Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City suffered a 2-0 loss at Liverpool on Sunday, a result which moved the Reds 11 points clear of the reigning Premier League champions
Pep Guardiola has picked out five Liverpool players who Manchester City couldn’t compete with during their 2-0 defeat at Anfield.
Four-time champions City suffered their sixth loss in seven games on Sunday, with Liverpool now 11 points clear and sitting comfortably at the top of the Premier League table. As ever, City dominated possession but it was the Reds’ incisive attackers who made sure that Liverpool were the more threatening side.
That was mostly down to Reds boss Arne Slot’s attack-minded players, who Guardiola hailed ahead of City’s clash with Nottingham Forest on Wednesday. “I love wingers but I wanted more control because we know, when they lose [the ball], the counter attack with [Mo] Salah, with [Dominik] Szoboszlai, with [Luis] Diaz, with [Cody] Gakpo and [Darwin] Nunez,” the City manager admitted.
“They are so fast. Stronger, quicker, faster than us in that position.”
Guardiola continued by saying: “The first 50, 55 minutes we [struggled], like many other times coming here in our prime. We suffered, they scored the goal, we are 1-0 down. We cannot compete against Liverpool. Not just Liverpool but many other clubs, the transitional teams.”
The results rubber-stamped Liverpool as title favourites, boasting a nine-point lead over their nearest challengers, Arsenal and Chelsea. Slot acknowledges that the Reds are in a ‘good position’ but knows that nothing is won in December.
“I’ve said many times already that we don’t look at it at this moment like this,” the Dutchman explained. “We know we have a difficult week coming up again.
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“We fought [Real] Madrid and City which were very difficult teams to face, but I think it’s even harder to go away to Newcastle. We’re not even half way through the season yet, but it’s a good position to be in, that’s definitely true.”
Six of the Reds’ next nine fixtures are away from home, starting with Wednesday’s trip to St James’ Park, but Slot isn’t worried. “The good thing for me is that it’s not only us who played that many games,” he added. “So for example, we face Everton [on Saturday], they’ve had a game during the week as well.
“Mostly we face teams that are rested for a week because we play [in the] Champions League and some others don’t. But now many teams have many games because it’s England and we play a lot of games in this period of time. I wasn’t aware of the fact that six of the nine were away. But now you tell me, it makes it even more difficult but we’re ready for it.
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