Liverpool 0-3 Manchester City: The red card turned the tide

The first loss of the season comes at the hands of the league leaders Manchester City, in a game that saw the Reds pressing hard until a 62nd-minute red card turned the tide of the match. Shortly after Gravenberch was sent off, Haaland pounced on a rebound to fire into the back of the net. After that Doku sent an absolute worldie past the Liverpool defence, which turned a tight-knit game wide open at 2-0 just after the hour. From there Liverpool were chasing the game and never got back into it, before Cherki put the nail in the coffin to make it 3-0.

Level, and then ten men

For an hour this was a contest. Manchester City generated 0.08 xG in the entire first half — Liverpool, missing three of their best attackers, were level and giving nothing away.

Then Ryan Gravenberch was sent off on 62 minutes for a second yellow, a challenge on Doku, having been booked earlier in the half for a foul on Elliot Anderson. The game was still 0-0.

What followed: Haaland on 64, Doku on 67, Cherki on 77. Three goals in 13 minutes, all of them after the red card.

It changed the whole game, for sure. What I want to look back on is whether the first yellow should have been a card at all. I am not denying that he stopped a promising attack, I just do not think Ryan should have been in that situation to begin with. Regardless, we can’t be getting sent off with nearly half an hour left to play.

Three goals from 1.59 xG

City’s finishing did the rest. Haaland’s opener was worth 0.09 xG, a rebound. Doku’s second was 0.06, chipped in from Elliot Anderson’s pass. Only Cherki’s third, set up by Gvardiol, was a genuinely big chance at 0.75.

In other words, two of City’s three goals came from chances that get scored less than one time in ten. They finished 1.41 goals above what the quality of their chances suggested.

City are clinical when they get their chances, and it was disappointing to see the red card change the outcome of a game in which neither side was generating much of a threat.

Liverpool never really threatened

Even before the red card, there wasn’t much. Liverpool had 13 shots and 0.76 xG — and not a single chance in the whole match worth 0.15 or more. Mac Allister had four of those shots, worth 0.29 between them.

Koumas played 76 minutes on his first Premier League start and had one shot, a saved effort just after half time worth 0.08 xG. With Isak, Gakpo and Szoboszlai all unavailable, there was no one to turn to.

Koumas did well, pressed hard and got that shot away just after the break. We still have a while to go with Barcola, and I expect him to find his form soon. Muñoz had an alright day, and I expect him to make greater impacts in games later in the season.

What it costs

The defeat ends Iraola’s unbeaten league run at 23 games and is his first loss as Liverpool head coach. It also ends the run of three straight clean sheets.

Pos	Team	P	W	D	L	GD	Pts
1	Man City	6	6	0	0	+11	18
2	Arsenal	6	5	0	1	+5	15
3	Brighton	6	4	1	1	+13	13
4	Brentford	6	2	4	0	+6	10
5	Everton	6	2	4	0	+3	10
9	Liverpool	6	2	3	1	0	9

Source: football-data.org, after the weekend’s games.

Liverpool drop to ninth, nine points off a City side who have now won six from six.

My preview called 2-1 Liverpool with Rio and Koumas scoring. It finished 0-3, and neither of them got on the scoresheet.

We need to bounce back after this game and not let it define us. We have to withstand the absences of Isak, Gakpo and Szoboszlai, and rotate the squad enough that we can get back to starting a healthy XI without being exploited for it. I am not worried about Barcola and Wirtz finding form — the coach trusts them and will keep them steady. I am excited to see what he does away at LASK in the Champions League tomorrow, and I will have a write-up on that next.