I don't blame City for today

[john@staustell]

Totally agree with Bingo and others.

Without our defensive set-up we would've been sucker-punched and lost the game, absolutely no question. Every time we got in the last third Scouse had 6 players around us kicking and pushing.

The media can say what they like but for the first time in ages nearly all our players had a good game, including Adebayor and especially Zabaleta, who was pants against Stoke. Defenders excellent. Johnson, Bellamy very good but running into the Scouse wall.

Only SWP caused me to shout at the telly a few times.

I fancy we would only have unlocked the door with Tevez. Ah well!

[ruralblue]

I thought we looked decent today, everytime the ball was in our possesion we went for the goal. the scouse bastards fouled us everytime we did summat and got away with it time and time again.
I can't fault anyones performance, thought our defence was fucking ace and if it wasn't for the ref we'd have won today.

or is that a bit too positive?

;D

No Bingo you know the drill, lay into the players, the manager pick one or two out for excessive critism and lets all return to normality.

I agree entirely in all you say, I honestly thought during the second half that a goal was coming and I thought we would be the ones to nick it and get the points. The challenge on Ade should have been a pen and we should now be four points clear of them. The ref was fucking blind.

[Martinez]

Some very sound posts, we actually looked quite comfortable in defense for the first time in a while and they never really looked likely to score. We conceded some dangerous set pieces again to begin with but it was an obvious improvement to the Stoke games. The "back 6" + Given I thought did really well and though the passing from deep midfield could have been more positive, it's better to pass it sideways to a blue than forward to a red. It was important not to lose

Swp was crowded out and never really got going. AJ looked really good again but his deliveries didn't have that real killer edge when he got into good positions. Ade looked hungry and I thought he played the lone striker role very well.

I was really hoping for a superman returns kind of showing from Stevie but nothing came off for him. My feeling when I saw the team sheet was that this was his opportunity to turn the season around but the lack of confidence made him look shy more than lazy imo. Not just shot- shy but ball- shy, when he occasionally got the ball, he passed it too early or turned back. Tbh though it was a difficult game with two teams who were afraid to lose and Gerrard didn't do much either. I hope he gets another chance on weds cause the touch is still there, he just need some encouragement and perhaps a goal imo