Trip to Championship Title of the Premier League
Liverpool started with 4–3–3. Play. Lost against Brighton. Faux#9. Thiago presses higher alongside Mane. Robertson goes wide but Arnold hesitates to go too much forward alongside right wing. 25–30th , Liverpool took the control of the game and received even 2nd ball… Fabinho also came down to play front line for passing…City, postponed game, against Everton. Found a time to re-consider the mentality, perhaps. Faux#9. Pressing on the high line. Foden tend to play faux#9. Rodri comes down onto centre backs to build the game from the ground, Zinchenko partially plays on the line and also comes down onto centre back. Cancelo comes down to play #6.
There are, absolutely, more to speak about, them, i will be mentioning part by part below;
- Game plans ;
Liverpool
I.half (4–3–3)
Liverpool started to play a conservative game at first. Instead of playing on the second line, with their midfielders, they tend to play with Robertson-Thiago and Mane at first, Arnold remained on his side. Manchester City defenders, played with a high switches, means that Cancelo switched to #6 or remained on the right side, Stones shifted to right side and also closing down on Mane, Rodri got possessions on defensive line, they didn’t left much spaces.
By looking at the picture above, we see that between 25–45 th min of the game, Liverpool got the control and played alongside the 2nd line, Thiago moved forward alongside Mane and Firmino mobilised, Mane tend to press on both Stones and Cancelo, whenever they tried to play the ball from the ground. Robertson moved on flank and Mane approached to line after being covered by the Citizens. Thiago played closer to him and this is another example of Liverpool, Firmino again as faux#9 and Trent Arnold started coming along more wide.
They might be playing with more switches as opponent did, they really made no suprise on their tactical plan, that is why they’ve covered with good plan.
xG : 0.47
II.half (4–3–3)
This is where they made first obvious mistake and what actually Citizens changed on their game plan, by higher pressing;
Bernardo Silva remained on the offense, on the right side, also front line defense. Foden, as a faux#9 switched lot of possessions and approached to midfield for the front line offense as well. As can be seen in this picture, Liverpool forced to play on the flank. Due high marking on the 2nd line, Liverpool also forced to play somehow a long ball through flanks. One of these balls, cause of leaving space for Salah, let himself to go inside and got a penalty. (1–1)
Klopp made some substitution, to keep the energy on the 2nd line. This was the part how actually Liverpool players started to make a serious mistakes and this is where Manchester City press has showed the effect.
Manchester City, used the advantage of this high line pressing but besides that, individual mistakes and greatness brought a victory. Arnold should have played with much more attention, it was obvious that, midfielders were shifting easily in between 2nd-3rd parts, İlkay moved the ball to Sterling and he rapidly dived into the area. Again, switching possessions of the players was the key part and Liverpool dropped the guard against it. These switches yielded tight marking especially on the midfield and no space for Liverpool players to build their ball. They should have been more mobile. What I mean with that, even the time plan got stuck, they should have tried something else and closing down more for a chance to find, where to pass the ball.
xG : 1.31
Manchester City
I.half (4–3–3)
Manchester City started with a tentative play and surprisingly, Phil Foden played as faux#9, instead of Sterling. Rodri closed down onto central backs, to play the ball starting from ground. Their coverage allowed no mistake for them and they defended both lines. During the I.half, players made lot of switches between themselves, Rodri on I. and II.lines of the game, Cancelo, sometimes on the midfield or #6, Mahrez on the line, Bernardo Silva pushing higher and pressed with Foden.
Especially right after 25th min, Liverpool tend to got the ball on the 2nd line, yielding Arnold to play on the wings as Robertson(left centre back). By front pressing, Manchester City wanted to find spaces especially on the flanks, to pass the ball inside or finding a way to dive into 1vs1. Sterling got the penalty on such position, however, Ilkay missed it.
xG : 0.02
II.half (4–3–3) & (4–4–2)
Mahrez stayed on wide on the offense ,since Robertson moved along the flank, Arnold too. He came down to the right wing area when opposition got the ball. Bernardo Silva and Foden pressed on the 2nd line and that is how, they made really great play of the 2nd line. Liverpool forced to play wide. Liverpool switched to play the long ball, Thiago and Jones had switched their possessions and I think that somehow weakened left flank but mostly, closing onto Mane worked really well (picture above)
4–4–2 after scoring, on defensive in;
Left flank especially #8 #7 played well between them. Ilkay brought ball on the offense and passed to Sterling and he dived throught the penalty area . Zinchenko played on both line and inside the central back, Stones partially switched to the right side, to press Mane and covering Joan Cancelo. He switched to #6 to cover the midfield and closed to the right when Bernardo Silva moved along the line. High rotations during the game and especially on the 2nd half, these switches brought the victory.
As mentioned above, high line pressing, especially after G.Jesus got into the game, starting to press on Allison, Liverpool forced for a wrong pass, gave an area to Citizens, to shift their midfield alongside attackers. These rotations inside of play, yielded up with covering 2nd line and that brought them receiving the 2nd balls and forcing the opponent for a mistake. Liverpool, ended up with no short pass chance, forced to play long and made horrible mistakes during they build the ball from the ground.
xG : 3.52
technical directors;
- Jurgen Klopp (7/10) : I couldn’t blame him about tonight. Received goals were mostly due mistakes by defenders and goalkeeper. On the other side, he could have used the same energy at the time when Liverpool pressed really high and found a chance to play on each field of the pitch. They were absolutely better team on the first half, however, the 2nd half brought much more for Manchester City, due individual mistakes and winning the boxing play on the 2nd line. He should have mobilized his team a bit more, especially when they stucked by pressing made by Manchester City players.
- Pep Guardiola (9/10) : Stayed calm and managed well. Just left the 2nd part of the field for a while but as a positive side, that gave courage to Arnald for playing more wide and both Sterling&Foden smashed the wings. He has really a good usage of İlkay, on round way, both #8 and offensive midfield player. He has improved his positioning. His choice of starting Philip Foden in the XI, paid for itself, brilliant sprints and easily won 1vs1 ‘s.
tops and flops
A.Becker (2/10) : It was an unbelievable performance of him. Manchester City got 2 goals just within pressing on himself and they made him to pass a risky ball and he made absolutely horrible choices, directly affected 1–2 and 1–3. He wasn’t on the game at all. Perhaps it was the worst Allison game ever.
İlkay Gündoğan (8/10) : Such a fantastic midfielder or should I say a round way shadow scorer ? Well, despite the missing penalty, he knew the way to be in the right possession, especially on the dangers created by his teammates. Even he was playing round way midfielder, he always approached to Sterling and whenever #7 on the line, he closed down and got into the 18, took the right possession and scored 2 goals. He had more xG than any Premier League teams this week.
Phil Foden (9/10) : Absolutely perfect faux#9 and winger striker. His mobilty and high dribbling, ability to dive onto the 18 easily and he has beaten defenders well. There are many things to say about him but it has to be written on other article. What today showed us is, central backs ‘ought to’ stay in their lines in order to move too much on flank, since he is unstoppable on the wings, especially he catches the opponent on short areas.
Trent Arnold (3/10) : He performed good on the 1st half, besides the possession on which Sterling dived through in and got a penalty, since he was playing a conservative game on his field. At the time he decided to move forward, he left unavoidable gaps and was not good at also tracing them back. After a while, even he remained in his line, he was terrible at defending R.Sterling.
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