Manchester City 4-0 Liverpool Review

FA Cup Quarter Finals

Winning the League Cup against Arsenal saw the team put in a great performance, but to have any chance of winning the Premier League or winning the FA Cup, the doubt in your mind is delivering those performances consistently. Despite having an international break, the team has done it back-to-back as if they only played the League Cup final a few days ago.

MOTM: ERLING HAALAND

He’s not had the best scoring run during 2026, and the performances have been mixed, but as he mentioned post-match, it’s about looking ahead to the next game and delivering. That’s what he did against Liverpool.

Excellent movement throughout, pulling the central defenders deep and out of the position. Dragging Konate wide in the lead-up to the second goal to give him the space in the middle to attack. Pumping on the brakes for the 4th goal, getting enough space to fire a shot off, and completing the hat-trick.

If Manchester City are going to win the FA Cup and/or the Premier League, they’ll need more of these performances from Erling Haaland.

Notable Stats:

• Manchester City have now reached 14 domestic cup semi-finals since Pep Guardiola took charge in 2016, more than any other side.

• Erling Haaland has now scored 46 goals in 50 games for club and country this season.

• Since his Manchester City debut in July 2022, Erling Haaland has scored 12 hat-tricks across all competitions, now the outright most across Europe’s big five leagues, moving one clear of Harry Kane (11).

• Liverpool have now lost 15 matches across all competitions this season, their most defeats in a single season since 2014/15, when the Reds lost 18 matches under Brendan Rodgers.

Game Stats:

Manchester City 4-0 Liverpool

• xG: 2.5 - 1.43

• Possession: 54.0% - 46.0%

• Field Tilt: 48.0% - 52.0%

• Penalty Box Shots: 6 - 8

• PPDA: 13.6 - 12.4

O'Reilly (3,421), Nunes (3,237), Dias (2,556), and Khusnaov (2,187) are the four most-used defenders by Manchester City this season.

Three consecutive starts for Rayan Cherki, his longest run since January.

Five games played by the Guehi - Khusanov CB partnership. Three wins, two draws, four goals conceded, and two clean sheets.

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. 👇

3-1-3-3, where Silva would at times drop next to Rodri, and when progressing into the final third, shifting to a 3-1-6 from Manchester City as O’Reilly and Silva pushed into the forward line. Szoboszlai was caught 2v1 covering Silva and O’Reilly, so that often pulling him deeper as Silva could drop to receive between the lines. Jones covering Cherki. Once they could get behind the 1st line of the Liverpool press, they enticed Gravenberch to jump; there was arces of space to drive into.

Continuation of the 4-2-4 sitting off the opposition, covering the passing lanes into the pivot, conceding the space out wide, and putting pressure on the keeper’s delivery passing long over the press. Liverpool moved their wingers inside to a 4-2-2-2 of sorts. They did try playing over to Ekitike, finding Wirtz pulling out to one side, and finding Gomez high up on one side, but struggled to make any of those options stick consistently.

Liverpool started the game brightly. Finding some success with Ekitike pulling out wide to recieve long balls from the keeper. Florian Wirtz is pulling out to the right side to support him. Flicks and short passes between those two helped to get them into promising positions. Wirtz (3’) and Szoboszlai (8’) have shots blocked. Ekitike (11’, 27’) missed shots. Salah (14’) has a great chance, in behind, brushed off Khusanov, who was still able to get back up and block the shot.

No shot from Liverpool after the 27th minute until the second half. Their success dried up as Manchester City dealt much better with the long balls, winning them, and controlling the second ball. Then stringing together possession.

Outside of the ball to Salah that Khusanov eventually blocked, Nunes was getting the better of Ekitike out wide on the right side. Mamardashvilli only completed 4/14 long balls. Two of those were out to Joe Gomez on the left side pushing high, but City were quickly able to close him down to force a turnover with NOR jumping and Doku tracking back.

It’s worth mentioning that although the 4-2-4 OOP shape, where you are more passive and blocking passing lanes, has known spaces you can exploit, it also means the players executing it are well aware and can easily anticipate what route you will take. You’re trusting the defenders to win their aerial duels, and the pivot to deal with the second balls. The wingers and FBs on either side are ready to snap into the opposition full-back if played around. The pivots are expecting and tracking the opposition 10s moving between the lines. Which means whilst the opposition can have some success progressing the ball in these routes, the defending team, if executed well, is still able to manage these situations and keep the opposition at arm’s length.

Second time around, Manchester City gets a penalty after O’Reilly is fouled inside the box by van Dijk. Silva and O’Reilly getting into the box was key for this in the lead-up, and for plenty of the chances they created over the course of the game.

It's a bit of a full-circle moment for Haaland scoring a penalty against Mamardashvili. That's the last keeper to save one of his, prompting the change in technique. He's now 5/5 since. Two of those were game winners. 4/5 shooting to the bottom right corner. The key difference is the slowed step in the run-up, watching the keeper. You could see the impact on the Liverpool players once going behind; their level dropped as City grew in confidence, retained possession well, and pinned them back.

2-0 E. Haaland (45'+2)
Back to Guehi, pulling out Liverpool to press, and through the lines, Nunes, who has moved inside. Now in space to turn and drive at the backline. Across to Cherki with a 2v1 against Kerkez, with Wirtz late getting back.

Plays through Semenyo into the box, underlapping and putting in the cross from the byline. You'll notice Erling Haaland making his initial movement away from the goal, dragging Konate towards the back-post, away from VVD, and opening up space in the middle.

Once the ball is delivered, Haaland makes his run into the 6-yard box to head across the keeper to the far corner. Now up to 6 headed goals this season across all competitions. 2 behind his best total during the 22/23 season.

Doubling the lead going into the break, given how tight these games can be, would have been a killer for Liverpool mentally. They’re already under big pressure this week, have a huge game against PSG midweek, and to get back in this one would need something special.

3-0 A. Semenyo (50')
Long throw from Liverpool straight into Guehi, first time passed to O'Reilly, who immediately looks up to find Cherki free. Liverpool doesn't counter-press quickly enough and not as a group.

Konate tracking Haaland. Semenyo runs off the back of VVD for Cherki to play through into the box. The attempt to intercept the pass is missed, and Semenyo chips it past the keeper into the far corner.

The second and third goals begin with Liverpool having a throw-in immediately turned over to Manchester City, and then not alive at all to counter-press. No plan to play out, poor positioning, and this ultimately cost them.

4-0 E. Haaland (57')
Excellent work by Manchester City in the lead-up to this goal. Pick up the loose ball, recycle, and lure Liverpool in by moving the ball across the backline. Then Rodri accelerates the tempo.

Doku drives Konate, cuts inside, and plays it through to O'Reilly, making the underlapping run behind Gomez.

Another example of good movement from Haaland, he makes his run to the middle of the box and slows right down once O'Reilly receives the ball to give himself some space to get a shot off as VVD drops deeper. Finishing the cutback off the crossbar and in.

Shortly after the fourth goal, Manchester City made the changes with Nico and Savinho coming on for Rodri and Doku (62’). There were absolutely goals left on the table, an opportunity to make it 6-0, but resting some and giving minutes to those two who have only started two of the last eight games was more useful.

Frimpong also came on for Gomez (62’). He was able and more comfortable higher up the pitch on the right side, helping in a period where Liverpool had more possession, and City were happy, at times, to sit off with the lead. After a Silva shot (66’) outside the box in the second half, they didn’t have another shot.

Penalty for Liverpool (64’) after Nunes is too aggressive with his tackle on Ekitike running into the box. It’s a poor effort by Salah, but well read by James Trafford, who was already on the move before Salah struck the ball.

There was little threat posed by Liverpool after the penalty, a shot from Mac Allister (76’) from way outside the box, and Gakpo had a header saved (81’) from a set-piece. That was it. Both teams made triple changes as the game fizzled out with the result locked in.

As mentioned at the start, this was an important performance to see that the team can do it back-to-back; it’s not a one-off in a Cup Final. That Erling Haaland put to bed some of the criticism he’s had lately. Khusanov, Semenyo, Cherki, and Guehi are looking comfortable within the setup despite being so early in their career.

After Arsenal lost to Southampton, the draw has opened up with a Semi-Final against them at Wembley. On the other side, it’s Chelsea against Leeds, who they’ve not beaten this season, and Rosenior hasn’t beaten Farke in his last three. Either way, they’ve got a good chance to do a Cup double, and that, regardless of the PL title result, will be a great step forward for this rebuilding Manchester City side.

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Moving Forward

Lijnders confirmed in the press conference post-match that Bernardo Silva will depart in the summer. Silva (450) is only 1 game away from matching Mike Summerbee (451) for the 8th most all-time Manchester City appearances. He's the only player in the T10 that's played for the club after 1986. Leads for all-time appearances in continental competitions (91), tied most titles won at the club (19), and tied for goals in the knockout phases of continental competitions (13).

There are plenty of important games still left to play in the FA Cup and Champions League. But I’m sure when the summer comes around, Bernardo Silva will get the send-off he deserves. This line by Lijnders, “I didn’t like him before [when I was at Liverpool], now I love him…” is a perfect way to describe Silva.

On the pitch, as he always does against Liverpool, Bernardo was excellent and key to the win, as Lijnders highlighted after the game. No doubt, it’s a huge task to replace him next season.

Antoine Semenyo is having his best season for goal contributions. At Bournemouth, averaging 0.63 per-90 and 0.75 at Manchester City.

For comparison, the best level of previous City wingers for this metric:
- Sane 18/19, 2,698 minutes > 1.10
- Mahrez 21/22, 2,934 minutes > 1.04
- Sterling 17/18, 3,561 minutes > 0.94
- Grealish 22/23, 3,474 minutes > 0.41

Semenyo now has 8 goals and 3 assists for Manchester City since arriving in January, joining Haaland (40), Cherki (20), Foden (15), O'Reilly (14), Reijnders (13), and Doku (13) as players with 10+ goal contributions this season.

This is how the squad is used in the Premier League this season. The likes of Haaland, Donnarumma, Silva, Nunes, and O’Reilly have been integral players throughout. Foden was for the majority of the season until recently. Injuries prevented Gvardiol and Jeremy Doku from joining that group. You can also see the injuries and AFCON impact on the seasons of Marmoush and Ait-Nouri.

Next up for Manchester City is Chelsea (A) on the 12th of April at 16:30 (UK time). Arsenal play against Bournemouth on Saturday, and they could extend the gap even further before kick-off.

In their last five games, Chelsea has won once, against Port Vale in the FA Cup. They’ve also not won their last three home games in the Premier League, against Newcastle, Burnley, and Leeds.

Enzo Fernandez is ruled out after being banned by Rosenior for his comments during the international break. Gittens, Chalobah, Colwill, Jorgensen, and James are all ruled out. Joao Pedro (19) leads them for goals across all competitions, and Pedro Neto (7) is their best provider.