Liverpool's draw with Spurs on Saturday evening was a big blow, but you’d have to say that Tottenham got their tactics right. We huffed and puffed a little bit but there was no lack of effort. We just couldn’t get that breakthrough. You’ve got to give Spurs credit for doing a bit of a job on us.
When you look at the players and mark them out of 10, we didn’t have enough eights really. When we’re playing really well three or four of them could get an eight. But there was a lot of sixes and the only one who really shone was (Luis) Diaz. No one could really break them down or find a way to produce a bit of quality. They didn’t make any mistakes that we could capitalise on. When they got their goal it was always going to be hard to get two.
Same Anfield game plan
Every team pretty much plays the same against Liverpool. Everton, Chelsea, Villarreal, AC Milan - they play with five across the back - a 5-4-1 like a Christmas tree formation. It’s really hard to get in-between the lines. Subsequently you need a mistake or a piece of brilliance to find a way through. Spurs also wasted a lot of time, going down injured constantly. All these teams do it exactly the same way.
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You need a plan B, but we do it a different way, bringing good players off the bench. What I did notice in the second half against Spurs - we put really good balls in from the right hand side, four or five times, but all the forwards were on top of each other in the six yard box. No one took a gamble, spinning off to the far post. It would have been a good ploy. We were panicking a little bit. We knew how big the game was. That happens sometimes, bit it is what it is.
City masters of England but certainly not Europe
Manchester City know how to win the Premier League but they don’t know how to win the European Cup. I’ve said it before. They’re a very strong team and produced a good response against Newcastle on Sunday after going out of the Champions League. But although they scored five goals, when Liverpool went to St James’ park the other week, if our forwards had been on the ball, we’d have scored four or five ourselves. So in reality, I always knew that City were going to go there and win.
It means that we now need to make up a four goal gap in goal difference before the end of the season, so it’s almost like a four point gap, which makes it doubly hard. But the lads have been brilliant. We’ve been spoiled this season by a top, top team.
Premier League would be nothing without Jurgen Klopp's Reds
As a manager Pep Guardiola has been unbelievable. If it wasn’t for Man City we would have won two or three more league titles. The Premier League should be down on their knees thanking Jurgen Klopp for making it half decent and interesting, because without Liverpool the Premier League would be absolutely rubbish, with just one team winning it every year.
The media may be perceived to favour Liverpool over Manchester City because they know that we are a genuine club. We haven't had to fabricate it and do things like City have. They have a great manager but he can't win the Champions League with them. Without Liverpool, our league would be like Paris Saint-Germain in France or Bayern Munich in Germany. Before City did what they've done, the Premier League was never like this.
