Liverpool waited nearly a decade for its first away win over Manchester City in the Premier League, but, when it was finally achieved, there was little fanfare. If anything, it felt almost predictable.
Not that those who made the journey down the M62 didn’t enjoy themselves as chants from the away section reminded City of where exactly it stands in the pecking order now, with Liverpool now surely on course to claim its record-equalling 20th top-flight title. Sunday, therefore, felt like a significant win over the side that has dominated English football in recent times, while the Reds established an 11-point lead over Arsenal that is looking increasingly insurmountable.
If the win felt straightforward, the manner by which it was achieved certainly wasn’t. Liverpool deployed an unorthodox 4-2-4 system with Curtis Jones and Dominik Szoboszlai operating as floating no.10s rather than Arne Slot selecting a traditional center-forward. It allowed Liverpool to sit deep at times, soak up pressure and spring forward at will. The second goal, with Mohamed Salah feeding the ball to Szoboszlai after a Liverpool counter, felt like the embodiment of what Slot hoped to achieve utilizing such a system.
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It’s the first time the Liverpool boss implemented such an approach and he admitted after the game that he recognized the need to defend against City and adjusted his side accordingly. It showed another side to the former Feyenoord boss with his flexibility and pragmatism not always replicated by top-flight managers this season. But it paid dividends as Liverpool recorded its lowest-ever recorded possession in a Premier League victory.
Even Pep Guardiola acknowledged after the game that his side were incapable of breaking Liverpool down, although it wasn’t for a lack of trying. City, without the injured Erling Haaland, also spring a tactical surprise and opted to go with a fluid front line that saw Phil Foden start as a false nine, ahead of Omar Marmoush, while Savinho and Jeremy Doku provided penetration from the wide areas.
On another day it could have worked. In truth, that City didn’t get any joy from its forays into the final third summarized where this team is at. It failed to recover from Liverpool’s first-half goals, showed promise without any real cutting edge and still looks like a major work in progress. This City is still a little rough around the edges and although its attack contained plenty of quality, it lacks the decisiveness and efficiency of recent years, certainly without Haaland.
Doku is emblematic of the problem; a terrific player who regularly terrifies opposition full-backs but lacks a final ball. Liverpool were fortunate that none of his 15 completed dribbles on Sunday resulted in a goal. More accurately, Trent Alexander-Arnold was fortunate.
The Liverpool defender had a day to forget at the Etihad despite coming away with three points. Gary Neville expressed his sympathy with the calamitous right-back who Slot eventually had to replace in the latter stages of the game.
It was the sort of performance that underlines Alexander-Arnold’s defensive deficiencies, which exist whether Jurgen Klopp wants to acknowledge or not. Liverpool’s no.66 was beaten three times by Doku in the first five minutes alone, while Salah and Andy Robertson managed to more competently deal with the tricky City winger. It took until the 40th minute for Alexander-Arnold to stop Doku, by which point his three defensive team-mates had been forced to intercept crosses after the right-back was bypassed.
Virgil van Dijk gave him one of those piercing stares at the start of the second period. The message was clear: get a grip of yourself.
What’s more alarming is that Alexander-Arnold offered little in possession too, although did play a pivotal pass in the build-up to Szoboszlai’s goal. It’s not the first time this season that the academy graduate has put in such a woeful display - last month’s shocker against Manchester United is still fresh in the memory - and while performances like this are not a weekly occurrence, they do happen too often. Aston Villa’s best attacking moments came down Alexander-Arnold’s flank on Wednesday night, for example.
Critics will point to the potential Real Madrid move and wonder whether it is impacting his concentration and application, while it does give credence to a growing thought that Liverpool could in fact be more rounded with Conor Bradley as first-choice right-back. The team would certainly miss Alexander-Arnold’s creativity and defence-splitting passes, but it would at least have its defensive achilles heel removed.
That’s a problem for the summer and beyond, but the immediate concern remains ensuring those creaks in Liverpool’s backline aren’t exposed again in the final months of the campaign.
