I LOVE it when a plan comes together.
I love it slightly less that many of you will be too young know where that line comes from, but I’ll take the negative with the positives at this point.
Jürgen Klopp’s “Plan A” came together in spectacular fashion against Manchester City on Sunday afternoon, and his team has received all of the plaudits it’s deserved from all corners of the country since. Hopefully the rest of the world was also watching and the performance has added further to the list of world-class players who will only accept a move to the Mighty Reds and have informed their agents of that fact in no uncertain terms.
We often talk on the TAW Player Review show about the best way to analyse footballers and football matches being a combination of trusting what you see with your own eyes and looking at the statistics relevant to any given situation. Sunday was one of those days when the two went hand in hand.
It was clear inside the ground that the Liverpool press was as aggressive as we’ve seen this season. Klopp described it as being from another planet. We had more interceptions and tackles than Man City, covered more ground as a team than Man City and ran significantly more than we had all season in our own right.
It is though, of course, easier to run and press when the other team actually wants the ball. Despite everything else, the blue side of Manchester still ended that game with 64.3 per cent possession compared to our 35.7 per cent. It surprised me that we had so little until I watched the match again in the cold light of day and appreciated more how many periods there were in the game when Man City did what Man City do and moved the ball around the pitch, prodding and probing for openings.
And that’s where even more impressive statistics are to be found.
Opta showed that Sergio Aguero touched the ball in our penalty area only four times all game, which is his second lowest of the season, and didn’t have a single shot on target.
Despite the plaudits he’s received post match, Kevin de Bruyne also dipped below his usual high standards with the ball at his feet. He completed 26 of his 37 passes in our half, which was his second-lowest completion rate in any league game this season, and gave the ball away more than in any other Premier League match, which supports what we saw with our eyes that the lads in red shirts were doing a tremendous job of stealing possession, blocking passing lanes and generally upsetting Man City’s rhythm.
We could look all over the pitch for heroes in red, but I think it’s especially worthwhile giving some credit to Emre Can, a player who remains something of an enigma but who traditionally delivers in games like this. Sunday was no exception.
Our handsome German number 23 gave his all in protecting the lads behind him, making more tackles and interceptions combined than any other player on the pitch, even though he departed proceedings through illness in the 79th minute.
The old adage that the best form of defence is attack was personified by our terrifying trio up front, with Man City misplacing 33 passes in their own half, which was 50 per cent more than in any game on their travels this season.
In fairness to John Stones, Nicolas Otamendi et al, though, I’d give the ball away more too if I constantly had those three and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain bearing down on me.
I think we can all agree that, save for a few negatives that can be added to the list of how this team and squad can still improve even further, it was generally speaking one of the best performances we’ve seen under Klopp’s guidance, especially bearing in mind the imperious quality of the opponent.
So, where does that leave us?
It’s easy for us to leave Sunday’s game and wonder why we don’t press and run like that in every game, but the reality is that if the other team doesn’t want the ball it’s simply impossible for us to press in the same way as we can against Man City.
I’ve been amazed this season by how many teams have come to Anfield and opted to repeatedly kick the ball into touch rather than trying to play. They might well have scouted how awful we are at taking throw ins and decided it’s the best way to attack us, but it’s still dismal to watch and is why it’s inevitable that we will see different versions of this Liverpool side depending on who we are facing.
Last year, when quite a few fans were complaining about how we only play as aggressively as we did at the weekend against the best sides, I remember pointing out quietly that there is literally a competition in which only good sides are allowed to play.
The difference between the much-lauded Premier League and the Champions League, is that it’s much more difficult for Paris Saint-Germain or Barcelona to come to our place and play for yards than it is for Farhad Moshiri’s Billionaire Blue Army to sit deep and ask their little goalie with unfortunately short arms to aim goalkicks at the corner flag.
By their very nature, the vast majority of teams at this stage of the competition are used to winning games. FC Porto’s lads are unbeaten in 12 matches in all competitions, and have only lost two all season. While they might cast an eye at our result and performance against Manchester City, they will back themselves to beat us and progress to the quarter final, having also watched games in which we’ve imploded in spectacular fashion.
And this is where the excitement will and, in my eyes, absolutely should, start to build among Liverpool supporters around the world.
For many years, even before Klopp’s arrival, we’ve been at our very best when facing the greatest teams on the planet, and this incarnation of Liverpool is no different. We already have some muscle memory in the squad of a trip to an ultimately unsuccessful Europa League final, and have the pleasure and pain of the memories of that journey to call on over the next few weeks and, hopefully, months.
We shouldn’t underestimate for a second just how good this Manchester City team is. I’ve never seen 11 players come to our ground and back themselves to make the pitch as big as Man City’s players did. What Guardiola does with his teams is truly remarkable, and we shouldn’t let anyone forget that when reviewing that game. Too often over the years when we’ve overcome a challenge like Man City’s it has been dismissed as an off day for the opposition over which we had very little influence. Make no mistake, this Man City side takes some knocking off its stride, and we very nearly knocked it off the gladiatorial podium altogether.
Regardless of what anyone else thinks, we know that this side is now starting to do something special. The work Klopp, his team (including, dare I say it, the recruitment lads) and the players are doing is slowly but surely coming together, and I can’t imagine that any of the big sides in Europe truly wants to face us any time soon.
It’s thrilling to be back in the position of wanting to dispatch Porto so that we can get Barcelona, Real Madrid or PSG in the next round.
We have no reason to fear any of them.
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Plan A will always serve us well and the wider game. A stop has to be put to opponents sitting deep in the hope of a point, and referees awarding soft penalties against teams who look like parking the bus is a way to do it. Witness the pen against fat Allardyce and the bitters at home.
I think bus-parking has suddenly become riskier though. Teams that sit so deep, by very nature of the tactic, are happy enough to concede plenty of corners. Never more so than against us, since we’ve been fairly crap at taking them since practically forever. Van Dijk’s presence makes that a far more dangerous game to play, as we’ve already seen in the FA cup. The guy is an absolute monster and if he doesn’t get on the end of them himself, he takes so much stopping that others will be left unmarked (see Joe Gomez in the same match). It also helps that Chamberlain is looking like the best corner-taker we’ve had since Gerrard.
LFC fan living in Cardiff desperate to get in the away stand at Monday night’s game. If anyone has a spare ticket (two even better but one would be boss) then please get in touch. I can’t pay far beyond face value but I will be sure to buy you a few pints pre-match and during the half time. Damon 07969301294
Is right.
I think it’s very important to highlight that City were good on Sunday. Other fans want to do us a disservice by pretending to think City played poorly. They didn’t. They were very impressive indeed and far and away the best opponents to have come to us this season. Many levels above Utd.
We beat one of the best sides in Europe on Sunday night. There was a time when we were terrorising them, giving them problems that no side has done all season. They came to Anfield with plaudits ringing in their ears but there was this underlying feeling that they were in for something different. A lot of people had picked up on the possibility that this was the fixture in which the record could go, and so it did.
There has been plenty of talk that we’ve laid down a blueprint for beating City, but we’re the only side in the country that could have done to them what was done on Sunday.
Hi Dan, good points regarding the quality of City.
We certainly beat them, being the only team so far to achieve that, but if we keep our heads on, then as you said they could have easily drew the game and may have probably won it if there was an additional 2 minutes.
Some Supporters are already banging on about this and that after beating City, but I have to remind myself of the Men in White Suits and what Ferguson was spurred on to do after what he witnessed remains history I wish to have erased some day.
LFC has a good fighting chance of progressing further, but banana skins are in wait, with Swansea coming up next. Prudence and humility will go a long way.
Re the blue print, I think it was Crystal Palace and then Bristol City who provided it. We had the extra quality to see it over the line.
Speaking of Crystal Palace, would Wilfred Zaha be of any use to LFC?
Up the Reds!
I think that the victory over City was/ is, important in another way that appears (to me anyway) to have been relatively overlooked. It was so important, especially in the wake of the 5-0 thrashing (mitigation being irrelevant in historical terms), that we did not allow them to brush us aside as a club, with a ‘double’ over us, especially in a season where they have gone up a gear both on the pitch, and in financial terms, off it. We could not afford to let them gain a true sense of superiority in the way that Chelsea did (Europe apart) during their own great era of Lampard, Drogpa te al. It is only in the last couple of years that trips to Stamford Bridge have not carried the same sense of dread and inevitably, and it is a huge credit to the squad and Klopp that we have a new optimism when approaching the fixture. City will never be as bitter rivals as out perverse twin Manchester United, but the clinical way they targeted Sterling, and turned the head of our brightest young talent has lent a bitterness to our recent encounters. In my view this victory was important in showing the likes of Joe Gomez (it wouldn’t be a surprise if he was being eyed jealously from the Etihad), as well as the outside world, that we are becoming a real force once again.
Oh dear, think I’ve ‘gone on’ a bit here. Thanks. All the best.