The period of a couple of months is a long time in football. Two months ago, Pep Guardiola was the epitome of success in world football, having made a mockery of the competition in Premier League by winning six of the last seven titles. Most of the Manchester City supporters would have been probably ready to worship the ground he walked on.
However, at the moment, the Cityzens are in deep trouble, with Guardiola having to hear chants from the crowd mocking him after his side’s failure to win any of its last seven matches. Arne Slot’s Liverpool thoroughly deserved a 2-0 win at Anfield last Sunday, December 1, which has probably eliminated the Cityzens from the title-race this season. The Reds now lead the Cityzens by 11 points after 13 rounds of matches, which is probably an insurmountable difference.
Liverpool were clearly superior to Manchester City on Sunday:
The Reds won through goals scored by Cody Gakpo and Mohamed Salah, but it was the manner in which their high-press and speedy football harassed Manchester City inside the latter’s own half that was a sore sight for the Sky Blues’ supporters. Liverpool were the far superior side in every aspect until the Cityzens started pressing high themselves and started having a fair share of ball-possession.
However, the English champions hardly ever threatened to score seriously, with Erling Haaland and Phil Foden, two of the most influential attacking players in English football in the recent past, merely sashaying inside the Liverpool half for most of the time.
It was quite obvious that Liverpool would play long balls aimed at Salah and they did precisely that. Nathan Aké, chosen ahead of Joško Gvardiol in the Manchester City XI, had the unenviable job of restricting Salah, but he made a decent effort at it.
However, Aké and Manuel Akanji could not stop the 32-year-old Egyptian from delivering an accurate cross into the box that led to Gakpo’s goal. It was interesting to see that Salah had enough time to play the cross with his favored left foot from the right flank after yet another long pass was played to him.
Manchester City lacked a genuine wide player in their 4-4-1-1 formation that often became 3-5-1-1 while in possession, with Akanji switching from a centre-back role to a defensive midfielder. Rico Lewis and Matheus Nunes were effectively Manchester City’s wing-backs, but lacked the pace and the crossing ability to make it count. Nunes’ inability to put pressure on Alexander-Arnold became glaringly evident in the second half.
Jérémy Doku, who replaced Nunes in the second half, forced the English right-back to be substituted by applying pressure on him. However, prior to that in the first half, Alexander-Arnold had no problems in pinging long balls towards Salah from deep inside his own half. Many might argue that Doku and Savinho could have started, but it has to be kept in mind that neither of them has the defensive acumen to fall back and defend, thereby playing as wing-backs.
Kyle Walker made a lot of overlaps in the second half, but was dispossessed by a fast Luis Díaz, who was then tripped by Ortega to earn the Reds a penalty. Salah scored from it and it thus became clear once again that Walker’s best days are behind him.
Not to mention that Bernardo Silva, İlkay Gündoğan and Rico Lewis looked inferior to their Liverpool counterparts, Ryan Gravenberch, Alexis Mac Allister and Dominik Szoboszlai, in terms of pace and raw physicality. It was a pity that Bernardo had decided to fall back frequently to collect the ball in the defensive third and moved the ball around in the second half after he had realized that he would not be able to influence the game inside the opposition half.
The Cityzens lacked the ability to be direct in their play and also failed to move the ball around freely, which used to be their forte not so long ago, either. It was thus a capitulation that symbolized the Cityzens’ recent downfall. Kevin de Bruyne, the seasoned warrior who has won many a battle for the Cityzens over the years, came in in the second half and then failed to convert an easy chance, thereby summing up their day.