SHOT-SHY City managed to get a single chance on target in a miserable contest against Liverpool at the City of Manchester Stadium.
John Arne Riise's goal just after the hour mark was the difference between the two sides, in a match not designed to be enjoyed by spectators.
The day was marred, too, by audible murmurings from the away support during the minute's silence for Reds legend George Best, who died on Friday.
Referee Alan Wiley was forced to cut the silent tribute down to barely 20 seconds to ensure the sounds comign from the visitors' secitonn did not turn into something more embarrassing.
Only once in a dire opening half were a capacity crowd treated to anything beyond the mediocre, and typically it came from Gerrard.
After starting the match stationed on the right flank, the Liverpool skipper clearly decided he needed to get more involved.
Three minutes before the break, Gerrard surged onto a Peter Crouch lay-off, burst into the City area, cut inside Richard Dunne and sent a precise shot curling towards the far corner.
Wiley did not see the midfielder handle as he beat Dunne, so it was probably just as well Gerrard’s effort flashed just the wrong side of James’ goal.
For their part, City produced their usual industrious efforts but too often passes went astray, with returning midfielder Joey Barton a particular culprit.
Promising
Lee Croft did start promisingly and gave Stephen Warnock plenty of problems down the City right.
However, the home side’s single first-half chance came through a cross from the other wing, Kiki Musampa floating an excellent ball into the Liverpool box which Darius Vassell met in space, only to guide his header beyond Jose Reina’s far post.
Benitez was clearly not impressed with Liverpool’s efforts either as the second half was only five minutes old when he made his first change.
Barring Gerrard, any of his midfield or attack could have been a target to be replaced by Harry Kewell. In the end, Cisse was the man fingered, much to the African’s obvious displeasure.
For all his disappointment, Cisse could not have much complaint given his total failure to impose himself on the contest and, while Kewell was not involved in the move which led to Liverpool’s opener, Riise’s goal justified Benitez’s decision.
The build-up was intricate, with Riise collecting Dietmar Hamman’s pass, then laying off to Gerrard before racing onto his captain’s return ball. The finish was explosive as the Norwegian powered his first goal of the season past James from the edge of the area.
At least there was a touch of class about the strike, which allowed Riise to move one ahead of Crouch in the Anfield scoring stakes as the England man’s 17th appearance for the Reds ended without an end to his personal goal drought.
What went wrong for City? Have your say.
Tweet
Comments
Login or Register to comment
Liverpool fans should be ashamed. Do the events of Hysel and Hillsborough mean nothing to these idiots? Shame on you all. Well done to the City fans for their dignified silence.
That was pretty middle of the table performance, which is what we are I am afraid. Pearce has to bring in at least three players during the transfer open time in January. We need some guile in midfield and pep up front as well as a decent left sided player. The youngsters today looked out of their depth to be honest and I am sure what Joey Barton was trying to prove with his passing-what it did prove is that this is not his forte and he should be playing just in front of the back four. Up front the fact that I cannot remember us having one shot speaks for itself. I think SP said before the match that we had to take the game to Liverpool-well I don't think the Blues players were listening as all too often the visitors looked like the home team A poor performance lacking a player with the vision to change things.
Dissapointed by the fact that the minute silence had to be cut short- I am same age as the great late George Best and he was probably the most gifted player that I have ever seen. If you are truly a football fan you would have respected his memory and I am saddened by the few that failed to do this.
OK Stu
Can you now go through the routine of looking in Andy coles eye's the him looking in your and you looking in his, only to see him looking in yours (repeat til fade) and give him a "rest" and let BWP have more than 20 seconds on the pitch ? My pals a Fulham fan and said this is what happens with Cole, his interest starts to wain once the clocks go back. And boy, do we need some new faces in come January.We need a bit more guile, we should NOT be picking up 1 point out of 6 at home.
roll on january,
we are totally spineless in the midfield. no pace no flair no aggression. i know everyone is saying no to keane but that is the kind of player we are lacking. along with a good midfielder who can provide that killer ball and a good 15 goal a season stiker. i thought the kids today looked totally out classed by a very average liverpool team. please mr pearce the honey moon is over the adrenaline has gone now and we are running out of ideas. why sun when we are a goal down we should give bwp some justice and give him more than 8 mins........
Disappointing.
The number of shots on goal says it all.
CITY never looked like the team we saw play earlier in the season, they just never looked like a team with a purpose.
Got to do better or we will not even be a middle of the table team.
im sorry folks but try as he does crofty aint a prem player.he reminds me of huckerby.we werent there today and the scousers were there for the takin.bad miss dariuos hope sven didnt see coley was quiet.last 20 mins was like the old days freezin too
As an attacking force, city are absolutely toothless. This is the area that Pearce has to strengthen in January. Also a quality attacking midfielder wouldn't go a miss. I'm afraid this is the inevitable slump which has now started, and I'm not sure we have the quality to get out of it.
Nice touch by the Liverpool fans. Remember the well observed tribute to Emlyn Hughes around the country? They should be ashamed.Simple as that.
they sold the only creatve force they had, shaun wright phillips, the rest are erstwhile triers who do not have the extra skills needed to break down top defences. what is happening now was actually expected earlier. we must beat the mediocre teams to stay clear of trouble and get some creative players in in the next transfer window
scousers salt of the earth
my ar$3. total lack of dignity and they expect other clubs to be compassionate to them when things happen to their club, they should hang their heads in shame. as for the game less said the better
we are just not good enough and I will upset a few city fans by saying Stuart Pearce is not for us, he will not turn us around our last three results will tell you that! MCFC need an investor to replace the GRAVY TRAIN at EASTLANDS otherwise we will ALWAYS be a SMALL club! are you lot blind? utd fans would not put up with this CRAP! from the present city squad only Distin looks like quality and he will be on his way soon. YET ANOTHER SHITE WEEKEND thanks to the weak and timid City players,but who selects them or gives them contracts? sorry but Pearce will NEVER be a top manager!!!!!
watched in horror as city turned in their worst pereformance of the season. made to look poor by an average liverpool side. dont like to single out players but i will. ireland was nowhere, he will not be good enough for an entire season, not his fault as he is a good young prospect but he needs more time. croft was quick but lacked direction, i do wonder if he has the ability. likewise bwp, really not sure about his ability. as for the grown ups, mills did ok but rleies too heavily on simply pumping the ball up field. dont care what anyone says, we need palyers like keane and malbranque and a decent striker alongside vassell. otherwise we are mid table fodder at best.
Watching the game, listening to mutterings in the crowd, then the GMR phone in, a common concensus was reached. That is, the club is threadbare on available talent and a golden opportunity to rebuild an obviously weak squad was missed during the summer. I know we were reported to have made bids for Stelios and Malbranque, but both players obviously thought moving to City would be a downward career move. And here is the problem. We haven't been in with a decent shot at a trophy since Adam was a lad, and you don't make things any easier when you sell your best players. Any potential signing, if he is at the top of the tree, is going to look for an easy life to go with the money. Winning medals makes life easy. Just appearing for the money only attracts flak from the fans. We've had too many who played only for the money, certainly over the last 25 years. We are crying out for real quality, but who will come when the club only ever give out 'selling club' messages? Maybe Pearce will surprise us in January but I won't be holding my breath.
May I sincerely apologise for the behaviour of the few Liverpool fans who spoilt the minutes silence today. It was shameful and disgraceful, particularly given the tragedies that our club has experienced and the very positive response to those from even our most bitter rivals. I am disgusted with those who breached the silence - and this is a common theme in Liverpool tonight. Rest assured, the majority of Liverpool people wish to pay their respects to the memeory of a great footballer
When you cant rely on a City v Liverpool to be entertaining then you know for sure that the premiership is in decline.This game was a disgrace--for a club wearing as they do the mantle of European Champions to be so negative showed them up for what they are--a club with a defence but no forwards--they packed the midfield and stifled all attempts of creative play.No doubt City should have played better--our midfield was woeful and the club must know that every effort must be made to strengthen this department.It wasnt just City that lost --the game of football lost too.Finally those supporters from both Liverpool and City who failed to respect the minutes silence for George Best ought to be ashamed of themselves.
After the shocking defeat against Fulham we had a long break in which the players should have prepared.... but no, we play poorly against Blackburn and lose two HOME points and then another three HOME points against Liverpool.... I said this would happen... read my predictions over the past four months 'what will happen in November/ December' i asked, Pearce should have got reinforcements in but he thought Vassell and Cole would play like Thierry Henry for a whole season. As you all know Edski has been right with almost everything he has said over the past three years.... Buy in January. If possible get Croft out while we might be able to get a fee for him... othersie he will rot in the reserves. The honeymoon is over for Pearce as we suffer yet another 1-0 defeat - every defeat we suffer is 1-0.... where are the goals? where is the passion? if we can't play at COMS then where can we play? No doom and gloom here, just a warning that Pearce has to reinforce in January... we are going to have a very bad December, lets just hope we are still top half by January.
When you have the laziest left winger, coupled with a full-back with no energy, it is a recipe for disaster. Also, in Croft you have a winger who tries his heart out, but gets nowhere. This is why we need a full-back and two new wingers. Remember, we are only 5 points behind Arsenal!
No Reyna, No Win, Again - get fit man! Come on city, we needs some wins!
Hello, i was at the game today. The play was differnt. it was like we had some sort off magical potion the 1st 20-25 minutes then it disseperd. All you liverpool fans that went to the game today should Hang your heads with shame. You Are to self obssed to even give one off the best players that has ever walked this earth a minute slince. HOW sad are you all. r.i.p Best!
Just read Pearce's comments and to be honest I cannot understand. I thought we were totally clueless and lacked any sort of invention. Apparently he was please with performance. Even I'm happy with the players we have..but they are certainly not enough..we've got a minute squad that needs additions..starting with midfield.
Another loss as we slide into mid-table 'medioricary'. Welcome to the future!
.
At such a game, we need creativity player. Could anyone let me know why is Robbie Fowler not on the sub-bench? Is he for sales or what?
Well for starters, Cole and Vassell were completely snuffed out of the game. Early on in the match, we did all the hard work getting the ball out to the flanks - and into space - but the final ball was woeful. The only one decent cross that I can recall came from Musampa, after a good, passing move through midfield. But frustratingly, we wasted the opportunity to finish that particular move off. Our back 4 looked like a solid unit once again, but our main problem was a severe lack of creativity in midfield...ONCE AGAIN. In general, despite Barton's inexhaustible energy, we completely lost the midfield battle. If we'd have had a decent threat down the flanks, it would have taken the pressure off Ireland a bit. Over all...pretty poor really and despite the next three games being 'winnable', I fear that we're gonna limp towards the transfer window, slip down the table and, therefore, be far less attractive to potential targets. Doom and gloom? No, not really. It WILL BE if we can't attract two or three decent signings in January. I hate the transfer window. Hate it.
Lets hope we can bring in a few quality reinforcements during the break so we can improve the competition for places.
I hope to god we win our next game.
1 point from 9 now. Can anybody seriously think this team is better withoout fowler in it.Come back soon Robbie.