You can’t sit back against City…you have to take the fight to them
KLOPP LIGHTS FUSE AND PEP EXPECTS FIREWORKS
THIS being Liverpool on the eve of a Champions League quarter-final, the talk was of bravery, history and of fans lining the streets to give Manchester City a traditionally ear-splitting welcome. There will be noise, there will be flares; Pep Guardiola looked slightly incredulous at it all.
He explained, patiently, that having been coach of Barcelona he wasn’t exactly unused to a lively atmosphere. That Madrid and Seville had been known to make a racket, too. ‘We accept this,’ he said. ‘At these places, they like to show how strong they are.’ He clenched his upper torso, in the manner of a body-builder.
Later, on the pitch, Rodolfo Borrell, a Manchester City coach who previously worked for Liverpool’s academy, appeared to be presenting a brief stadium guide, pointing out The Kop and other areas of interest to Guardiola. City’s manager had clearly forgotten the semi-final he played here with Barcelona in the UEFA Cup in 2001. His team were eliminated 1-0 on aggregate by a penalty from Gary McAllister. Maybe it was a tactical memory lapse.
Certainly one could get decent odds on a repeat of a single goal being scored over these two legs. The aggregate between these teams in the Premier League this season is 8-4 in Manchester City’s favour and few would be surprised by a total in that ball park. ‘It’s a really good opportunity for football to watch and think, “Hey this is nice, this is cool”,’ said Jurgen Klopp. Battles of Britain have not always been that way.
Probably the landmark Anfield game in the modern Champions League era was the semi-final meeting with Chelsea on May 3, 2005. Klopp was manager of mid-table Mainz at the time and the fixture was not on his radar, he said. Either that, or he had banished it from memory, dismal as it was.
It was the match memorable not just for its atmosphere or its controversy — Jose Mourinho to this day claims Luis Garcia’s winner did not cross the line — but also for the brutal appraisal of former Real Madrid manager Jorge Valdano. ‘Put a s*** hanging from a stick in the middle of this passionate, crazy stadium and there are people who will tell you it’s a work of art,’ he said. ‘It’s not: it’s a s*** hanging from a stick.
‘Chelsea and Liverpool are the clearest, most exaggerated example of the way football is going: very intense, very collective, very tactical, very physical, and very direct. But, a short pass? No. A feint? No. A change of pace? No. A one-two? A nutmeg? A backheel? Don’t be ridiculous. None of that.’
Some 13 years on, the anticipation around this game is the precise opposite. Short passes, feints, pace, interchanges, high skill. Ridiculous levels of technique and excitement? Yes, all of that. Liverpool and Manchester City are the product of the risk-taking Klopp and Guardiola, in the same way Liverpool and Chelsea reflected the pragmatism of Rafael Benitez and Mourinho. It is a giant feather in the cap of English football that perhaps the most anticipated fixture in Europe this week is not Real Madrid versus Juventus, but a coming together of two freewheeling Premier League clubs.
City have only won once at Anfield since Boxing Day, 1981 — a lastminute Nicolas Anelka winner settling a match in 2003 — but this was part of the legacy that Klopp did his best to play down. ‘This club is so full of history but we must write our own,’ he insisted. ‘I meet people who can tell me each goal Liverpool scored in 50 years, but at one point you need to do your own things.’
Even the boldest tipster would make this a close call. That City are only the marginal favourites despite being 18 points clear of Liverpool domestically is a reflection of a stunning performance by Klopp’s team here in January, of Liverpool’s five Champions League wins compared to Manchester City’s single semi-final appearance and also of Klopp’s record in his head-to-head meetings: six wins to Guardiola’s five, with one draw.
Considering Guardiola sticks only to variations of his plan A, it is felt Klopp, more than any contemporary, has worked him out. Guardiola as good as admitted it. ‘The way we play is perfect for Liverpool,’ he said. ‘They attack the space.’
Of course, it’s a little more complicated than that, as Klopp conceded. This was where bravery came in. It required special boldness to beat City, he explained; and not every team had that.
‘What Guardiola does is unbelievably difficult to defend against,’ said Klopp. ‘One touch and Leroy Sane is away, Raheem Sterling is away, it’s like being on the motorway. It’s good, but because there is not perfection in football, you can defend against it. So all I need to know is that there will be space on the pitch for us because you cannot play the way City play and be 100 per cent compact. So we need to exploit situations like that, be active and lively.
‘Use the spaces. Go in the challenge, try to win it. Be next to someone, try to help them. Be there. Not waiting or giving the opportunity. Be lively. Sitting back is not a solution against Manchester City. That’s how it is. You will suffer in this game, you lose each other, you look a little silly, but then don’t be bothered — go! When you have the ball you need to be brave. We have to use the skills of my players. If you are, say, West Brom, you cannot be brave against Manchester City because you cannot attack them high or they run through you like a warm knife through butter. But we are different. So be there when there is a chance to get the ball. If we can’t do that it is very, very difficult.’
No matter how warm the welcome.
WILL THIS GAME BE AS THRILLING AS WE EXPECT?
BOTH managers were asked yesterday about their intentions to attack from the first whistle. Guardiola said that even though ‘the way we play is perfect for Liverpool’ his players would find it ‘scary’ if he suddenly asked them to change.
Klopp was equally interesting on the matter and admitted that ‘hoping for a clean sheet against City does not make too much sense’.
Going away from home and playing a tight game was always considered part of the skill in this competition but that will clearly not form part of the thinking at Anfield.
Even the usually reserved Kevin de Bruyne was happy to stoke the flames of anticipation. ‘For the neutral it will be beautiful’, said the City midfielder.
CAN EITHER TEAM REALLY DEFEND OR DO THEY JUST CHOOSE NOT TO?
OF COURSE they can defend — to a degree. City, for example, have kept clean sheets this season against teams like Arsenal, Chelsea (twice each) and indeed Liverpool.
But whether they can actually set out to suffocate a game and steal a goal is another matter. Liverpool’s defensive work is particularly open to examination as, despite recurrent claims that they have improved, recent performances at places like Manchester United and Crystal Palace indicate that vulnerability remains.
Liverpool will be without their defensive shield Emre Can tonight so it seems that if they are to go through over two legs it is likely to be on the back of an 180minute shoot out.
Klopp said: ‘Sitting back against City is no solution. Be where there is a chance to get the ball. If we can we do that, we have a chance. If not? It is very, very difficult.’
HOW IMPORTANT WILL THE ATMOSPHERE BE FOR LIVERPOOL TONIGHT?
GUARDIOLA said yesterday that he hoped the Liverpool fans would be ‘correct and polite’ which will no doubt bring a smile to the lips of those supporters planning to greet the City bus with flares and smoke bombs at Anfield.
Deep down, though, Guardiola and his players will not pause for thought. The Spaniard, remember, played for Barcelona while his team is made up of players from football hotbeds all over the world.
Indeed, what will motivate City tonight is a feeling that they have rarely given their best against Liverpool over the years.
Not since 2003 have a City team prevailed at Anfield and there is a feeling in Guardiola’s dressing room that it is time to put that right. Klopp spoke of ‘rewriting history’ and the same can certainly be said for City.
÷WHAT ARE THE KEY TACTICAL ISSUES?
BOTH teams have electric pace. ‘Liverpool are so fast and direct and they attack the space like no other team in the world,’ said Guardiola while De Bruyne described tonight’s opponents as a ‘juggernaut’.
That fact will place pressure on whoever plays in City’s problem position at left-back.
Central defender Aymeric Laporte filled in against Everton on Saturday but facing a team that mustered only 18 per cent possession is a little different to watching Mo Salah running towards you. Guardiola will choose between Laporte and Fabian Delph and neither feels a great fit.
City will miss the running and presence of the injured Sergio Aguero but still it’s hard to escape the sense that the key absentee on both sides will be that of Liverpool’s Can.
City can be vulnerable when teams press them — think back to the League game at Anfield and two entertaining games against Napoli — but Liverpool are perhaps even more so when they face the very best. This will have to be a big night for someone like Jordan Henderson or James Milner.
÷DOES KLOPP’S WIN RECORD AGAINST GUARDIOLA MATTER?
THE Liverpool manager has won six out of 12 against Guardiola which is impressive when set against his peers. Jose Mourinho, for example, has only overcome the Spaniard four times in 21 attempts.
What matters more than this, though, is the confidence that the German imbues in his players. Liverpool are the only team in the Premier League who have actually played against City with any real belief that they could beat them this season and that is key.
Liverpool’s players genuinely believe that they can hurt City and they will carry this feeling in to both games. Klopp’s very first game against a City team - albeit one managed by Manuel Pellegrini — saw Liverpool win 4-1 at the Etihad in November 2015 and belief has grown from there.
As Klopp said yesterday: ‘City have a specific way of playing and that makes it all difficult.
‘But we still know there’s a chance. It is possible to combat it.’