Manchester City 3-2 Liverpool Review

Brief thoughts on the match, plus my best work this week

I started this newsletter to have an online presence in case Twitter imploded. It hasn’t - yet - but a match with Manchester City feels big enough to share a few points I noticed before, during and after the game, even if it was only in the Carabao Cup.

Andrew Beasley @BassTunedToRed

The Matip-Gomez partnership is remarkably untried. In terms of full games: Man City A 1-1 in 2020/21 AC Milan H 3-2 in 2021/22 And that’s your lot.

The above fact is a surprising one (as the replies attest) and thanks to James Milner going off in the first half, the elusive Joël Matip-Joe Gomez partnership remains stranded on two full games.

Andrew Beasley @BassTunedToRed

Núñez now has three assists for Liverpool: Salah Salah Salah (Fulham, Tottenham, Man City)

I wrote about another Liverpool partnership, that of Darwin Núñez and Mohamed Salah, a few weeks ago. The article was based on the fact that they have generated far more expected goals as a duo (pro-rata) than any other forward has with the Egyptian. While you’ll be lucky to find xG values for domestic cup games, there’s no way that Salah’s goal on Thursday night was a low value chance:

The strike put him just one behind Kenny Dalglish in Liverpool’s all-time top scorer’s list. The Egyptian King may overtake the King before the year is out.

As for Darwin, he might have collected an assist but it wasn’t his night in front of goal. However, I recalled his shot map from last season featured very little action on the right of the box, from where his three best chances were hit at the Etihad.

Andrew Beasley @BassTunedToRed

The Núñez misses haven’t been great, but they were all from the side of the box he rarely shot from last season. Can clearly score from there though

It’s a shame he didn’t score once to force a penalty shoot-out, but there we are. Caoimhín would have been all over it.

Other work highlights

In previous newsletters I’ve shared links to everything I’ve written that week. However, that’s a lot to cover, as I usually get into double figures for articles.

So, instead I’ll just share my three favourites from the week. If you happen to want a list of everything I’ve done with links, you’ll find it here. In no particular order…

1. A look at how the Fabinho and Thiago Alcântara midfield has worked with Naby Keïta completing a trio (link).

2. Kostas Tsimikas had one assist from a corner before this season but already has three in 2022/23. What is going on?

3. Pep Lijnders recently praised the midfield which won the Argentina the World Cup. Are there any lessons there for Liverpool?

And with that, I’ll wish you a very merry Christmas. Enjoy yourself, it’s later than you think. Rest in peace, Terry.