JRC

Away fans singing wool and lower league songs - maybe because they are wools and play in a lower league? Nothing malicious like Leicester, seemed to enjoy themselves, good turnout, so no problem for me. Ref was surprisingly good. Didn't play the usual underdog exemption rules - gave an early booking, good advantages, very quick to warn goalie about time wasting, so nipped potential shithousery in the bud. Liked some of the touches and signs of potential from the kids, with obvious caveats on youthful inexperience. In the main the clearly non-standard crowd didnt do anything too cringy that I saw - just plenty of kids thrilled to be there, majority by me seemed to be young girls who were absolutely loving it. So - pretty enjoyable match experience, tbh, if not obviously shared by some of the posters in the thread.

How did Madison not get a second yellow for sarcastically clapping in the Ref's face when he got booked after Naby megged him? Good job really, as it was his timewasting that gave us the time to equalize...

The penalty was another reason Saturday reminded me of the Southampton game about 4 years ago - piss-poor referee allowed extreme s***housery and lost his bottle (including a performative run to, in that case, Gabbiadini, but then not getting the necesdary card out). We got a penalty that day as well, but Forster was allowed to get in Milner's grill and intimidate him enough for him to miss. Ward-Prowse's contribution to that - he ran into the area as Milner was lining up to take it, took a swig from a bottle Forster had in the net and tossed it away as he ran back out, studiously ignoring the befuddled, hapless ref as he waved a yellow at him - was such blatant s***housery you had to admire it.

Truth is, Klopp was the one showing respect for AFCON by referring to it for the journo who said there were no more international breaks. Moreover, Klopp's words showed more understanding of nuance and irony in his second language than some professional wordsmiths appear to have in their own first language. Ironically.

As the QR Code thing works instead of NFC, surely that's not phone specific or linked in any way, so could be physically copied - to paper, any other phone - and would still work? I assume screenshotting or printing is disabled, but I doubt that's a huge barrier to the technically competent and committed.

A combination of that and the Porto players remarkable sensitivity to the force of gravity.

I suspect he is the very definition of a footballer's footballer. Not suggesting that fans can't judge quality, but there are plenty who don't really go for that kind of style and technical ability. But I can't believe there is a professional player, even the most dunderheaded, who doesn't look at what he does and think "f*** me, he's good. I wish I could do that"

That stat on MOTD was insane - iirc, in the premier league Arsenal had lost by 4 goals or more on only 10 occasions - 5 of which were against us; so 6 from 11 now.

Thought it more to lessen the chance of another sending off in a game of intensity. They need their best players available for the last 2 games in the group.

Taylor appears to be the top man now - didn't he have the Nations League final or something? Doesn't mean he is any good, of course, as we know. My dad just told me that Chelsea objected (unsuccessfully) to him reffing them (maybe Brentford last weekend? Didn't watch it anyway) after the game against us - the one where he wouldn't have given a clear penalty without VAR telling him to (and which made the sending off inevitable); and which decision, just before half time, was amazingly the last free kick we were given in the game despite a 45 minute, backs-to-the-wall rearguard defense by Chelsea

We did, but I think he was still - maybe wrongly - regarded as the second-stringer, to be played as a rotation option. Not sure we would ever go full playing the Under-18s in the Champion League - dead rubber or not. Presumably the CL doesn't have the same exemptions as the Premier League - eg youngsters - about who can play over and above those registered in the squad at the start? In which case, there will always be someone at least first team adjacent playing; an injury to Tsimikas or Origi, for example, would still be a blow to the squad. (BTW, I agree with the earlier post suggesting that we might see a better Origi this season, he has looked noticably sharper to me)

If he does that and we win, his position would be untenable, I think - and we wouldn't want that would we? Given that support for him seems to be right on the cusp atm, whatever the Board have said, even though it may well be the right football choice to drop him, the downside of failure (for Solskjaer) is massive; if Ronaldo plays and we still win, ceteris paribus, then it wouldn't be used as an argument against him, even if Ronaldo doesn't get a touch of the ball against our defence. (That potential decision is still a slow-burning fuse under Solskjaer right now, which, let's hope, could ultimately derail their whole season. That they are playing us just amplifies the implications)

Think we're much more likely to try and get CL Qualification sorted asap (with 5 sub options to rest 'in-game' if appropriate) - December is when we are going to need get creative with widespread rotation, so a dead rubber would be priceless. Tuesday to Sunday is as good a break as we will get before then (*written without actually checking if it's true or not) - especially when followed by an EFL Cup game vs a Championship team 45 minutes up the road. And going out and twatting these while we have some momentum would really send a message to others AND make us even stronger; so pretty much full strength for me.

Yes, the season for which Chelsea fans (et al) mock us as bottlers, despite them winning away at both us and City that season, but blowing it by losing at home to a truly dreadful Sunderland (amongst other poor late season results) when they ought to have been home and hosed

Yet England's other arguably world class player is Kane. Better strikers than him - Lineker, Shearer; as well as Ian Wright - go nuts over how many goals they would get with Trent's delivery from FB. If Kane is first name on the sheet, which I suspect he is, they should add Trent second and build from there. Unless Kane is not a fan...

Not outside of the foot, but same shape

Reminded me of Dalglish to Rush against, ironically, Watford, back in the day. Will go on a YT search now for it

'discussing Uganda'

Thought there were some signs 2nd half of the old Van Dijk returning - the dummy on de Bruyne, the challenge where he held the player away from the bal then turned away in the area - never looked or felt he wouldn't get it right. But yes, otherwise not yet at his best -maybe to be expected; Matip the star defender atm. Teams morph to their manager;s image. City like a moan, or in Foden's case, a full on temper tantrum. Silva got booked, but persisted in niggly kicking the ball away etc. antics

I think Milner's problems were more caused by the midfield failings - City were constantly able to find the space and angles to release Foden into dangerous areas behind or beyond Milner (and Gomez, for the 2nd, tbf) as opposed to Foden running at him (unlike the way Salah destroyed Cancelo one on one in that 2nd Half). BTW - as per Chapman on MOTD2 - would City have dominated that midfield as easily as they did 1st half if they had had a dedicated striker and effectively one less tricky feller buzzing around? Grealish was no great shakes, but he was often an option as they played round us. I agree Henderson was really poor first half, but notably better second - at least energy wise, and his pressing aggressively, launching himself against their CB from midfield was key to us giving them problems and getting on the front foot. There's a really good 2 minute clip on Twitter - I assume from Sky - of Klopp giving a brief tactical analysis of what went wrong 1st half and what we did to correct it. Sendings Off - Yes Milner was lucky but it's not the slam dunk that is being claimed. Potential 2nd Yellow fouls like that are often given more leeway. Anyway, Mo's goal was seconds afterwards, so possibly NOT impacted by us being 1 man down, and we would certainly have hunkered down more, like Chelsea. Again a MOTD2 commentator noted (but not pundits) that Silva, on a yellow, committed a potential yellow on Salah. Only seconds left so not influential if he had gone, you might say? But from the free kick Fab had that chance; if City were down to 10 men, Rodri may well have not been in that position to make the save he did, so... (The latter is massive special pleading I know, but I resent the narrative currently being presented as fact.) Whatever, was a good point after surviving the first 45, whilst disappointing to lose the lead twice (again), but after calming down, cannot deny that that was great stuff, 2 fantastic teams going full pelt (for 45 minutes at least); and both significantly better than the rest of the league (with one possible exception to the 'significantly' qualifier).

Silva's foul on Salah was just as much a second yellow, and he knew it. Not sure he hadn't already done another one - on Robertson maybe?

Even more specific for me - it was that point when some nomark full back went past Ronnie Whelan like he wasn't there, and Ronnie couldn't get near enough to foul him; he crossed for their first goal just after halftime, and suddenly we seemed vulnerable.

I hope he was fuming at not shooting when he had the chance and getting caught in possession/going down blind alleys at other times. He's had these spells before when he seems to have his boots on the wrong feet, but has always come back to full imperious form, so I'm not overly worried yet. He'll be fine.

When we had more intense pressing, Keita and Hendo both looked good and did their bits, and Milan couldn't live with it. But when we stepped back, they found it far too easy to pass through us; not least, as has already come out from Klopp, Robbo etc. because we let the gap between the defence and the midfield get too wide.

Also re Trent's passing - this season he is clearly getting himself more often into the Inside Right/Right Mid position when we attack , rather than as an option out wide - see the Burnley goal as well as last night's; one of his failed passes last night (and I have to say I didn't recall too many) was the classic switch of play to the far left which he normally looks as if he could do blindfold - he got the range totally wrong and it sailed into the Sir Kenny Dalglish stand, but maybe that we because his starting position was a good 15 metres in from the touchline.