YOU might think Liverpool away is the last fixture Pep Guardiola and Manchester City want right now.
But you’d be wrong. This match — the only possible one in which few people would give City any chance of winning — is perfect.
After five straight defeats, followed by the incredible capitulation from 3-0 up against Feyenoord in midweek, City would be seriously worried if they were facing Ipswich or Leicester next up.
Their players are looking genuinely scared on the pitch right now and, after years of dominance, it is an amazing thing to witness.
Yet even when they have been amassing six titles under Guardiola, they have never won at Anfield in front of a crowd.
Those players will be thinking, “So why not now?”
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Winning away at Liverpool is the one result which would then completely change the narrative around the team.
I’m sure those players will not be holding back in the dressing room when they discuss what has been going on in recent weeks.
The higher you go in football, the harsher the dressing room.
Elite players get to where they are because they always challenge themselves and their team-mates.
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It’s not a blame game — it’s just genuine honesty. That’s how you get out of a mess.
Although there was genuine concern for Guardiola after he started beating himself up in his dugout during Tuesday’s 3-3 Champions League draw, I think there will be part of him laughing and learning and enjoying this experience.
The City boss has never suffered a run like this and a run like this is when you find out who you can really count upon.
Nobody talks about poor morale or a lack of unity when a team is winning consistently — as City have been for pretty much all of the last eight years. Of course City are missing Rodri. When he’s not there, City aren’t as good.
But it’s nonsense to suggest that the absence of one player should have such an extreme effect when they have so many other world-class players.
Some of the theories around City’s meltdown simply have to be wrong.
Like the idea that the team is too old. They weren’t too old when they won a fourth title in a row, so how are they suddenly too old six months later?
They simply had a poor window this summer and their recruitment hasn’t been as good for a year or two now.
Ilkay Gundogan is a legend of the club but to bring him back, a year after he’d been so desperate to leave, felt like a retrograde step.
What is true is that plenty of people in football will be loving what is happening to City.
There will be managers and players thinking, “Welcome to our world”.
They’ll be thinking, “Welcome to the chaos and the bulls***”.
The chaos and the bulls*** you only experience when you lose a few games in a row and people start to lose their heads.
Right now, even a team as great as City need to concentrate on the basics — running your heart out, winning duels, heading or kicking it clear.
Because it was a lack of those fundamentals which allowed Feyenoord back into the game on Tuesday.
For so long, when City went 1-0 up, opponents lost heart. Now they even fancy their chances at 3-0 down.
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Liverpool have an eight-point lead at the top of the Premier League and a 100 per cent record in the Champions League, where they have just beaten the holders Real Madrid.
They have never been such hot favourites to beat Guardiola’s City — and that is exactly why the visitors will be relishing this match.
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
