Title: Manchester City vs Liverpool FC. The Preview. Sun 3rd Feb, 4pm
Post by: Harinder on January 29, 2013, 09:18:25 pm
 vs   vs  Cold. Wet. Miserable. Delayed. Annoyed. Frustrated and to top it all off re-routed travel. The feelings of my last jaunt up to the City of Manchester stadium and I hadn’t even got there yet. Fog brought London to a standstill so that £40 return flight was looking slimmer by the hour as an option. Changed to train and when I finally got to Manchester it was exactly as I left it from my time at university there and most other times I’d been back Cold. Wet. Miserable. Just before kick off news broke about Suarez and the mood of team based chatter took a different tone amongst the fans waiting to go in and take their seats in the stands. It had ruled so much of the tabloids for the months prior that the shadow cast by the whole saga was just not going away. Neither was this match so I took in the news and carried on as normal. So did Man City. First half and with about half an hour gone they were 2-0 up. At this point it seemed a few peeps around us had spotted a Robbie Savage lookalike in their fans and she was now going to be subjected to constant teasing. Sigh. There is just something so painful about seeing the ball in the back of the net when it goes against you and you’re right behind the goal. We lost 3-0 and revenge came via the Carling Cup! Their rich Sheik told all the boys in their yard that guess what they're richer than ours but we taught them. From this cup, discharged  Manchester City could be seen as the blueprint for sugar daddy desiring fans. In comes a Sheik, out come the millions and in come the players and out goes the losing. If only. Most poignant about the days after Robinho’s parade and him being geographically lacking in knowledge is that it just didn’t happen overnight. In fact, they finished an almighty barn-storming table rocking 10th. 10th. Ok, so they were bought at the end of a summer window. Not a lot of business done in Jan 09 when they had the financial might and Sparky at the helm but even when they had another 2 windows the repair still didn’t happen as you’d have thought. End of the 09-10 season? 5th. Big summer spend and frugal in Jan and that was with a change of manager the month before from Sparky to Mancini. It took 4 seasons for them to conquer the league with sugar daddy’s cheque book. Rome wasn’t built in a day as the saying goes. So with that what can we expect? Mancini will look to the facts that they are unbeaten so far this month. At home this season they’ve only lost once in the league to their neighbours Man Utd thanks to Robin Van Persie in the final minutes of the match. Pablo Zabaleta is on form for them as is the ever present Vincent Kompany and in front of them they have the quality of David Silva, Carlos Tevez and Sergio Aguero. Yaya Toure is away at Africa Cup of Nations as is slimmer of the year Kolo. Why Always Him is Now Almost Gone and probably will be Now Definitely Gone by the time we get to kick off. On paper it seems like a walk in the park then  This bit seems like something out of Brendan Rodgers and our match-day magazines where it starts “I’m writing this prior to the result and performance of our upcoming match against…”. I don’t know how we’ll pan out against Arsenal and bar injuries the two matches need to be looked at as separately as possible given their contrasting styles of play. It’s not like we have a tendency to build things up By the time we get to this match against Man City we may gain players and we may lose players (as the case is for our opponents too). The drama of deadline day will have come and gone and the whispers/dodgy tweets and concocted links will be long forgotten just like the chip paper from Oldham. The only obstacles between that reality and the one we are in is in fact us. In the retrospect we feel the need to dwell and cover ourselves in a blanket of what could have been or should have been. That seems dangerous. It may even lead to ifithadntabinfor. All is not lost. Some fans may at times be closer to Culture Club rather than Liverpool Football Club in getting on the teams back and the managers but as the song I’m referring to goes in its opening lines we should give you time to realise your crime  I don’t think Brendan wants to hurt you. I don’t think he wants to make you cry. Just remember that when they came to Anfield we gifted them a draw. A performance akin to that one, minus brainfarts, and we’ve got a real game on our hands. We are just as capable of quality and we’ll need it for 90 minutes to get a result from this match. Our manager is currently an angry manager. Understandable given the nature of our performances and the associated frustration with the losses following strong wins. With every positive from the good performances we feel that we're about to turn a corner and get on to a road of consistency. Instead we are on a roundabout and taking the wrong exit and then the right one and then back to the wrong one again. We'll get off it soon enough. This is a pain we've seen before and we were stronger and better for it afterwards. Now let's go beat these blue mooners! Oh. As always my fascination with mascots and who Mighty Red could take in a fight continues. With the Man City mascot I fear no change in the victorious path ours is on. Whoever came up with Moonchester was possibly getting higher than the Madchester massive from the heavy days of the Hacienda Moonchester. Oh dear!  Please note that RAWK will mute anyone posting just a formation in a Preview thread until the day after the match is over. This is to improve the quality of preview replies. Formations posted alongside rational comments and debate are exempt. Thanks, RAWK. |
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