I'm not one to usually pass blame on the referees, but we could've won hadn't it been for the two massive refereeing blunders.
What was the second blunder? Apart from the linesman's poor offside call, of course.
Despite the loss though, I think we showed we have to potential to be right near the top at the end of the season.
Definitely. We attacked with a lot of aggression and promise, but it was our poor finishing and defensive mistakes which let us down in the end, as well as the linesman.
Frustrating to watch. Saw negredos goal coming, I was screaming at our centre-backs to hold their positions. Obviously they never heard my death-like screams from my living room.
All in all I think we can walk away from the defeat with our heads held high. Brilliant performance but things simply didn't go our way. Not going to start on the officials as you ******* expect it nowadays. Didn't see anything from Joe Allen as per usual.
YNWA JFT96***
I agree about Allen. I've heard loads of people say he's brilliant, so I'm not sure whether I'm underrating him or they're overrating him. The thing is, he can't defend, he can't attack, due to how weak, slow and poor at dribbling he is, so I'm not too sure what he contributes to the team, apart from dictating possession in midfield (but not as well as the likes of Carrick or Pirlo do it). Lucas at least contributes something defensively, even if he's not been the best this season.
Anyone saying that is doing them a complete injustice, both in this game and in their home form. I'm loathe to defend City, but anyone saying they were handed a win is being extremely bitter tbh. Both sides were excellent, Liverpool had a chance that should have stood, both sides could have had pens for shirt tugging. Suarez should have had a free kick and not been booked for a high foot. Liverpool didnt take their chances, City did, just about. That was the difference today.
It's true that City didn't exactly play badly, but I felt we were far superior going forward. What ultimately let us down was our finishing, and some defensive errors (Skrtel for their first goal; Mignolet for the second and Sakho's various poor passes, which disrupted our rhythm). We could, and should, have got at least two or three more goals (the 'offside' goal; Johnson's poor touch; Henderson being offside for Su?rez's shot and Sterling's miss from a few yards out), but we just weren't good enough at finishing today. We were lucky to get away with some of our poor defending, though - like when Navas blazed it over the bar, or the couple of shots wasted by Negredo and Tour?. So no, I wouldn't say it's doing them a complete injustice, but it should be acknowledged that their finishing was far superior to ours today, and they were also calmer in possession.
The thing is, before this game, I thought we wouldn't have a chance of winning - so if you'd had said we would've lost 2-1, I wouldn't have felt disappointed. However, it's the manner in which we lost the game which is worrying - the mistakes, the poor finishing and consistently poor performances from some players (Skrtel - to a certain extent; Johnson; Cissokho - but not in this game and Allen - although he's been much better in recent games), although it has to be said that the likes of Sterling, Henderson and Flanagan have really upped their game this season!
