistakes.
08 Apr 2024 09:13:05
If we lose on GD to Arsenal, at least it will not feel as bad as the last time it happened! That was the time I swore I would never get upset by a football match again
Then Hillsborough happened.
Then Istanbul happened.
There will always be highs, there will always be lows. Yesterday was a low, more because we hadn’t learned from our recent mistakes at OT than anything but in the cold light of day there could well be many more highs before the end of the season.
08 Apr 2024 10:31:16
I'd imagine its hard to judge the speed of a game of football when watching it on a buffering stream Oli.
But as predicted you will tell us.
08 Apr 2024 10:33:19
For the first 20 minutes of the game the team were not pressing high and the front three were waiting until the ball made it forward to almost half way line before pressing, which I felt was smart since United play on the counter and all the games were they have done badly is against teams sitting deeper and waiting for them to come forward.
It was working well for us
Then for whatever reason we slowly started pressing higher and in the second half it was like klopps first season again and that's when the game got crazy. We were far too impatient, sitting deeper and not pressing was the way to go as united struggle to create and score with the ball in possession and their midfield gives up possession a lot. But for some reason we decided to play to their strengths, which was especially silly since that's exactly how we lost a week earlier.
We needed patience and professionalism and instead we slowly got sucked into a tennis match against a team which can only score in tennis matches.
08 Apr 2024 10:12:36
Interesting opinion, Ed, regards to your opinion that our speed of attack is partly to blame for our finishing. I don't necessarily agree with it, but interesting view point.
08 Apr 2024 11:54:43
the game was i agree frustrating, but there are a lot of people over reacting we are in no different position than when Citeh played the Gooners. They have now got champions league to play where they have to use their best players where as we can hopefully rest anyone that needs to and get some minutes back in legs for others. With 7 games to go many things can and will happen but we would have taken this at the beginning of the season, we are having a great season so far that could turn out to be an awesome one so let's get behind the boys and see where the ride takes us YNWA.
08 Apr 2024 12:14:59
We create so many chances because of the pace of our play. We miss so many chances for the exact same reason.
08 Apr 2024 12:16:22
We play Europa on the Thursday which is far worse then a Tuesday night game?!
Not sure we can be resting players.
08 Apr 2024 12:59:22
We can afford to rest them more than city nd Arsenal playing two European beasts and then hopefully each other.
08 Apr 2024 18:13:37
Man City play a quick ball in and around the box, that’s the way to break stubborn defences down, but they are cool in front of goal.
08 Apr 2024 18:40:54
Arsenal have atleast 3 tough games coming, Man U Chelsea and Tottenham. They will drop points.
City probably win all there remaining games unless spurs turn up.
We can still do this and maybe the United result will spur us on. Still believe lads, the team needs its fans more than ever now.
08 Apr 2024 23:22:17
StEtienneAmen - I can’t believe you’ve done that to me ?
My absolute worst memory of a football result ever.
I’ll never get over that game, it will haunt me to my grave.