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After back-to-back wins, Liverpool had a confidence boost heading into one of their hardest fixtures of the season – an away trip to Manchester City.
Arne Slot kept with the same eleven that beat Real Madrid in mid-week.
Pep Guardiola made three changes to the team that won against Borussia Dortmund, with John Stones, Tijjani Reijnders and Savinho making way for Ruben Dias, Bernardo Silva and Rayan Cherki.
City were in charge right from the beginning. Pulling Jérémy Doku and Cherki inside, they would have five men in midfield. This saw them easily outnumber Liverpool, ensuring they always had a free man.
On top of this they would also have Nico Gonzalez, or Silva drop back into the defensive line, allowing the centre-backs to spread wide, making it easier for them to find a passing angle.
Liverpool’s wingers coming narrow did help to block passes into the midfield, but this left space out wide for the City full-backs to receive the ball instead, requiring Liverpool’s full-backs to stray far from the defensive line to meet them.
If Liverpool committed men forward to press, cutting off the short options, then City could simply play over this pressure, using Erling Haaland to lay off the ball to a teammate and get them running at the Liverpool defence.
The result was that City, regardless of how they did it, were having no problem playing around Liverpool and advancing the ball into attack.
Doku in particular was proving to be a real threat. He was often coming into the centre during the build-up, but he would then drift back out into his natural position on the left in attack, getting the ball to dribble at Conor Bradley.
Liverpool were having nowhere near the same success playing out. Their midfield two were marked by Phil Foden and Silva, while Haaland would push up on to Virgil van Dijk. This left Ibrahima Konaté free, but once he received the ball Foden would close him down, with Gonzalez stepping up to cover behind him.
This would restrict Liverpool to playing down the right flank, and they found it difficult to work it forward with City limiting their space. They looked much more dangerous when they just hit the ball over the top, getting Mohamed Salah running in behind.
City took the lead just before the half hour mark. They played out under pressure before spreading the ball out to the right, seeing Van Dijk shift across to cover. City’s attack broke down, with Liverpool getting men back to defend, so when they played backwards, Andy Robertson and Van Dijk swapped back to their usual positions. As they did this City played back down the right though, seeing Matheus Nunes receive the ball in space as Robertson still hadn’t got back into position yet. Dummying to cross, he won himself more time, before sending a real one in for Haaland to head home.
Liverpool would see an equaliser from a corner disallowed, but City would double their lead with one of their own just before half-time. Despite City playing it short, Liverpool kept men in the box ready for a cross, yet City instead circulated the ball to find two men in space on the edge of the area. Gonzalez tried his luck, and his shot deflected in off of Van Dijk.
In the additional time left after this goal, Liverpool actually had their best spell of the half. Embracing City’s attempts to force them into playing down their right, they pulled Dominik Szoboszlai and Florian Wirtz across into this area, exchanging passes to draw in City, before then quickly switching the ball out to the left.
They then started the second half well too, pressing at a much higher intensity to force City into giving the ball away, or kicking it long.
Ten minutes into the half, Slot would make a double substitution. A like-for-like change saw Milos Kerkez replace Robertson, while Hugo Ekitiké made way for Cody Gakpo, seeing Wirtz move inside to partner Szoboszlai as Liverpool lined up without a striker, just as they had in the equivalent fixture last season.
City soon added a third though. Doku had continued to pose a threat even as Liverpool doubled up on him, and he deservedly got his name on the score sheet. Liverpool failed to put any pressure on Gonzalez in midfield, allowing him to switch play out to Nico O’Reilly on the left, and he passed inside to Doku, who cut onto his right foot and curled a shot inside the post.
Liverpool continued to push, but didn’t actually change their strategy, and City’s victory was never in doubt.
It was another woeful performance from the Reds, who never had the right answers for any of the questions City posed them.
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