This week, the 5Times podcast featured Liverpool legends Jan Molby, Ronnie Whelan and Alan Kennedy alongside regular host Jason McAteer. With Liverpool set to host Manchester City this Sunday, the ex-players gave their verdict.
Philippe Coutinho celebrates scoring the third goal against Tottenham. (Pic by David Rawcliffe/Propaganda)
With this tie poised to potentially seal the fate of the Premier League title, host McAteer turned the focus towards tactics, and the way which Liverpool and Manchester City will deploy their charges.
McAteer suggested that both managers will remain stubborn and try to win the game their way: “I see Pellegrini not changing his tactics…but Liverpool are at home, I don’t think Brendan will accommodate Man City”
Whelan remained cautious, worrying about City’s threat in the attack: “Both teams want to attack, don’t they? I think Liverpool are quicker on the break than Manchester City…but City have better players than Arsenal, Everton, [Manchester] United.
“It’s so hard to call, I think Man City…sometimes they all play well together, and if they all play well together you struggle against them – that would be my only worry, that City come out flying.”
However, McAteer continued with his optimism: “Manchester City coming to Anfield and not changing the way they want to play could be a mistake.
“What Liverpool do, and they did it against Spurs, Arsenal and Everton, they caught the opposition playing their way in their own half, and City will want to do the same, they’ll want to play in their own half. We catch them – they’re in big trouble.
Having said that, though, McAteer did concede that City can be a huge threat if they are allowed to play their game: “If they can move the play from their own half into our half and play quick, then we’re in trouble. If they can get through that first bit of pressure we put on them, then we’re in big trouble, because they’ve got excellent players [like] Silva on Saturday.”
The focus then turned to individual players, and the players who can damage Liverpool, and those that will cause a problem to City.
Irishman Whelan suggested that, whilst he is a key man for City, he’d want one of their returning players to start for one reason: “[I’d want Aguero to play] because of the injuries he’s had; not being match-fit.”
Legendary midfielder Molby criticised the work rate of some of City’s players: “You have to say the other players like Yaya Toure, Nasri, Dzeko, and Navas, don’t put enough work in without the ball and that could possibly be their downfall,” whilst McAteer picking out one of the Manchester side’s defenders as a weak point: “I think Demichelis is a little bit of a liability for them. I think Pellegrini likes to play a high line, and as we’ve seen against Barcelona [that’s a problem for Demichelis].”
Elsewhere, Kennedy suggests that flooding the midfield and utilising the great short passing ability that Liverpool’s midfielders have is the key to picking apart City, opining: “You don’t want to sprint 60 yards with Yaya Toure do you? But five yards, that explosion that we have, I think that will hurt them.”
Kennedy also highlighted Liverpool’s Brazilian playmaker, Phillipe Coutinho as a potential main man within this system: “Coutinho is the man for me, he’s a bit like David Silva. He’s great on the ball, he moves well; [now] he’s closing players down, he’s not giving them any chance. Also, Henderson’s doing his work in that midfield, and Steven Gerrard is hopefully pulling the strings, so it looks a good balance.”
All four of the Liverpool icons admitted, perhaps with an inflection of optimism, that this would be a very tough game; but it seems that, in their eyes at least, there are plenty of ways of picking apart the Reds’ title rivals.
petikan dari Liverpool FC, This is Anfield, Teamtalk
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