Pep Guardiola hailed Liverpool’s defensive structure last night, calling it the best he’s ever faced in his career.
The Reds defence couldn’t prevent Manchester City scoring three times at the Etihad Stadium, as they crashed out of the Carabao Cup. But despite the high-scoring nature of the game, Guardiola spoke highly of what he’d seen from Liverpool.
“We cannot say it was not a good game. I think Liverpool and City again respect what they have done in the last years. The last games between each other were not successful for us, but we played the game we should play. It’s not easy to keep the ball against them because they have the most difficult defensive structure I’ve faced in my career,” the manager gushed while speaking via mancity.com.
“I had the feeling in the game that we were really, really good in everything. I remember a little bit the semi-final here against Madrid – you had the feeling you have the control, you have the chances, [but] they don’t need anything to score and create chances for the quality they have, for the structure they have.
“When they are much better they destroy you and it’s impossible to be 90 minutes better than them. But in long periods in this game we were better. I always had the feeling they can punish you in the transition and the runners and the quality they have, but I think today we made a really, really good game against them.”
Hard to argue with too much of that. Liverpool did look occasionally dangerous in isolated moments, but City deserved to win in the end.
Strange praise from Pep
Although Pep’s analysis of the game overall is pretty on point, we’re not sure about his ‘defensive structure’ claims.
In fact, for any Liverpool fan, his assertions might sound downright bizarre. Throughout Jurgen Klopp’s tenure at Anfield, the Reds have never been an especially defensive side.
They have excellent defenders and a brilliant goalkeeper, which tends to keep them in the running for the best defence in the country. But in terms of the way they set up, it’s designed more to accentuate what they can do going forward.
The high-line has been a notorious feature, and that can be difficult to play against. But Klopp has noticeably dropped that back a little during this season.
Certainly, there are teams who have a very rigid defensive setup littered throughout the league. Liverpool aren’t one of them.
Nevertheless, we’ll take the praise. Pep knows much more about the tactical intricacies of the game than us, so we’ll just have to take his word for it!
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