Liverpool suffered their first loss of the season in a game which has saw many criticise Liverpool’s approach, but had big moments in the game gone our way we could all be speaking very differently.
First half
Liverpool made their intentions clear in the first half, sitting off Manchester City in a 4-4-2 shape and not allowing much space for them to exploit. The first thing people will say after watching the game is why didn’t we press them, they play it from the back every time so why not get at them? Klopp clearly took the approach of not pressing to prevent Liverpool being caught and leaving space when not winning the ball back, feeling instead Liverpool needed at least 9 players behind the ball for the majority of the match. The two upfront, usually Salah and Firmino did what they could but pressing with only two people against a back 4 is pretty useless. This graphic (courtesy of WhoScored.com) shows the average position of each player in the game.
Liverpool did what they usually do when teams play it from the back, Salah and Mane block the passing lanes to the full back while pressing the centre back, forcing the defender to play into a midfielder where usually a Liverpool midfielder would then be tight to them and win the ball back. This lack of a high pressing midfield, somewhat sensibly, meant that Liverpool couldn’t win the ball, but that Man City barely threatened. It also meant that Liverpool struggled to attack in transition, with hold up play poor all game and Liverpool often simply did not have enough players forward to link play with and form a meaningful attack.
The big problem in the game was Liverpool’s inability to play out from the back. Too many times the ball was given away from this and Liverpool just couldn’t keep hold of the ball, mainly because of some players press resistance on the ball, which leads onto the first big moment in the game.
One of the few times Liverpool beat Manchester City’s press and showed some press resistance was in the 17th minute, where Gini Wijnaldum retained the ball instead of playing an easy pass or booting the ball up the pitch, retaining and creating some space to attack into. This leads to some great link up play from Salah, Mane gets through on goal, and Liverpool come within 1.1 cm of being 1-0 up at the Etihad, a big moment which would have changed the game. But these moments were scarce due to Liverpool’s inability to play the ball out from the back, as Wijnaldum does here.
Liverpool remained solid, as usual thanks to Van Dijk and Robertson, until Aguero struck before half time, due to a small defensive lapse by Lovren. The ball is played in and Lovren is on his heels, not even moving towards the ball, which gives Aguero the space to produce a stunning finish. In the situation in the photo, you would hope Van Dijk is communicating with Lovren telling him he’s making a run in front, whether this happens I don’t know.
Second half
Liverpool started much the same as the first half, sat back and waiting for an opportunity to arise. The game plan changed when Fabinho was introduced in the 56th minute, a change Klopp should be applauded for, as my one criticism I have of him is the lateness of the substitutions in games. With Fabinho came a formation change to 4-3-3, which helped to solve the problems seen in the first half where Liverpool could not press in numbers or attack in transition. Liverpool started to win the ball higher up and dominate possession from this point until they eventually equalised taking advantage of Man City’s obsession with Liverpool’s front three by playing a fantastic ball to Robertson who was unmarked who then squared it to Firmino. That pass by Trent almost made up for his abysmal 67% passing accuracy in the game.
Liverpool were then caught by a great pass through to Sterling, who was in behind the midfield and Sane hit it in off the post. If we could borrow that 1.1 cm and put it to the right of Sane’s shot the game might be a different story, but that’s football.
So, what could we have done differently?
Many people will blame our defensive style, which is something I was surprised by, as usually Klopp is obsessed with his sides being brave, but if Lovren gets a touch tighter to Aguero and we go in 0-0 or 1-0 at half time it would have been a different game. Klopp’s fast paced approach has developed this season to a better defensive system, which is of course why in the early months we saw less goals conceded and scored, but perhaps a lack of personnel at the back yesterday cost us. Fabinho starting ahead of Henderson would be my obvious change, but its easy to pick apart a starting 11 after a game.
All in all, we lost to a fantastic side and are still 4 points clear, there is no reason to be negative, chill out.
Cam Meighan
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