Olympus Has Fallen

Alas, the seemingly unbeatable Manchester City has been stopped in their tracks by a highly spirited Liverpool team. Prior to this defeat, Manchester City had gone on an amazing run of thirty consecutive premier league games without defeat, stretching back to last season. In fact, City’s last defeat was inflicted by Antonio Conte’s tittle winning Chelsea side last season on the 5^th of April, 2017 at Stamford Bridge.

Pep Guardiola matched his own record of 19 consecutive wins achieved during his tenure at the dug out of German giants, Bayern Munich. Manchester City was gradually building an aura of invincibility around them, going thirty three games unbeaten in all domestic games this season. Their only defeat came against Shakthar Donetsk in the last group game of the champions’ league in which they had already sealed top spot. How did Liverpool apply the brakes to this free flowing attacking football machinery called Manchester City who are coached by a certain total football enthusiast, Josep Guardiola?

The result of this game depended on how Jurgen Norbert Klopp decided to set his team to play. Would Liverpool press Manchester City high up the pitch or would they sit back and rely on the pace of the Ox, Salah and Mane on the break? In typical Jurgen Klopp style, Liverpool effectively utilised the Gengen pressing. That tactic to a large extent decided the outcome of the game as they forced a possession possessed Manchester City into making mistakes they wouldn’t normally commit. Unlike other opponents Manchester City has faced this season, Liverpool were not content to sit back and watch Manchester City dominate the game from start to finish like we saw Chelsea and Manchester United do. They went out to prove a point that whereas Pep is a master of the possession game, Klopp is a master of the pressing game. At the end, it was Klopp’s intense and energetic pressing that won the game for Liverpool.

Liverpool pressed intelligently, cutting all passing lanes. When Manchester City was in possession of the ball in a 2-3-5 formation, Liverpool utilised the 4-3-3 formation. When Manchester City dynamically changed to 3-3-4/3-4-3, Liverpool restructured into a 4-5-1 formation. When City utilised the 4-3-3 formation, Liverpool responded by lining up in the orthodox 4-4-2 formation. Again when Manchester City regrouped into a 4-2-3-1 formation, Klopp had the answer and changed shaped to the same formation. It was a fascinating tactical battle of plots and counter plots between the two astute managers. To every question Guardiola asked, Klopp come up with the answer.

Unsurprisingly, Liverpool’s second, third and fourth goals came as a result of the intelligent manner in which they pressed Manchester City and hurried them into making incredibly hasty and faulty passes. In my opinion, I felt that Manchester City should have managed the game better after going 2-1 down. I felt that they put pressure on themselves by still playing out the back though Liverpool had gone up by a goal and were bustling in energy because of the psychological advantage the goal gave them.

Ultimately, Liverpool has proven that City can be beaten and we hope that it will propel teams into facing Manchester City with a bit more audacity so as to make the second round of the league more exciting and bring back the suspense. Nobody loves a one horse title race except of course, the galloping horse themselves.

Will this loss lead to a deceleration in Manchester City’s rampant motion? Your guess is as good as mine.

Baiden Gideon,
HPERS-UEW.
[email protected]