MANE SEES RED AS CITY TROUNCE LIVERPOOL
Supersub finishes off rout after Mane sending off leaves Reds with no chance
IT WOULD be too much to suggest that this was the day when Manchester City’s title challenge fully ignited. In fact, Jurgen Klopp, enduring the worst defeat of his Liverpool career, called it about right.
‘If City take too much confidence from this game, they would make a mistake,’ he said. ‘And if we lose too much confidence from this game, we would make a mistake.’
He was just about justified because of the obvious extenuating circumstance on which the game pivoted, the awful error of judgment from Sadio Mane, whose 37th-minute boot to the face of City goalkeeper Ederson became the defining moment.
From thereon in, one-nil down and with just 10 men to play with after Mané’s dismissal, Liverpool’s fate was sealed.
City remain, as they were last season, an extraordinary attacking phenomenon when given the chance. All of their front players shone, but none more so than Kevin De Bruyne.
City manager Pep Guardiola just puffs his cheek in admiration when the Belgian is referenced. ‘The dimensions for that guy are unexpactable,’ he said, adding a new but excellent word to the English language.
‘He’s intelligent. You have to say one instruction and he understands immediately. He produces a huge number of passes, a huge number of assists. He is a complete, complete player. We are a lucky club.’
Meanwhile, Sergio Aguero flourished and Gabriel Jesus scored twice — as did Leroy Sane, who added a glorious footnote with two superb goals.
But Guardiola will also know that defensively, Nicolas Otamendi and Benjamin Mendy were frequently exposed before the sending off. John Stones, too, looked unsure. Klopp realised, the sending-off aside, that this was an opportunity missed.
‘I told the boys at half-time I thought if it had been completely spot on — and I know it’s difficult after international break — that we should have been in the lead,’ he said.
He was right. Mohamed Salah’s miss when put clean through by Mané on 31 minutes was the key moment. But there should have been more chances, given the ease with which Liverpool were getting in behind City.
‘I know we can be really good, and I will try to get the boys to ignore the result today, but not the mistakes we did,’ added Klopp.
However, his assertion that he was ‘not concerned in the long term’ was more questionable. With Dejan Lovren and Nathaniel Clyne out, they turned to Roger Klavan and Trent Alexander-Arnold. Neither was good enough. And unless £35million was spent on Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain to play at right-back, that problem will not get solved soon.
As with City, no one doubts the attacking qualities; it’s the defence which is flawed.
Even with 11 men, Liverpool conceded their early momentum in ridiculous circumstances. City simply picked up a loose ball from a Simon Mignolet clearance and Fernandinho, with a crucial challenge on Georginio Wijnaldum, helped it on to De Bruyne, who exposed a stretched Liverpool back four with an exquisite through ball for Aguero, who swept past Mignolet to score.
The defining moment of the half came when a long ball from Joel Matip exposed City, allowing Mane to race towards goal. With the ball bouncing in no man’s land between keeper and striker, Ederson bravely rushed towards it and headed away. Mane, his foot already raised dangerously high to meet the ball, instead met the goalkeeper’s chin.
It looked awful and clearly merited the expulsion it received. Ederson was treated for eight minutes and left the pitch in a neck brace before play could resume, with Claudio Bravo returning to the fray.
The effect of the extra man was pretty much immediate. Three minutes before half-time, De Bruyne bewitched AlexanderArnold with a hint of a Cryuff turn to cross for Jesus, completely unmarked 10 yards out, to head home.
The challenge became steeper still on 53 minutes with a Liverpool long ball intercepted and their defence exposed within seconds. Fernandinho made the pass, which evaded Emre Can and found Aguero. Through on goal, somewhat unnecessarily but with admirable generosity, he squared the ball to Jesus, who made it 3-0.
On 77 minutes De Bruyne played a crisp pass to Sane, on for Jesus, who exchanged passes with Mendy before finishing cleanly from close range.
And Sane saved the best for last. Twenty yards out, with 90 minutes gone, he eyed space to the right of Mignolet and curled a delicious strike into the far corner.