Powered By Blogger

Monday, August 23, 2010

Manchester City Vs Liverpool [BPL 2010-11]

                                                                    
                                                                                                                                                             


Liverpool traveled to Manchester to lock horns with City, and the way City had been outplayed by Spurs on the opening weekend, we had reason to be optimistic of getting a positive result. Part of the reason being that although City had multi million signings, they would take time to adjust and gel as a team, while Liverpool had kept all their best players and made a few additions.. Liverpool started with a 4-4-2 formation, with Ngog and Torres leading the line, Lucas supporting Gerrard in midfield, Jovanovic and Kuyt on either wings, and Martin Skrtel partnering Carragher  in the centre of defense, and Dan Agger slotting in at left back. 


And though I was hoping we ll hit the ground running , the gulf in quality and class started to show and we were in for a torrid evening.. ManC got the breakthrough when Johnson slided a neat through ball for debutant Milner, who picked out Barry to coolly slot it past Reina.and Adam Johnson was proving to be a thorn for the Reds defense .. And they doubled their lead shortly after the interval with a scrappy goal from a corner which seemed to come off Micah Richard's head. And around the 70th minute mark, Johnson was tripped in the box, resulting in us conceding a penalty, and Tevez scored from the resulting spot kick.


Liverpool as a team , were pedestrian for long periods of the game, except short good spells, with no control in midfield, poor link up play and below par performances by many of the lads out there. I felt that maybe Hodgson was a bit too adventurous with the formation considering it was an away game. The defense was very leaky and doesn't exactly transpires confidence for a goalkeeper. New boy Jovanovic had a night to forget. Lucas and Kuyt, were sub par , at best. And it also showed that we need another recognized center forward, because Ngog struggled mightily to hold up play or link up with Torres. The only man who can walk with his head held high is Steven Gerrard, who contributed more than the whole team put together.




Now it very early to sound pessimistic and start drawing conclusions, but a strong lesson has to be learnt from tonight, because performances like these are unacceptable. I was worried when Aquilani got sent out on loan, and I am worried I might be right as there was no link up play, and Lucas and Kuyt  are good to have just as squad players, rather than being in the starting 11. I hope we don't lose Masch as he was badly missed tonight, and we must buy a good centre forward before the transfer window closes. This performance is definitely a reason to worry, and its back to the drawing board for Hodgson and the boys.

No comments:

Post a Comment