Neil Atkinson’s post-match review for The Anfield Wrap after Manchester City 3 Liverpool 0 in the 2025-2026 Premier League at the Etihad…
WE’VE LOST FOUR consecutive away league games.
We’ve lost four consecutive away league first-halves.
These facts are not unrelated. And:
We’ve deserved to.
Liverpool have rocked up to opposition grounds with no rock. “Rock” suggests swagger. “Rock” suggests purpose. “Rock” suggests “have you smelled what the Reds are cooking?”
Porridge.
In fact, not porridge. Porridge can warm the cockles on a hard day. Can offer grist. Can stiffen sinews. Instead Liverpool don’t just lack a Ready Brek glow, they are a beige buffet on a feast day. They are spineless and colourless and passionless.
They are second to everything. They don’t enjoy spells of possession but endure them. They make a virtue out of losing the ball in the opposition half because the only alternative is losing it in their own. They are a comic who doesn’t believe in a punchline, a fisherman who doesn’t believe in bait. They are vulnerable to everything. Opponents can do no wrong because Liverpool will do no right.
And this. This, here. This is the crux of the problem. Until this changes, nothing will change.
Today these things are true:
- Liverpool have bad luck.
- Liverpool have to deal with dreadful officiating.
But:
- Liverpool deserve to go in 2 down.
They deserved to go in 2 down against Crystal Palace and Brentford, alongside today. The only reason they didn’t deserve to go in 2 down against Chelsea was Chelsea’s shortcomings.
Until that improves, all of Liverpool’s ambitions will not improve in their plausibility.
Today is a missed opportunity. Not even to win but to play well. This weekend there have been no away wins in the Premier League. Away games are hard, especially early in the season. But today Liverpool had the chance to look like the side that vanquished Aston Villa and Real Madrid. Instead they made vanquishing look utterly beyond their ken. Roll up, roll up – The Champions are in town. See 11 elite athletes look second-best, over and over.
Second-halves have been different. Today is no exception. Second-halves Liverpool have looked more about things. But in none of these defeats should the first-halves have come as a surprise. Perhaps occasionally as a less likely thing but that isn’t how surprise works. Surprise is the unlikely. The unusual. There has been no unusual.
Today Conor Bradley is possibly Liverpool’s best performer and it is, in a way, a shame Liverpool’s best performer is up against the game’s defining performer. It is okay in a sporting contest for one player to play well and another to play brilliantly and this is exactly what we end up seeing. Jeremy Doku continues his excellent season but Bradley can go to bed feeling okay about things.
He is perhaps alone in that. Ibou Konate does your head in and shows why week in, week out this is currently a massive ask for him. He is a brilliant stopper. But that is what he is. A stopper. And when your stopper fails to stop, as is the case for the first and the third goal, then you wonder why we settle with that raw stopper. Absolutely unfairly, I hasten to add. But today nothing feels fair.
Andy Robertson and Florian Wirtz do little wrong but not enough right. The latter elicits two yellow cards from Manchester City players but rarely manages to be wrong-side again.
Hugo Ekitike cannot influence the game. Outside of his goal Erling Haaland can. Haaland’s development should be shown to Ekitike. One looked like a Liverpool player. And it wasn’t the man in red.
Mo Salah doesn’t influence matters enough. He isn’t alone but he is the main man. Did he feel like that today? This can be seen as harsh. He was the main man. He was the main reason for the twentieth league. He is the greatest player you have ever seen. But we’re (rightly) watching and loving him for now and today wasn’t enough.
But he just isn’t alone and the shock is this from last Saturday and Tuesday. Yes, it’s an away game. At a difficult ground. It’s a game you can lose playing well. But it isn’t a game you can win without playing well. So let’s start there and sort the rest out.
Nothing is genuinely broken, not even yet. But after the international break Liverpool go to West Ham, Leeds and Tottenham. And they will need to win all three. I don’t want sob stories and I don’t want to hear about how these games are hard. Yes. Yes they are. That’s why you spend the first 45 deadly serious and give nothing away.
For the last possible time this season to get over it and beyond it:
Fuck off Liverpool.
You’re loved to pieces. But the football matches have to stop looking like they are a surprise. This isn’t Ready Steady Cook. This is meant to be Masterchef. Into these Liverpool. Everywhere. Setbacks will happen. Sometimes the kitchen will be on fire. It’s always what you do next that counts.
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Perfectly said