By the benchmark they have set, Manchester City were terrible at Liverpool – light up front, porous at the back and less than tigerish in midfield – and they need to react quicklyOnly four managers have outwitted Pep Guardiola this season, and while Wigan’s Paul Cook, Shakhtar Donetsk’s Paulo Fonseca and Basel’s Raphaël Wicky were perhaps unexpected beneficiaries of propitious circumstances, Jürgen Klopp has done it twice to order.The stakes could not have been much higher than in the last encounter either, and the emphatic nature of Liverpool’s win in the first leg of the Champions League quarter-final gives some credence to Klopp’s insistence that but for Sadio Mané’s unfortunate dismissal at the Etihad in September, Manchester City might not...
The Manchester United manager’s track record at the top end of the market is under scrutiny given the struggles of Pogba and Sánchez and with City aiming to clinch the title in Saturday’s derbyRegular readers of the Jeeves and Wooster stories will be familiar with the plot device which involves Bertie’s favourite aunt having to keep her rich husband sweet because she will shortly be asking him for a substantial sum of money to prop up Milady’s Boudoir, the perennially unprofitable women’s fashion magazine of which she is proprietor.“I thought you said Milady’s Boudoir had turned the corner,” Bertie observes on one occasion. “Yes,” Aunt Dahlia replies. “Until you have tried running a women’s magazine you don’t know what corners...
Manchester City manager’s attempt to calm Liverpool’s fury by starting with Ilkay Gündoğan contributed to his Champions League first-leg downfall at AnfieldThirteen games played, seven won, one drawn. No other manager has a record against Pep Guardiola anywhere near as good as that of Jürgen Klopp. Nobody else has beaten Guardiola seven times, or six, or even five. Only José Mourinho has come out on top four times against him. So why? What is it about the ferocity of Klopp’s sides that has so often presented a problem for Guardiola?In part it is that Klopp attacks. To sit back against a team such as City, Klopp has said, to aim to absorb pressure, is to look to win the lottery....
Pep Guardiola’s safety-first approach handed the initiative to Liverpool and they seized it with vigour on another momentous European night at AnfieldThis was the wrong time and place for making concessions. The team coaches were re-routed away from the King Harry pub on safety grounds by Merseyside Police but Manchester City were still ‘welcomed’ to Anfield with bottles, flares and a public apology from Liverpool. Pep Guardiola made one of his own, sacrificing the penetrating speed of Raheem Sterling for the more measured influence of Ilkay Gündoğan, but that backfired, too, as Liverpool blitzed the runaway leaders of the Premier League in the Champions League quarter-final first leg.Only Jürgen Klopp held firm with his tactics and approach. Only his team...
Arsène Wenger is given a striking decision, Hugo Lloris climbs the wrong table and Christian Benteke’s woes rumble onAlexandre Lacazette heard one of the loudest cheers when he came on for Danny Welbeck against Stoke City. Arsène Wenger said Welbeck had hurt his back and so Lacazette’s return from a knee injury seemed even more timely – given Arsenal play CSKA Moscow in the Europa League on Thursday, for which Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang is cup-tied. Wenger loved the gesture Aubameyang made towards the end, passing up a possible hat-trick by allowing the Frenchman to take their second penalty – from which he scored. The manager said it showed the strikers had a good understanding. But can they prosper together in the...