And so, the jigsaw remains: it is an intricate sky-blue puzzle with eleven pieces, who, notwithstanding much tinkering, seemingly do not fit together. It is a peculiar sensation for Pep Guardiola – after six months at Manchester City, his team’s progress has been moderate at best. The match against Liverpool was another point in case.
There is also the glaring point that City lag ten points behind barnstorming league leaders Chelsea, but the game management and defensive aptitude that City displayed at Anfield Road was poor, a recurring problem this season, bar the excellent performances against Manchester United and FC Barcelona. City were nondescript again – not that Liverpool were great in a match punctuated by high intensity, physicality and plenty of stray passes, but they had a game plan and stuck to it, exuding the distinct progress that they have made under their charismatic coach Jurgen Klopp.
City continue to struggle defensively
Liverpool’s players have improved drastically – Adam Lallana, Jordan Henderson, and Roberto Firmino in particular. They perform on a consistent level and wield more influence during the game. Arguably, against the run of play, the hosts scored, when Serbian left-back Aleksandar Kolarov offered too much space for Georginio Wijnaldum’s to power home a fine header from Lallana’s inch-perfect cross.
It was to be the game’s lone goal, and another illustration of how City keep struggling with the defensive frailties that were so prevalent during the Manuel Pellegrini era. Guardiola has not managed to address these weaknesses. He fielded Fernandinho and Yaya Toure to provide cover, but that robust midfield often drowned, with the Ivorian sluggish both in and out of possession.
Just before the break, Liverpool nearly scored a second when the towering Ivorian was dispossessed on the halfway line, but Firmino, a towering Brazilian, dawdled on the ball and did not release Lallana, who then found himself to be offside.
Under Guardiola, only a few City players have become better individually. Raheem Sterling, perhaps? Fernandinho? The Brazilian was key to Pellegrini’s setup as well. It is a strange hallmark of Guardiola’s coaching that he improves teams, but not players as such.
Liverpool’s sense of the collective
On the night, City’s collective represented little. As an attacking unit, with striker Sergio Aguero returning from suspension, City offered little. That was also a consequence of Liverpool’s fine collective defending: they played a strong offside line against the Argentine, which squeezed City’s space in midfield. Kevin De Bruyne rapidly became a peripheral player. Liverpool’s front three of Lallana, Firmino and Sadio Mane also dropped back to shore up Liverpool’s midfield when out of possession.
This was a team working in unison, and even if their attacking treat was minimal throughout much of the game, Liverpool were always in command. Guardiola switched De Bruyne and David Silva positionally, but in a scrappy second half, that aided City little. They barely encroached on the Liverpool box, with the red rearguard sitting far deeper after the interval.
It took Guardiola a very long time to introduce a Plan B. He brought on Jesus Navas for Pablo Zabaleta, altering his formation to a 3-4-2-1 system in the last ten minutes of the game. Nigerian prodigy Kelechi Iheanacho was then summoned to provide more attacking menace. It was all a little too late, and, with Guardiola often accused of experimenting a bit too much with his side, this match was different. Klopp had outmanoeuvred the Spaniard. Guardiola simply did not have an adequate response to the many intricate tweaks Klopp had implemented.
Indeed, out of nine meetings between the two coaches, Klopp has won on five occasions. Klopp’s Liverpool are not yet the same as Klopp’s Dortmund, but after a little over a year at Anfield, Liverpool is Klopp’s team. City are nowhere near Bayern Munich’s level under Guardiola yet.
And so a coach, accustomed to wining – often with superlative team play, domineering performances and big score lines – with a gilded career and the laurel of best coach in the world is facing an unprecedented challenge to steer his City to the heights that owner Sheikh Mansour and the fans would have associated with his arrival back in the summer.
Perhaps Guardiola’s greatest trait is his adaptability – remember his tactical flexibility at Bayern Munich and his ceaseless desire to keep learning – so expect the Spaniard to have an ace up his sleeve in 2017. Bring on Burnley.
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