Neil Atkinson’s post-match review for The Anfield Wrap after Liverpool 1 Manchester City 2 in the 2025-2026 Premier League at Anfield…
WHEN THE remarkable, eyes-on-stalks, Houllier-at-Goodison-face, freekick hit the back of the net Liverpool deserved to lead. So often, the game can be remarkable young people doing remarkable things and there it was. It was breathtaking and what we deserved in equal measure.
When the half-time whistle went Liverpool deserved to be behind. When Bernando Silva slid the ball home Liverpool deserved to be level.
And then the game became unbridled.
This should have suited Liverpool. Unbridled should suit Liverpool more than Manchester City in general – and at Anfield in particular.
But this is not the current Liverpudlian situation. The later a game goes the more vulnerable we are. Is this psychological? Tactical? Not fit enough? About depth?
Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.
Liverpool are vulnerable because they are. The manager is reluctant to use his two actual substitutes but he actually only really has two and has one waiting to come on when the equaliser hits the back of the net.
It could be earlier. It could happen for Andy Robertson too. It could also help Liverpool keep a higher line late or Liverpool and Slot could have a better plan around that.
But, my friend, look at their bench compared to ours. I know I am boring. I am boring myself. Tijani Reijnders, Phil Foden and Nico Gonzalez all don’t get on for Manchester City. Not don’t start. Don’t get on. Liverpool’s players are constantly asked to do 80 minimum because there is no alternative. Knackered? Playing poorly? A saucy combination of the two? Keep running lad. The final whistle will come soon and maybe we will avoid rakes en route.
They also don’t look fit enough because pre-season became a mess.
There is now a season-long litany of the manager’s senior players from last season letting him down in moments that matter. The goalkeeper, who has been erratic, adds his name to that list.
That list though. Everyone on it today has a day. Ibou Konate is magnificent throughout and doesn’t deserve to go home on the losing side. Virgil van Dijk couldn’t get his side out when they were folding like a tactical souffle, but otherwise battled like a demon with Erling Haaland.
Mo Salah and Alexis Mac Allister though contribute to the appalling first-half. Or rather don’t. Manchester City crowd the middle of the pitch with direct runners when they have it and bodies when they don’t and dare Liverpool to play through or play over.
Mac Allister cannot help with the playing through, one good ball aside, and Salah is no outlet for the playing over. It’s hard enough against a good side at the best of times but it feels Liverpool are playing with nine.
Both contribute more in the second-half but it feels like the game comes to them – everyone else’s intensity dips and theirs stays constant. Salah becomes a threat and plays the match’s best ball. Mac Allister moves the ball quicker.
But this, when push comes to shove, is thin gruel in comparison to last season and in comparison to what is required in a game of this quality.
The manager needs to think about all this not just as an excuse or a reason but as a thing he is responsible for. It is Arne Slot who started Alexis Mac Allister and Alexander Isak in back-to-back games against Chelsea and Manchester United – sides Liverpool now trail – when neither looked anywhere near fit in order to get them where they needed to be.
It is Arne Slot who is Liverpool manager for poor performances at home against Leeds United and Sunderland, and who couldn’t bring them to three points against Burnley. Put those six points on now; turn Chelsea and United into draws and things look far better without looking good.
This isn’t to excuse, more to make clear this is how a season falls apart at the seams. How this one still could. Had the above situation happened it would be easier to laugh about the late madness which demonstrated a sport desperate to eat itself alive.
There was no successful denial of a goalscoring opportunity from Dominik Szoboszlai. I can say this because a goal was scored. It has the blessing of actually happening. We get to see the road that theoretically is not travelled.
Then there is a question as to whether or not Mo Salah was denied a goalscoring opportunity. It looked for all the world as though he was. It also looked like a player in Marc Guehi who knew exactly where the penalty area was behind him. It was boxing clever. But it shouldn’t have been. However we don’t get to see the road not travelled.
We’re back to this – the words do them in. Thresholds and definitions and so on and so forth. It undermines the flow of the game and that is present throughout from the refereeing.
The refereeing isn’t why Liverpool don’t win today. Liverpool need to engage with that. But it doesn’t help you not go mad. PGMOL seem to think this is a key part of their role.
Fuck it. The captain makes a mistake at Bournemouth and it costs two goals and an injury to Joe Gomez. Ibou Konate kicks it out for a corner against Forest and all hell breaks loose. The whole season feels unbridled and a lot of that stems from what happened in pre-season, the ramifications of which are too private, the depth of which feels too trite to even reference but it is part of the collective reality.
I’m knackered by it and I don’t play. I hate that the freekick will be a lost goal. I hate the table. I hate seeing a league season slip away and I hate watching really good Liverpool players leave it all on the Anfield pitch but probably not really have hard lines. I hate seeing their end have more fun than ours. Petulant and childish and basic.
That’s also the game though. It’s a tough trot at the minute.
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Behind United and only 2 points ahead of Everton. We have only won 6 out of the last 20 games and are averaging around the same points per game as Spurs. This isn’t bad luck or injuries, it’s bad management, well it can’t be good management! I watch the team and it’s sometimes hard to discern what the plan actually is. The irony is that we have some of the best players in the league, yet they are being badly prepared and restrained by straitjacket tactics which often end up in mayhem. This isn’t acceptable and FSG need to realise that Slot is not the man we need. Perhaps hire a manager not a head coach and let him mould HIS team?