Liverpool vs City (FA Cup) — Afterthoughts

LIVERPOOL VS CITY: THE REMATCH

*OLD ARTICLE*

Liverpool and Manchester City went head to head again in the FA Cup semi-final, just 6 days after the 2–2 draw in the Premier League, this time around Liverpool came out of the game 3–2 winners with goals from Sadio Mane & Ibou Konate. Although City did play a significantly weaker team, Liverpool were dominant for the majority of the game and especially in the first half played some of the best football they’ve played this year. Just like my last article, I’ll be discussing a few things I spotted during the game, although in this one it’ll be solely from a Liverpool perspective.

In my last article I said Liverpool tried to play like City, they wanted to keep the ball for longer periods to be able to sustain pressure and although Liverpool have always been capable of doing this under Klopp there seems to be an extra emphasis to improve and evolve this aspect of their game and more so in this game than the last, they were able to do that.

The midfield of Keita x Fabinho & Thiago allowed Liverpool to find it easier to build-up their attacks and to also sustain pressure. The fluidity between Keita and Thiago meant either or both were comfortable enough and had the ability to drop into the first phase to allow Liverpool to build-up successfully in comparison to the Premier League game. This meant that Liverpool were better equipped to sustain pressure against City. Incoming Klopp quote: “Thiago top performance but our midfield! That was football, eh? Naby, ooof!” A clear indication that Klopp understood the value of having players who are comfortable on the ball against a team like City and what it allowed them to do in game.

Here’s an example of the comfortability of both Keita and Thiago to join Fabinho in the build-up, while still being technically secure to be able play out from the back to engineer this attacking move.

Example number 2. Again the introduction of Keita into the starting 11 means there is more flexibility when trying to get out of City’s press. You can also see here Mane does an excellent job in moving John Stones around to allow Diaz to receive the ball.

To play a more possession-based game, to be able to control the ball as much as possible every single player on your team must be technically secure enough to play out from the back and sustain pressure. Looking at the team Liverpool put out in this semi-final I believe they had that.

One last observation about our midfield today; The ability of Thiago to receive a bad pass and still be able to retain the ball and not only keep the move going but make something happen, another perk in having technically gifted midfielders is that they allow you to sustain attacks much better, its like you’re somewhat allowed to have a bad pass or two because more often than not they’ll keep it.

Below is the second goal by Mane, you’ll see how Thiago’s awareness and first touch allows him to control Robertson’s light pass and keep the move going, he combines with Trent between the lines and then sets up Mane’s sublime finish. Wonderful team goal. Oh. Don’t forget the absolute gem of ball from Trent to allow the move to materialize in the first place.

This article was mainly about the midfield, however there were some many components to the win today, Trent was defensively solid, Mane played one of his best games at CF, Diaz was a nuisance as usual and so forth. Upon saying this I believe the midfield was the most important and interesting aspect of our win today. The NFT trio Liverpool fans have been crying out for have finally delivered and it was beautiful to see. Hopefully we continue to see this steady but noticeable evolution and progression in our ability to keep possession.