Three things we learned after Liverpool’s late defeat to Manchester City
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That’s how my head feels.Liverpool were awesome, they were sloppy, they were weak, strong and everything in between.Here is what we learned.Szoboszlai, the good, the bad, and the uglyLong hair slung back like a villain in a Western, Dominik Szoboszlai is one hell of a player.His stunning free-kick goal had shades of Roberto Carlos, one of the best I have seen in my eighteen years watching football.It was a goal good enough to win most matches, but against state money, it’s rarely that simple.On the opposite end of the spectrum, his sending off, bringing down Erling Haaland with a handful of seconds to go, has to be one of the dumbest things I have ever seen.One is reminded of Luis Suarez’s goal line handball against Ghana in 2010, but at least he stopped a goal, and the result was still in the balance, and it worked. Not similar at all come to think of it…A Liverpool squad down to the bare bones now has to face life without one of the best performers this season for a couple of big games.The pressing gameLiverpool were everywhere.
They were high pressing, the kryptonite of an otherwise dominant City team.It was Liverpool again making life impossible, hunting them down, City were deer in the Anfield headlights once again.Somewhere in a hotel bar on expenses, one imagines the neon white grin of a German in a Hawaiian shirt smiling back at the TV.Szoboszlai scores and all of a sudden it goes away. The temperature drops in the building, the line recedes and Liverpool lose the eye of the tiger, are way too passive, and Drago hits back.Liverpool look infinitely better when they are that team, stuck in their old ways, hounding them down.
That’s not what we have heard over the past few years.Bernardo Silva’s pull on Salah too should have been given as a penalty.While City are under investigation and they maintain their innocence, for the sake of transparency, there must also be questions asked about why it has taken so long.In my view, it has also been far too often overlooked that some Premier League officials went to the UAE a few years ago to referee games, even though they have since outlawed it, this muddies things too. It is a stupid, unnecessary mess.One is reminded once again of the complexities and opacity of allowing state power in football.The Premier League has to be better.