2021-2022 PL: Manchester City vs. Liverpool

(The Guardian) 'Pep is the best coach in the world'
Jürgen Klopp speaks to his Friday press conference. -- I’m expecting a good game. I know very often that doesn’t happen. But it should be an interesting watch, because both teams really go for it. I cannot decide what people think, but we can just go through the possible results.

If we win we are two points ahead, we lose we’re four points behind. If it’s a draw, one point behind - that is it. Does anyone think that’s done and dusted? A very important game. I like it, if we were fourteen or fifteen points behind it will still be a good game. We’ve qualified for a good game with the season we’ve played so far.

The consistency both teams have shown over the period is crazy. We know it’s tough. What has changed in the four years is everybody else thinks it’s tough.

In sport, I think what helps the most is a strong opponent. In the long term, especially. I think Nadal and Federer enjoyed the rivalry they had. That’s how it is in sport. I wouldn’t say I’m thankful City is that good, but it didn’t harm our development.

Pep is the best coach in the world and we all would agree on that. If anybody doubts him, I have no idea how that could happen.

(The Guardian) Aside from the big one, what remains for City and Liverpool?

Manchester City
April 10 - Liverpool (H)
TBC - Wolves (A)
April 20 - Brighton (H)
April 23 - Watford (H)
April 30 - Leeds (A)
May 7 - Newcastle (H)
May 15 - West Ham (A)
May 22 - Aston Villa (H)

Liverpool
April 10 - Man City (A)
TBC - Aston Villa (A)
April 19 - Man Utd (H)
April 24 - Everton (H)
April 30 - Newcastle (A)
May 7 - Tottenham (H)
May 15 - Southampton (A)
May 22 - Wolves (H)

(The Guardian) Preamble
--Expletive! This being a family newspaper, the words running through our communal mind are not words I’m at liberty to publish here, and I suppose we can all express ourselves using the various alternatives our languages make available. But sometimes – OK, almost all the time – only four letters will do so, with intense feeling and emotion, expletive underworld.

But enough about Ste_Macca’s knicker factory – now let’s talk football. When it comes to games like this, there’s a tension between hurling ourselves into the moment to make sure we live its every facet, and making sure we step back to savour its momentousness as part of history, each aspect as moving as the other.

To do the second one first, there’s a decent chance we’re about to enjoy one of the finest games of association football ever played in England. Two great sides hitting a concurrent peak doesn’t happen often – you can just about sustain a case for Wolves-Man United in the mid-50s, Man United-Leeds in the mid-to-late 60s and Liverpool- Forest in the late 70s. The only slam-dunks, though, came in the modern era, whose stratified resources gave Arsenal-Man United 96-05 and Chelsea-Man United 06-11, which is to say that Liverpool-Man City is special.

And it might only be getting started. Though Liverpool unexpectedly hammered City in the 2018 Champions League – in retrospect, when things got going – we only knew it was a rivalry when Riyad Mahrez’s volunteered to take a dying-seconds penalty at Anfield the following season. Had he scored, City would’ve won 1-0, going three points clear at the top of the table and looked certain champions even though it was only October. But he blazed over the bar, changing the face of English football in the process: full of confidence, Liverpool won 11 and drew one of their next 12, and while City prevailed in the end, this was now a ruckus of equals.

Since then, the two have dominated, and there’s no reason to think very much is going to change anytime soon – though as Andy Roddick noted when asked about his tussles with Roger Federer, a serious set-to needs both parties winning the big pots and Liverpool remain deficient in that department. The head-to-heads, though, almost guarantee excitement, the game played at Etihad in January 2019 one of the best ever seen in England and the October encounter at Anfield not behind the door either. Yes, there are reasons for that, but these two are the most consistent league sides ever to grace the green and pleasants; what they’re doing is sensational.

So what’s going to happen today? Well, if City hit their top level, chances are they win because theirs is, for mine at least, fractionally higher than Liverpool’s. That, though, is barely a quality point and more a style point: Pep Guardiola’s football might’ve evolved since his Barcelona days but it remains, without doubt, the hardest there has ever been to beat when played well – for proof, see Spain 2008-12. For that reason, should City get the big dubya, we can expect them to take the treasure too – at this point in the season, it’s hard to see them them slipping up against teams scrapping simply to get a touch of the ball.

But styles make fights, and Liverpool’s death metal football is as good an antidote to the possession carousel as exists, a brilliant team fired by focused aggression and rational entitlement; by their belief that they’re the apotheosis of it. Or in other, simpler words, they’re managed by Jürgen Klopp. Lots has been written about pressing triggers and inverted wingers, but his ability to take very good players and charisma them into sustained, deranged world-beaters is nothing short of epochal genius. He is the reason that his team come into this game on an absolutely rrrrridiculous buzz – even for them.

All of which is a long-winded way of saying that while our society frowns on such equivocation, no one – no one – has a clue what’s going to happen. It’s the irresistible force meets the irresistible force … and it’s live! Expletive expletive!

(The Guardian) Thinking again about City’s potential formation, I wonder if Guardiola will want Foden targeting the area behind “Trent”. He’s a fantastic player, obviously, and what he contributes in attack is well worth the space he leaves in behind – even against the better teams. But if you’re gameplanning to beat Liverpool, that’s an area you’d target, and even if you can’t get at it, if you can push him and Andy Robertson back, there’s not loads of creativity in midfield.

(The Guardian) Guardiola thinks this is a very important game, but no one will win the title today. He’s gone for Jesus because of his pace, intensity and experience. What does he think will decide today? “I will love to know it.”

Klopp is “all prepared, all set, and that’s it”. He doesn’t think about playing the occasion, and apart from the quality of the opponent, the rest is the same as always. He’ll be happy if his team can create a lot, and the winner will be the team that takes their chances, but it doesn’t help if he tells his team to make sure they do that.

(The Guardian) “Surely Liverpool have matured from their thrash phase?” reckons Tony Barr. “Looking at that team it’s as much about skill, swagger and composure as it is energy and aggression. Perhaps Wagnerian? The composer rather than Klopp’s mate. Tried and failed to work a ring reference….”

I’m not sure about that. Which isn’t to say that don’t play with skill and swagger, not at all, but without the aggression it wouldn’t be enough.

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“Forget Trent!” orders WMZ. “Joel Matip is the weakest link, with his strolls about in midfield and yonder.”

He’s one of those whose top level is a good level, but could do with raising his bottom and modal one. I also wonder if he’s already been replaced – I’d not be surprised if, by this time next season, Ibrahima Konaté was first choice.