Liverpool vs Man City- Liverpool’s Style of Play

At 16:00 on the 26^th August, Liverpool kicked off their first home game of the new season against premier league champions, Manchester City. Despite going ahead twice, Liverpool only managed a 2-2 draw. However, to lead twice against the reigning Premiership champions is no mean feat, and Liverpool played extremely well.

Things weren’t looking too good for LFC at the start of the game. After 20 minutes, they had seen less than 40% of possession, and their only real chance had fallen to Fabio Borini, who narrowly missed. However, things soon started to look up. Liverpool applied a good spell of attacking pressure, which eventually won them a corner. This they took full advantage of. Gerrard whipped a brilliant ball into the box, and Skrtel, charging in from the edge of the area, buried it in the net. I think a key factor in this goal was patience. Liverpool absorbed Man City’s pressure early on, and when they got into their stride were able to attack strongly and grab a goal, something they struggled to do last season.

The pressure did not stop after the goal. On the contrary, it acted as a turning point in the match. The rest of the half was all Liverpool. They piled on attacks when in possession, and were very unlucky not to get one or two more before the break. However, I think the main reason for their success was the pressure they applied off the ball. The Manchester City players were not being given any time on the ball, which caused them to make some uncharacteristic mistakes, meaning that often they conceded possession cheaply. This LFC capitalised on, and though they did not dominate possession, they made a lot out of their attacks.

As the second half began, it looked like Liverpool were set to continue their commanding performance. They were mounting promising attacks, and remained confident in possession. However, Man City were starting to come up with a few attacks of their own, and, though they had posed little goal-scoring threat previously, they managed to equalise in the 63^rd minute through Yaya Toure. A cross came in which Reina came for and missed; Kelly, who was expecting Reina to claim the ball, was simply hit by it! The ball fell perfectly into Toure’s stride, who smashed it into the deserted net. Solid as Liverpool had seemed, this was definitely an error from Reina, and Kelly could possibly have reacted quicker.

Fortunately, Liverpool did not dwell on the mistake. They resumed as if nothing had happened, and continued piling massive pressure on City both on and off the ball. Consequently, the scores did not stay level for long. A magical free kick from Suarez in the 66^th minute made sure of that. It was from a fairly long way out, and I expected Gerrard to try and get it up and over the wall. Maybe City expected this too, but even if they had known what was coming they couldn’t have stopped it! Suarez curled it beautifully around the wall, and into the bottom corner beyond the reach of Joe Hart. A great way for him to open his account for the premier league season.

Rather than rocking back onto their heels at this point, Liverpool continued putting good pressure on Man City. City weren’t seeing much of the ball, and were wasteful with it when they got it. Liverpool looked secure, and the result pretty much settled. Unfortunately, 10 minutes from time, goalscorer Martin Skrtel made a huge defensive error. He had nowhere to go, and so, thinking he was safe to do so, attempted a pass back to his keeper. He was unaware that Carlos Tevez was lurking in that area. His pass directly picked out Tevez, who found himself clean through on Reina. In fairness to him, he took his chance very coolly, although the goal was a total gift.

Liverpool then brought on Andy Carroll, who did make a good impact, but wasn’t enough to bring Liverpool a late winner. Although LFC were the much better side, and certainly deserved a win based on their performance, they could only pick up a point as the game ended 2-2. However, the team played extremely well and showed encouraging signs, especially youngster Raheem Sterling (who was given his first Premier League start), who was a breath of life for Liverpool.

Although it would have been great to grab a win against the champions, there is no point brooding over the draw. Not only is it a very good result, but if Liverpool’s best was deserving of a win against the Premier League champions, we can certainly take hope for the rest of the season. Maybe this new, attacking Liverpool is a sign of things to come. I know I hope it is.