City’s deepest lying playmaker stops the turbo squad
The Community Shield is often regarded as a semi-friendly with both teams just ending pre-season and sometimes with another friendly in-between the start of the league and the Community Shield. This year it was between the best two teams in English football, Manchester City and Liverpool. City’s sweep of the domestic cups meant that they’ll face the Premier League runners up Liverpool.
Both sides started in their regular 4–3–3 with Liverpool arguably fielding their strongest 11 bare Sadio Mane who returned late from the AFCON. City, on the other hand debuted their new signing from Atletico Madrid, Rodri Hernandez.
From the start of the game it was clear that City had embraced the change to the goal kick rule. The change as stated by the IFAB means that the ball can be played before it has left the penalty area. So instead of having center backs by the edge of the penalty box, they can be as deep as the edge of the six yard box, and that’s exactly what City did.
One of Nicolas Otamendi or John Stones will be as close as possible to Claudio Bravo during goal kicks as the other offered a passing option whether in the box or next to Rodri. The extra deep build up meant that for Liverpool to press they have to press City inside their box, further ahead from what would have normally happened before the change of the law. A domino effect would mean that Liverpool’s midfield and defenders have to push up as well to keep vertical compactness, and that was exactly what Pep Guardiola had in plan.
With Liverpool players pushing to press and defenders pushing forward to keep vertical compactness Bravo played long balls behind Liverpool’s full backs for the pacey front three, Bernardo Silva, Raheem Sterling and Leroy Sane. As early as the first minute of the game these long balls started, first to Bernardo behind Andy Robertson, then for Sane behind Trent Alexander-Arnold twice in the fifth and eighth minute with Sane getting injured in the second long ball. Then the one which created the most danger in the sixteenth minute when Gabriel Jesus — who took Sane’s place with Sterling going out wide — attacked the space behind Arnold. Jesus’ ball eventually fell to Sterling after trying to play Kevin De Bruyne through on goal, but the English forward shot it towards Alisson Becker.
In addition to the long balls, Bravo’s positioning during the build up meant that he was essentially playing as an extra player in the build up, getting involved in the short sequence of passes and demanding the ball frequently. This was aided by the exquisite positioning of Rodri, Stones and Otamendi which helped the carrier of the ball with multiple passing options at different angles.
City’s impressive build up however didn’t save them from defensive mistakes or poor clearances especially from Oleksandr Zinchenko who gave Mohamed Salah multiple opportunities. It was first Roberto Firmino though who stopped the ball glamorously ahead of Zinchenko then flicked it over his own head to strike the ball with his left foot for an easy save for Bravo. After that, Robertson’s quick anticipation of Stones’ pass put Liverpool in an offensive transition state with Firmino playing in Salah who was ahead of Zinchenko but the Egyptian shot it poorly, not even on target. It was Zinchenko again missing an aerial ball then getting beaten by the pace of Salah, but the Egyptian was unlucky as his ball hit the post from a tight angle. Salah’s last chance in the half came after a poor header from Zinchenko but Salah’s shot was way over the bar.
During Liverpool’s rain of chances City managed to score their only goal of the game from a set piece as the ball fell to Sterling inside the six yard box. What was impressive though, was how City limited Liverpool in the defensive phase. City moved into a 4–4–1–1 shape with De Bruyne dropping next to Rodri to keep tabs of Firmino’s runs in midfield. De Bruyne was alert to these passes towards Firmino and caught his runs multiple times. Offensively, the Belgian was silently killing Liverpool with his runs in the right channel. In the thirteenth minute, Bernardo Silva chested an aerial ball towards Jesus then the Brazilian chested it towards De Bruyne’s path in the right channel luckily for Liverpool De Bruyne fluffed his cross. The attack after that De Bruyne was again untracked in the right channel as Jordan Henderson was in an advanced position. De Bruyne ran behind Robertson but this time it was Alisson who anticipated his cross. The runs in the right channel kept coming, and in the twenty-seventh minute Bernardo dropped deep towards the half-way line as De Bruyne ghosted past Liverpool’s defence. The Portuguese played the ball behind the defence for De Buryne but Joe Gomez reacted quickly to block De Bruyne’s cross for Jesus. The last ball of the half was identical to the one in the thirteenth minute with Henderson in no man’s land again and De Bruyne behind Robertson, but the ball was too heavy for De Bruyne to catch. The killing kept silent as De Bruyne’s execution failed his secret mission.
In the second half Juergen Klopp changed the positions of Gini Wijnaldum and Henderson with the latter moving back to his regular position on the right side. Henderson’s poor tracking of De Bruyne could have been the reason, but the change was as well to attack City’s weak link during the first half which was Zinchenko. Salah now positioned himself wider as Henderson darted towards the space between Otamendi and Zinchenko pressuring the Ukrainian midfielder turned left back to eventually provide more freedom for Salah whether inside or outside. Salah’s trickery continued bamboozling the City defence and he hit the post again in the fifty-seventh minute. It was in the sixty-eighth minute though that Henderson’s darts came into effectiveness. Attacking the right channel he played in Salah who was outside rather than inside the field, the Egyptian had the space to rocket the ball perfectly towards the left bottom corner but Bravo saved it exquisitely with his left hand.
As Liverpool had scoring chances in the first half during City’s dominance, City too had ones in the second half during Liverpool’s dominance. Sterling hitting the post in a 1 v 1 situation against Alisson, then weirdly fumbling the ball when he could have shot or passed it to the advancing Kyle Walker. The equalizer came yet again form a set piece. City’s minions couldn’t handle the aerial prowess of Virgil van Dijk and Joel Matip.
“Enter the turbo squad” the commentators should have shouted when Klopp decided to do a triple substitution introducing Xherdan Shaqiri, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, and Adam Lallana with 12 minutes to go. They replaced Firmino, Divock Origi and Henderson respectively with Salah now playing the furthest forward.
When the sun sets down on Klopp’s career his finest achievement won’t be the BundesLiga, DFB Pokal, Champions League or maybe the Premier League. It will be the introduction of gegenpressing and how it evolved football. The word roughly translates to counter press but rather than countering the press it’s more about pressing the counter to create your own counter. Klopp’s sides feast on transitions so changing the defensive transition into an attacking one is their bread and butter. Klopp sees this phase — the transition phase — as the phase when the opponent is most vulnerable as the structure is yet to be in shape, and that’s when he loves to strike the most.
Liverpool had four major chances to score the winner during the final twelve minutes of the game, two of these chances came from a Liverpool player applying gegenpressing and pressing a City player intensively during an offensive transition for City. Another one came from winning a second ball. In the eighty-second minute City had just collected the ball after Otamendi won a header and were preparing for an offensive transition, Matip immediately pressed De Bruyne near the half way line to regain the ball and change Liverpool’s mode from being in a defensive transition to an offensive one. He successfully did that and after a couple of passes the ball fell to Naby Keita on the edge of the box but his shot was saved by Bravo. The second exhibition of gegenpressing was after four minutes. Zinchenko had just intercepted Gomez’s pass putting City in the offensive transition phase, he gave it to Guendogan who was immediately pressed by Wijnaldum and Keita. Keita intercepted the ball which fell to Salah, Salah had his umpteenth shot on goal but again it was saved by Bravo. Salah had a chance to finally reward his performance on the day but Walker cleared it off the line. Liverpool’s final spark was a 2nd ball won by Lallana after he collected Otamendi’s header comfortably. Lallana played Salah who played Shaqiri on the left. The Swiss tried to trick Bravo by placing the ball in the bottom left corner but Bravo was alert and managed yet another save.
Penalties beckoned with the score at 1–1 and the hero of the day certified his place as the best player on the field by saving Wijnaldum’s penalty. Bravo’s importance wasn’t only because of his saves, he was instrumental to City’s build up acting as the deepest lying playmaker of them all, a title probably Ederson deserves but it looks like the Brazilian has got some competition in that category.
