Man City 5 Liverpool 0 (Sep 9 2017)

 
 
Report by
Dave Usher
 
 
 
Well that was a horrible, chastening experience. We don’t lose big very often and it was a strange feeling having to sit through it, just hoping the score wouldn't get too humiliating and longing for the full time whistle to put us out of our misery. 

This was different. We were utterly helpless in this one, completely at the mercy of the best possession side in the country and with nothing to fight back at them with. If we’d been offered the 2-0 defeat at half time, is there anybody that wouldn’t have taken it and ran for the hills? 

The sending off was the pivotal moment of the game, but until the second goal there was still a chance we might come back. As soon as the second goal went in though we were done for. At 1-0 though, with Otamendi being tormented by Salah and on a yellow card, we still had hope. In fact, had Mo been a bit more streetwise just before City’s second goal this entire game could have gone in the opposite direction. 

He went bursting through for the umpteenth time and Otamendi was left isolated. Salah cut inside him and was clipped ever so slightly. You could see how he altered his stride that there had been some contact and had he gone to ground then the ref would have had a tough decision to make. Either a booking for Mo for a dive, or a penalty and second yellow for Otamendi. If it had been the latter, it could have been 1-1 with both teams down to ten. 

Instead, Salah stayed on his feet, Otamendi stayed on the pitch and minutes later City made it 2-0 and that was all she wrote for us. We had no chance after that and the only thing left to play for was to try and keep the score down, which we failed to do quite spectacularly. It was five, but they also had two disallowed and Mignolet made a few saves. 

Defensively we were an absolute shambles. Some teams are equipped to deal with going a man down and defending their own box. Not us though. Asking us to do that is like asking an elephant to play snooker.
 
Klopp said afterwards they worked on something in training where seven players had to defend against 14 or something, and they never conceded. I don’t remember the exact quote as I wasn’t paying a great deal of attention, he was annoying me a little if I’m honest. The point is, he may well have done a session like that, but it doesn’t mean anything. To drill a team in playing that way takes more than just the odd session here and there, it has to be a defensive identity, drilled into them day in day out, like it is at West Brom, Burnley, Man Utd… 

We don’t play that way and nor should we. I'm not advocating that at all, I'm just emphasising the point that we can't do it because under normal circumstances we don't need to. Klopp obviously devotes most of his time to drilling them in his style of play, as he should do, but the problem there is when you can’t play the way you want to and have to suddenly switch to a completely different set up, it’s not easy. 

West Brom would play the same way with ten or eleven, it wouldn’t really matter much to them either way. For us, having to play with ten might not have been so bad against most teams, but the real problem we had was 1) the identity of the player we lost, and 2) the identity of the opposition we faced. 

We can’t defend so we usually attack. If we can no longer attack and therefore have to defend, we’re in big fucking trouble. The second half did not surprise me in any way shape or form. The writing was on the wall in the closing minutes of the first half when we were all over the place after the sending off. We needed to just hold on and get to half time without conceding again, but it seemed like everyone's head went after Mané departed. 

I’ll get to that incident in due course, as there’s a lot to say about it. Leaving the rights and wrongs of the decision to one side for now though, I don’t think anyone can dispute that the entire course of the game changed with it, not least because it was our best fucking player who got sent off. Maybe we could have coped if it had been Trent or Moreno, and if it had been Wijnaldum would anyone have even fucking noticed? 

But it was Mané, the one player we can't lose. Then the problem was compounded when Klopp took Salah off too in a failed bid to tighten things up. All that did was hand City an invitation to attack at will because we could no longer hurt them.
 
Look at it this way. A tiger is scary as fuck, but with it’s teeth and claws removed it’s just a big fluffy, cuddly cat. That’s us without Salah and Mané that is. City were terrified of us when we had our teeth and claws out threatening to tear them limb from limb, but by the end of the game they had us lying on our back, purring, while they tickled our belly. 

I’m frustrated by it but it’s not changed how I view anything beyond this one particular game. I just put it all down to the sending off and the fact that we’re a team that’s built entirely on being great in attack, but if you take that away and ask us to defend, this is what happens. 

I don’t have the energy to get worked up about it because it is what it is. Klopp wants it that way, so unless you want Klopp replaced there’s not really any point letting it bother you too much. You can’t attack the way we do while defending like a Mourinho team, although it is fair to make a comparison with Spurs who seem to have found a happy medium. There's always going to be a trade off for being so attacking, but not this much, surely? We’ve conceded 11 already, if we keep it below 50 for the season I’ll be amazed. 

For all the justified concerns about the defence, I do firmly believe that if it had stayed 11 v 11 we’d have either gotten a draw or gone on to win it. At 0-1 I still felt good about it and believed we’d get back into it because we should have been in front given the number of times we ran clear into the box. Defensively, at that point City were even worse than we were. 

We only trailed because of how utterly wasteful Salah was. We’ve seen that before though, he can be like that but eventually he always does something and there’s no reason to think he wouldn’t have this time too. 

We sliced through them at will but whereas against Arsenal everything we did was right, this time it was just poor execution time and again. Still, it was only going to be a matter of time before we got it right, and Otamendi and Fernandinho were both on yellows and looking vulnerable. With Mané and Salah on the field we could have exploited that. Without them... well as I say, no teeth or claws. Meow. 

We’ve lost 5-0 in the end, but it’s all about fine margins. We were literally a fraction of a second away from being level and then probably going on to win. If Mané arrived to the ball a split second earlier he either goes through to score or the keeper fouls him and is sent off. None of this excuses what happened afterwards, but it does put it in perspective. 

If we played City tomorrow I’d back us to win. If we played them next week I’d back us to win and if we played them next month I’d back us to win. That seems ridiculous given we’ve just lost to them 5-0, but it was an exceptional set of circumstances that are almost certainly never going to be repeated. 

That said, Klopp’s had a fucking ‘mare hasn’t he? His team selection was wrong and then he completely waved the white flag at half time by taking off Mo. He could have just left it as it was and played Salah up top with Firmino behind, as we’d still have had the pace to at least make City think twice about charging forward all the time, and that would have helped the defence out. By taking off the only threat we had left, he showed that he’d given it up and wanted to restrict the damage and just move on to the next game.  

The biggest asset our defence has is the fear other teams have of our attack. You can’t over commit against us because we’ll murder you on the break. Just ask Arsenal, who conceded three goals from losing the ball on the edge of OUR box, not their own. With Mané and Salah both off though, what did City have to worry about? We stuck our chin out and begged them to punch us.  

And what about that team selection? This rotation thing is pissing me off already. Not because I don't think it’s a necessary evil, I completely understand that it is, but I just don't like the way he’s going about it. Fielding an unchanged team in Europe three days after a game at Watford, but then making changes when we haven't played for two weeks?
 
Theres no pattern to it, it's as though he just thinks "oh you haven't played much, I guess it's your turn then". I mean, it was irresponsible to put Karius in against Arsenal but he got away with that one. Why though, is he bringing in Klavan for Lovren in a game like this? It’s Man City away, why would you be so complacent? 

This is not a situation like we have in midfield where we are spoiled for choice. We’ve got two clear first choice centre backs, and although Lovren hasn’t had a great start to the season he was fine against Arsenal. The whole ‘he was tired after the international break’ is just bollocks and an excuse for making needless changes. 

Just like Mignolet didn’t need resting against Arsenal, Lovren didn’t to be left out of this one. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not pinning this shambles on Klavan by any means, he was just one of many who stank, and as I keep saying, if Mané stays on I really don’t think we lose the game. 

It’s part of a trend though that is beginning to worry me. It’s almost as though Klopp thinks he can just leave any of his players out and put any of them in and we’ll be sound, no matter who we’re up against. I’m half expecting him to start Markovic in place of Mané next week just because he hasn’t had a game yet and he feels sorry for the cunt. 

And as much as I like Trent, I didn’t see the sense in leaving out Gomez either. Arsenal never managed a shot on target so just play the same back four, don’t be a fucking smart arse. Save the rotation for Wednesday night, don't be taking unnecessary risks against the best team in the country. 

It almost beggars belief that we’ve gone to the Etihad with a back four of Alexander-Arnold, Matip, Klavan and Moreno. Think about that for a second. If someone had told you midway through the summer that this is the backline we’d put out against City in September, and the only player ruled out through injury was Clyne, what would you have thought? You’d have thought it must have been a league cup tie, that’s what. 

Even more alarming is that Moreno was comfortably the least shit of the back four. He was alright, I don’t remember noticing him much at all, which has to be a good thing. The other three were all over the place though, but they weren’t helped by a midfield that was utterly passive and didn’t make a tackle all day. As great as they were against Arsenal and Hoffenheim, how can they revert to this shit? It was embarrassing. 

This is how it’s going to be this season though I think. At times breathtaking, at times weak as piss, so we need to get used to it I guess. Klopp doesn’t appear to look at the players the way we do, he sees them all as almost being equal, when they’re clearly not. And I hope I never see Emre Can in defence again as long as I live, because that was brutal. At least he has an excuse, unlike Matip and Klavan. 

As I say though, I don’t want to dwell too much on this and I’m just glad there’s a game on Wednesday so they can get this out of their system. We’ll twat Sevilla everywhere I think, because Mané and Salah will both be fresh, Coutinho might start too, and the players will want to bounce back. There’s also the small matter of payback for the Europa Final too, although even if we put 10 past them it wouldn’t make up for what happened that night. 

Ultimately, this was a brutal scoreline and a shambolic second half display, but in the grand scheme of things it probably doesn’t mean much. We know we can’t defend and if there was one team you wouldn’t want to go down to ten against it’s City. 

Should we have gone down to ten though? Morally, no. The red card was harsh, but it wasn’t entirely unjustified. The problem is that, as we’ve already seen this weekend, there is no consistency in these decisions at all. Most of the time it’s a yellow card, so Sadio was unlucky and probably paid the heavier price because the keeper was hurt. 

The ref was entitled to send him off, but as I say I thought it was harsh because, I mean, what is Mané supposed to do in that situation? He had to go for it, and he had to go with his foot because if he’d led with his head it would have been even more dangerous, for both of them. 

Red cards for ‘dangerous play’ are supposed to act as a deterrent to stop players endangering each other. Sorry, but if Mané is in that same situation again he’ll do the same thing, and so would any other player. There's no deterrent, just an overly harsh punishment.
 
A defender wouldn’t have gone for the ball the way the keeper did, and that’s part of the problem too. They come charging out and don’t know what the fuck to do other than hurl themselves at the ball and try and take everything out. Ultimately I just think we were unfortunate with the decision. Jon Moss didn’t get it wrong, it was a grey area and he could have gone in either direction with it.

It was hard to take because it’s not as though Mané could have avoided it. If he’d pulled out we’d have slaughtered him because there was a chance he could have nicked it away and scored. Tell you what though, morally there shouldn’t be a suspension as this was punishment enough for what is a minor crime. 

Whether it’s one game or three he has to serve now, it’s grossly unfair. There’s no point appealing against the decision though because Moss was acting under the letter of the law so we wouldn’t have a leg to stand on. So we just have to suck it up, use Mané against Sevilla and then bring Coutinho into the side for Burnley and beyond. 

Star man is... nobody. If I had to choose one it would be Mignolet, but even he was only a 6 out of 10 at best. I don't have to choose one though so I'm not. Fuck all of them. Just a bad day all around where nobody covered themselves in glory. 

Still, no point dwelling on it, just put it down to experience and move on to the next one, and then next time we meet, give City the hiding they escaped this time. 

Team: Mignolet, Alexander-Arnold, Matip, Klavan, Moreno; Henderson, Can, Wijnaldum (Milner); Salah (Oxlade-Chamberlain), Firmino (Solanke), Mané: