English League Football ** spoilers ** [21st - 23rd August 2010]

Soldato
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City looked very solid and difficult to break down but, considering they won 3-0, they didn't actually create an awful lot. Aside from Barry's goal, I don't remember them creating anything clear cut. The penalty never should have been and the less said about the defending at that corner the better. I think their real problem will be finding the right balance between attack and defence, and at the moment their side is too weighted towards the latter.

They didnt, it was their first shot on goal! Bad day at the office for Liverpool with a bit of luck going City's way too. Onwards and upwards, hopefully with a few more players signed in the coming days. Was really impressed with Johnson's play, even if he was acting like a bit of a ****.
 
Don
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If Johnson wasn't English he'd get such a hard time. Goes to ground very easily and is very clever with time wasting etc. He didn't miss a chance to kick the ball away at the award of every free-kick of throw-in all game.
 
Caporegime
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18 Oct 2002
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33,188
Did you see their luck en-route to the final? they should have bought a Euro-millions ticket.

Errm, firstly they played great and outplayed most of the teams getting to the final, coming back from a bad leg or a bad first half isn't lucky, they played hard, worked as a team, never gave up and played some good attacking football, it wasn't a lucky run so thats your first mistake.

You also claim he's failed at every other club....... by listing the fact he improved Inter and keep ignoring people mentioning he turned Fulham completely around.

THe statement by Fulham players that it took them a while to get used to the strict training Hodgeson does doesn't really mean anything without knowing the kind of training he was doing before. If Sanchez had trying to down a yard of ale as training then running 20 mins on a treadmill would be hard to get used to. Hodgeson's "strict training" might be less strict than Benitez's, or far worse, without the comparison it means nothing.

All we know is a few fulham players said it was a very gruelling training schedual and strict as hell, compared to Fulham training under Sanchez, I very very much doubt the change at Liverpool will be as big a change. Sanchez was running Fulham like a sunday league Irish team and Hodgeson dragged them back to a professional club with real players, Liverpool's already at that stage to start with.


Liverpool sucked, and blaming the manager is daft, at one point at 2-0 down I think a loose ball dropped about 8-10 yards from Lucas, who barely moved to it, neither did any other Liverpool player, Tevez ran about 20 yards and beat them to it, it was shocking. But that was the performance, for all but that mad 5 minutes Liverpool players just weren't trying. Maybe it was the manager, maybe they are too tired, maybe when Gerrard doesn't show up he can't hide the woeful inadequacies in the side.

This is how LIverpool played in MANY games last year, they finished where their play deserved to get them last year, and with Gerrard/Caragher deteriorating rapidly, and without Caragher's luck and Gerrard dragging a performance out of other players, they could easily finish further down the table because the squad simply isn't up to it.
 
Caporegime
Joined
18 Oct 2002
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33,188
Ask Joe Cole if it's slipping :p ;)
see below.

If Joe Cole wasn't English he'd get such a hard time. Goes to ground very easily and is very clever with time wasting etc. He didn't miss a chance to kick the ball away at the award of every free-kick of throw-in all game.

:p

If Joe Cole wasn't English his reputation would be someone who'd be decent enough for a 7th/8th place team. The lack of anyone above Liverpool offering him a contract, except Spurs, who probably offered less money.


Yup, Johnson was doing all the usual time wasting, though the kick it far as it just passes the line is a tried and true method I've yet to see punished, he kicked it away a couple other times aswell.

It was also a classic Johnson/Walcott/SWP winger performance, it had very little end product, when you consider the utter domination especially in the first half, the fact he's up against a slow CB instead of a fullback and the fact that almost every attack in the first half went down the right, he created incredibly few crosses into a dangerous area and most of his posession ended up coming back and being passed around. To be fair a lot of that was the formation, for a 4-3-3 Milner/Johnson and at least one CM just weren't getting into the boxes or making runs to pass into. But considering the game he was staying far to wide most of the time rather than running into the box to get closer to Tevez.

Loads of the ball and there was very little end product.
 
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Permabanned
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They just beat a team that drew at home to Arsenal, a team with ten men that drew with Arsenal, they can be called challengers as much as Chelsea/Arsenal/Liverpool/Man United
 
Associate
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21 Apr 2010
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Wiltshire, UK
<some drivel>

Hehe that's pretty hilarious that you're going to slate Johnson on the basis that he didn't create enough crosses. You can't seem to get your head around the idea that a winger is on the park to do other things...

When you're playing as a left-footer on the right hand side, clearly your ambit is to cut inside, and thus go narrow, rather than getting to the byline and crossing it in. Add to that the fact that City's only striker and regular presence in the box during open play was the 5-foot-nothing Carlos Tevez, and it becomes clear that City's gameplan wasn't based around crossing it into the box! Jesus...

As for end product, well his threat cutting in and shooting on that left-foot was reminiscent of Robben, he was invovled in the build up for the first goal, earned the corner for the second goal and won the penalty for the third goal. Plenty of end product, considering they were playing Liverpool; 3 goals is a big margin of defeat for a team of their stature.

If Ashley Young had turned in a performance like that, you'd be spewing hyperbole like a drunkenaunt....
 
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