Manchester City 3-0 Liverpool Review

Premier League GW11

Before this game, Manchester City had last beaten Liverpool during the Treble season (4-1) at the Etihad; they had never scored two goals from outside the box against them, and had lost the last two meetings. The team had lost just one game in the last thirteen, but there are statement wins that can bring those sorts of runs to another level. For the fans to now feel confident about future games against the ‘top six’, the media will start to realise how good the team is, and for the group itself, it’ll bring them plenty of confidence and momentum as we head towards a congested winter schedule.

MOTM: JEREMY DOKU

This was the best performance by Jeremy Doku in a City shirt this season, and perhaps in his career at the club. He is the first player to attempt 10+ take-ons, win 10+ duels, create 3+ created, have 3+ shots on target, and score in a Premier League game since Eden Hazard for Chelsea vs West Ham in April 2019. Jeremy Doku had more carries into the opposition penalty area (4) than the entire Liverpool team combined (1). Among the T10 for most successful take-ons in a single PL match by Jeremy Doku at Manchester City. Liverpool (4) is the only team that appears more than twice. He certainly enjoys playing against them, regardless of who plays at right-back.

Notable Stats:

• Man City have had less than 50% possession in four of their 11 Premier League games this season - only in 2020-21 have they done so more often in a season under Pep Guardiola (5 games):
  - 49.4% vs Liverpool (H)
  - 48.9% vs Bournemouth (H)
  - 33.8% vs Arsenal (A)
  - 45.4% vs United (H)

• Erling Haaland has 14 goals in 11 Premier League games this season - the second-most any player has scored in their team's first 11 games of a season in the competition, behind only Haaland himself in 2022-23 (17).

• The most matches by Premier League players since 2017 to have completed in a single match 10+ progressive carries, 5+ successful take-ons, 5+ shot-creating actions, and 5+ progressive passes:
  Jeremy Doku - 7  
  Eden Hazard - 6
  Wilfried Zaha - 3

• Manchester City have scored two goals from outside the box in a Premier League match against Liverpool for the first time.

• Bernardo Silva (48) has now provided more Premier League assists than Sergio Aguero (47). Kevin De Bruyne and David Silva are the only Man City players with more assists for the club in the competition’s history.

Game Stats:

Manchester City 3-0 Liverpool

• xG: 1.65 - 0.88

• xThreat: 0.98 - 1.06

• Possession: 49.4% - 50.6%

• Field Tilt: 56.0% - 44.0%

• Penalty Box Shots: 8 - 5

• Deep Entries: 15 - 5

• PPDA: 9.4 - 9.3

• High Turnovers: 1 - 6

Phil Foden (1,087), Nico Gonzalez (1,025), Nico O'Reilly (1,026), and Donnarumma (1,080) all join the 1,000 minutes club for Manchester City this season.

Nico Gonzalez has played four consecutive full 90s for the first time in his City career.

Matheus Nunes has completed a full 90 in nine of the last eleven games.

Since Donnarumma arrived at Manchester City, he's only conceded 7 goals and kept 6 clean sheets in 12 games.

If you want to stay up-to-date on individual player minutes, back four combinations, underlying numbers, and more, check out the live Google sheet below. 👇

Here is how the team set up against Liverpool, in what was a very similar approach to what we saw against Bournemouth. Cherki, Silva, and Dias are all back on the team. Doku and Cherki moved inside with Foden to be an option between the lines. Both full-backs are stretching the width on either side. They’d position themselves not on the opposition defensive line but between, so that Bradley and Robertson had a decision to make. Behind Salah and Wirtz.

Looking at the T10 in the PL for longest average progressive carries, there are Nico O'Reilly (14.1m) and Matheus Nunes (13.3m). Both have completed 45+ progressive carries.

In the second half against Bournemouth, Iraola instructed his full-backs to follow the wingers inside, leaving space for O’Reilly in the lead-up to the third goal. Liverpool started the game by leaving that space open. If City were able to find either the full-back or winger quickly enough, you had a 2v1 against the opposition full-back.

For Bernardo Silva, it was the same role as vs Bournemouth to make the pitch feel small in possession and relieve pressure out of possession. Stretch the pressing distances for Liverpool on the right side. Dribble when you need to slow down the tempo and then pass it on. Drop between the CBs in the buildup.

At the other end, Manchester City set up to press Liverpool by having Haaland direct play away from the side of VVD and eventually lock Liverpool on the right side. Foden has to stay in the centre and time his jump well. Leaving Konate on the ball to play long balls into Salah under pressure, an area they managed to keep a +1 in.

Cherki tucks inside, coming towards the free pivot. Wirtz's wanting to move inside made the job of trucking him easy for Nunes. Nico had to track Szoboszlai's movement and know when to drop into the backline. They were happy to leave Robertson as the free player, far away from the side being pressed.

Konate completed 70 passes in the game, the most of any Liverpool player, with Gravenberch second with 53. For Konate, this season, that’s the most long passes he’s attempted in a single match (11) and the third most total passes completed. Just 41 for Virgil van Dijk, which is his lowest total in a Premier League match this season. The same for long passes completed (2).

You also saw Manchester City fall back on, as in previous games like against United and Bournemouth, using a more conservative approach out of possession in a midblock. To be more aggressive, Foden and Bernardo, either side of Haaland, can step up to press the first line of the opposition buildup for a 4-3-2-1. Leaving Doku - Nico - Cherki in the second line. In a winning game state, they can fall into a 4-1-4-1 midblock to maintain the staggered trio against teams looking to play between the lines, and quickly shift across to have three players locking down an opposition attack down the flank.

Foden was through into the penalty box if not for a poor first touch, which set the tone for the game; Manchester City were going to play through Liverpool. A couple more followed before the penalty (13’) won by Jeremy Doku, the first of the season for City. His relentless approach to this game brought him luck of the ball falling for him in the box before being brought down. Cherki had a shot in the box blocked.

From the last five penalties Haaland has missed, one off the crossbar against Sporting, one well saved by Pickford on the left side, and then three saved at the bottom right corner. The same as this one against Liverpool. No reason to take him off the penalties, but he’ll want to change that approach for shooting bottom right, or not use it at all.

Jeremy Doku had another chance inside the box, back to the full-back, quick turn, and shoots near-post, which was going in if not for the save.

Erling Haaland 29' 1-0  

With the Liverpool full-backs following City wingers inside, space opened up in turn for the City full-backs. The twenty pass move begins in City's own corner, winning back the ball, and then Nico can play the pass over the top to Nunes. He drives the team up the pitch on the right side before they circulate the ball.

Eventually, they work the ball back to Gvardiol before returning to Nunes in space 1v1. He shapes for the cross, and the fake buys him the time to deliver the ball into the box. Header from Haaland into the right corner. Touch fortunate in the attempt by Konate to flick it on.

Nico González 45+3' 2-0 

Manchester City gets its first set-piece goal of the PL season, starting from a short corner. Bernardo passes to Cherki, who draws in two players and passes back. One time pass to Nico Gonzalez. One touch out from his feet and shoots outside the box. Takes a slight deflection as VVD sticks a foot out to try to block the shot.

Manchester City go in at half-time leading 2-0, which felt deserved as much as needed in these games. Despite how well the team played, these margins are fine, and Slot has proven to be very effective at making half-time adjustments since arriving at Liverpool. Although Manchester City finished the game with less possession, in the first half they led with 57% and the approach to sit off more in the second half came with the winning game state.

It wasn’t long into the second half that Cherki came off for Savinho (53’), which I thought was the right move from Guardiola. He’s lost the ball twice in a dangerous position, leading to a City player needing to give away a tactical foul. It wasn’t his best performance, moments he shoots instead of passing to an open teammate, but nothing at all to worry about.

Gakpo and Kerkez came on early in the second half (56’), with the former causing more issues than Wirtz with his willingness to attack the back-post and physicality on the ball. Their two best chances come after that change, with Gakpo shooting off target at the back-post, which Nunes did well to put him off. The same for Donnarumma and Gvardiol to put off Salah when he got through into the box, and his chip went wide.

Jérémy Doku 63' 3-0 

As mentioned with the first goal, Liverpool's approach to follow the wingers inside gave space out wide to the City full-backs. Short passes on the right side before Nico can hit the long pass over to O'Reilly on the opposite side. Lays it off for Jeremy Doku, who stands up Konate, cuts inside and shoots into the top right corner.

Jeremy Doku came off shortly after his goal for Marmoush (74’). The game is won when you’re up 3-0. It’s now about seeing it out and maintaining the energy levels of the team. Which Savinho and Marmoush could provide. The Liverpool subs after the third goal, with Jones, Chiesa, and Gomez coming on, weren’t changes to go win the game.

Although Doku has played 994 minutes this season across all competitions, he’s only played a full ninety minutes twice. He’s been managed well with subs between the 70th - 80th minutes.

Winning your duels is something Arne Slot has mentioned many times since arriving in the Premier League, and in the game, they only managed to win 39% of ground duels and 38% of aerial duels.

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Moving Forward

This was a huge win for the team as they look to build momentum towards a congested winter schedule, knowing they can beat the current champions and move within four points of Arsenal. Now they need to follow that up with a win against Newcastle, knowing that it’s Spurs (H) for Arsenal.

For the likes of Nunes, O’Reilly, and Nico Gonzalez, this game showed the levels they’ve gone up within several months. Jeremy Doku proved he’s one of the best wingers in Europe this season. Phil Foden and Bernardo Silva reminded people what really wins you the midfield battle.

Jeremy Doku now has more passes into the final third (15) this season than he managed across all competitions last season (12). Which gives you an insight into his increasing role inside to progress the ball. He's completed more through balls this season (9) than he's done in any other season across his career.

24/25 > 25/26
- D1/3 touches per-90 2.53 > 5.80
- M1/3 touches per-90 13.4 > 16.1

You can see that involvement in the middle of the pitch with his touch maps below for the last eight Premier League games.

Something to bear in mind with Jeremy Doku, hitting this level, is how few minutes he’s played compared to other wingers at a similar age. Sterling has played 100+ more 90s than Jeremy Doku at 23.

This is the T10 for minutes played heading into the November international break. The only players in the current T10 who also finished last season in the T10 were Erling Haaland, Josko Gvardiol, Ruben Dias, and Phil Foden. Bernardo, Ederson, Gundogan, Kovacic, Akanji, and Lewis are all outside the T10 or have left the club.

One of the knock-on effects of playing Phil Foden in midfield is that him being better positioned to play long passes forward to the full-backs and wingers. Across all competitions for Manchester City, only Donnarumma (60) has completed more than Foden (54). Career average at City has been 4.82 long passes attempted per 90. This season, he's attempting 9.75 per-90.

Comparing corresponding fixtures to last season, Manchester City are +11 points, and when you look at the underlying numbers, it’s encouraging.

Against Liverpool, the Manchester City team ran 118.0km compared to the 109.2km of Liverpool. 8.8km difference, which is the second biggest gap this season. First is City vs Wolves with 9.7km. Phil Foden (12.76km) and Bernardo Silva (12.73km) ran the most in the game. In a single PL match this season, only Phil Foden vs Everton (12.85km) and Florentino Luis vs Forest (12.78km) have run more. Last season, Manchester City averaged 109.8km per game, so they’re up by 5.5km per game this season. No PL team averages more per game than City this season.

The last point to end on is to be careful with how you are describing the changes in Manchester City this season compared to last. Mainly, the notion of them becoming a direct team. Only Bournemouth (5) has scored more fast-break goals in the PL than City (4) this season.

On the flipside, Manchester City leads the PL for the most 10+ pass sequences (184), buildups (61), and buildup goals (5). The highest average number of passes per sequence (4.62).

The difference is in the details. Making better use of the tools we have. Combining the likes of Foden and Bernardo in small spaces, as well as the long passes in behind to O’Reilly, Nunes, and Haaland, attacking the big spaces in front of them

Next up for Manchester City is Newcastle (A) in the Premier League after the November international break on 22nd November at 17:30 (UK). Winning a game against a title contender doesn’t matter if you lose the following one. On the same weekend, Arsenal play Spurs (H), so it could be an opportunity to close the gap.