With six fingers raised before a delirious crowd at Anfield, Pep Guardiola offered defiance and faith. No one would laugh at him in the city. Dismiss a man with half a dozen Premier League medals at your own peril. If only his pupils had shown such qualities. His challenge for the title no longer seems like a pipe dream.
It’s not so much the 11 points that separate Manchester City from Liverpool after a 2-0 defeat that could have been much worse. Many of those half-dozen triumphs came when Guardiola’s men dug their own graves to rise to the surface in spring. Defeats in six of the last seven (the other of which felt no less like a defeat) offered no hope that this City could find the driving force to crawl from fifth to first by the end of May. Fifth to fourth: that sounds good.
Guardiola’s tactics were a disaster and his players have too many Anfield defeats under their belts or too few. Even more than their physical and tactical shortcomings, City arrived at the home of their biggest recent rivals completely intimidated by the prospect of what could have happened. From the beginning, they approached this contest with the sole hope of avoiding a blowout. The result could suggest mission accomplished. It would be a mistake to think like that.
The problems, then, began before Guardiola chose his eleven. Still… if Matheus Nunes and Rico Lewis wide in a 4-4-2 is the answer, the question is how can I exacerbate my team’s creative deficiencies without mitigating any of the defensive problems? Guardiola himself would admit that he has earned a lot of credit during the last eight years at City. That doesn’t change the fact that his team selection is increasing the danger he finds himself in.
Guardiola’s rich history against Jurgen Klopp had plenty of blows for both sides, but it’s hard to remember a time when a midfield looked so completely overwhelmed in and out of possession. Trent Alexander-Arnold reversed the infield to form a central three and yet Nunes seemed reluctant to follow him. On the other hand, Ilkay Gundogan and Bernardo Silva showed off their combined 64 years every day. The former in particular couldn’t buy a moment to play, so aggressive was the Liverpool press.
Of course, Rodri would alleviate these problems. Frankly, at this point one wonders if Guardiola was too dismissive of Kalvin Phillips. A little more muscle would have only partially alleviated City’s problems.
Much more was a disaster. Guardiola might have reasonably expected Nunes and Lewis to have offered a bit more guile to the press, but the inactivity of Erling Haaland and Phil Foden meant Alexander-Arnold had all the space he needed to assess his options and send a pass into space. behind. the high line. It really is football 101 that you can’t push your defense up if there is no pressure on the ball. Guardiola has coached Haaland long enough to know that his number 9 might not do enough when Liverpool have the ball.
A fizzing ball over the top and Mohamed Salah went down the right. Entering the box, he maintained and maintained possession, with his eyes fixed on Cody Gakpo. At the right moment, he launched his low cross. All that was required of Gakpo was his presence at the far post. Kyle Walker, meanwhile, seemed engrossed in something completely different, an expression of mock bewilderment on his face as he realized he actually had to defend his back spot from 4pm on Sunday afternoon.
He wasn’t the only one who seemed completely oblivious to the task. Three times in the first hour, Virgil van Dijk was allowed to get into prime heading positions in Liverpool’s corners, hitting the post and the side netting as he sent the best opener just wide. Gakpo should have at least tested Stefan Ortega when he knocked the ball out of the boots of a high-pressing Alexander-Arnold. Amidst the chaos, Nathan Ake stood out for all the right reasons. Two long balls from Alexander-Arnold put Salah away on the right. Twice the big toe of Ake’s boot saved City from further danger.
At the other end, the best the visitors could do was have a moment. Halfway through the first half, that amounted to four touches in the box and no shots. That didn’t come until the 40th minute. Guardiola’s introduction of Jeremy Doku and Savinho posed the right sort of questions to Liverpool’s full-backs, at least for a while. However, their most dangerous periods tended to end with a Liverpool player approaching goal. Salah leaned on their selection. Gakpo should have scored another one too.
Liverpool seemed determined to make life easier for City. City seemed determined to make life more difficult for him. And so, Rubén Días tried to heel clear a ball that was bouncing away from Darwin Núñez, when even a player as cultured as him would know that he was normally one who should be sent off. Walker ran in to roll the ball to Luis Diaz and take a boot which, like everything else from the England international this season, came too late. Ortega caught Diaz and Salah was not going to waste his second penalty of the week.
We are in mid-December and it seems that there is no turning back for City. A defense populated by outsiders is combined with an attack that has no idea what to do if it can’t get the ball to Haaland. Kevin De Bruyne is not solving all of this alone. Rodri could return Lazarus himself to the XI and you would still be wondering if the central midfielders in front of him have too many kilometers on the clock, if the wingers need more reps to be ready to compete with the best.
City look like a shadow of their former self and play as if they knew it. The fixture schedule could be a little more favorable over the next week, but the 11-point gap between the champions and a team hell-bent on claiming the crown is more likely to widen. Given this evidence, it will be quite some time before Guardiola raises that seventh finger.
