All this, of course, should be taken into account when saying that City is a great team. So is Liverpool. These are not just great teams in the context of 2021-22 but historically. City will win the league if they win their last seven games of the season, which seems entirely possible – in the end, they won that number twice in a row at the end of the 2018-19 season to keep Liverpool away. If they win these seven, they will finish with 95 points. Only four teams in league history have ever won more than that – Liverpool and City twice each in the last four years. This inevitably adds a sense of absurdity to any discussion of weakness. These are not flaws in a way that the history of football has understood. These are record-breaking teams that have been maintained for a century. (And yes, it’s reasonable to point out that geniuses like Pep Guardiola and Jürgen Klopp, and as brilliant as these players are, the financial structures that have facilitated this level of dominance are unhealthy, even if it is possible that points the champions will fall by five or 10 points when they leave). But again, until there is perfection, there will be talk. City did not have the lowest xG in the league since the penultimate game of last season, when with the championship to win and the Champions League final approaching, they lost 3-2 to Brighton. This is absurd. These are 32 consecutive league games in which he was (according to the algorithms) the best side, although a few of them with a small difference. The rest of the category should probably be grateful to have lost up to 19 points in this series – five draws and three defeats. But the obvious question is, why do they lose points at all? After poor results, Guardiola often blames problems in both boxes – a lack of concentration from a defender, a wrong goalkeeper, a moment of brilliance from an opponent at one end. failure to risk the other. Loss of opportunity, in particular, is a strange psychological phenomenon – something that, at present, is beyond the scope of algorithms, although modern research at least accepts that trust is a factor. You miss a number of opportunities and the belief is growing that this could be one of those days: for Guardiola’s experience from that day, see, among others, Barcelona – Internacional in 2010, Chelsea – Barcelona and Barcelona – Chelsea in 2012, Bayern – Atletico in 2016. When Raheem Sterling struck that first chance on Alisson’s body, it was already possible to see a narrative unfolding about City’s innocence. As it turned out, Kevin De Bruyne put City ahead in 40 seconds and so the significance of the incident diminished. Gabriel Jesούςs restored City’s lead with an amazing finish, but there was a moment in the second half when, having cut the right side of the box and with a teammate in the six-meter line and two others reaching, he withdrew his effort. . the side net. Both Sterling and Jesus may sometimes have no clinical advantage. And yet Guardiola chose them for what was perhaps the biggest league game of the season. Both had vital roles to play, running behind Liverpool’s high line, pushing their defense. Sterling made 12 pressures in the last third, more than anyone else in the game except Jordan Henderson (and since City had 55% of the possession, Liverpool inevitably made more efforts to regain it). Jesus’s role in trying to upset Andy Robertson was slightly different. only Bernardo Silva and Trent Alexander-Arnold attempted more tackles. Rahim Sterling retires from Trent Alexander-Arnold. Photo: Chris Brunskill / Fantasista / Getty Images They are players that Guardiola trusts to fulfill his tactical instructions. To say that City need a striker, that they need to convert more than their chances, means that with an orthodox striker he may not create so many opportunities because he would not have such control. And control is crucial because, like any team that plays with a high line, City are prone to balls being played behind them. Liverpool’s two goals were the result of moments of individual superiority – first a pass from Thiago and then, after Robertson’s initial dismissal and cross, a surprisingly skillful pull-in by Alexander-Arnold. and the second of Mohamed Salah’s perfect ball. To some extent, the opponent can not do much against it – and yet these are the goals that City tend to concede, the incidents that continue to cost Guardiola in the Champions League. It is very easy to say that City would have won with better goalkeepers, because the best goalkeepers might not have created the structures that created these opportunities and might have allowed Liverpool more opportunities. Balance is the key, and when it comes to a choice, Guardiola has always prioritized the broader structure over the toughness of the box.
