Football News: Manchester City v Liverpool Match Review - A Liverpool Perspective

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Manchester City v Liverpool

Difficult game to review, as this clearly did turn on a sending off, though Man City were ahead anyway at the time. One thing that is clear, LFC always start sluggishly in early kick offs, for some reason. The club need to look at the reasons behind this, maybe it is usually it is the time of a meal after training, so the players' bodies are expecting a rest time rather than an exercise period? I am not sure, but the club do not to investigate the issue as it cost the team against Watford as well.

Luckily for Liverpool, Citeh were almost scared of the attack and sat back early, not pressing that advantage of being more awake. That allowed Liverpool to feel their way into the game as they started to wake up. Man City began to push their wing backs forward, which gave Salah and Sane a chance to get at the centre halves, leading to the chances for Salah, which he should have converted and Otamendi getting a yellow card for a hack on him. At this point Liverpool were looking the better team and beginning to push City back.

Then City broke, Aguero, as usual (though usual is usually preceded by an expletive when I say it away from the sites!) scored and gave themselves a cushion, allowing the wing backs to drop a couple of yards deeper again. None of that really mattered, as the sending off changed everything, a sending off that I believe was fully justified. It was head height, use your head Sadio! The reason the keeper got their first was because he was able to jump forward to head it, rather than pulling up to throw a leg up, slowing momentum. Mane could have nicked that past the keeper by throwing his head in and being brave.

Once Liverpool were down to ten men, there was no hope against a team like City, who are so adept at exploiting space. However, it has to be said, Klopp did not exactly even seem like he was giving it a go. The changes he made, at half time and through the second half, suggested he was preparing for Europe midweek, rather than concentrating on the game at hand. It was little wonder City dismantled LFC in the 2nd half, as that attitude seemed to spread throughout the side.

The odd thing was, City were really not at their best or anywhere near it, they never had to play well to win. They had so much space, they were able to play at half pace and waltz through Liverpool. It was, frankly, embarrassing. Most of all it was unlike Klopp, to just accept something so meekly.

Klopp - has to take a major part of the blame for this result. However, some of the things people are hitting out at him for are his long term thinking and will hopefully pay dividends in the future. For instance, picking TAA for this match over Gomez was a mistake, but, in the long term, TAA should have learnt a lot from this game and it will have aided his development. What I do struggle to excuse is the choice to pair Matip and Klavan together against Aguero and Jesus. That was just bizarre.

Not as bizarre as putting the ditherer back between the sticks, where he clearly causes the defence issues, as they do not know what he is doing. Mignolet deserved to be dropped, he has been poor all season, bringing him back made absolutely no sense. I know people are going to jump to his defence, "he is a nice guy", "he made some saves", yes but a nice guy is not needed and those saves were not outstanding and I would have expected any of our keepers to make them.

The substitutions were odd as well, bringing off Salah was madness. He was the only player giving them problems, Pep even swapped his centre halves about to get Otamendi away from Salah, only to find Salah was taken off! It was clear he just accepted the defeat and went for damage limitation, which is impossible against City with 10 men.

Mignolet - should never have been in the team again. He has been poor all season, he makes the defence panicky and he is simply just not good enough. He did make a couple of saves and it was not his worst performance, but the whole team do not look as confident and composed when he is behind them. However, he was not that bad yesterday, on a personal performance level. Not good either, but not bad.

Alexander-Arnold - not a good day for Trent, but one he will hopefully have learnt a lot from. For one, do not dwell on the ball deep in your own half! It reminded me of another basic error defenders make that makes me want to pull my hair out, that one where the ball has been played behind them and they have a nice healthy lead on the attacker to pick it up easily, so they jog calmly towards it. Then they see the attacker is chasing after it and have to break into a sprint and are hurried into a mistake. Basic defending, sprint first to give yourself time when you get there, not jog, sprint.

It is the same with dwelling on the ball, never do it, always have your decision made, even if it is the wrong one it is better to make the wrong decision than to dither and not make one at all. One thing though, if he plays, he should take every set piece, every corner, every free kick. No one else has his ability with a dead ball, so give him his head and let him take them.

Matip - without a doubt, for me he was the worst player on the pitch and had an absolutely dire game from start to finish. I really am struggling to remain calm when thinking back, I had to turn the TV off when I was rewatching the game this morning as his lazy trot back had wound me up so much. Even the first goal he makes no attempt to get back. There is no excuse for laziness on the pitch.

Klavan - could not handle the movement and pace of the City pair up front but at least he was trying. Simply not good enough to be playing in a game like this but you cannot fault his effort.

Moreno - Klavan and Moreno do not work well together, there is no real understanding there and it does affect us. It says a lot about how bad the rest were that he was one of the least terrible.

Henderson - was poor yesterday, worked extremely hard but his passing was off and he looked like the England Henderson rather than the Liverpool one. He did break forward when the opportunity presented, chased around trying to put pressure on the ball, but it was a day he will want to forget. I do have a particular concern about his role straight after the sending off. I know Klopp was giving him instructions but, as captain, I would have liked to see him deal with Mane first before going over for instructions. When Mane was sat on his backside, clearly distraught, that is when the captain should have been there to put an arm around his shoulders.

Wijnaldum - had a stinker to be perfectly frank. If Klopp was worried about who to drop for Coutinho he has certainly helped him out. Now the problem Klopp has is who deserves to keep their place.

Can - was not one of his better days, though he was the best of the back 3 when he moved back there in the second half. I am not sure that is as much of a compliment to him as it is a criticism of just how poor Matip and Klavan were though. Like the rest of the team, he was completely off his game.

Mane - was not really having the best of games, had a couple of decent chances to attack the defence and was just starting to show signs of getting going. Then a ball was played over the top into space for him to chase, head height he throws his leg at it as the keeper comes out to head it clear and catches the keeper. It was a red, it was dangerous and reckless. Most of all, it was needless.

Salah - was really looking threatening, ripping Otamendi apart, even before Salah picked up a yellow card for cleaning him out as he done him up like a kipper. If his finishing had been any good, he could have had a couple before City scored. Oddly, Klopp took him off at half time. Really odd. That changed the game almost as much as the red card.

Firmino - he got so little service that he was anonymous.

Subs:

Oxlade-Chamberlain - came on at half time for Salah, but was unable to get into the game. Worked hard, tried to make something happen but just did not see enough of the ball to do anything.

Milner - brought on in the 58th minute to replace Wijnaldum and was even more anonymous and poor than the Dutchman he replaced. If it was not for the fact that the City fans were bizarrely booing him (what the hell was that about?) you would never have known he was on the pitch. He had no effect on the game whatsoever.

Solanke - came on in the 67th minute as Klopp clearly planned for the midweek Champions League game, replacing Firmino. The experience will have done him good, but he struggled to get into the game and his hold up play left a lot to be desired.

Written by Tris Burke September 10 2017 07:11:10