Liverpool – Manchester City: Liverpool Stroll Past City (2-0)

Liverpool dominated this game from the start, as their high press disrupted Manchester City’s buildup and their cohesive attacking play tore through City’s disjointed pressing. Pep Guardiola’s experiment with an asymmetric attacking shape did not pay off, and City’s poor form continues.

Tactical analysis and match report by Josh Manley.

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This match-up has been the Premier League’s box-office fixture over the past six years or so, but the two teams arrived in unfamiliar situations this time around. Liverpool find themselves without Jürgen Klopp, who competed against Pep Guardiola for so many years, but have managed to give themselves a healthy lead at the top of the Premier League. Meanwhile, Guardiola’s City find themselves on an unprecedented run of poor results, losing five of their last six matches and throwing away a 3-0 lead in midweek.

Arne Slot’s side started in a 4-2-3-1 shape, with Trent Alexander-Arnold, Joe Gomez, Virgil van Dijk, and Andrew Robertson in the back four. Ryan Gravenberch and Alexis Mac Allister were the central midfielders, with Dominik Szoboszlai as the number ten. Mohamed Salah and Cody Gakpo then flanked Luis Díaz up front.

City also started in a 4-2-3-1 shape, with a back four of Kyle Walker, Rúben Dias, Manuel Akanji, and Nathan Aké. İlkay Gündoğan and Bernardo Silva were in central midfield, while Rico Lewis, Phil Foden and Matheus Nunes supported striker Erling Haaland.

Guardiola’s curious approach

With City’s ongoing crisis, it is unsurprising that a creative tactician such as Guardiola looks for novel approaches to try to reignite his side’s form. On this occasion, the approach he chose for City’s possession structure against Liverpool was quite unusual.

The most unusual aspect was that City essentially played without width on the right side of the pitch for many possession phases. When City had the ball, Walker would usually play somewhat narrow, as would Aké from left back. They formed the first line of three with Dias in City’s buildup, while Akanji often stepped into midfield.

Bernardo Silva was usually City’s deepest midfielder, and would often form a double-pivot with Akanji when City had the ball. Rico Lewis indented in the right haflspace, and Gündoğan generally played from the left halfspace. This left Foden in the number ten position, and Nunes holding the width on the left. Haaland was then the striker, but he tended to be slightly offset towards the right halfspace.

From this description of City’s player roles, the notable absence is that of a player holding the width on the right. Walker would push forward occasionally to provide this, but most often, there was simple no one on City’s right touchline. Instead, they seemed to attempt to overload the center and the left side of the pitch and play through Liverpool with short passing combinations in these areas. They struggled to make a success of this though, especially in the first half, where they managed only one shot to Liverpool’s ten.

City had problems against Liverpool’s high pressing in the first half. 

Other issues in City’s possession came in deeper buildup, especially in the opening stages. Liverpool would press them high in a 4-2-4 shape, with Szoboszlai stepping into the frontline. This front line of four operated in an effective manner when it came to shielding passes into City’s second line, and were successful into forcing City wider or into conceding turnovers.

City continue to press poorly

Liverpool were able to tear through City’s pressing at multiple points during this game, starting from the early stages. Although it took Liverpool a long time to extend their beyond the one-goal advantage handed to them by Gakpo’s first half goal, the truth is that this could have been an uglier scoreline for City.

City once again pressed in a 4-4-2 shape with Haaland and Foden as the most advanced players. Lewis and Nunes were the wide midfielders, with Bernardo Silva and Gündoğan partnering centrally.

The central midfield for City once again looked disjointed in pressing, as well as lacking some intensity. Bernardo Silva and Gündoğan often attempted to press high, pursuing Gravenberch and Mac Allister as Liverpool’s deepest midfielders. However, this often left spaces in City’s number six area, which Liverpool could exploit with good positioning behind City’s midfield line and the use of third-man combinations.

City’s pressing was far too easy for Liverpool to play through. 

Szoboszlai often drifted in the right halfspace, picking up good positions behind the City midfield, and Díaz could also drop off of the frontline. Alexander-Arnold also often drifted into right halfspace or central midfield positions, which could help create overloads and get him free on the ball. His passing range was a threat to City’s high defensive line, which was demonstrated on a couple of occasions where he picked the ball up in deep areas and fired passes in behind for Salah to chase.

Liverpool win comfortably

The second half took on a different pattern to the first. City had a higher share of possession and played more in Liverpool’s half, but the outcome did not change. City still did not threaten too much against Liverpool’s defense, while the home side still looked dangerous on the counter-attack.

Liverpool were now defending deeper, as opposed to the high pressing approach in the first half. They defended in a mid-block, happy for City to advance into their half slightly. Szoboszlai played closer to the midfield instead of stepping forward so aggressively, and Liverpool were overall more compact.

Guardiola’s initial choice to play without width on the right is evident in their passmap.

Guardiola attempted to change the shape of the game with some substitutes. Before the hour mark, he brought on Jérémy Doku and Savinho for Nunes and Gündoğan. Lewis and Bernardo Silva were now the central midfield pairing, as Savinho played from the right wing and Doku from the left. City now had conventional width on both sides, which made their attacking play seem a bit more natural, but they still struggled to break through.

With Liverpool’s lead only at one goal though, there was always the question of them getting back into the game. However, with just over ten minutes of regular time, these questions were put to bed as Díaz was brought down in the box by Stefan Ortega, and the resulting penalty was converted by Salah, securing Liverpool’s 2-0 win.

Takeaways

Liverpool continue to look incredibly strong, and have a legitimate claim to be the best team on the continent at the moment. Their attacks are fluid and cohesive, completed by the dangerous speed of their forwards. Defensively, they have shown a capacity to press high as well as counter-attack from deeper positions.

Anfield is one of the last places one would want to visit while on a bad run of form, and City never really looked like getting a result here. Their defensive scheme was overrun by Liverpool’s dynamic attacking play in the first half, and Guardiola’s experiment with the asymmetric attacking structure did not pay off. City’s desperate search for a win continues for now.

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