Manchester City have had a tough week. Liverpool might make it even rougher at Wembley today.
The Premier League’s two best teams face off in the FA Cup semi-final with the season building up to a titanic finale. Both teams proceeded to the last four of the Champions League on Wednesday but City’s 0-0 draw with Atletico Madrid in the Wanda Metropolitano was a much more bruising experience than Liverpool’s outing against Benfica at Anfield. The Spanish side used every trick in the book to make life uncomfortable for the English champions.
Kevin De Bruyne limped off in the Spanish capital and is highly doubtful for today. Kyle Walker is also questionable. Altetico proved you cannot beat City with brute force. But you can hurt them. Jurgen Klopp needs no lessons from Diego Simeone on how to disrupt Pep Guardiola’s flow.
Liverpool’s approach in the second half of last week’s Premier League encounter at the Etihad showed that. City were the better side in the 2-2 draw but in the second half the away team made De Bruyne, in particular, pay the price when he ran with the ball. Fabinho and Thiago Alcantara both could have been sent off for challenges on the Belgian. Virgil van Dijk earned a booking when he clattered the 30-year-old from behind.
The players hugged, chatted and smiled at the final whistle but they will not be so friendly once play begins today. Even without De Bruyne, City like to run with the ball. If they do that on Wembley’s big pitch, Liverpool will aim to discourage them by making the game more physical.
What City did so well last week was pin Andy Robertson and Trent Alexander-Arnold back and restrict their impact going forward. They also exploited the Liverpool midfield’s lack of mobility in two ways – by pinging diagonal balls and running past them.
Phil Foden, Raheem Sterling, Bernardo Silva and Jack Grealish have the tools to commit men and go past opponents. City’s ability to stretch the defence will be important in the wide spaces of Wembley, too, and even though Walker will be sorely missed on the right if he is unable to participate, Joao Cancelo and Foden made Alexander-Arnold’s life difficult last week. Liverpool’s main task is twofold: deny City the time to look up and unload crossfield passes and stop the ballcarriers beating their first man and disrupting the defence’s shape. This requires more than pressing. Liverpool need to land their tackles.
That is a dangerous game. Klopp’s team picked up four yellow cards at the Etihad to City’s one. In the run-up to the league meeting, Liverpool fans whined about Anthony Taylor refereeing the game because the official is from Manchester. In the event, there was no sign of any pro-Mancunian bias. Michael Oliver is in charge today and even though he is from the northeast, he is unlikely to be as lenient as Taylor.
The difference between City and Liverpool is not huge but, in this era of fine margins, Guardiola’s squad have the advantage. That is not a surprise given the almost limitless resources available to the Etihad. But where City edge things in class, Klopp’s team have a streetfighting ethic that goes some way towards levelling things up.
Liverpool’s first-leg lead against Benfica gave the German flexibility in his deployment of players in the 3-3 draw on Wednesday. All of the front-line forwards and midfielders got some playing time but what was more instructive was the first-teamers who saw no action. Alexander-Arnold and Robertson remained on the bench, as did Van Dijk. There are obvious reasons to give the Dutchman a break – the last thing Klopp needs is for the centre half to pick up an injury – but resting the full backs was a tacit admission that both can expect a long, arduous shift today. For Liverpool to advance to the final, Alexander-Arnold and Robertson need to have a successful afternoon.
The space behind the full backs is where Guardiola’s runners want to be. To deny them access to those areas, the Liverpool midfield will have to be sharp in the tackle and quick to the man on the ball. The champions need to pay for possession and be made to suffer for their art. If things go well for Klopp, it might turn out to be the most bruising week City have had to endure for a while, both physically and mentally.
