Manchester City 3 Liverpool 0: tactical analysis

Manchester City eased to a comfortable victory against Liverpool in Pep Guardiola’s 1,000 game as a head coach. The home side could even afford to have an Erling Haaland penalty saved as they reduced the gap on leaders Arsenal to four points after 11 games, going into the international break. Liverpool by contrast look unlikely to mount a successful defence of the title they won last season, trailing the Gunners by eight points with five defeats already on the board.

Haaland made amends for his miss by opening the scoring with a header after half an hour. City were much the better side, but Virgil van Dijk then headed past Gianluigi Donnarumma with what he thought was an equaliser, only for the officials to controversially rule it out for offside against Andy Robertson. Liverpool were left clinging on for the half-time whistle, but could not withstand City’s pressure as Van Dijk deflected a Nico González shot past Giorgi Mamardashvili just before the break. Cody Gakpo then missed a good chance to make it 2-1 in the second half, which the excellent Jérémy Doku soon punished by scoring City’s third with a brilliant effort from outside the box.

Below, our UEFA-licensed coaches have picked out the tactical highlights.

How the managers saw it

“The first half was very good offensively and defensively,” said Pep Guardiola, “We had the threat in behind. The second half, we talk about the duels. Our mindset is to win the ball.”

“They were, in every aspect of football, better [than us in] the first half,” said Arne Slot, “We were constantly coming one or two players short in the midfield because Doku and [Nico] O’Reilly gave us a lot of problems with the two of them… I will not say that because of that [decision to disallow Van Dijk’s header] we’ve lost the game, because after 1-1 if City just kept on playing like they did then we would have struggled in the second half as well.”

City’s central midfield numbers

From their initial 4-3-3, Manchester City created significant central numbers as wide players Doku and Rayan Cherki moved inside to join Phil Foden, forming three central attackers. Full-backs Nico O’Reilly and Matheus Nunes then advanced to create the attacking width, with Bernardo Silva dropping alongside González as two pivots ahead of the centre-backs (below). This gave the home side an overload to build against Liverpool’s midfield three, and long spells of attacking possession in the early stages of the game.

Although Liverpool responded by narrowing their 4-2-3-1 block when defending – with Mohamed Salah and Florian Wirtz tucked in – City still found ways through. They intelligently increased their speed of passing when playing into the central players, often after playing a few passes at a slower tempo. After drawing in and narrowing Liverpool, City then fed the play wide. Cherki continued to come in off the right, with most of City’s wide play coming on their left flank. There, Doku sometimes held the width to attack 1v1 against Conor Bradley, as O’Reilly moved inside and maintained City’s central numbers (below).

Liverpool struggled to get close to City, especially in the centre. Slot’s side continued to narrow, which freed wide spaces for City’s full-backs to advance into. With City still having central numbers, one of Silva or González could freely drop out to receive and work the ball around. As Slot observed, City were dangerous on their left throughout the first half, especially via Doku’s ball carrying and dribbling. The opening goal, however, came when Haaland headed in Nunes’ superb cross from the right, with the latter having plenty of time and space (below) to pick his delivery.

City continued to work the ball through Liverpool using their central overload. The home side’s full-backs were often much higher than their centre-back teammates, attaching themselves close to their opposite number. This stopped Liverpool from jumping one of their back line into midfield to support any central defending. As a result, City’s deepest midfielders, usually González and Silva, continued to have multiple passing options through the middle (below) and were also able to find their left side when needed.

Setting the Konaté trap

Another impressive aspect of City’s first-half performance was the pressing trap they set on Ibrahima Konaté, especially from Liverpool goal kicks. Haaland immediately moved to the right and attached himself near Van Dijk, encouraging the play towards an initially free Konaté. Foden jumped out of midfield, cutting off any passes into Liverpool’s midfield via the inside channel. Cherki then moved across to make a three-player midfield for City (below), ensuring Liverpool had no free central midfielder to receive through the press. 

City’s pressing trap caused Liverpool problems with their build throughout the first half, as Foden consistently timed his jump well. Wirtz narrowed from the left for Liverpool, but was unable to receive a pass with so many bodies between him and the ball. With Wirtz and Robertson not holding any width, Liverpool had no option to switch or play away from pressure, effectively trapping themselves. In response, one of Liverpool’s midfielders sometimes widened to try to detach from City’s midfielders, but O’Reilly jumped on any passes to them along the touchline (below). This did, however, open up some more direct passes for the away side over and into Salah, who was their best first-half outlet. But it was slim pickings.

Szoboszlai moving wider and Wirtz inside

Liverpool improved in the second half, with their highest central midfielder Dominik Szoboszlai moving wider, rather than Ryan Gravenberch or Alexis Mac Allister. The Hungarian managed to connect back inside as O’Reilly continued to jump out of City’s back line. At the same time, Salah sometimes narrowed to receive these central passes (below). Although he was easier to mark for City’s centre-backs, he was now receiving better, angled passes into his feet, as opposed to the more hopeful long balls of the first half. 

When Doku back pressed and tried to limit Liverpool connecting inside, Wirtz’s positioning from the left was even more aggressive in moving across. This allowed Salah to stay wide, occasionally, which gave Liverpool some 3v3 moments (below) where they progressed into the final third with much more attacking control.

Doku’s superb goal killed any Liverpool momentum, however, just four minutes after Gakpo missed his chance from a Bradley cross. At 3-0, City’s mid and low blocks then saw out the second half. It left Guardiola and his team buoyed at their prospects of once again challenging Arsenal for the league title. Whereas Slot and Liverpool have some serious work to do to get their season back on track.

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