Liverpool face Manchester City in the Champions League quarterfinals on Tuesday. Here are five matchups that could decide the result.
Liverpool welcome Manchester City to Anfield on Tuesday for the first leg of what, if the recent history between the sides is any indication, should be the most exciting quarterfinal tie of the tournament. In two games this season, the sides have combined for 15 goals. So, yeah, this should be good.
Trent Alexander-Arnold vs. Leroy Sane
With Joe Gomez injured and Nathaniel Clyne still getting back to full fitness, Trent Alexander-Arnold is likely to start at right-back for the Reds (there’s a chance Clyne plays, but it seems slim since he’s yet to appear for the first team following nearly a year on the sidelines). The 19-year-old has had a mostly positive year, establishing himself as a valuable member of Jurgen Klopp’s squad, but he’s also committed several high-profile errors over the past month.
He was at fault in Liverpool’s loss to Manchester United at the beginning of March, when he failed to track a simple out-to-in run by Marcus Rashford, who gave United the lead, and against Crystal Palace at the weekend, when he made two similar errors against another pacey wide player, Wilfried Zaha. Alexander-Arnold is talented, and has made plenty of positive contributions, particularly going forward, but he’s a potential weak link.
There are few players better suited to exploiting those sorts of losses of concentration than Leroy Sane. The German is electric, with and without the ball, and is most dangerous when coming off the wing to get on the end of through balls from Kevin De Bruyne and David Silva. That’s not quite the same sort of run with which Rashford and Zaha punished Alexander-Arnold — they were running onto flick-ons from big target men, something that definitely won’t feature in City’s gameplan — but it’s similar enough to be a concern.
Alexander-Arnold’s recent errors have come down to a lack of focus, not a lack of quality (whatever else he is, he’s fast, more than capable of keeping pace with Sane). The measure of a young player isn’t whether he makes mistakes, but how and how quickly he learns from them. And so while Klopp would presumably have liked to have Clyne fully fit, this is an opportunity for Alexander-Arnold to show he’s learned his lesson, and can maintain focus in a big game for (at least) 90 minutes.
Mohamed Salah vs. Aymeric Laporte
Like Klopp, Pep Guardiola has some full-back-related fitness issues. Kyle Walker will start on the right, but it remains to be seen who will play on the left with Benjamin Mendy and Fabian Delph out injured. Oleksandr Zinchenko has been used there, but Aymeric Laporte started on the weekend against Everton. There’s also a possibility Guardiola plays a back three, with Vincent Kompany, Nicolas Otamendi and Laporte at center-back, and Walker and Sane as wing-backs.
Whether he’s a left-back or left center-back, however, Laporte is likely to be the player primarily responsible for keeping tabs on Mohamed Salah. The Egyptian took his goal tally to 37 in all competitions against Crystal Palace on Saturday, and is ideally suited to exploiting the space City leave at the back when they push forward. His interplay with Roberto Firmino, who’s so good at dropping deep to play as a number 10, has been the standout feature of Liverpool’s attack this season.
Perhaps the key tactical question ahead of this match is how cautious Guardiola will be. Will he go all-out for the win or will he ask his side to sit deeper and limit the space Salah (and Sadio Mane) have to run into, as he did in the first meeting between the sides this season, at least until Mane got sent off? The latter option will come less naturally to Guardiola, but with the second leg to be played in Manchester, and Salah possibly facing a mis-match against a center-back playing out of position, it might be the best option.
Dejan Lovren vs. Gabriel Jesus
Joel Matip will miss the rest of the season with a thigh injury, meaning his brief battle with Dejan Lovren to earn the starting center-back spot next to Virgil van Dijk is over, at least for now. Lovren will start, and be expected to be the more aggressive of Liverpool’s center-backs, tracking Gabriel Jesus when he drops deeper into midfield and trying to cut out passes into the Brazilian’s feet. Lovren has made his fair share of errors in his time at Anfield, but it’s only fair to point out he was excellent (and the captain, as it happens) when the Reds beat City earlier this season.
When he’s playing well, his willingness to take risks attacking the ball can be a key catalyst for his side going forward. When it goes wrong, of course, all hell can break loose, but such is the nature of the tactical line Klopp asks his side to walk. Lovren’s most high-profile errors this season have come against big target men, Harry Kane and Romelu Lukaku, which may or not be cause for optimism as he prepares to face a small, skillful forward who will be targeted in the air very rarely, if at all.
Still, while Jesus is unlikely to challenge Lovren for long balls, his desire to drop deep and combine with his teammates will pose serious problems of its own. Indeed, Guardiola seems to prefer Jesus to the more prolific Sergio Aguero (who is expected to miss the game with a knock) for just this reason. While Aguero is among the best pure goalscorers in the world, Jesus does more non-goalscoring things well and can, when he’s playing well, open up a whole new dimension to City’s attack (which seems like it should have run out of dimensions by now, but seems to keep finding new ones anyway). Lovren will need help from his midfield to deal with that threat, but if he’s successful preventing City playing into Jesus’ feet, he could be a big difference maker.
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Fernandinho vs. the Liverpool press
Fernandinho isn’t City’s best player, but he has a huge amount of responsibility in Guardiola’s system. He sets the tempo when City have the ball and is tasked with shielding his defenders in transition. For most of this season, that’s been the easy part — City retain possession so well, the moments when Fernandinho is exposed are few and far between — but Liverpool exposed him in their 4-3 win at Anfield in January, pressing him relentlessly and exploiting his relative lack of speed when their midfielders broke from deep.
Handling Liverpool’s press isn’t, or shouldn’t be, Fernandinho’s job alone, but he’s the one most likely to be made to look bad. Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain dribbled past him for the opener in that 4-3 game, and he was overrun during Liverpool’s most dominant spell of the match, when they scored three goals in 10 minutes to (just about) seal the result. If Liverpool have a similar spell on Tuesday, Fernandinho must keep his head. He’s been superb this season, and is more than capable of holding up under that sort of pressure, but a loss of focus or confidence could turn the tide in the home side’s favor.
Manchester City vs. Anfield
On the pitch, there’s almost nothing Liverpool have that Manchester City don’t have some better version of. Whatever edge the Reds’ front three gives them, City more than make up for in midfield and defense. As we saw in January, however, superior individual quality is no guarantee of victory. Klopp’s high-pressing tactics have given him more success against Guardiola than any manager in the world. If Liverpool are to advance, their press will have to be at least as good as it was then.
Perhaps their biggest edge, however, is their stadium. Anfield may not be the fortress it once was on a weekly basis, but when the occasion calls for it, the Kop can still be a game-changer. The Anfield noise was a defining feature of Liverpool’s run to the Europa League final two seasons ago, and even Guardiola admitted the atmosphere rattled City’s players in that 4-3 loss in January. Perhaps the experience will mean they’re better prepared this time around, but a stray pass here, a scuffed clearance there and things could go south quickly for the visitors.
City, to be clear, are capable of silencing any stadium in the world, and quickly. They nearly silenced Anfield three months ago. But as a club, they simply don’t seem to share the sense of occasion Liverpool do, the desperation for success, particularly in this competition. This may all prove meaningless in the face of what is a truly stunning City team, but if Liverpool reach the higher level they must to advance, the Anfield crowd will almost certainly have something to do with it.
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