...and where it all went wrong for City against the champions
BRENDAN Rodgers may not have subscribed to the narrative, but it still feels like a missed opportunity for Leicester City.
For the week leading up to City’s 3-0 defeat to Liverpool, the focus was on the champions’ injury list.
How will they cope without Trent Alexander-Arnold, Virgil van Dijk, Joe Gomez, Jordan Henderson and Mo Salah?
Rodgers was having none of this “woe is me” version of events, pointing out there is no easy time to face such an expensivelyassembled, well-drilled team.
And City supporters had been quick to point out their own injury list.
Ricardo Pereira, Caglar Soyuncu and Wilfred Ndidi were absent, and Timothy Castagne could not make it in time either. There was little sympathy for the situation at Anfield.
Let’s not forget, Liverpool were still heavy favourites to win.
They are one of the best teams in Premier League history, and were playing on their own turf.
But, how often will Liverpool be without a handful of their best players?
How often will Anfield be without tens of thousands of fans cheering on the Reds?
How often will City have a 100 per cent away record?
There was optimism that an upset could be caused, and rightly so. City had coped tremendously with their injuries, with no drop in performance levels.
Meanwhile, Liverpool’s injuries were so recent that it was unknown as to how they would fare.
But, really, it was a run-of-themill victory for the hosts. They were faster and more organised in their defensive work, they were quicker on the ball in terms of passing and dribbling, and they exploited City at every turn.
There was no area where City were not second best.
Losing to Liverpool, and particularly this Liverpool, is not inherently a poor result.
But this was a chance for City to show there is not quite the gulf between the clubs that last season’s game at the King Power Stadium – a 4-0 rout – suggested there was. That was where they disappointed.
Rodgers said this defeat was much easier to analyse than the last one, and he’s right: City must improve at defending set-plays.
It has been a problem that has reared its head from time to time, and the statistics show that City are now the worst in the Premier League at keeping the opposition out from corners and free-kicks.
Jonny Evans’ own goal and Roberto Firmino’s header means City have conceded more goals (five) than any other club from set-pieces this season.
City’s set-up is a mixture of zonal and man-to-man, with players guarding key positions inside the box, and others ordered to track the runners.
They have players who are strong in the air, with Evans, Wesley Fofana, Christian Fuchs, James Justin, and more.
As a system, it should work. But nearly every Liverpool ball into the box led to a chance.
As Rodgers said, the good news is that it’s easy to see where City need to improve. The bad news is that it’s not immediately evident how they improve.
All the pieces are there for City to be adept at defending set-plays, but they are yet to prove it.
Rodgers always said it would happen, and finally it has.
At 19, Fofana was not going to play out the season without making a mistake, and the manager said as much when he first arrived from Saint-Etienne.
For seven games, Fofana had defied that prediction. He had been flawless.
But up against one of the best forwards in the world in Sadio Mane, he was exposed.
The Frenchman is fearless and hopeful in his approach to defending.
He thinks he can intercept any pass and win any aerial duel. But too often at Liverpool, he lurched up the pitch in anticipation of cutting out the through ball, only for the accuracy of the Reds’ midfielders to bypass him and slip Mane in behind.
Rodgers won’t want to tone down his front-foot defending, but he perhaps needs to be less headstrong in his approach to it.
In both of last season’s fixtures against Liverpool, City mustered five shots on goal. On Sunday night, they more than doubled that, with 11.
So in attack, there were improvements, and if City are to take any encouragement from the game, that will be where.
Harvey Barnes had City’s best chances of each half, skewing wide in the first and driving straight at Alisson in the second.
James Justin went close with a curling effort, too, while Youri Tielemans stung Alisson’s fingertips.
However, this was only Liverpool’s second clean sheet of the
Premier League season. This is not a defence that has been performing particularly well this campaign.
So although City did trouble Liverpool more at the back than last season, they should not get ahead of themselves in thinking they were a threat, especially given how other attacks have fared against Liverpool.
When last season came to an end and the campaign was dissected, thoughts turned to the Boxing Day defeat as a potential turning point.
City had won nine games in a row in all competitions through the autumn and were being praised for their quality and for their ability to remain on Liverpool’s coattails at the top.
Then they were torn apart on their own patch and the stuttering form that followed was partially attributed to a loss in confidence.
While City did not necessarily show they have caught up with Liverpool on the pitch, they can show they have improved off it in terms of how they respond to Sunday’s defeat.
Put together a stumbling run of results and questions will be asked again, but return to winning ways, starting with Braga on Thursday, and this defeat will quickly be put to bed.