The_MC

Deliberate handball to deny a goalscoring opportunity?

F***ing aweful, amateurish defending.

This content is not viewable to guests.

Same here. Way too injury prone for my liking and we've had enough players with injury problems to know its best to steer clear. Tiote on the other hand could be just the injection of physicality our team sometimes lacks.

This content is not viewable to guests.

I'm more worried about that central area between defence and midfield. So many occasions this season teams have been able to just waltz straight through with very little resistance. It's such a dangerous position too for chance creation that just one or two f'kups there in a game has us chasing the match. More worrying still is that this has happened since the start of the season, and even with Lucas back hasn't been resolved. It's something I'd like to know Rodgers' opinion on, as every other part of our play has shown improvement to some extent.

This content is not viewable to guests.

This content is not viewable to guests.

This content is not viewable to guests.

Yep, agree on both. It was a game we should've won, and did so with ease. We have a run of other games coming up which we should win too so this is a good starting point. Really disappointed for Borini though. He just can't catch a break at the moment.

This content is not viewable to guests.

Most news reports were focussing on the comments of the Manc media bias... no more. As you say it's a proper story now. Why can't our club just keep it's mouth shut once in a while? If they want to deal with it internally then do it internally, no need to announce it to the world.

That's why I qualified it with "The seeming obsession with reducing the wage bill worries me more than the manager". I blame the owners for our lack of strikers and expect them to sort out the problem in January if they want to show us they're serious. I'm happy with Rodgers as manager. I don't look forward to games as much as I did under Kenny, and he's not the finished product yet, but I think he has what it takes.

Which Rodgers inherited and subsequently sold did he not? The seeming obsession with reducing the wage bill worries me more than the manager. Players like Kuyt, Maxi and Bellamy were past their best and on high wages but you can't just take highly experienced players with proven quality out without replacing them. It's madness to think that will improve a team. Let's hope the owners have swallowed their pride over looking foolish with the Carroll/Downing money and show that they're commited, both to the club and to the manager, in January. We've taken a gamble bringing in a young, inexperienced manager in Rodgers; he was never going to get everything right. What will show whether he has a long-term future here is if he learns from the errors or sticks rigidly in the hope luck will change. There seems to be this idea that he's put together his dossier over 15 years and it's now complete but I'd hope the reason he's got to where he is is from learning and improving. Personally I'd warm to him a bit more if there wasn't such a PR machine behind him. It seems every day there's 2 or 3 new articles on the official website of him talking about tactics/targets/philosophy/'we can get second'. You don't need to vocalise every thought Brendan, just get on with the job of improving us. If the fans are as intelligent as you keep telling us we are then we can see if there's progress ourselves we don't need a running commentary.

This content is not viewable to guests.

Let's hope so. How well we do in December will pretty much decide whether we end the season fighting for a European spot. Lot's of games we 'should' win coming up and if we don't win most of them I think we'll be too far behind and pressure will start to build.

Bingo

So did the Champions League. These last few years somethings been missing from it though.

This content is not viewable to guests.

To be fair I'd be pretty defeatest if we played Gerrard and Sahin as the two defense-covering mids because we'd get smashed.

This content is not viewable to guests.

More likely Gerrard on right and Sterling on left in that scenario I guess. I just can't imagine Brendan putting Gerrard anywhere else but centre-mid at the moment unfortunately. So perhaps more likely to see Suso on for Downing, even though Enrique has done well again in midfield..

Defender nominations for the Fifa World 11 for this year: Jordi Alba (Spain, Barcelona) Gareth Bale (Wales, Tottenham) Giorgio Chiellini (Italy, Juventus); Ashley Cole (England, Chelsea); Dani Alves (Brazil, Barcelona); David Luiz (Brazil, Chelsea); Patrice Evra (France, Manchester United); Rio Ferdinand (England, Manchester United); Mats Hummels (Germany, Borussia Dortmund); Branislav Ivanovic (Serbia, Chelsea); Vincent Kompany (Belgium, Manchester City); Philipp Lahm (Germany, Bayern Munich), Marcelo (Brazil, Real Madrid); Javier Mascherano (Argentina, Barcelona); Pepe (Portugal, Real Madrid); Gerard Pique (Spain, Barcelona); Carles Puyol (Spain, Barcelona); Sergio Ramos (Spain, Real Madrid); John Terry (England, Chelsea); Thiago Silva(Brazil, Paris Saint-Germain). Pretty mediocre standard compared to, as you say, other generations. I mean Rio Ferdinand in there? Says it all. David Luiz? Cole and Evra are shadows of their former selves too. Bale's good but doubt he's played many as a left back this year. That leaves you with, for the most part, Barcelona defenders; a team renowned for their attacking rather than defence.

It really annoyed me yesterday on the second goal how he didn't even try to get back to help out defensively. Caught high up the pitch then walked back as if it wasn't his job to offer defensive cover. It's not the first time he's done it this season and we're left short in that covering spot and punished for it. If it's his fitness then that's a worry as we're trying to play him as a box-to-box mid, if its his attitude thats even more of a worry because he's meant to be the f'in Captain and leading by example. The sooner Lucas is back in the team the better. We've been conceding goals from the area just ahead of the D over and over and based on performances Lucas is the only one who undertands this is a problem.

This content is not viewable to guests.