Liverpool 1-1 Man City: a point apiece
The starting line-ups
A good game, but not a particularly fascinating tactical battle.
Kenny Dalglish brought Stewart Downing in for Maxi Rodriguez, whilst Craig Bellamy was excused for personal reasons, with Jordan Henderson coming in – although with Kenny Dalglish wanting to be solid in midfield and after Henderson’s fine substitute appearance at Chelsea last week, this switch might have been made anyway.
Roberto Mancini left out Edin Dzeko and Mario Balotelli, with Sergio Aguero and Samir Nasri coming into the side.
City started well, the middle of the game was evenly-balanced, then Liverpool dominated late on (especially after Balotelli’s red card), but both sides will be happy enough with a point.
Formation match-up
With lots of versatile attacking players on show, there were plenty of possible formations for both sides. Dalglish went cautious with the use of Dirk Kuyt wide on the right and Henderson tucked into the centre of midfield alongside Lucas and Charlie Adam, whilst Mancini used his usual 4-2-3-1, with David Silva central.
City were set out with the intention of retaining the ball. With no Balotelli there was no outright power from wide, with no Dzeko there was no direct option. Instead, Aguero dropped into deep positions, and Silva and Nasri wanted to play short passes. In the first 20 minutes City outpassed Liverpool 158-108, but barely created a chance.
Liverpool approach
The most interesting aspect of the first half was how Liverpool played without the ball – they started off dropping very deep, a la Napoli, which is the natural approach when playing against small, quick, technical players. Liverpool were being dominated too much, though, and midway through they half started pressing higher up, with Charlie Adam and Henderson getting tight to Gareth Barry and Yaya Toure. Now, there was more space in the midfield zone and between the lines, Liverpool needed a good performance from Lucas, who was superb at winning the ball.
The game was enjoyable yet not particularly fascinating in a tactical sense. There were no free players in midfield, and few chances created from open play. The goals came in a three-minute spell and both were fortunate – one a huge deflection, the other a mistimed header from a corner that looped in.
The tactical interest came from smaller battles. First, whilst Suarez didn’t get on the scoresheet, he got the better of Vincent Kompany, who was desperate to get tight when Suarez dropped deep. Kompany is excellent in a ‘traditional’ centre-back sense, doing the dirty work inside the penalty area, but he is less confident against a player who combines pace and intelligence – Suarez pulled him up the pitch then turned quickly. Kompany picked up an early booking, and ran the risk of a second on numerous occasions.
Second, Joe Hart was superb in goal, but his distribution was frequently wasteful. There’s barely any point hitting the ball long towards Aguero and Silva when they’re up against Martin Skrtel and Daniel Agger, and whilst Balotelli had little impact on the game as a whole, at least he won those high balls. Scroll over the chalkboard below to see that Hart’s only successful long goal kicks came after Balotelli and Dzeko came on to provide aerial ability, another reason why, like Spain, they need a direct option upfront to compliment the smaller technical players.
Third, with Silva nullified well by Lucas, City didn’t get Nasri or James Milner inside into central playmaking positions to ease the creative burden on Silva. In the chalkboard below, neither attempt any passes from near the ‘D’ on the edge of the box. Both stayed wide and stretched the play – Nasri, in particular, could have been more involved and looked to play a couple of threaded through-balls, but the positions of his passes are that of a conventional winger rather than a playmaker pushed wide (which is surely what he is, and where his talents lie, and even though he stayed wide to good effect against Spurs, that was when he had a target man in Dzeko to provide crosses for).
The overall tactical battle was static – unlike at Stamford Bridge last week when the managers responded to each other’s decisions, only two things really altered here: Balotelli came on for Nasri, then both managers brought on a central striker, Dzeko and Andy Carroll. The only change to the pattern of play was that all three new arrivals encouraged their teammates to go more direct with their passes – for Liverpool it nearly worked brilliantly, but Carroll’s header forced a great save from Hart in stoppage time.
Conclusion
A point suited both sides. City retain their five-point lead over Manchester United at the top, Liverpool continue their two month unbeaten run. The home side naturally went for the win more, and after the late spell of pressure the shooting statistics read 18-7 by full time.
Overall it was a stereotypical Premier League game – fast and frantic, but relatively little technical brilliance.
Liverpool 1-1 Man City: a point apiece
I found that Livepool’s more direct approach would complement well the more narrow approach that Nasri Milner Aguero and Silva would give to City. I thought as well that from time to time Luis Suarez had balls launched up to him, which he seemed unsuited to. Livepool’s best attacks, for me, came from the flanks.
I agree with the point about Suarez. He is a very good poacher and second striker, but he is not a natural lone striker. Even so, it is very hard to criticize his performance on the day. It just highlights his versatility; even in unnatural systems he can put in good shifts.
Another thing, do you use the Guardian chalkboards to help draw teh “aveage position’s” diagram?
I don’t think he does.
The average position doesn’t work if players swap positions during the match, or on something like a central winger.
I would think it would work fine for a central winger, but wingers that swap during a game obviously don’t work well.
just as in the midweek game against Napoli, Mancini was very slow to make changes to a system that clearly was not working. With Silva nullified by Lucas, City needed a lot more from their wide players and neither nasri or milner performed well. Changes should have been made at halftime, not with 20min to go
there wasn’t a sub to start the 2nd half but city came out with a clearly different system. toure moved to a central attacking mf role, supporting aguero/trying to be a central focal point of the attack. milner moved deep/central and silva went out right and drifted in. though it didnt amount to much and it seemed like city’s pressing was a bit less organized.
Agreed.
There was one change by Mancini at halftime – not sure if you noticed. He pushed Yaya Toure up into the central attacking midfield position and Silva was shifted out wide, but it didn’t really amount to anything.
Atkinson has a wonderful record for lfc this season. That makes it 3 opposition players send off out of 3 games he ref them. If that isn’t bias, I don’t know what is.
Although this isn’t really all that different from Napoli in midweek. Ref or no ref, MCFC wasn’t good enough.
It’s really weird situation with Liverpool’s flanks. I noticed Enrique likes to go down the touchline, as do Downing, a winger, so they are often too close to each other to combine/stretch the defense. On the other side (both sense), Johnson like to cut inside from time to time to have a go at the goal, while Kuyt does the same. Perhaps the latter is better, because there is some kind of a goal threat there, but seeing Enrique trying to overlap Downing is really funny/annoying.
Downing’s positioning and runs with/without the ball are so predictable and repetitive it usually just comes down to a foot race with the fullback until they’ve got used to him. He rarely comes short to receive the ball, cuts inside, rotates position or concentrates on making a decent pass rather than a dribble.
The opposing right back could probably stand in the same position the whole match, to the side of the penalty area with his foot out reading a newspaper and Downing would just keep running past with the ball getting tackled.
Downing is so average. Dalglish should of gambled and gone for Payet,Marveux or N’zogbia
To sum up, Downing is a typical english winger.
Yes he is proving to be an average player with a huge transfer bounty for being British. The problem is also Dalglish’s stubbornness in persisting with on the left – whats the point of a orthodox winger instructed to head down ; crosses ahoy when you leave Carroll on bench?
Downing should really be utilised as a cut in RW. He has licence to do this for about 2mins in a match, after which he strolls back to obstruct Entique at left. Also I feel Pool’s over supply of left footers on that side severely compromises their ability to engender genuine creativity. Enrique & downing often cross each other in bizarre fashion, where the former cannot figure out how to do his overlap. Alongside them u have Adam who orchestrates attacks and further cannibalises Downing, being the principal left footed option. And what’s more u have Agger; such an elegant CB, but again has limited options and resorts to default swaps. My solution would be to drop downing for maxi and bring Adam deeper; making Henderson centrap creator; he has the ability plus this would balance the left. The team is in transition so Kenny should really have manoeuvre capacity.
I thought liverpool were very impressive at nullifying the threat from city.
Very noticeable difference between the main strikers a la receiving ball with back to goal – suarez is superb at keeping possession and starting attacks, aguero is really pretty useless in this respect. I wonder if balotelli would have been a better option against liverpools deep defensive line. Or possibly the aerial threat of Dzeko instead…
Why City would play Aguero as a lone striker with no direct support is beyond me… With options such as Balotelli and Dzeko that shouldn’t have to happen. Not having another striker and playing Milner/Nasri on the wings just seems crazy. Aguero is going to drop back, neither of them are going to surge centrally towards the goal, and naturally City weren’t going to get a lot of shots off.
Could it be that Mancini is trying to get Silva to play a Fabregas role in these situations and become a false ten as they say? What was he doing when Dzeko played him through though!? Horrendous.
“Overall it was a stereotypical Premier League game – fast and frantic, but relatively little technical brilliance.”
^^ Sums it up quite brilliantly, actually!
Thought this was Lucas’ best ever Liverpool performance. 92% of 70-odd passes, and 11 tackles and 6 interceptions? Utterly phenomenal. I can’t think of a better defensive midfielder in the world at the minute – he made more tackles than any player in the top 5 leagues in Europe last season
I agree on the point about Lucas. He caught my eye with his excellent defensive shield in front of the back 4. Very much like what Parker does for Tottenham, although less cleaner and his forward passes are not as good in starting counter attacks.
Liverpool – In defense, Liverpool look really solid. Agger and Skrtel look a good partnership, and skrtel in particular easily dealt with balls into the area (not hard when facing aguero). Enrique and Johnson also had good games, getting forward well and dealing with nasri and milner.
In midfield, Liverpool were set up quite defensively, which worked well in stifling man city, but didnt help liverpool create many good chances. Lucas dealt extremely well with silva, constantly pressing him and stopping him from creating, while also not giving the ball away in dangerous positions (unlike mikel for chelsea). Adam did well to drop deep in the first half to escape toure, and played some good balls to suarez, but as soon he started to press toure (which was needed to stop man city dominating) his influence waned and he gave the ball away too much (his shot which got the goal was extremely lucky). Henderson did a good job in pressing barry and stopping man city have time on the ball, but in attack his technique let him down and he didnt create any chances really.
Kuyt played a great game, getting into excellent attacking positions and looking dangerous on the ball. Kuyts movement is very underrated, he drags defenders around really well and creates space for his team mates. Downing on the other hand had a poor game, easy to read and dealt with well by richards. He hardly created a chance and played far too wide, especially when playing with suarez in the penalty area.
Suarez had an okay game, using his movement and pace well to unsettle kompany, but he had no presence in the penalty area and was a bit too selfish at times, when setting up a team mate would have been a better option.
Overall, Liverpool set them selves up well to stifle City and deserved a point, but they never looked like scoring really, and were very lucky with there equalizer.
Hi kaneprior,
Do you have an email address so I can ask a few questions? You’ve always got some really interesting thoughts and I’d love to get your opinion on a few things. You can DM it to me on twitter if you don’t want to put it here. My twiter is @inverted_winger .
Cheers
Sure its just kaneprior@hotmail.com
Man City – Man citys CB’s were worked well by Liverpool. Suarez dragged Kompany high up the pitch, while kuyt occupied lescott, so he couldnt cover for Kompany. But despite this, City held firm well, Kompany did enough to keep suarez quiet, while Lescott dealt with kuyt well. Richards kept downing quiet, winning one on one battles and letting him move outside, as crosses werent much danger, though it has to be said that this kept richards from moving forward. Clichy was up against kuyt (one of the best defensive wingers) but still managed to get forward a few times as kuyt moved inside to occupy lescott (though he got back to track clichy most times).
In midfield, Toure was probably the player with the most time on the ball, as he was up against Adam (who after dropping deep, pressed toure, but really isnt that sort of player). But this didnt help City, as toure managed to recycle the ball excellently, but didnt really create any good opportunities from deep. He pressed adam when off the ball, but didnt really test adams defensive qualities by making runs past him on and off the ball. Barry didnt get any time on the ball from henderson and struggled to get Man citys passing game going, a sign Man city could do with a better deep midfielder to create from deep.
Silva had a hard time creating moves, as he was up against the excellent lucas, and while he kept the ball well, he didnt really penetrate Liverpools defense. Nasri and Milner both stayed too wide as ZM mentioned. They didnt have a good target in the middle so this didnt make sense, and they both can do well in the middle. It would have made sense to test Liverpool in the middle where they were weak and Lucas would have been overrun. This seems a mistake from Mancini, as it seems he told his wingers to stay wide and try and stretch the liverpool defense, but then he didnt set him team up to benefit from this = toure as attacking mid, with dzeko/balotelli.
Aguero had a poor game up front, but then he was isolated and not used properly. He was asked to win balls in the air and attack crosses, but this inst his game. He needed the wide players drifting inside and silva making runs forward, as his movement was actually pretty good, but no-one looked to benefit from it.
Overall, Man city struggled, they missed Richards bombing down the right (thanks to downing), silva driting inside from the right, aguero working in deeper areas and Dzeko playing the lone striker as he does the dirty stuff well.
I feel sorry for Suarez playing with the likes of Henderson and Downing.
Agree – Maxi and Bellamy looked better last week. Liverpool should just not try to provoke play through the wings. The attacks in the center against Chelsea were way more threatening!
Downing is a typical English winger who excels when there’s a big target man to meet his crosses, i.e. Carroll and Darren Bent/Heskey.
With Suarez I think they need players cutting in from the flanks/provide low crosses for tap ins. Bellamy and Rodiguez/Kuyt complements Suarez better. Or Suarez plays behind Carroll and start runs from deep. That’d be typical no.9 no.10 style, but it’ll be effective.
Agree that Downing only works well if given a target man to supply (although I don’t agree that Darren Bent is a target man but that’s another matter) and that by
leaving Carroll on the bench a lot of Downing’s threat is nullified. The main reason Liverpool bought Downing was to supply Carroll, so it seems a bit odd that when he plays, Maxi tends to play (such as in the Carling Cup tonight), and when he doesn’t play, Downing tends to play.
Liverpool defended reasonably high up for most of the match, as evidenced by Pepe Reina acting as a sweeper on 3 or 4 occasions.
Looking at Hart’s distribution stats gives a bit of further credence to the idea you discussed in the last article – i.e. that domination of possession is correlated with good GK distribution. Man City only had 44% (although perhaps, since they were the away side playing against a fairly strong opponent, this is to be expected, regardless of the keeper’s kicking habits).
Henderson played as a “runner” today, drifting out to the right and occassionallly getting forwad into the box. Contributing to Passing moves with no real creative intent. The “Lampard” role, I believe it’s called.
haha exactly right, he was there to press barry and stop man city, and to get into the box for chances, but his passing was so poor, and he didnt create a single chance
The Lampard-role? Passing moves with no real creative intent?
Even though I am a United-supporter, I have massive respect for the talent of Lampard. He is, on an annual basis, one of the most creative midfielders in the FAPL for almost a decade. He created more chances than Cesc Fabregas in 08/09. More than Berbatov in 09/10. More than Giggs in 04/05 etc. For almost a decade, he’s been THE most creative in the league.
Lampards passing is brilliant. Amazing vision, an ability to maintain fluency and rarely commits mistakes on the ball. He’s been Chelseas nr.1 maestro for a decade. Amazingly ignorant statement.
Are both sides Liverpool and Man city, teams that lack the players with the smarts to tactically change during a match?
or rather is this a reflection of their managers, Kenny D And Roberto M?
I find it interesting that the manager who i see as making the most innovations/risks Villa Boas, has not had a good as run of form of late. In comparison to these two teams.
If Liverpool was going to cross as much as they did, why didn’t they start Carroll?
Quote: ‘Overall it was a stereotypical Premier League game – fast and frantic, but relatively little technical brilliance.’
Yip – that sums up English football in one concise statement.
And the English wonder why they can’t progress in the WC, win the Euros or even the Champions League.
‘And the English wonder why they can’t progress in the WC, win the Euros or even the Champions League.’
No, we don’t wonder. We know all too well why we’ve exited previous tournaments. Euro 2004: Penalties, Germany 06: Penalties, 2010: Because of shocking performances and tactics throughout. Luckily for English society, English people are not blind.
While that may be true that the English consistently struggles at the international stage, imo last night’s game was very exciting.
If you stick to what you do best, football is still a joy to watch. Liverpool made up for their lack of midfield quality with disciplined pressing and direct attacking on both wings, taking the battle away from the centre of the pitch (where Man City has more quality).
At the international stages, European powerhouses (Germany and Spain) have benefitted from players consistently playing with each other for long periods. I hope that with Capello leaving after Euro 2012, we get to start picking younger players and have them playing together for a consistent basis if we really want to last long in future tournaments.
Players playing together certainly helps, but it’s the WAY they play, and the WAY they’re taught from a young age.
Spain and Germany have entirely different approaches to the training and development of youth to England.
There are rumours about change in England, but they’re still two years away and will have to be pushed through against a colossal mind-set in the opposite.
Good review as usaul ZM!!
I thought Liverpool were extremely good today. In my observation Liverpool’s pressing seems to have the following approach.
One player presses the player with the ball (closest to the opposition in the zone) where as three players close down the three nearest passing options. They press in certain spells of the match high up the pitch.(since they cannot do so for the entire match esp. with Adam). Most of the times they defend deeper but when they start pressing high up, the whole defensive line moves up.
In this match i thought Lucas was immense. After the red card he had no one to mark and was really good with his passing and runs.
What does Richards have to do to get in the England team!? Good going forward, decent, underated defensively, absolute beast in the air, strong, quick, in a successful City side, what does he have to do to get in the team!
Lucas and Bellamy the stand out performers. Maxi once again shows why he should be playing, and Kelly was immense.
So I was looking at my birth certificate…I have been spelling the city I was born in wrong…for years
There are few things in life I love more than when Craig Adams and Brooks Orpik score goals.