Here are the three moments Liverpool.com picked out from the Reds’ 1-1 draw at the Etihad Stadium after Erling Haaland’s opener was canceled out. Darwin Núñez should have made more of an impact, but he wasn’t the only one, with a limited influence on proceedings coming from Dominik Szoboszlai and Diogo Jota, among others, as well.
The Good Joël Matip was exceptional at the back and the case for him getting a new contract at Anfield — with his set to expire at the end of the campaign — continues to grow. It was the right decision to play him ahead of Ibrahima Konaté for his calmness on the ball and delicate dribbles into midfield.
Trent Alexander-Arnold was the only reason that Matip did not pick up the Player of the Match award, with the Liverpool number 66 dealing, just about, with Jérémy Doku, and scoring a great equalizing goal when it looked like his side was going to slowly edge toward a narrow defeat without really putting Manchester City under that much pressure.
There will, no doubt, be plenty of Doku compilations that emerge of the Belgian speedster going one way and Alexander-Arnold the other (comparisons, it seems, to Sadio Mané, are entirely fair). But the reality is clear: only one came off the pitch with a goal contribution. It wasn’t Doku. The Bad
Núñez was trusted in a game where he was going to need to be disciplined off the ball and clinical with it. The Uruguayan delivered one element of that but summed up the indecisiveness of the Reds on the day in possession.
With his first touch evading him or Núñez making a run a few seconds too early when he should have known to be more patient, the Liverpool forward was a frustrating figure. Haaland, though, shows him how quickly everything can change. Unlike Núñez, Haaland did very little in the game and was not running back to track runners and make tackles, but when his one opening came, he found the back of Alisson’s net. He may never be as freakishly ruthless as the Norwegian but if he could even just get to a consistent level that would elevate his game.
Núñez has already shown that he can do plenty of things when it comes to bringing new elements to the Liverpool attack. None, though, are as important as simply making the right decisions in front of goal. Until that comes, question marks will remain.
The Ugly Aside from his finishing, Núñez confronting Pep Guardiola at the end was not a great look. Quite what the disagreement was remains to be seen but Curtis Jones told him to ‘calm’ quickly after Jürgen Klopp and Pep Lijnders had stepped in.
“Nothing happened,” was all Pep Guardiola would say about it. “It has nothing to do with the rivalry,” Klopp said of it in his press conference. “I don’t think Darwin knows anything about it. I don’t think I’m the one to explain it because I’m not involved, surprisingly. I love them both. I tried to calm it down without understanding a word.”
Injuries to Jota and Alisson will be assessed but it is too early to know the full extent of those. As long as Liverpool come away unscathed on that front, it will reflect on an afternoon that ended up being positive.
Liverpool would have taken a point beforehand, in all likelihood, but Manchester City was there for the taking. On the day, a lack of attacking threat meant that the Reds could easily have come away with nothing were it not for Trent Alexander-Arnold’s excellent goal relatively late in the day.
