Here's my 2p on the game yesterday for anyone who's interested.
Everything started off rosy, it actually took me less time to get to Liverpool than it does to trawl across the mancunian way to the Etihad for a mid week game. Stopped off in the regular snooker bar just off Stanley Park cemetery to have a few pints and to taste the local cuisine; £1 ham/Cheese & Onion/Egg Mayo(For anyone who's brave enough) butties. There was also an interesting heater that consisted of a gas canister and a large blow torch type machine - I presume the health and safety specs are more liberal the further down the Mersey you get. For 3 pints, a coke and a couple barm cakes I got change out of tenner, again, following on this positive trend that 'today was going to be a good day'.
We arrived at the ground, got in fine, found our seats: one goal blocked by a pillar, the other blocked by the tallest man on planet Earth. It was probably for the best because IMO the game was awful.
I was initially impressed with Pellegrini's tactical decision to push Toure further forward with Delph holding, it could have been a great move if Yaya pulled his finger out. Aguero wasn't his usual self. Silva couldn't pass wind and KDB just didn't get going. It's more likely that your tactics were better then ours and you probably 'neutralized' us - but for me, a fan that pays hard earned money to support the team, I can't help but get the impression the players feel 'above' the competition. We don't move quick enough, there isn't any desire to chase back. Another thing that irks me, which I'm sure you'll probably disagree with, is the lack of pressure we place on officials and referee's in games. We really try and portray this professional image, we want to win things by the book, but that doesn't always work. Your first goal looked well offside, I'm not sure if the player who bagged was, but Lukaku I'm sure was a good 3/4 yards? Regardless, the whole team should have ran to the linesman and bollocked him, even if they let the goal stand (which they should) it puts him under pressure for the rest of the game - we probably get that penalty on Navas which would have changed the game. I thought the referee had a poor game and we let him off with it. All you ask for is consistency, if he's bad for both sides it's fine. He gave you a few fouls for 50/50 challenges, tackles from behind etc but when your players did the same to ours he wasn't interested. That penalty was stone wall, how they haven't seen that is a joke, Sunday league standard refereeing and it happens to often to us. As the game went on we got more and more into it, eventually scored from nothing (Aguero with a piece of world class football to set up Navas) and I thought, great, last 10 minutes now we'll go on and score a couple more here - one minute later you've scored. Then finally our game was summed up by you going down to 10 men and being able to play keep ball around roughly £100m worth of attacking talent. My mind was really put to rest after we took KDB off and replaced him with Fernando, talk about inspired subs.
From an Everton point of view I was impressed. It was worlds away from what I saw in August. The team were well up for the game, tactically you seemed to out run us, you won every second ball and Lukaku was like a lynch pin dragging our defense left and right creating space for your wingers to ease past our full backs. You couldn't have been set up better. I bet we had more possession and more passes then you, but it shows what a load of rubbish stats are. You were way more decisive and direct, you played on our weaknesses and in my view you would have been unfortunate had we robbed a draw. It was actually a shame that Mangala got injured in the end, he was just about containing Lukaku in the first half and maybe he'd have headed clear on your second but it's all if's, buts and maybe's!
I still think we'll beat you comfortably in the home leg and go through, but you've given yourselves a chance now.
The only positive I can take from the game is that I had a great day out, despite the result. There were a few funny exchanges between the fans (which you'd expect in a Manc/Scouse derby). I have to say, whoever is talking about City fans wrecking their own team bus and battering kids/spitting on women and whatever. I didn't see any of that. Some people really don't get the away culture in this country - just take all away fans as wind up merchants and don't let it upset you. It's the remains of the 80's and the liberty taking days. And for the record, my worst experiences with away fans in Manchester include your fans on more than one occasion, if you want to talk about minorities causing trouble my advice would be 'don't throw stones from glass houses', or perhaps, 'don't throw coins from level 2/3 in the return leg', cause I'm the unlucky [Poor language removed] who has to sit under you!
Although there has traditionally been a bit of a 'North West Derby' feel to our games, I think our fanbases have more in common then most think - I say to my friends, I'd prefer to spend a day with a scouser than a Cockney, because whether you like it or not we're probably the closest Cities, culture-wise in the UK!
