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So , at the risk of becoming something of a pariah if we lose , I’ve decided to have a stab at opening my first pre-match thread. Living over here in France , it just seems somehow appropriate.
Ah Paris , the most hated team in the whole of France. A team built with only one real purpose , to glorify their owners and lend a kind of veneer of respectability to a country struggling with an image problem. Think what’s happened at City is bad enough ? Think again , this lot make the Arabs who run City look like saints. At least at City there is a football plan and investment in the city. At Parc des Princes , the ‘plan’ is to spend as much as possible on the most high-profile and marketable players (all forwards ) in the hope that success will follow. Unsurprisingly , it hasn’t. (I’m not counting the year on year procession to the Ligue 1 title as success.) In Europe time and again they have come up short. Still , I suppose we should be thankful to them for blowing up the transfer market when they signed Neymar. That in turn , led to the exorbitant fee we demanded for Coutinho , which allowed us to bring Van Dijk and Alisson to Anfield , the two players you would most want to have in your team for a tie like this.
So to Wednesday night and the game itself. I’ve been going through all the permutations of what might happen but there’s just too many ifs and buts involved. Simply , if we win we are as good as in the last 16. That’s all you need to know and I imagine that’s what Jurgen has stressed to the players. No need to go gung-ho , just play the way we have been playing , controlled patient football , and rely on Virgil and co to keep them out at the back while we take our chances when they come.
As they say in Paris (and Liverpool) , Allez Allez Allez.
Ah Paris , the most hated team in the whole of France. A team built with only one real purpose , to glorify their owners and lend a kind of veneer of respectability to a country struggling with an image problem. Think what’s happened at City is bad enough ? Think again , this lot make the Arabs who run City look like saints. At least at City there is a football plan and investment in the city. At Parc des Princes , the ‘plan’ is to spend as much as possible on the most high-profile and marketable players (all forwards ) in the hope that success will follow. Unsurprisingly , it hasn’t. (I’m not counting the year on year procession to the Ligue 1 title as success.) In Europe time and again they have come up short. Still , I suppose we should be thankful to them for blowing up the transfer market when they signed Neymar. That in turn , led to the exorbitant fee we demanded for Coutinho , which allowed us to bring Van Dijk and Alisson to Anfield , the two players you would most want to have in your team for a tie like this.
So to Wednesday night and the game itself. I’ve been going through all the permutations of what might happen but there’s just too many ifs and buts involved. Simply , if we win we are as good as in the last 16. That’s all you need to know and I imagine that’s what Jurgen has stressed to the players. No need to go gung-ho , just play the way we have been playing , controlled patient football , and rely on Virgil and co to keep them out at the back while we take our chances when they come.
As they say in Paris (and Liverpool) , Allez Allez Allez.
