Yes there was skill-a-plenty from both sides
yesterday; it was a very good game of football indeed. But it was the battling
qualities of City that impressed me a lot yesterday in our DESERVED win.
Fortune
I was a little shocked by some comments from a couple of
Blues last night when I popped into my local straight after the walk home from
the match. Having watched it in the pub they said we were “lucky” and “…didn’t deserve
the win”! Very harsh.
Would it have been a fair result if it had been a draw?
Yeah, perhaps. But it would have been fair only because Liverpool were good…very good in
fact and certainly not because of any major deficiencies on our part.
Of course it wasn’t off side in the first half; the TV
footage clearly shows that. There was a heart-fluttering mad scramble in our
box in the second half too; a terrible miss by Sterling towards the end and Joe Hart made a couple of crucial stops…that’s his job. Negredo’s
goal too had a touch of fortune to it as Liverpool ’s
chocolate-wristed goalkeeper allowed the Spaniard’s shot to bounce slowly over
the line.
Guile and grace
But we showed tremendous determination, teamwork and some
beautiful moments of graceful, quick passing yesterday and so it irks me
somewhat to hear some people suggest that we weren’t good for our win
yesterday.
 |
| Not a happy chappy |
I’m also paying very little attention to Brendan Rogers’ protests at a Greater Manchester
referee being chosen for this game. Firstly he’s from Bolton,
which is hardly Manchester Liverpool
is only around the 30 mile mark - tomatoes
/ tomahtoes anyone? Besides which, if he’s got any ‘beef’ about the
off-side decision then shouldn’t he be directing his frustrations towards the
ASSISTANT referee? Where’s he from?
 |
| Cheating b... |
Anyway, Suarez should have
left the pitch before the rest of the players on a red card for a second yellow.
Before he received his yellow card he should have been booked for that horrendous,
cheating starfish dive towards the end. I must make an apology at this point to all those within
earshot yesterday, when the ‘red mist’ descended and my language was a little bit
choice to say the least. Tense-match-fuelled adrenalin, alcohol and a diving
cheat aren’t a good mix let me tell you.
Yes Lescott had hold of his
shirt a little but why that forces
someone to lurch forward and land on the floor in such dramatic style only the
cheating Uruguayan could tell you – it
was as bad as anything Ashley Young could have produced! Anyway, if the
seemingly-bias referee was going to give anything for that then we would
have been owed 3 or 4 penalties too; as the Liverpool
defence were trying to undress both Joleon and Kompany
at almost every City corner!
We edged overall possession and had 20 shots to their 12…so 'nerr' Mr Rodgers!
Surprises
I was very pleasantly surprised to see Zabaleta start and he showed absolutely no signs of his
hamstring injury. That was one mighty quick recovery from the almost-indestructible
one!
It was pleasing also to see that Nastasic
was fit enough to make the bench yesterday. We could well see him in
contention for a starting place against Palace
on Saturday, particularly with Demichelis out
with a ‘knock’ and perhaps Vinny & Joleon suffering from stiff legs from
yesterday’s gruelling game.
And unless he’s injured again I was somewhat surprised - and
quite disappointed - not to see John Guidetti
not make the bench yesterday. Assuming he IS fit and raring to go; if he can’t make
the bench at home and with Aguero out what chance has he got at Manchester City Clichy
Surely John will make
then bench against Palace tomorrow…
Trading places
That was a great ‘6 pointer’ yesterday. That win not only
see us nicely tucked in a point behind Arsenal
and primed to finish 2013 ‘top of the tree’; but Liverpool slip from league
leaders to 4th.
A solid Arsenal win at strugglers West Ham puts them back on top and Chelsea
squeezing out a 1-0 home win against Swansea
sees them just a point behind us in 3rd (I just get a feeling that Jose Mourinho’s
men haven’t quite clicked yet and if they do – along with, SURELY, a new
striker in January – they’ll be up there for the remainder of the season
putting in a very strong title challenge).
That was a cracking win for Sunderland
(and us!) at Goodison Park Southampton
are 11 points behind us.
Manyoo fought back well (and
had some own-goal & crossbar fortune) at Hull Valencia
Let’s finish 2013 with a bang!
Now I’m not suggesting for one moment [with that
sub-heading] that we’re going to produce another scoreline where, at a quick
glance, you’re not sure if you’re looking at a football or rugby result. In
fact, not only will Crystal Palace be buoyed by their excellent win at Villa Park yesterday but Tony Pulis will have them well organised and prepared
to ‘dig in’ and scrap like hell tomorrow.
With half-a-season in the English Premier League now under his belt I doubt very much that Manuel Pellegrini will be so ‘green’ (as he was at Stoke and Sunderland in
my opinion) as to weaken the side too much ahead of a tough trip to Swansea
just 4 days later. If he does, the South Londoners will prove extremely
difficult to break down in my opinion.
Of course he does have to bare in mind that his players have
just come through a muscle-sapping game against Liverpool
and, on paper at least, a trip to the Liberty Stadium is
more difficult than a home game against a side who have lost 7 of 9 away.
With these quandaries in mind it’s more difficult than usual
for me to predict how he’ll run with this one but I’ll give it a go of course.
This is how I think he’ll line-up against the slightly resurgent (form guide now 9th from 20) London
Formation: 4-4-2
_____________________Dzeko___________
__________Negredo_____________________
___________Silva____Fernandinho_________
Clichy_____Lescott_____Kompany____Zabaleta
__________________Hart_________________
Subs: Pantilimon, Kolarov, Nastasic, Garcia, Toure, Navas, Guidetti.
Despite being rarely tried, the Dzeko / Negredo combo hasn’t
been a good one so far and so I’m setting myself up to be wrong on that one
straight away. There’s also a good argument to go 4-5-1’ish against Palace again - it was quite correct to go with one
striker and five midfielders against Liverpool for different reasons but against
Palace it could prove shrewd once again; in the sense that their packed defence
might not know who best to mark if we’re flying at them from all angles with
more attacking midfielders.
However, I’ve just got a feeling that he’ll try to, somehow,
combat their brick wall at the back by sticking 2 strikers right up against it.
If he does, then this might well suit Navas; having two ‘big
men’ to aim at. But I recon he’ll go for the industry of Milner here; the fresh
and (always) raring-to-go James being given a very rare start tomorrow
afternoon in place of the pacy Spanish right-winger.
I can’t see us getting another productive game out of Yaya
less then 48-hours after the Liverpool
encounter and so Fernandinho partners Silva in the middle. Having said that, he
could also stick Silva on the right and Milner in the middle – that midfield two would certainly chase-down
every ball in a no-doubt packed Palace midfield.
The only change I can see at the back is Clichy
Despite the seemingly recovered Nastasic being available, I
think Manuel will go with the relatively solid paring of Lescott and ‘our skip’
once more.
If he does go with this formation and line up, there’s also
some decent ‘impact players’ to come on in the form of Yaya, Jesus (and John!). If we’re struggling to
break them down from open play then we have, of course, both Toure and/or Kolarov’s
free kicks to mostly rely on too.
Result? A
patient, eventual home win.
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