Manchester City fans will today be asking themselves what just happened at the Etihad. Four goals at their home ground by an away team is not something that Manchester City fans have become used to in recent years, and the look on the manager’s face near the end of the game spoke volumes, but the fact is that City were beaten today by a style of football from Liverpool that defeated all their tactics and played to the weaknesses that they currently have with players’ lack of fitness and ability. With Vincent Kompany and David Silva out, as well as Sergio Aguero coming back into fitness and then only playing just over 60 minutes of the game, to the point where the game was more or less lost, one has to ask, have the wheels finally come off the bus at the Etihad?
Millions of pounds were spent on Raheem Sterling recently but Jürgen Klopp’s team today nullified his ability to cause danger. With Yaya Toure being taken off at half time and Martin Demichelis being left on, one has to wonder just what went through Manuel Pellegrini’s mind. Toure was playing in the centre as always but was being ineffective, not like his usual, forceful self. Demichelis, one of the slowest defenders in the league, seemed no better. The defence was shocking to say the least; to not play Otamendi at all seems ludicrous as a choice. Is this all because Vincent Kompany was not there on the pitch, as suggested by the commentary teams? If so, then what seems to be the case is that this team, recently Champions themselves, are not that good minus one man, which seems utterly ridiculous. They will have to come back to the training ground this next week, after this loss and try to figure out just what went wrong for all four wheels to come off of this bus today.
And the conclusion that they will no doubt arrive at will be that they were tactically and brilliantly outplayed by a team playing a style of football that needs to be played in the English Premier League. Enough of the passing sideways with no-one around you style of football. Boring! Enough of the way that the Spanish national side used to play. We all know what happened to them! So it is no surprise then that Jürgen Klopp came to the Etihad today with a plan, a plan to dominate, to press high, to never let City settle, to chase every ball; what he has called “Rock and Roll Football.” And by God, it worked. It worked against Chelsea at The Bridge. It worked today as well, but as we watched, I wonder how many of those who are old enough remembered the times of high pressure football, of Keegan and of Steve Highway flying down the wing at speeds incomprehensible?
That is what beat City today but also the passivity of Manchester City; their thought that this was The Etihad, where we dominate, where we keep it at our pace, where we play our kind of football. In the first thirty minutes today, that very notion was blown down the roads in Manchester as if Storm Barney had still been rattling round the place. Perhaps now then, there will be a return to the same sort of play that Liverpool so brilliantly showed today? After all, this is what City were doing when they won the league on both recent occasions. Enough of the attitude that you can have it all the way you want it – the Premier League is changing before our very eyes. You only have to look at who are the top ten and to see some of the names of the teams that are there who we thought would not be, to know that something is happening to this game of ours [and for the better]!
Have the wheels finally come off the bus at City? Somehow this is doubtful, because like most top teams, it is only one bad game, but for the sake of the fans, we sure hope it does not continue in the coming weeks. Will City win the league this year? Not if they play with the attitude as of today’s performance, but if they adopt once again the idea that if a team scores 3 against them that they will score 4, then maybe. That is when we will see Manchester City running on all four pots again!
Source: DSG
