Pep Guardiola was left to rue his tactical approach after Liverpool held firm to shut down Manchester City in a crunch Premier League clash on Sunday.
City came into the match as the only unbeaten side in the league but left furious after slipping to a 1-0 defeat in an incident-packed match. The build-up to the game was dominated by discussion of Liverpool ’s defensive frailties, which were to be exacerbated by their injury problems.
Liverpool managed to flip that narrative on its head. Despite not having the injured Joel Matip and Ibrahima Konate, or Trent Alexander-Arnold, who started the game on the bench due to a minor knock, Jurgen Klopp’s side managed to shut out the league’s top scorers with a spirited display.
Joe Gomez picked up Sky Sports’ player of the match award for his performance alongside Virgil van Dijk, who was brilliant up against dangerman Erling Haaland. Meanwhile, stand-in right-back James Milner rolled back the years to keep the in-form Phil Foden quiet and come away with a clean sheet.
Guardiola railed against the officials’ decision to rule out Foden’s goal for a foul by Haaland on Fabinho in the build-up, while also suggesting bias against his side. But the City boss must also have been annoyed to see his approach thwarted by the Reds.
With Alexander-Arnold absent and Gomez shifting across to centre-back, City made a clear effort to attack the right-hand side of Liverpool’s defence. The visiting side continually tried to spring open the Liverpool backline by overloading their left side with Foden, Nathan Ake, Bernardo Silva and Ilkay Gundogan all spending lots of time working against Milner.
HAVE YOUR SAY! Were you impressed with Liverpool's defending, or did Manchester City's attack simply have an off day? Comment below.
A pass map from Between The Posts shows just how weighted City’s attack was to their left-hand side. While Kevin de Bruyne and Joao Cancelo were fairly isolated on the right, the left was extremely busy, with Ruben Dias constantly shifting possession to the wing via left-sided centre-back Ake.
Ake had by far the most possession of any player on the pitch, completing a whopping 107 passes out of 117 attempted – over twice as many as Manuel Akanji on the opposite side of the defence. He had 133 touches, compared to the usually influential Cancelo’s 61.
But while Foden did get in behind Milner on occasion, he was generally covered by a burst of speed from Gomez, while Harvey Elliott also put in a shift to double up defensively. And despite having Jack Grealish and Riyad Mahrez on the bench, Guardiola opted to use only one substitute – Julian Alvarez – as he backed his player to unpick the lock.
It wasn’t to be and the post-match discussion in the Sky Sports studio was dominated by whether it was Liverpool’s defence shutting down City, or the defending champions’ attack not firing which was most important. Micah Richards was quick to praise Milner, but Roy Keane put the result down to City’s attack not clicking.
“I thought he (Foden) would run Milner ragged but Milner was brilliant, his positioning, to press, when to keep it simple, leader, talking. To come into this game, I don’t know when his last 90 minutes, against Man City his former club,” Richards said.
Keane shot back: “It’s the easiest part of the game, Micah, defend. Defending against somebody, he’s an experienced player, that’s what you’re supposed to get. They’ve not played for a number of weeks, Foden was still a threat. This idea Milner has done something extraordinary…”
“He’s a centre midfielder playing right-back against one of the most in form players,” Richards replied.
“Has he played right-back before?” Keane added.
“Of course he has. It’s not his natural position, I thought he was excellent,” concluded Richards.
After Gary Neville backed up Richards’ viewpoint, Keane clarified his comments. “I’ll be more critical of City,” he said. “I didn't think their attacking players turned up and took advantage of that, because it is a weakness. They were up against it.”
