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Liverpool 2–2 Man City: fortunate draw for Liverpool?
Liverpool versus Manchester City has become the upper echelon of excellence in English football recently. Two teams built from deeply sophisticated tactics, playing football of bewilderingly good quality: Liverpool’s throttling collectivism versus Man City’s gorgeous equivalent.
Today’s game was too early to be a title decider but it was a potential for Liverpool to forge a six point gap. What this game resembled however, on a more extreme scale, was the 0–0 draw the two shared in 18/19 at Anfield. That game followed a similar template: early Liverpool bluster of high pressure fizzling out as City assume control. This was that and more. This time, City didn’t control with defensive possession but rather, bewitching football during the first-half: speed, incision, control and vision were the defining features of a game that they brutally took control of.
It didn’t begin like that. Liverpool pressed them in their faces with a high line. City, when receiving possession found De Bruyne and Bernardo choked off by a high line of pressure. Mane and Salah are stationed in inside positions to cut off passes to the full-backs while Diogo Jota is ready to pressure Rodri should the ball be played to him. This allowed Henderson and Curtis Jones to apply pressure to De Bruyne and Bernardo — all of this functioned within a tight radius, which…
