History repeated itself on Saturday afternoon, as a rotated Manchester City side fell to a rather expected defeat in the FA Cup Semi-final for the third season in a row, this time at the hands of Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool.
Liverpool got off to a flyer at Wembley Stadium on Saturday afternoon, with an early Ibrahima Konaté goal from a direct corner, which certainly got a weakened Manchester City team off to an awful start.
Things only got worse when Zack Steffen’s inexplicable mistake gifted Sadio Mané a goal less than ten minutes later, and the USA international also could have done better with the Liverpool forward’s second goal – a volley shortly before the break.
Second-half goals from Jack Grealish and Bernardo Silva weren’t enough to complete the comeback, and Manchester City fans will no doubt be left wondering what could have been if a few more of their key players had been able to play a bigger role.
Here’s what we learned from the disappointing encounter in the FA Cup last-four
Too little, too late
In case it needed to be said, Pep Guardiola is the best manager of all time and the best thing to happen to Manchester City other than the takeover.
I’m saying this now to make up for the criticism I’m going to lather on him pretty thickly in this article because while he’s incredible, he’s not perfect. Today, one of the few big reoccurring issues of his tenure cropped up again, and it involves the substitutions – specifically the fact that they don’t seem to exist.
Pep Guardiola is a vocal supporter of the Premier League allowing five substitutions is like Elton John trying to buy a military tank: I can’t imagine why on earth he would want it, and I doubt he’ll ever actually use it when it happens.
There can’t have been a single Manchester City fan on this floating space-rock who didn’t at least wonder why nobody came off the bench until the 80th minute. There were some brilliant players waiting to get on the field and none of them could have done much worse than the first-half performance.
Of course, the great irony is that the only substitute we did use created the second goal. He just did it when there wasn’t enough time left to give us a decent shot at an equalizer.
I genuinely believe that introducing Riyad Mahrez, Kevin De Bruyne (or Ilkay Gundogan if the Belgian wasn’t fit enough), and Rodri after an hour would have given us a brilliant chance at rescuing the game. It’s a shame that Pep elected to make a point to his players instead of going for the result the supporters were craving.
Flashes of quality aren’t enough
Obviously, it just wouldn’t be fair to suggest that Manchester City was completely played off the park against Liverpool.
After a pretty abject first half, things did pick up after the break. The first goal back, moments after half-time, came from some really nice play by Gabriel Jesus and a smart Jack Grealish finish. We have to hope that’s a sign of things to come because even a primarily creative player like Grealish needs to score goals if he’s going to keep a place in the Manchester City front three.
The goal in injury time was worth applause, too, mainly because of the play of Riyad Mahrez. He found Bernardo Silva, who slotted home his 11th goal of the season.
Unfortunately, the sixth-biggest moment of the match came when Jesus found himself one-on-one with Alisson. The Liverpool keeper is brilliant in such situations and got the better of our Brazilian… but Jesus opting to try and shoot low didn’t help.
One-on-ones are certainly an area where almost the whole team could improve, with Kevin de Bruyne currently just about the only Manchester City player you’d expect to put one away.
Team selection has a whiff of surrender
When I described this one as an “expected defeat“, I meant that most Manchester City fans could see how the game was likely to go from the moment the team sheets were released.
Heading into a match against one of the best sides in the world without any of Kevin de Bruyne, Ruben Dias, Aymeric Laporte, Ederson, Rodri, Riyad Mahrez, or Kyle Walker starting was only ever really going to end one way.
Some will say this was a necessary sacrifice to rest players for Premier League fixtures, but personally, I felt Pep Guardiola overdid the rotation. We didn’t have a single forward in good goalscoring form, nor a single midfielder who’s been getting many assists lately. The game plan was to hope that Liverpool was off it.
Inevitably, this left many fans feeling like the game wasn’t a priority for Pep – so can the players be blamed for looking like they’d already lost from the moment the referee blew his whistle?
Put it this way: can you imagine Jurgen Klopp going into a match against us without any of Virgil Van Dijk, Joel Matip, Alisson, Mohamed Salah, Thiago, Fabinho, or Andy Robertson? I can’t – whether they had just faced Atletico Madrid or not.
English trio hung out to try
It’s true that, yes, some wingers can also be excellent strikers – but let’s be honest, most can’t. And if we’re being even more honest, all of Raheem Sterling, Phil Foden, and Jack Grealish seem to fall into the latter category. There’s no shame in that at all. So it’s frustrating to see the trio used over and over again in positions that clearly don’t get the best out of them.
Raheem Sterling is a brilliant winger, but if you watched him for the first time today you’d wonder how he scored over 100 Premier League goals, and that’s simply because he’s being asked, for some unfathomable reason, to play in a role that doesn’t let him play to any of his strengths.
Jack Grealish doesn’t have the goal threat to be a forward for Manchester City and would likely fare better in midfield, while Phil Foden’s dribbling and pace make him an ideal candidate for the wide positions where he excelled at the start of his career – so why is he constantly stuck central?
Gabriel Jesus suddenly abandoning the striker role with apparently no resistance from Pep Guardiola was a real head-scratcher, and the failure to bring in Harry Kane last summer still rankles. It’s hard not to feel like our three English players are the ones being unfairly made to suffer for it.
Two stand-out City players – for very different reasons
Zack Steffen had a disaster of a game today. I’d be surprised if he’s ever played a worse match in his life.
While I’d like to point out that he’s cost Manchester City very few goals up to this point, his error for the second goal that as good as ended the game was inexcusably bad.
He’s no Ederson (but then again, who is?). The trouble is that if you start dismissing backup goalkeepers every time one of them costs you a match, you end up with very few options left.
On the opposite end of the spectrum was the imperious performance of Nathan Aké, who added to the distinction of having the most impressive hair in the squad by becoming one of the only center-backs I’ve ever seen play really well and still ship three goals.
He could do nothing about the second goal, for sure, but there were also several key moments when the Dutch defender prevented Liverpool from adding to their tally. It could have been much worse today if not for his heroics. That’s for the best because I don’t much like the idea of shipping five or six to Liverpool. There would be a statue of Jurgen Klopp outside Old Trafford in a fortnight.
Oh, and the other Blues who stood out today for all the wrong reasons were those chanting and jeering while the stadium tried to have a moment of silence for the victims of the Hillsborough Disaster. Don’t do that. Obviously.
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