After last night's 1-0 victory against Man City at the Etihad, it's advantage Liverpool in the race for Carling Cup final place. Liverpool legend Steve Nicol was delighted with the win, but believes that tiredness may have had something to do with the below-par nature of Man City's performance.
Summarising the game on ESPN, Nicol - who won everything else *but* the League Cup as a Liverpool player - observed:
"Liverpool got their tactics spot on: played it tight; never really gave any chances away; got the goal when it mattered, and held on, but I'm not quite sure whether the win was down to Liverpool's great play, or Manchester city's tiredness.
"That game on Sunday against Man United really took it out of them. To play with 10 men for 80 minutes just kills you, and I think we saw that during the game".
Last night's game was City's fourth in eleven days, and they were also missing several important players, but it was also Liverpool's 4th game in 11 days, and key players like Luis Suarez and Lucas Leiva were unavailable.
Admittedly, Kenny Dalglish's team had two days of extra recovery time, but would that really account for City's poor performance overall?
Nicol reiterated the importance of finishing 4th in the league, and emphatically underlined his view that success in domestic cups was a very distant second in the priority list:
"The key for Liverpool is finishing 4th. if they get that spot, they get the money, and players who otherwise wouldn't come and play for Liverpool would possibly come.
"Everybody would love to win a cup, whether it's the Carling Cup or the FA Cup, but I'll tell you right now, they would swap all of those for 4th spot".
John Henry stated earlier in the season that Liverpool's main goal was to finish in the top 4 this season, and with Gerrard back and close to firing on all cylinders, Liverpool's chances have, IMO, exponentially increased.
Jaimie Kanwar
Summarising the game on ESPN, Nicol - who won everything else *but* the League Cup as a Liverpool player - observed:
"Liverpool got their tactics spot on: played it tight; never really gave any chances away; got the goal when it mattered, and held on, but I'm not quite sure whether the win was down to Liverpool's great play, or Manchester city's tiredness.
"That game on Sunday against Man United really took it out of them. To play with 10 men for 80 minutes just kills you, and I think we saw that during the game".
Last night's game was City's fourth in eleven days, and they were also missing several important players, but it was also Liverpool's 4th game in 11 days, and key players like Luis Suarez and Lucas Leiva were unavailable.
Admittedly, Kenny Dalglish's team had two days of extra recovery time, but would that really account for City's poor performance overall?
Nicol reiterated the importance of finishing 4th in the league, and emphatically underlined his view that success in domestic cups was a very distant second in the priority list:
"The key for Liverpool is finishing 4th. if they get that spot, they get the money, and players who otherwise wouldn't come and play for Liverpool would possibly come.
"Everybody would love to win a cup, whether it's the Carling Cup or the FA Cup, but I'll tell you right now, they would swap all of those for 4th spot".
John Henry stated earlier in the season that Liverpool's main goal was to finish in the top 4 this season, and with Gerrard back and close to firing on all cylinders, Liverpool's chances have, IMO, exponentially increased.
Jaimie Kanwar
with a full fit squad, think we are better than chelsea and arsenal, were not far off spurs for talent but maybe better in afew areas than them.
ReplyDeleteno reason why we cant get 4th with a bit of consistancy and bit of lady luck, even 3rd with a good signing.
brilliant well worked game plan last night, but feel kuyt should have replaced carroll, even though he did work hard. the boy just has no confidence. wouldnt it be a dream to get in top 4 and go to wembley twice!! you never know. or we will be on here moaning lol
Man city were really poor and we played very well in the 1st half. 2nd half was very worrying as we invited pressure and played too deep. Decent win but we can play better
ReplyDeleteMan City were really poor but some of Liverpools players were dirty cheating scum, just like Wayne Rooney.
ReplyDeleteSkrtel, Agger and Adam are all dirty players, how the fuck Johnson could go in two footed on a fellow countryman is just a fucking joke, should have been red carded for that as his tackle was 5 timesworse than Kompany's.
What goes around comes around and you scousers and United are going to get Karma shoved right up where it belongs.
It was shocking that the squad of that calibre, quality, size and the amount of spent on it, that City could not go anywhere near to making up the loss of Silva and Yaya. They could afford to leave Nasri on the bench and put out a reputable midfield on the pitch. It was a horrible display of football from them. Never looked like creating anything. For all that money spent, they felt the absence of Yaya and Silva so badly.
ReplyDeleteIt wasn't fatigue, it was the inept attempt at compensating for the loss of Yaya and Silva
I personally dont think that we are as good as tottenham, and i would say we are probably on a par with chelsea and arsenal. The fight for 4th will be very close.
ReplyDeletethats wat i was kinda sayin think our defence is better though including reina, gerrard back and when luis returns, these players walk in to any team. spurs have top players in bale,moderic ans vdv. close call for me, but the table dont lie. going to be very tight for 4th. were slowly getting better considering the circumstances and players out.
ReplyDeleteynwa
to true, as hansen said, think we were playing a flat back 9 in the second half lol, paid off. 12 men at anfield, should be like a european night for the second leg
ReplyDeleteOn current form, I'd prefer Spurs' goalkeeper, defence, midfield, and forwards. So basically their entire side. I guess it shows in the league table. And in some positions they are way way way ahead of us such as the wings and up front. Reina and Gerrard may have been the best in their respective positions in the past but the past doesn't matter.
ReplyDeleteSadly, its Spurs > Liverpool....by a mile
I second you. Yaya Toure is a world class talent in the mould of Patrick Vieira in his prime. He had been key to Man City's table topping run and I fear Man U might be able to catch up in his absence. I do hope City and Spurs finish as the top 2 though, Spurs fully deserve it. It is just unfortunate for Chelsea, Arsenal and ourselves that Man U almost always beats the clubs 7th-20th in the table - a shining example that you don't always need a world class team to be challenging for the title.
ReplyDeleteI guess it one of those things that, regardless of how much you spend on the team, you still come down to a few key individuals who will form the spark for a team.
ReplyDeleteSilva's been a cut above most during the season and any team would struggle to fill his place. You can have another highly priced player to take his place but it brings in little differences that can cause the team to not gel like it normally would, especially during a packed schedule with some high profile matches.
Yaya has also been critical to their play and they don't really have another player quite like him, or at least, not to that level.
Against a lesser team they might have gotten away with it but against Liverpool, on a night when we got a fairly early lead and were then happy to play defensively throughout the second half, they struggled.
I'm still not happy with our defence which looked very exposed at times. Johnson played well but then also got beaten in very poor fashion at times. He gets turned far too easily for my liking.
our squad lacks the creativity and guile spurs have.
ReplyDeletebale-downing
modric-adam
kuyt-van der vaart/lennon
carroll-adebayor
spearing/hendo/lucas-parker
they are far superior in the attacking end of the field.
i still think we can push on now and overtake arsenal and chelsea,i think avb will be job hunting next summer.
I don't think it's the creativity and guile but the speed. Spurs is so fast! Parker is about 4 or 5 years older than Lucas and his experience is telling. It enables him to anticipate and intercept loose balls faster. I don't think any of our attacking mids are any less talented than Modric either, but this is his 4th season with Spurs and besides Gerrard, I don't think our creative midfielders have had enough games to make a more telling impact.
ReplyDeleteBetween Parker and Modric, they typically only need 2-3 passes from winning the ball to finding an attacker, and unlike Chelsea, Arsenal and ourselves, they prefer to attack from deep, not by laying siege to the opponent's 18 yard box. Their attack is a kick and chase type attack and it suits their speed demons like Bale and Lennon, or strikers who like running at defenders, because they will have the space.
What makes them so scary is that once they have the ball, it finds a fast attacker very quickly and defenders have no time to organise themselves properly. To successfully defend against Spurs, you must park the bus, but if you play long passes to your forwards, they tend to get to the ball first. If you turn the screw on them, you can't stop their counters. However, if Modric or Parker are out, they suddenly become quite ordinary.
Spurs clearly have more talent in their squad than us this year now that they've been gifted a £30m striker for the year, but I would add Man U into the bracket with us, Chelsea and Arsenal. Yea they've spent big over the years and have some top quality players in their attack, but they are depending on a whole load of dross and inexperienced players throughout their squad too.
ReplyDeleteI look at Man U's lineups most weeks and can't believe that they're keeping pace with Man City (that Man U lineup against us was absolutely pathetic btw!). This season they are overachieving just as much as we are underachieving imo.
The main difference I guess is that they have Ferguson and refuse to set Top 4 as an acceptable target just because somebody else might have built a strong team or came into a bit of money.
I agree with the sentiment of Nicol's argument but I can't agree that Dalglish got his tactics spot on.
ReplyDeleteJust stringing a bunch of defenders across the penalty box (fans get criticised for suggesting Johnson be played in midfield, but Dalglish actually stuck him in at centreback, even while Kelly remained at fullback!?) and hoping for the best isn't any sort of tactic to be employed by a top team as far as I'm concerned
Spurs are a great side and have more world class players than average ones. A bit similar to our 2008/09 side where we just missed out on premiership to the manc's. I hope they win the league as they more respected and liked by the footballing world and no-one has a bad thing to say about Harry.
ReplyDeleteConsidering where they were before he took over...amazing turnaround, top bloke and the perfect manager in the modern game!!
not quite a mile, i did say witha full squad, so i strongly disagree, especially our defence and reina. we will soon see
ReplyDeletespent his money well, hopefully he takes over england!
ReplyDeletecheer up, we won one nil!! reminded me bit like the liverpool chelsea champs league games. and look wat happened.
ReplyDelete