UCL 17/18 Knockout Rounds (Draw and Matches)

Midas Mulligan said:
Btw, I knew when I started reading quotes by City players about how Anfield didn’t matter, they were fucked. It never fails that when you do that, it will matter.

And So I lied. I was confident of a result for us. But not arrogant enough nor willing enough to take the heat if wrong to spout off about it.

I still wouldn’t even call it over. MCFC have the blueprint. Let Liverpool in behind at will until someone kicks the keeper on a 50/50.

But for real, just don’t fuck with Anfield on a European night. Probably among the hardest places/times to play in the world.

That right there was straight domination. So proud of the boys. Even when Man City bossed the ball, they were totally out of control of the game.

But by God, don’t for a minute take anything away from them. Maybe only 1 or 2 other teams in all of Europe come out of that only down 3. I’d say they did better than absolutely any other club would have there tonight.

It was fucking balls out spectacular. When they were making arrangements to get there 2 hours early and benching Sterling, Anfield had already won.
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Yeah, they were awesome. Man City looked stunned. I should have jinxed you this morning when I was going to add to my post that I thought you were going to win by at least 2 goals. They have the perfect make up to win a tournament.
 
Midas Mulligan said:
Btw, I knew when I started reading quotes by City players about how Anfield didn’t matter, they were fucked. It never fails that when you do that, it will matter.
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It seems to be a bit of a hallmark of Pep / "the City Way" to say things like "trust in the process" or "we focus on trying to play the way we want to play and the results will fall out of that". I don't know for sure that the players interpret it this way, but to me this means "ignore the occasion and don't let it get to your head". The Klopp approach appears to be the polar opposite - "feel the occasion and harness the energy". For knock-out competitions, Klopp's approach appears to be the superior one - if only because it may well be impossible to avoid letting occasions like this get to one's head. If you can't block it out, you may as well relish it. I love the rigor of Pep's football, but it can come off a little cold in these situations. There's a lot to admire about how Liverpool approaches it. But relying too much on this energy may explain somewhat lackluster performances against poorer opposition.

tl;dr - I can't help but feel that we're seeing a league-optimized approach vs. a cup-optimized approach.
NYCFC_Dan said:
We were so flat in the final third. Sane, who typically creates so much on the left for us made every bad decision possible all game. Can’t recall him doing anything right even when he had the time on the rare occasion he got the best of his cover.
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Midas Mulligan said:
They really did put the match on Sane beating Trent. And I would have done the same after seeing him get smoked by Zaha and Rashford, both inferior to Sane. But the English-American teenager stood tall on the backs of the Anfield crowd. Exactly like Frankie said.
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I was pretty frustrated with Sane, but I will give him a bit of a pass because of the tactical adjustment that Pep made in order to give De Bruyne a free role and to allow him to drop deeper to provide extra options to beat the Liverpool press. This essentially meant that they were less likely to lose the ball between D and M, but had more trouble getting the ball to stick between M and F. Since there was no right wing option, the play up the channel to Sane became really predictable and easier to defend. Even after Sterling came on, I think they only used that outlet 2 or 3 times in ~20 minutes, perhaps because the pattern of play was too well-established.

For all the talk of sticking to the way they play, I feel like Pep's tinkering may have cost City dearly today.
 
Christopher Jee said:
It seems to be a bit of a hallmark of Pep / "the City Way" to say things like "trust in the process" or "we focus on trying to play the way we want to play and the results will fall out of that". I don't know for sure that the players interpret it this way, but to me this means "ignore the occasion and don't let it get to your head". The Klopp approach appears to be the polar opposite - "feel the occasion and harness the energy". For knock-out competitions, Klopp's approach appears to be the superior one - if only because it may well be impossible to avoid letting occasions like this get to one's head. If you can't block it out, you may as well relish it. I love the rigor of Pep's football, but it can come off a little cold in these situations. There's a lot to admire about how Liverpool approaches it. But relying too much on this energy may explain somewhat lackluster performances against poorer opposition.

tl;dr - I can't help but feel that we're seeing a league-optimized approach vs. a cup-optimized approach.


I was pretty frustrated with Sane, but I will give him a bit of a pass because of the tactical adjustment that Pep made in order to give De Bruyne a free role and to allow him to drop deeper to provide extra options to beat the Liverpool press. This essentially meant that they were less likely to lose the ball between D and M, but had more trouble getting the ball to stick between M and F. Since there was no right wing option, the play up the channel to Sane became really predictable and easier to defend. Even after Sterling came on, I think they only used that outlet 2 or 3 times in ~20 minutes, perhaps because the pattern of play was too well-established.

For all the talk of sticking to the way they play, I feel like Pep's tinkering may have cost City dearly today.
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I also worry about the implications for us, The City Way, and the playoffs :)
 
Well now I'm not so sorry I didn't see any of this..

I did say right after the league Anfield match that I wanted no part of Liverpool in a knock out. I still think league form attests that Liverpool are not better than City but it's just somehow a horrible match up for them. I'd have more confidence against Barca, Real or Bayern though I think all 3 of those teams are overall better than Liverpool. Pool are currently what I believer in England they'd call City's Bogey team.
 
Someone check on Mark Booth. He's probably three bottles down of some terrible bodega whiskey right right now going on a fourth.

FiveThirtyEight gives Man City a 7 percent probability of getting to the semifinals.

Kind of like NYCFC during the second leg versus Columbus, PlayoffStatus.com gave us 3 percent.
 
LionNYC said:
Someone check on Mark Booth. He's probably three bottles down of some terrible bodega whiskey right right now going on a fourth.

FiveThirtyEight gives Man City a 7 percent probability of getting to the semifinals.

Kind of like NYCFC during the second leg versus Columbus, PlayoffStatus.com gave us 3 percent.
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We came pretty close.

Pep's probably gonna pull some weird shit to try and make this happen. Even if it doesn't work it should be interesting at least.
 
Christopher Jee said:
We came pretty close.

Pep's probably gonna pull some weird shit to try and make this happen. Even if it doesn't work it should be interesting at least.
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All the attacking threats. Win 7-3.

----------------------Aguero---Jesus------------------
--Sane--D. Silva--De Bruyne--B. Silva--Sterling--
--------Walker-------Fernandihno-----Laporte-----
--------------------------Ederson-----------------------
 
Davo15 said:
Well now I'm not so sorry I didn't see any of this..

I did say right after the league Anfield match that I wanted no part of Liverpool in a knock out. I still think league form attests that Liverpool are not better than City but it's just somehow a horrible match up for them. I'd have more confidence against Barca, Real or Bayern though I think all 3 of those teams are overall better than Liverpool. Pool are currently what I believer in England they'd call City's Bogey team.
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Truthfully, Liverpool haven't been that far off from City's pace in the league, either, after dropping the Spuds match at Wembley.

City are definitely better, but as 538 shows and my eyes see, it's not nearly as big gap as it seems.

It probably sounds mad to someone who doesn't watch every match, but Liverpool have been as unlucky with decisions as any season I've ever seen. I'd put it at 8 points net, minimum (maybe 10-12) that refs have cost the Reds.

I'm a fan, but I consider myself pretty capable of putting aside biases. I think Man City has been magnificent AND lucky. That's insurmountable.

In any event, this year was never going to be about the league for LFC. Maybe y'all can roll over and let us have this.

Might bite me in the ass, but damn, do I want to get Barca into Anfield if we go through. Give me Barca in the semis and Bayern in the final (or Real, don't care).
 
Christopher Jee said:
We came pretty close.

Pep's probably gonna pull some weird shit to try and make this happen. Even if it doesn't work it should be interesting at least.
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Columbus didn't have the best player in the Premier League.

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dummyrun said:
Occurs to me that today's Liverpool win might not bode well for us, stylistically, against RBNY.

https://twitter.com/x/status/981639418346901506
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The first year, we got destroyed playing possession (scissors) to their press (rock). Last year Johnson and Callens were given the green light to go direct (paper) and they (RB) couldn’t deal with the two variations melded together. I have no doubt Marsch is planning on bringing a bigger rock, but we’ve got a much more balanced team, left|right & front|back, that we can press them, pass around them, and counter/go direct; their defenders are gonna have a hell of a time with Tajori/Sweat on one side and Medina/Tinny on the other while still dealing with Villa and a rejuvenated Maxi.

Anything can happen, like PV losing the script with his subs, but I really like our matchup with them.
 
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LionNYC said:
What UEFA should do...

- No away tickets for the 2nd leg vs. Man City (refund all those that purchased)
- Closed door game for UEFA competition next season
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Btw - you realize how dumb this is, right?

Would MLS do that to NYCFC if I went around bashing windshields of cars with RBNJ stickers on them?

Again - terrible thing to do. No reason to even think those people had a ticket. It’s not the Etihad. Tickets to Anfield are extremely competitive.

I know it’s sour grapes. But just didn’t want to let it slide entirely. Especially since you’ve supported city for the last 3 years, which puts you firmly in the “among the most long standing fans”.

Yes. I’m talking shit. Whatever.
 
Ulrich - with that City lineup, I’ll now give you that it will definitely be interesting.

I expected pep to wait for 2nd half to go all out. Curious to see their actual shape. Crazy amount of attacking talent in the side all at once.
 
Midas Mulligan said:
Ulrich - with that City lineup, I’ll now give you that it will definitely be interesting.

I expected pep to wait for 2nd half to go all out. Curious to see their actual shape. Crazy amount of attacking talent in the side all at once.
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Shit, joined the match 10min in and already missed fireworks.
 
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