Blue Armour

Compared to our current squad, these guys were built like tanks!

Finally!! We get a proper pre-season underway. Time to build up form and fitness.

Honestly..these are the things that concern me,..more than our overall approach in games. I was hoping to see more improvement from last season, with regards to this.

Gundogan becomes the 3rd city player to test positive for covid. Will go into a 10 day quarantine immediately. With rising infection rates, this season will be a real test of how disciplined players are. Carelessness would mean that they could potentially jeopardize a club. It's an absolute disgrace that international matches are being allowed to go ahead though. It just increases the risk factor.

Well, tbf they resorted to an extreme level of conservative football. Conte's 'sufferball' tactics against City away from the first minute till the last, in his second season, were just vomit inducing. Yesterdays game was nowhere near that bad.

Zouma-Tomori was our best pairing last season. Not sure how AC went ahead of him in the pecking order

More precisely., Klopps bitches. We have trouble securing results against his teams. Even Kenny Dalglish seemed to have our number. And that goes even before the Abramovich era.

I think it's because we dont trust our full backs to do the job on their own.

Not a bad shout actually. These are the kind of matches that would be useful to get him settled. He might play, given that he was subbed at half time against Liverpool

Might have made sense,..but doesn't look like anyone from the injured list is returning for this game. Expecting to see Tammy/Giroud to start up front, with CHO on the wing. Possibly Rudiger and Azpilicueta returning to the starting 11, Barkley in the middle, with Caballero in goal. Maybe even a return for RLC.

Yeah, the Mount on the wing experiment can stop. Looks like Werner can also do a job defensively if played on the wing. Works very hard.

I honestly think Havertz's price tag has confused a lot of people. Like you said, he is still a work in progress. One for the future.

I too would like for us to show more ambition against the bigger teams, but just not with the players we had on show today. I'm sure that will change when either one of Pulisic/Ziyech return to the starting 11.

Don't jinx it!

Yeah, that's what I thought he said too. I meant that if you're willing to take the same stance that he is, then I understand. It just means that you're willing to sacrifice a few games/results along the way.

Well Hazard has only missed 7 over several years. Granted, its all relative. Would still love to see Werner given a chance at those. Instead of always relying on Jorginho. Would be interesting to see who takes up ownership if Jorginho's not in the team

No one really, and I think that was accepted from the beginning. Yes we would have been more attacking with other lineups, but we would have leaked more goals. Would you have accepted that? Some fans would have. Like @Tomo said, if its part of 'growing pains' then so be it.

Interesting. Am hoping he settles in to the team soon enough, so that he can start moving up the pecking order. Jorginho seems to have no plan B with penalties. Its always about placement.

Look's like he isn't Eden Hazard then. sigh...miss having penalty takers like Lampard and Hazard. Willian was also pretty surefire from the spot.

Is Werner's penalty record good? Would love to see him take over. It would be nice to give him more ownership of the team. Jorginho is a big hit or miss for me in that department

Well, then the real question is whether CHO and Havertz would have done better in lieu of Pedro/Willian and taken the game to Liverpool. And mind, Gilmour was having the game of his life against the Liverpool midfield in that game. Firminho was also absent for that game (including Henderson, if I'm correct). Might have to agree to disagree here, but I have my doubts whether we would have been able to replicate those tactics with the players we had today. I think we would have been ripped to shreds, but that's my opinion. I think playing defensively like we did today was the right call.

Exactly my point. For once, we did not look tactically naïve against a big team. Eliminate those mistakes, and we would have most likely come away with a point at least. Which is not bad, considering the lack of first 11 players.

Maybe not. If him playing in the middle is really much better, its not a bad shout. My point was that is unrealistic to expect too much from him so soon., at least after his Brighton showing. Ironically though, I thought the few contributions he made in today's game were pretty decent. His square pass in the first half to set up Kante (of all people) was brilliant. Hope to see more of that. Yes, it might have meant more attacking threat. But that's a big MAYBE. What is more certain is that we would have been more open in midfield. I will admit that you can question the manager and ask why he didn't ask the players today to get closer to Liverpool. Anyway in hindsight, its possible to name a lot of options that may have worked better, given that we got the worst possible result from the one option he went with. Hmm, looks like I didn't remember it the same way. I thought we gave up possession before that. Its a shame that the players didn't get close enough. Inconsistent pressing from the players. I will admit that that is on the manager to be more aggressive with his team to ensure everyone moves as a unit. Shame that Jorginho didn't do the one thing we usually helps out with (calling others to press)

I will agree that there was a period where he dropped Jorginho, seemingly forever But he played majority of the first half of last season (during our best period last season in fact) and reclaimed his position after Gilmour got injured. So, its not surprising he would use him again if needed. Like I said, I do not think he will be part of the starting 11 for too long, if players come back I couldn't care less about the armband though. There is no John Terry in this squad. You could tie it to a tree at this point and it wouldn't make a difference.

But from where were you expecting creativity to come from, if not Pulisic or Willian. Havertz? Don't give me that BS about him not playing in his 'favored' position. The guy hasn't settled in yet and is not ready. He could have taken a risk with CHO or Barkley in the lineup instead and played more gung ho, but I can guarantee we would have been ripped to shreds on the counter. Christensen's mistake came from us giving up possession high up the pitch., one of the few times we decided to play with 'attacking intent' in the first half.