Whatever slim hopes Liverpool had of defending their title laid on this game. They had to win if they were to have any real chance of catching up with Manchester City, who were on a 13 match-winning streak.
Jürgen Klopp made four changes to the team that lost to Brighton, bringing back Alisson Becker, Fabinho, Curtis Jones and Sadio Mané, seeing Caoimhin Kelleher, Nathaniel Phillips, James Milner and Xherdan Shaqiri drop to the bench. They set up in their usual 4-3-3 formation.
Pep Guardiola made two changes to the side that beat Burnley. He kept with their usual 4-3-3 but returned to the strikerless system used frequently this season, using Phil Foden as a false nine in place of Gabriel Jesus while Oleksandr Zinchenko took Aymeric Laporte’s spot at left-back.
City formed a makeshift back three in the build-up, with Zinchenko staying back and John Stones pulling wide, although he wouldn’t spread out to the touchline as Zinchenko did. Joao Cancelo would tuck inside into the midfield alongside Rodri Hernandez, one man each side of Roberto Firmino, allowing Ilkay Gündogan and Bernardo Silva to push forward and join Foden dropping off between the lines. This meant that City outnumbered Liverpool five-to-three in the midfield.
Nevertheless, despite this numerical superiority, City found it difficult to play through Liverpool’s midfield. City likely hoped that Thiago Alcântara and Jones would push up and get tight to Cancelo and Rodri, leaving Georginio Wijnaldum outnumbered, but they usually held their position, blocking the passes through to the attackers.
To get around this, Silva would pull out into space on the right flank, yet, although this allowed him to pick up the ball, Liverpool found it easy to defend against him, blocking the pass inside and trapping him against the touchline.
Rodri would also sometimes drop into the backline, allowing Zinchenko to push further forward on the left.
This left City’s main way of attacking as simply sending the ball wide to Raheem Sterling and getting him running at Trent Alexander-Arnold, however the Scouser usually dealt with the winger well.
The one exception to this in the first half was for the penalty. Thiago was drawn towards Zinchenko, finally leaving the gap needed for Rodri to play through to Gündogan between the lines. The German moved it on quickly to Sterling and Alexander-Arnold failed to block the space to stop the winger from cutting inside, enabling him to attack the area and get tripped by Fabinho. It was a quick one-two hit of Liverpool finally failing to defend in midfield then at full-back after doing well.
Gündogan missed the resulting penalty but he made up for it just after half-time with another similar move. Thiago was drawn forward onto Rodri, leaving another gap to play through into attack and spreading the ball wide to Sterling. It was a less glaring error by Alexander-Arnold this time – caught out more by the momentum of having to come across rather than poor positioning – but Sterling again cut inside, this time poking the ball to Foden to shoot. Alisson saved the first shot, but it fell to Gündogan to tuck away.
City had struggled to break down Liverpool in a cagey first half, with the Reds often suddenly catching them out with a burst of pressure when City’s passing slowed.
It had very much been City who controlled the first half though. Liverpool had looked to go direct early on and wasted possession, with City generally sitting off in a mid-block to leave little space for Liverpool to use.
Once they slowed down they began to have more success. City used a similar defensive shape to Liverpool, having the forwards narrow rather than dropping off in line with the midfield as most teams do in a 4-3-3. With Riyad Mahrez tucking inside, Andy Robertson had acres of space to attack down the left, so Liverpool just kept spreading the ball out to him, and they did the same to Alexander-Arnold as he advanced forward more towards the end of the half.
Liverpool even stole City’s double pivot idea, getting Jones or, more frequently, Thiago to drop in alongside Wijnaldum, positioning themselves either side of Foden.
To counteract this, City came out for the second half defending in a 4-4-2 shape, with Silva pushing up alongside Foden rather than Mahrez and Sterling. This gave them more defensive width in midfield, making it easier for them to get across and stop the full-backs.
Having taken the lead, City set about protecting it, looking to simply keep hold of possession and toy with Liverpool, making them chase them.
This largely worked, yet Liverpool managed to get back into the game through a penalty. Alexander-Arnold hit a long ball forward that Ruben Dias made a hash of, and the Portuguese was punished for holding back Mohamed Salah when the Egyptian pounced on his mistake. It was perhaps a sign that while sitting off is a useful tactic against Liverpool, it’s not something that really suits City.
Liverpool soon threw away the lifeline they had been given though. Alisson gave the ball away around his own area to concede two easy goals, then Foden rounded off the win with a superb finish.
Liverpool could perhaps feel unfortunate to have lost the game due to individual errors – particularly from one of their most consistent players – but, while they weren’t convincing, City had the better of the match despite the home side being the ones in much greater need of the points.
While not mathematically impossible, with this loss Liverpool’s hopes turn definitively from defending their Premier League title to qualifying for the Champions League. They have now gone from 68 home games unbeaten to losing three in a row, their worst run since 1963.
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