Before the game Klopp described Guardiola as "the best manager in football" – and I really think Klopp is sincere in his praise there. He's been influenced by Guardiola's ideas (I would argue somewhat to his detriment) back in Germany when at some point he tried to mold Borussia into something resembling Guardiola's Bayern, going away from his patented counter-attacking style in favor of more possession. At Liverpool too, I think whenever Klopp went back to more direct "vertical" style of play we looked far more coherent than in those periods when we would have 75% possession and yet struggle to create chances. Back to Guardiola, I think the best thing about him as a manager is that he's a never-ending fountainhead of ideas; he tries and tinkers with every single player's position and every detail and many of the ideas he comes up with are actually very good or at least fresh and unexpected (which is why I guess Klopp and so many other managers always keep one eye on what he's doing). His biggest weakness, however, is a continuation of this strength – whenever Guardiola finds a winning formula he simply cannot stick with it, he always has to pursue some new great thing even when the current thing is working just fine.
You have to admit it was really impressive how Guardiola "solved" our high press last night. The insane-looking starting lineup turned out to have a clear plan and purpose – with De Bruyne always dropping deep in the build-up phase, City had 3 nominal CBs and not one but two deep-lying playmakers, which gave them a numerical advantage over our press. It was an elegant solution to a problem no other opposing manager was quite able to solve this season – how to nullify Liverpool's high press. Initially Milner and Ox tried to push up to even up the numbers, but the risk of exposing the midfield proved too great to bear and after 10 minutes or so our players looked at a loss at what to do, the defense felt "naked" without the shielding from the front and started dropping deep inside the penalty area while the waves of City attacks were coming faster and faster.
City's build up shape in the 1st half, Walker (or De Bruyne) is the "extra man" who allows them to outnumber our pressers, Sane and B. Silva play the role normally reserved for advanced full-backs:
Somewhat unfairly, Klopp doesn't have the best reputation for making in-game changes, but here he was able to come up with a temporary solution quickly and convey it to the players – after around 30 minutes high press was abandoned, Firmino went to the left flank with Salah tasked with holding up the ball in the middle (which BTW he did expertly, like a true centre-forward) and Mane on the right. Milner and Ox also switched flanks in midfield, with Milner now tasked with helping Trent against the dangerous combination of Sane and David Silva (before that he was trying to mark De Bruyne, which didn't work). We've acquired a bit more solidity in overall play and started slowing down the frequency of City's attacks, but it just so happened that City had their 2 best chances of the game in that period with Sane's disallowed goal and Bernardo Silva hitting the post (maybe some initial confusion after the tactical changes was a factor). Still, having somehow survived this period of adjustment, we were able to start developing some counter-play by the end of the half, which finally resulted in our first dangerous attack of the game right on the stroke of half-time.
At half-time, Klopp further refined the in-game changes: front 3 stayed in place, but Milner and Ox were switched back to their original sides (Milner on the left, Ox on the right), but with the difference that instead of chasing Fernandinho and De Bruyne high up the field they now were stationed closer to Wijnaldum, which allowed Gini (who had a miserable first half) to play with much more freedom and show the best sides of his game. But the biggest and possibly the most decisive change came unexpectedly from the City bench – they switched to a back four! I was a bit too caught up in the emotion to catch it during the game, but Souness made a point about this afterwards and I rewatched parts of the 2nd half to confirm – that's right, incredibly, despite dominating the first half and generally being on course for a win (if not in the tie, then at least in the match), Guardiola has decided to drastically change the team shape after 45 minutes, putting Fernandinho at CB alongside Otamendi with De Bruyne and Silva now playing as the 2 CMs in front of the back 4:
Even without consciously noticing this tactical change at the time, everyone could immediately feel that we suddenly had a lot more space to operate in midfield. Where Gini was overrun in the first half, now he had space and time to receive the ball, turn and drive or pass forward, which is how Salah's decisive goal eventually came about. Where it seemed like we were playing against 12 or 13 City players in the first half, now we had a numerical advantage in the middle, with David Silva in particular lacking the athleticism to cover the huge spaces between their back four and ours (soon he was substituted). Finally, now that Fernandinho had to stay back in line with Otamendi, it opened giant gaps of space in front of the back 4 and those were the spaces that Firmino, Salah and Mane used to build up our killer counter-attacks.
Souness said that the only possible tactical advantage of this move was that Walker was now able to join in the attack (which he did, with very little effect), but that advantage was offset by Laporte not being able to do the same from the left (because he's not a left-back) as well as a couple of big problems I outlined above, so in the end City lost much more than they have gained from the change. This was literally a case of shooting himself in the foot at the most key moment, brilliantly solving a challenge only to throw the solution away – and here we need to return to the point I made at the start of this post. Guardiola is surely one of the most innovative managers of our time, but sometimes he just cannot help himself. He had us on the ropes in the first half; Klopp did his best to mitigate the damage, but it was still unclear who was going to prevail at 1:0 – and then, by either losing his nerve or trying to be too clever, Guardiola has single-handedly destroyed his own team's best chance of winning the tie.
I wonder if City fans have noticed this on their message boards. @Woland?
UPD: I managed to scroll through about 30 pages of the post-match thread on BlueMoon; exactly 2 people out of 300 noticed the giant tactical fuck-up by their manager. Most predictably blame the referees, some vague UEFA conspiracy and a few also slag off Sterling and Otamendi.
You have to admit it was really impressive how Guardiola "solved" our high press last night. The insane-looking starting lineup turned out to have a clear plan and purpose – with De Bruyne always dropping deep in the build-up phase, City had 3 nominal CBs and not one but two deep-lying playmakers, which gave them a numerical advantage over our press. It was an elegant solution to a problem no other opposing manager was quite able to solve this season – how to nullify Liverpool's high press. Initially Milner and Ox tried to push up to even up the numbers, but the risk of exposing the midfield proved too great to bear and after 10 minutes or so our players looked at a loss at what to do, the defense felt "naked" without the shielding from the front and started dropping deep inside the penalty area while the waves of City attacks were coming faster and faster.
City's build up shape in the 1st half, Walker (or De Bruyne) is the "extra man" who allows them to outnumber our pressers, Sane and B. Silva play the role normally reserved for advanced full-backs:
Somewhat unfairly, Klopp doesn't have the best reputation for making in-game changes, but here he was able to come up with a temporary solution quickly and convey it to the players – after around 30 minutes high press was abandoned, Firmino went to the left flank with Salah tasked with holding up the ball in the middle (which BTW he did expertly, like a true centre-forward) and Mane on the right. Milner and Ox also switched flanks in midfield, with Milner now tasked with helping Trent against the dangerous combination of Sane and David Silva (before that he was trying to mark De Bruyne, which didn't work). We've acquired a bit more solidity in overall play and started slowing down the frequency of City's attacks, but it just so happened that City had their 2 best chances of the game in that period with Sane's disallowed goal and Bernardo Silva hitting the post (maybe some initial confusion after the tactical changes was a factor). Still, having somehow survived this period of adjustment, we were able to start developing some counter-play by the end of the half, which finally resulted in our first dangerous attack of the game right on the stroke of half-time.
At half-time, Klopp further refined the in-game changes: front 3 stayed in place, but Milner and Ox were switched back to their original sides (Milner on the left, Ox on the right), but with the difference that instead of chasing Fernandinho and De Bruyne high up the field they now were stationed closer to Wijnaldum, which allowed Gini (who had a miserable first half) to play with much more freedom and show the best sides of his game. But the biggest and possibly the most decisive change came unexpectedly from the City bench – they switched to a back four! I was a bit too caught up in the emotion to catch it during the game, but Souness made a point about this afterwards and I rewatched parts of the 2nd half to confirm – that's right, incredibly, despite dominating the first half and generally being on course for a win (if not in the tie, then at least in the match), Guardiola has decided to drastically change the team shape after 45 minutes, putting Fernandinho at CB alongside Otamendi with De Bruyne and Silva now playing as the 2 CMs in front of the back 4:
Even without consciously noticing this tactical change at the time, everyone could immediately feel that we suddenly had a lot more space to operate in midfield. Where Gini was overrun in the first half, now he had space and time to receive the ball, turn and drive or pass forward, which is how Salah's decisive goal eventually came about. Where it seemed like we were playing against 12 or 13 City players in the first half, now we had a numerical advantage in the middle, with David Silva in particular lacking the athleticism to cover the huge spaces between their back four and ours (soon he was substituted). Finally, now that Fernandinho had to stay back in line with Otamendi, it opened giant gaps of space in front of the back 4 and those were the spaces that Firmino, Salah and Mane used to build up our killer counter-attacks.
Souness said that the only possible tactical advantage of this move was that Walker was now able to join in the attack (which he did, with very little effect), but that advantage was offset by Laporte not being able to do the same from the left (because he's not a left-back) as well as a couple of big problems I outlined above, so in the end City lost much more than they have gained from the change. This was literally a case of shooting himself in the foot at the most key moment, brilliantly solving a challenge only to throw the solution away – and here we need to return to the point I made at the start of this post. Guardiola is surely one of the most innovative managers of our time, but sometimes he just cannot help himself. He had us on the ropes in the first half; Klopp did his best to mitigate the damage, but it was still unclear who was going to prevail at 1:0 – and then, by either losing his nerve or trying to be too clever, Guardiola has single-handedly destroyed his own team's best chance of winning the tie.
I wonder if City fans have noticed this on their message boards. @Woland?
UPD: I managed to scroll through about 30 pages of the post-match thread on BlueMoon; exactly 2 people out of 300 noticed the giant tactical fuck-up by their manager. Most predictably blame the referees, some vague UEFA conspiracy and a few also slag off Sterling and Otamendi.
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