Liverpool fans ‘bottled it’ as Man City leave neutrals ‘nauseated’
Liverpool fans were supposed to give Man City hell and they were the ‘dog that didn’t bark in the night’.
We have lots of mails about Sunday with many people now saying it all means nothing while Man City are top of the table.
What was that Liverpool? The Anfield crowd was the dog that didn’t bark in the night. Matthew, Belfast
…The one time I want Liverpool to win. To watch some funny chants from the Kop. And you gave us THAT Liverpool?
Useless. Will
…Did Liverpool just bottle it? The ‘League’s greatest club’ with the ‘league’s greatest fans’ had the chance to humiliate the ‘league’s greasiest cheats’ and instead they fluffed their lines on all accounts.
A win wasn’t mandatory, but a cauldron of vengeance expressed via creative chants and overwhelming noise was. Instead, we got insipid boos, a few bitter flags and a City side firmly let off the hook.
Yeah, we know a generation missed out because of City’s fraud but FFS that isn’t a song worth singing in the stands. Could nobody create something more interesting? What happened to the great Scouse lyricists of the past.
I can’t wait until City face a proper club like Leeds or Newcastle where the assault will be relentless. If we are really lucky, we will get to see City welcome West Ham at some point because while I wouldn’t trust their fans with much I would trust them to rip City a new one and make us all laugh at the same time.
Let hope someone else takes the baton because Liverpool clearly didn’t have the appetite for it. Matthew, Belfast
I know Man City cheated and all, but they spent £100M on Elliot Anderson and we spent £100M on Florian Wirtz…
I haven’t read all 115 charges, but I’m fairly sure that’s one crime Khaldoon Al Mubarak hasn’t been accused of. Oliver, Liverpool
I was surprised to see the Liverpool players shake hands with the City players pre-game. I wasn’t at all surprised to see the City players and fans laughing and celebrating every goal and the result, with the height of arrogance we’ve come to expect from them. Even though that arrogance is the high tower of fraud itself.
So, to all football fans and indeed the players they will face this season – don’t you dare feel pity for them.
The manager and players are all bought and paid for by fraud and do not give a single #### about you, your club, the fans and your players. Not the current players of course – we all know all cheating defo stopped in 2018…
The City fans though, well they are something different. They celebrated the cheats unknowingly. They got duped. Mugged off. Victims. But to now celebrate the cheats knowingly. That’s different. The first wasn’t a choice, the second is. The second is celebrating the cheats for cheating. It’s celebrating the cheats because they got away with it back then, because they are ~still getting away with it now~ and for not giving a #### about doing so. Don’t ask me ‘what are they supposed to do’ – you know the answer. You just don’t like it so you pretend people don’t have a choice.
The Liverpool fans and players gave City a lot today. But nowhere near what they deserve. That’s on the rest of you, to take what we started and build on it.
Don’t let them enjoy this season and pretend it’s not their problem. Don’t let them celebrate in your face as they beat you and get relegated.
Don’t let them laugh at you on the way down.
Hello everyone, thought I’d have my first go at 16 conclusions…
1) So much for the promised bearpit atmosphere. A few illegible pillow case banners, the knuckle draggers out trying to find the City bus to attack (again) outsmarted by a 3mph detour, and sporadic chants of “cheat” from about 20 people at a time. Guess the tourists the owners prefer to season ticket holders were too busy filming the slaughter to create an atmosphere.
2) Are we back in the pre-Klopp era of Liverpool only putting it in versus the big teams? Certainly looked that way. Where has the urgency and commitment of the first half been up to now this season? Although Koumas has looked decent and fully at it every time he’s played though in fairness. A lot to like about Jacquet too.
3) That said, Florian Trampoline obviously didn’t get the memo. Yet another non-performance.
4) I must have missed this previously, but when did Van Dijk get “Virgil” on his shirt? You’re not Pele mate. He did play like a Thunderbirds puppet though to be fair.
5) Both teams just looked a bit bewildered by the whole circus around this game to me. Probably because they are all self aware enough to know that it could just as easily have been them who unwittingly had owners doing what City’s did (pending appeal of course). None of them have anything to do with the ongoing case.
6) Never a second yellow for Gravenberch, first was questionable too. Fully expecting a load of ref conspiracy theory nonsense from the usual suspects BTL. Lovely.
7) Haaland. Wow. The hobo in nets never had a prayer.
8) Doku. Double wow. The hobo in nets never had a prayer.
9) Re 1), you’re supposed to get louder when your team needs you lads, not turn into a stadium of mutes. Hear a pin drop after the second City goal.
10) Cherki. All the wows. The hobo in nets never had a prayer.
11) Are we calling that ‘The Poznana’ near the end?
12) Whoever at Newcastle decided Anderson was the pure profit player to sell needs a dry slap.
13) It’s
14) only
15) a
16) game RHT/TS x
(CBA to do brackets sass today)
Fingers pointed at referee Two soft yellows on Gravenberch from Manchester-born Kavanagh changed the game. Not sure if he got into Anfield as the referee or on his brother’s City season ticket. Still, I’m sure the Blues were able to give him a lift back to his home in Aston-under-Lyne, Greater Manchester on the team coach. Gwarrior (LCFC; go Imps)
Get them out Manchester City’s latest result against Liverpool changes nothing. It also means nothing.
An independent commission has found the club guilty of systematic financial breaches over nearly a decade. Sham contracts and more than £900 million in disguised owner funding that distorted competition.
Every title from that era, and every subsequent trophy built upon it, including those under Pep Guardiola, is tainted by the owners. They carry no sporting legitimacy.
Players and pundits insisting the trophies remain untainted because they were “won on the pitch” are simply exhibiting cognitive dissonance or outright delusion. Sanctions and appeals may follow, but the findings stand. Three points against anyone are merely the residue of proven malpractice. Eoin (the PL needs to expel them immediately or no game featuring them matters) Ireland
…I watched the Liverpool V City game out of a sense of morbid curiosity. I sincerely wish I hadn’t.
The sight of Maresca and the players capering in front of City fans holding up signs saying ‘cheaters’ and ‘in Khaldoon we trust’ really turned my stomach in a way I’ve never experienced before. It was truly vile.
If they’re not dealt with soon, I’ll probably stop watching the Premier League. I never thought I’d say that but there it is. And I don’t think I’ll be alone. It’s not a new idea to say that the integrity of the Premier League is at stake here, but this game brought this into painfully sharp relief. We could be in the end times here people. Justice must be swift. Ben, nauseated
Congratulations Man City Last time they’re playing at Anfield for a few years. Well done to the sky blue players who’ll be looking for new clubs this summer for putting themselves in the shop window. Roll on the irrefutable points deductions and expulsions, you fraudulent set of c**ts. Sam, Leeds
…I’m watching the Liverpool v City game and City have just scored their 3rd goal. As a football fan first and foremost, I would be applauding a terrific goal. But I feel nothing.
We live in a world of moral greyness. Presidents and Prime Ministers lie publicly without qualms. There are no consequences of war crimes. So this may just be par for the course. But the City position has me thinking – for a bunch of people who clearly thought they were above the law, do we really think that the charges that were brought were the only areas where they were bending the rules?
And so what would once in my own head be dismissed as sour-grape conspiracy theories suddenly feel a tiny bit less impossible. The mysterious VAR miss of the blatant offside in the United game, the very suspect red card for Liverpool’s best player… is it really beyond the realms of possibility that there is some kind of financial or other pressure on referees to be favourably inclined towards city? It’s shameful that we should even think this way but that’s the trouble with honesty. There’s no such thing as partially honest. (Remember, Barcelona are currently being investigated for payments to referees, so this does happen in the upper echelons of football). What else might City have ‘fixed’ to get their results and their brand up there?
As a United fan, I have no love lost for Liverpool, but City are a Zombie club as far as I’m concerned. It no longer matters whether they win or lose or how they play. You might as well be playing against a team of 15 people or picking your under-14 teams to play against them. It’s stopped meaning anything. Ved Sen (tbh, not sure whether I’m more numbed by the red half or the blue half of Manchester!)
What sort of a team are Man Utd?
I will not be wading in on the Carrick out, Joe Bloggs in discussion, other than to laugh at the irony of some calling for Conte – we just started reshaping our squad after sacking a manager who played 3 at the back. Ah shiiiiiiiit, here we go again! No, I’m really just going to ask a simple question – what type of team are we?
On the ball there’s very little movement and, even compared to last year, it feels like there are no real periods of progressive passing. Where are all the one-touch pass-and-move attacks when we leave the opposition’s heads spinning? Ok, so we’re not doing that, instead we are going to get it wide so the wingers take on their men and the fullbacks overlap or underlap or fill the midfield. Oh, we’re not doing that either. We’re not even a good counter attacking unit this season.
Off the ball, our forte is to press in ones. Marvel at how many times Bruno pushes up to press on his own then looks around with an expression of “Guys?…Guys?…Guys?”. Unless he’s gone completely feral, is that by design and if so, why? We seem to have completely lost our way, and things need to be fixed sharpish or this season will pass us by; much like many of our halves have done, including that first half on Saturday.
At the end of the match, as we were filtering out depressed after throwing away another advantage, I was thinking about that famous quote from Sir Matt Busby (on the banner in the ground) – if Manchester is indeed heaven, then Old Trafford is currently our purgatory. Garey Vance, MUFC
READ: 16 Conclusions from Manchester United 1-1 Spurs: Carrick sack, De Zerbi, Fernandes no-show, Savio
