En på N-O forumet så kampen i reprise og skrev dette:
Howe said we were aware of their threat on the break and we definitely played like it. I still think we played the first 10 mins of the second half well enough; settled things down, kept possession, got into good positions on a few occasions which led to promising openings. We had their plan worked out and them penned in - this was the time to start upping the tempo.
On the watch back, it was noticeable how much we went for the safe option until they scored. We had many chances to slip a ball in between the lines through the middle, play a quick one around the corner, make a switch, or whip a cross in earlier... but we didn't. It seems like we tried to be like a Pep/RDZ team by taking the ball a bit deeper and passing between defenders until we drew them out but they rarely took the bait. The amount of times we just played it backwards instead was very, very noticeable. I didn't clock it at the time but Trippier was potentially the worst offender for it when he'd moved back out onto the touchline - at least 4 occasions to keep good moves building and he chose to put his foot on the ball and go backwards. Schar was also weirdly conservative; one diagnoal attempt and no real carrying out. Tonali didn't do enough of what Longstaff is really underrated at which is get into that half space on the right when it was absolutely there to attack.
Gordon was so much more positive with his touches than anyone else.
Akkurat slik jeg også opplevde kampen. Synes ikke vi tok for mye risiko, tvert i mot så synes jeg vi spilte for safe. Sentret bare ballen frem og tilbake, og turte ikke å være mer direkte. Liverpool scorer nesten alltid, de har noen utrolig effektive angripere. Tror ikke at det å parkere bussen og gi Liverpool flere muligheter hadde vært noen god løsning. Det vi derimot burde gjort er å ta litt mer sjanser fremover slik at vi kan få 1-2 mål til. Vi skapte jo nesten mer 11 mot 11 enn 11 mot 10. Så det litt mot City også, spillerne virket altfor redde for å miste ballen. Kanskje litt for mye respekt for disse lagene? Det vi gjorde mot Liverpool er jo nokså uvanlig oss, vi er jo egentlig blitt veldig gode på det med å drepe kamper. Vi hadde flere kamper sist sesong som var akkurat som den mot Villa runde 1. Hva som egentlig var taktikken til Howe i 2 omg er vanskelig å si, kanskje det var spillerne som sviktet. Uansett er det mulig å sette spørsmålstegn ved det å bytte ut Tonali mot Longstaff.
