Manchester City – Liverpool: Clinical Reds Step Closer To Title (0-2)

This was a game of few chances, but Liverpool took theirs in the first half to beat Manchester City here. The home side had some decent sequences of play and won some individual battles on the wings, but were not able to match the away side’s clinical edge in the final third.

Tactical analysis and match report by Josh Manley.

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The last meeting between these sides ended in a comfortable Liverpool win, symbolic of the differing fortunes these sides have endured this season. Aside from rare blips, Liverpool seem to be moving fairly serenely towards a league title, while City are enduring their worst season in nearly ten years. Things got worse for City in midweek, as Mbappe’s hattrick confirmed City’s Champions League elimination in Madrid.

Pep Guardiola’s side lined up in a 4-3-3 formation here, with a back four of Rico Lewis, Abdukodir Khusanov, Nathan Aké, and Joško Gvardiol. Nico González was the number six, with Kevin De Bruyne and Omar Marmoush as attacking midfielders. Savinho and Jérémy Doku then flanked false nine Phil Foden in the absence of Erling Haaland.

Arne Slot deployed his usual 4-2-3-1 shape, with Trent Alexander Arnold, Ibrahima Konaté, Virgil van Dijk, and Andrew Robertson making up the back four. Ryan Gravenberch and Alexis Mac Allister were the double-pivot, while Dominik Szoboszlai acted as number ten behind Curtis Jones who was deployed as a false nine. Mohamed Salah and Luis Díaz therefore operated from the flanks.

Clinical Liverpool

The away side mostly surrendered possession in this match, with City having the majority of the ball. Liverpool were extremely effective with the share of the possession that they had though, thanks to some clinical finishing in the first half from Salah and Szoboszlai.

Díaz has played a central role up front for Liverpool on plenty of occasions this season, but in this role he mostly played a wide role on the left of Liverpool’s attack. This meant that Jones played centrally, dropping alongside Szoboszlai between City’s defensive and midfield lines when Liverpool had the ball.

Liverpool then essentially played a 4-2-4-0 shape when they had the ball, as they were without a conventional striker playing against the last line of City’s defense. Instead, the depth was provided by Salah and Díaz making runs in behind from wide positions.

Liverpool’s 4-2-4-0 shape with Szoboszlai and Jones between the lines. 

This was a viable strategy as City were already keen to press high and play a high defensive line. They pressed high in a 4-1-4-1 shape, which sometimes became a 4-4-2 diamond formation when Marmoush pushed onto Liverpool’s center-backs alongside Foden, and De Bruyne marked one of Liverpool’s deeper midfielders, with González anchoring the City midfield.

With the positioning of Szoboszlai and Jones, City’s center-backs were even more likely to step forward in order to try and get close to them, which could then further increase the space for Salah and Díaz to run into.

City’s vulnerability to long balls over the top of the defense was punished for Liverpool’s second goal, where Salah was found far too easily by Alexander-Arnold’s floated pass over Gvardiol’s head, before setting up Szoboszlai’s clean left-footed finish.

City’s lack of cutting edge

Guardiola’s side put together some decent spells of possession during the game, showing that they can still move the ball well despite lacking the fluency and precision one is accustomed to seeing from Guardiola teams.

When City had the ball, they used a 2-3-5 structure, with Foden dropping off as a false nine. Their structure was somewhat asymmetric in the second line, due to the different positioning of Lewis and Gvardiol.

Lewis would often invert far from his nominal right back position, moving into City’s number six area to form a double pivot with González. Gvardiol meanwhile often played at roughly the same height, but stationed himself wider. This gave him the capacity to support attacks more dynamically over the left wing, while Lewis’ skillset was better catered for by playing in the smaller central spaces.

City’s 2-3-5 structure with some fullback asymmetry. 

Liverpool were defending against this in a 4-4-2 shape. A key task was controlling the central spaces, since City were playing with two halfspace number tens in De Bruyne and Marmoush, along with Foden as false nine. Gravenberch and Mac Allister had to be diligent in their coverage of the halfspaces, while one of the Liverpool center-backs, often Van Dijk, would step out more aggressively to get tight to Foden and prevent him from turning in dangerous areas.

City’s main attacking outlet was Doku on the left wing. He had the beating of Alexander-Arnold in isolation duels, giving the England right-back a torrid time defensively with his explosive acceleration.

The likes of Konaté and Gravenberch were usually on the scene to smother attacks sparked by Doku on the left side though. Doku’s end product was also slightly lacking. This was not helped by the fact that City were playing with a false nine, and without their usual penalty box presence in Haaland. This meant that Doku often did not have great targets to aim for when crossing.

Liverpool ceded a bit more territory in the second half as they continued to defend their lead, but they defended their penalty box well when necessary, with City continuing to lack the final touches in front of goal. De Bruyne was replaced by James McAtee after the hour mark having struggled to affect the game well. Liverpool were able to manage the game and make the second half relatively uneventful overall, allowing Slot’s side to leave Manchester with all three points.

Takeaways

It’s no secret that this iteration of City are not up to their usual standards under Guardiola. Compared to some of the performances this season, City were not too bad but just lacked cutting edge in the final third. Doku dominated Alexander-Arnold but was not able to find the right end product, and a few other nice City moves went unfinished.

Liverpool continue to cruise along at the top of the Premier League, their lead increased by Arsenal’s defeat at home to West Ham on Saturday. The team has an adaptable style of play under Slot, and benefits from Salah’s absolutely stellar form as the Egyptian puts together one of the best individual seasons in Premier League history.

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