After being inspired to get back in the game recently through a couple conversations and the best/biggest game of the season (so far…) we are back with a Liverpool-Man City review.
It was a fascinating type of game, look at how high it is on fields gained, yet low on deep completions and progression efficiency. That indicates a competitive battle on the pitch, evenly matched teams taking the ball away in open play and quickly moving it forward. The most “efficient” games often feature one team moving it in and out of the Danger Zone at will against 10 men pinned deep (see: Man City-Man Utd and a ton of teams vs West Ham in the top right). This had the ball moving a ton, teams winning the ball back a lot, and the two teams quite evenly balanced. Drink it in fans, this is what good soccer can look like.
For me the story of the game was Liverpool’s right hand side and it’s ability to generate pressure and progression against City, who have been dominant all season defensively. Salah came in and had an effective cameo but the two players driving much of that pressure were homegrown youngsters Harvey Elliott and Conor Bradley, with Elliott probably getting the lions share of the credit there. Almost nothing sums up the Klopp era better than that, two broadly unheralded homegrown prospects kind of pushing the game against City in about as big a match as you can get in world sports*.
Unless it’s a guy on the wrong side of 30 signed for cheap from a barely-escaped-from-relegation Stuttgart outplaying Rodri in the middle of the pitch.
Rodri: 6.2 fields gained progressed at a .41 efficiency clip, 3.6 fields gained receiving, 1.8 deep completions/receptions, 5.3 buildup score, won the ball back 3 times
Endo: 5.5 fields gained on a ridiculous 2.7 efficiency (2 ball losses), 2.8 FG receiving, 1.8 deep completions/receptions, 7.3 buildup score, won the ball back 6 times
And the central zone color edge went to Endo (see above).
*no playoff match can quite stack up to a true title race 6 pointer because they lack the context of the season buildup to it, and inherently have more randomness involved. Maybe a NBA Game 7 can reach it
The game was played very centrally, unsurprisingly as both teams have done so all season and forced their opponents to do so all season.
Neither team were able to take the ball away high like normal (Liverpool usually elite at it, City merely good) but you’d have to say Liverpool were the team to force the game toward their style. City were unable to even beat the league average in terms of building long possessions, for a team that normally leads the league.
What City generally do defensively so well is force opponents to take a ton of passes to reach the Danger Zone, generally teams that pour so many resources offensively forward like City are vulnerable to quick, incisive strikes but City have led the league in opponents having the lowest share of passes inside the Danger Zone. Liverpool were able to get the ball forward quickly and break a good amount on a City team that broadly didn’t allow that at all this year.
Overall, City played what would be a very solid, hanging tough match at Anfield for basically any team in the world but after the first 15 minutes or so, they were clearly second best. For City’s (and probably Arsenal’s) standards that is not good enough.
The first 10 minutes were big in City’s favor but after the half hour mark, Liverpool had the upper hand in territory.
Liverpool Players
-Diaz was active all over as a receiver and buildup machine
-Elliott with the ball at his feet was fantastic, generating huge progression, great buildupand leading the team in deep completions with a rookie fullback behind him. Elliott had his 3rd best game in terms of deep completions on the season, and 3 of his top 4 have come in his last 3 appearances.
-Wataru Endo was 2nd in the league in progresion efficiency, completing 59/62 passes while winning the ball back 6 times and getting massively involved in buikdup, even more than the nominally two more attacking midfielders in Szoboszlai and Mac Allister.
-Bradley in just 60 minutes won the ball back 6 times and blocked a shot, putting in the kind of defensive shift Trent Alexander-Arnold generally never does and probably helping the team more than TAA would have in a game like this, despite his lack of offensive impact.
-Nunez was aerially dominant and active, but didn’t have a game breaking performance like I hoped. He was solid.
-van Dijk’s greatness is almost unmentioned at this point, in that Rodri level. I basically expected him to score on one of those late corners, that’s the aura Liverpool have now.
Man City Player Stats
Where is Haaland? He got a single 1-on-1 chance and was only on the end of 10 passes from outfield players total, just 2 anywhere near the Danger Zone and both of those were at the outer edges. Basically totally silent. It was his lowest game of the season in terms of deep receptions and that includes a 19 minute cameo.
Foden was his normal self popping up to get the ball in dangerous places but after receiving the ball was unable to turn and get much done (113th in buildup contributions in the PL this week, 60th in deep completions, 1 shot of note, 0 chances created).
Alvarez to me reminds me of Kai Havertz at Arsenal a bit. Fine player, they do a bit of stuff here and there but just are off the level of best team in the world regular starter in my mind.
Rodri was absurdly dominant in terms of how many touches he made vs the other central players. De Bruyne attempted just 25 passes, completing 16. Bernardo Silva mainly flitted around the wide areas, attempting 38 passes, and Stones attempted 52. Those 3 midfielders attempted 115 combined while Rodri alone played 102 passes.
De Bruyne’s deep completion score last 3 starts: 7.5, 14.2, 8.5. His score this week: 3. Liverpool totally shut down de Bruyne and Haaland. With Conor Bradley and Jarrell Quansah on their backline. And Wataru Endo deep in midfield. Tell that to yourself at the start of August.
In the end, the performance from Liverpool was excellent because it comes against the unbroken excellence and almost impossibly high standards of Man City and it came with those seemingly backup options playing key roles. An emotionally true result would have been Liverpool winning, but for the title race and drama a tie was best. Just re-watch this and enjoy the dance, the performances, the battle and competition while acknowledging just how much randomness goes into every individual result.
You are very good at what you do, you should post daily or at least more often