Liverpool v Manchester City - A Quick Liverpool Perspective

Liverpool v Manchester City A Liverpool Perspective



This game was entirely predictable, it is rinse and repeat from Slot. Come out slowly, struggle badly in the first half, second half play much better and have the lion's share of possession and then score, only to sit back, invite them on and lose. It is fast becoming the Slot way. It is difficult to see how he can continue on as Liverpool boss unless he finally sees the light and makes changes to this boring, tedious pass around the back dross that made up the first half and also his tendency to always try and sit back on a one goal lead. It might work to defend if he did not denude the midfield of any kind of defensive solidity in favour of weak technical players. Slot has ideas of how to win, but does not understand how to make it reality and what kind of players are needed to do so.

This match saw him actually use a high press in the second half particularly, but it was just 4 players pushing up while the rest sat off and left space for Citeh to easily play out of trouble. It was the press of a coach that does not understand how a press works, with huge gaping holes and little enthusiasm for the press from midfield and defence. The moment they break that initial press, they are able to easily and quickly advance all the way to the edge of the area before anyone engages again. It is little wonder the team is so open, when the team are not working as one whole together. Any style of defending, from low block to high press, can be effective if applied well, it is just not being applied well.

What I found really annoying is that the players are still struggling with their fitness, which is leading to the bad errors at the end of games. They are simply down to the effects of fatigue, something which should not be happening at this point of the season. It has to be down to lack of fitness, as the players cannot be fatigued, having been given, unbelievably, a few days off this week. Hard to understand why they were given a holiday when they have been playing so poorly and need to work hard on their organisation, as was showed when they were caught out with Szoboszlai playing everyone onside. A few days drilling on holding the line would have stopped that happening. It just seemed like they were given a break so Arne could pop home for a few days, rather than because it was necessary. The way he is going, it will not be long before he will have all the time in the world to spend there.

You also have to ask questions about Slot's match preparation, and I do not mean this as a dig at him jetting off back to Holland when he has the chance, but there is something seriously wrong there. Rarely has he set the team out this season with a working plan to deal with the opposition. It is usually about stumbling through the first half and then adjusting at half-time. It would be nice if Slot could come into the match a lot more often with an idea about how to beat the opponent, rather than just going in with the same slow pass around the back football until half-time. Also have to wonder why, when it is clear legs are tiring after 60 minutes, Slot fails to make full use of his substitutes. His lack of faith in anyone but his favourites is destructive to confidence.

The other big issue with this match, other than how poor both teams played, was the officials, who were terrible. I understand the lack of bravery to go with the letter of the law at the end and send off Szoboszlai, but it would have been nice to see common sense deployed and just allow the goal to stand. That is not my complaint with regards to the referee. It was just about everything else, with a similar foul by Silva not being considered enough to even give a foul, let alone a card, and numerous other inconsistent decisions, in favour of both teams.



Manchester City


Citeh are a pale blue shadow of the team they once were under Pep Guardiola. They look so fragile and beatable, which is the most frustrating thing about that match. Liverpool just about had them finished, once they scored, with City having no answer at all to Liverpool's play. Then they scored, sat back and gave City the chance they were so desperate to get. They did not even look particularly potent in the first half, when LFC were so bad. Arsenal will certainly never get a better chance to win the Premier League under Arteta than this season. City look very disjointed in the attack and their defence is shambolic at times. At last teams have stopped sitting off Rodri when he gets the ball and that has severely limited Man City's ability to play out.

Getting beat by this City team is extremely disappointing as there are so many weaknesses in the way they are playing, which have been exploited repeatedly by other teams. LFC failed to do any of that in the first half, leading to a struggle to produce anything, but Citeh still failed to truly create much, which shows just how weak they are this season. They have become even more reliant on Haaland to score, with very little creativity among the team. Their defence is massively compromised by injuries, but they barely had to defend in the first half to test it out. When they were tested, they were found badly wanting in the main. This is not a great Man City team by any means.



Liverpool


Alisson - he did come up with one good save when needed, but he is not looking anywhere near his best on the ball and did give away a needless penalty and was caught upfield in the dying seconds. It is not surprising that his form is suffering playing behind such a porous defence, it must be destroying his confidence.


Szoboszlai - I have seen a fair bit of criticism of his performance, for being caught playing everyone else onside for one of the City goals and the dragback that eventually led to his red card after a VAR review. Personally I do not understand why he is getting so much flak. On the first, people need to remember he is a midfielder, he is filling in at full-back and they did not even spend the week drilling him on the positional demands of the role as the players were given time off. Of course he is going to make mistakes like that, for me the blame has to be on the lack of coaching. No doubt because Slot wanted to go home and see his family, so the players got a few days off, when they are in such desperate need of coaching right now. On the red card, it was his desire to get back and not concede that caused the foul, it is just a shame a few more of his teammates did not have as much desire.


Konate - he has had his one decent performance of the season, so it was back to normal. Ball given away repeatedly, all over the shop defensively and constantly grabbing and pulling any opponent within reach. Should have scored as well.


van Dijk - instead of complaining about the criticism he is getting of his poor performances this season, he should actually try doing a bit of extra work on improving his game. Or maybe he could stop running away from the ball and actually make a challenge for it occasionally?


Kerkez - the best player in red, despite consistently having his runs ignored, as usual, by Gakpo. He was heavily involved at both ends of the pitch. His end product does need work, but he was very good overall.


Mac Allister - spent most of the game hiding. There were a couple of moments of good play, but that was all it was. Overall he was awful.


Gravenberch - absolutely disgraceful performance, pulling out of tackles, including the one that allowed them to go through and score what would have been their third if it had stood. He needs to go back to what he was doing last season. Oh, and actually make a tackle instead of bottling it.


Gakpo - he is having a poor season, but he was better in this game, actually offering a threat. Still refuses to play in Kerkez when a good opportunity presents itself though.


Wirtz - a difficult game for the German, he was given no time and space by City at all. That led to a poor performance, as he tried too hard to make things work, rather than just passing it on quickly.


Salah - another poor performance, despite a few moments of good play. Yes, he was double and triple teamed a lot, but that is not why his touch was loose and his passing was wayward.


Ekitike - he was always a threat, until the last few minutes when he was moved to the left wing. He could have done with more early balls, with Donnarumma hating to leave his line there was space there to exploit, which would force back the City defence and open up the midfield.


Jones - replaced Gakpo in the 85th minute. A hard to understand substitution as it was just after Citeh had equalised, yet Slot decided to make this change and move Ekitike to the left. It made little sense to me. Yes, Liverpool were being overrun in midfield (as usual under Slot), but that is because he chooses to have Mac Allister, the weakest midfielder I can remember in Liverpool red, sit in front of the defence and protect it. He then spends the next 90 minutes trying to hide, it seems, as he is never anywhere near where he is needed.


Chiesa - took the place of Kerkez in the 90th+3 minute. Once again he was given just a few minutes to try and rescue the team. It was not enough to do so.

Written by Tris Burke February 10 2026 10:02:02