Liverpool have overcome another hurdle on their way towards the 2024/25 Premier League title, defeating Manchester City away from home by two goals to nil this past weekend.
Arne Slot’s Reds took an early lead through Mohamed Salah from a set-piece in the 14th minute before Dominik Szoboszlai doubled the lead in the 37th minute of the game.
Game state allowed Liverpool to take a defence-first approach for the majority of the game, which worked a treat in silencing Man City at the Etihad.
This tactical analysis piece aims to shed some light on Liverpool’s defensive tactics from Sunday’s fixture.
We’ll break down some key features of the Reds’ defensive performance to keep a clean sheet away to Pep Guardiola’s side and explain why those elements worked so well in this game.
Manchester City Vs Liverpool Lineups & Formations
Firstly, let’s acquaint ourselves with the lineups for both teams.
The home side lined up in a 4-1-4-1 shape with Ederson starting in goal behind Rico Lewis at right-back, Abdukodir Khusanov at right centre-back, Nathan Aké at left centre-back and Joško Gvardiol at left-back.
Nico González occupied the holding midfield position behind Kevin De Bruyne (right) and Omar Marmoush (left) in central midfield.
Sávio started on the right wing opposite Jérémy Doku on the left, with Phil Foden playing a ‘false 9’ role up front in Erling Haaland’s absence.
City made four substitutions over the course of the match.
Firstly, James McAtee came on for De Bruyne in the 66th-minute.
This preceded a triple substitution 11 minutes later, which saw Ilkay Gündogan, Rúben Dias, and Mateo Kovačić replace Marmoush, Aké and González, respectively.
On the other side, Arne Slot’s formation set the Reds up in a 4-4-2 shape with Alisson between the sticks, Trent Alexander-Arnold at right-back, Ibrahima Konaté at right centre-back, Virgil van Dijk at left centre-back and Andy Robertson playing left-back.
From right to left, Liverpool’s midfield four were Mo Salah, Ryan Gravenberch, Alexis Mac Allister, and Luis Díaz.
Curtis Jones and Szoboszlai occupied the two centre-forward positions.
Slot made one more substitution than Guardiola before the final whistle had blown.
Firstly, in the 73rd minute, Wataru Endo and Kostas Tsimikas were introduced in place of Jones and Robertson, respectively.
Six minutes later, Cody Gakpo came on for Díaz before the Merseyside club made a final double substitution in the first minute of stoppage time as Harvey Elliott and Jarell Quansah replaced Salah and Alexander-Arnold, respectively.
Now, let’s get into the Man City vs Liverpool tactical analysis.
How Liverpool’s Centre-Backs Defended The Space In Front Of Them Vs Manchester City
Erling Haaland’s absence was a glaring one for Manchester City.
The Norwegian striker missed City’s last UEFA Champions League game of the season — a defeat to Real Madrid last week — and now, this Premier League clash with Liverpool.
City scored once against Real Madrid in a 3-1 loss and failed to hit the back of the net at home against Liverpool.
On analysing this game, it was apparent that City lacked the centre-forward presence and movement that Haaland normally brings to the table.
In his place, City relied on Foden, De Bruyne, and Marmoush—the centre-forward and the two more advanced central midfielders—to initially position themselves between and around Liverpool’s centre-backs.
Man City built up patiently from the back before those players dropped deeper into space behind the midfield but in front of the defence.
This can be an effective tactic, but any time City attempted to play through Liverpool’s defensive structure in this way, the Reds’ centre-backs would step out to aggressively close down the dropping receiver, limiting their time and space on the ball.
City also often lacked the penetrative runs in behind, targeting the space inevitably opened up in Liverpool’s defence by their centre-backs’ aggressive movement.
Thus, City failed to exploit a potential weakness in these aggressive defensive tactics from the centre-backs.
Let’s look at some examples of this defensive approach in action from Sunday’s game.
Konaté does well to quickly close down Foden, denying him the time and space to make his next move a truly impactful one on receiving in a potentially dangerous position in between the lines while Liverpool are defending in the high-block.
Our next image shows Van Dijk defending in a similar fashion against City’s false 9, but this time, the Reds operate in a mid-low block.
