It was Liverpool’s biggest game of the season, a chance to win silverware after four years and the first under Jurgen Klopp after less than six months in charge.
Klopp went with an unchanged lineup that started against Augsburg, it came as a surprise for many because Lucas retained his place as a centre-back.
It was a 4-2-3-1 with Can and Henderson patrolling the midfield; Milner, Firmino and Coutinho playing behind striker Sturridge who started his fourth consecutive game for the first time in a long time. Our centre-back pair was a surprise with Lucas and Sakho patrolling the heart of defense and Clyne and Moreno as expected were the fullbacks.
Let’s take a look at Reds’ shape and analyse few performances:
The Reds were given an early blow when Sakho had to be subbed off following his head clash with Can, and Toure came in after only 25 minutes into the game.
The entre-back pair of Lucas and Toure did a good job at the heart of Reds defense, especially the Brazilian Lucas who was commanding and never showed signs of non-adaptability in this new role of his. He showed good application against likes of Silva and Aguero,and the key was his initial movements towards the player in possession; he was tight and always ready to get his body in between the goal and the opposition player.
Toure was also decent as far as his performance is concerned. Once Liverpool were behind, the full-backs Clyne and Moreno were caught up-field on a few occasions with City breaking and it was the Ivorian who stopped Aguero a couple of times from getting past him. He was commanding in the box too, and showed no signs of real tiredness even in extra-time.
Left-back Moreno was average at best. OK, he has pace and can drive the opposition with his direct runs and beating offside traps, but his primary job is defending in which he is becoming more of a liability, getting caught up-field on more than a few occasions just isn’t good enough.
His final ball into the box is also not great, and he was the culprit for City’s goal when Fernandinho went on the overlap and the Spaniard was just ball-watching. The resulting shot should have been saved but the chance was created after an average piece of defending down that left hand-side.
Firmino was Liverpool’s best player so far in 2016 but he failed to bring his ‘A’ game at the big stage, and the Brazilian was sloppy in his passing and distribution, getting caught in an offside trap on more than few occasions doesn’t give you a good signal. He was not sharp in tight situations when City were squeezing centrally so that no ball is played through them to Sturridge or anyone. Coutinho was Liverpool’s best attacking threat throughout the game and deservedly scored the equaliser. He and Sturridge were orchestrating some good moves from the left and attacking support from Moreno helped them.
There was many occasions in the match when Sturridge drifted himself on the left flank, that left Sagna to mark the striker and Coutinho used that marking to go through the gap created between centre-back and full-back. Kompany showed his experience though in covering up that gap and Fernando had the presence of mind to cover up the Belgian’s position. Sturridge’s movements were clever and effective but his final ball was not up to the mark.
Henderson was again not at 100%, but to be honest the skipper was the most hard-working player on pitch, helping to cover Clyne on the right side nicely. He was supported by Milner moving forward but his passing and distribution were not good enough. The captain needs to work more on his fitness and has to be sharper if he wants to continue being the leader of Liverpool.
Klopp changed his team’s shape to a 4-4-2 diamond for the final 20 minutes when his team were chasing the game:
The surprising change consisted of Milner dropping to left-back which meant that Can and Lallana had to help the veteran defending.
Lallana was influential with his clever runs into the box, and he got two situations where he remained unmarked inside the City box, but on both occasions the ball was fed in to him at the wrong pace. Origi made an impact as Sturridge was tiring, but Coutinho never looked very tired which meant that Liverpool still had fight to turn the game around. Sturridge and Origi tried to create the gap between centre-back and full-back with Coutinho and Lallana running centrally.
Overall it was a decent Liverpool performance on the big stage, going toe to toe with an expensively-assembled Manchester City and the team should be lauded with some credits, although not a cup this time. Klopp was positive in his post-match presser, speaking of hitting back after this gut-wrenching loss. Maybe on Wednesday against the same opponents could well be the way forward.
By Mizgan Ahmed on 29th February, 2016
Twitter- @mizgans
