Liverpool will be able to take heart from the fact they worked out how to beat Manchester City despite their penalty shoot-out Community Shield defeat, according to ESPN FC pundit Alejandro Moreno.
Moreno was commenting on the meeting he effectively described as a game of two halves, in which City dominated the first half before Liverpool took control in the second.
Despite City handing Liverpool an early blow in the annual curtain-raiser, Moreno felt that Jurgen Klopp’s side could take some positives despite missing out on success at Wembley.
Moreno said: “What you saw from both teams is the fact that they both got a clear idea as to how they could beat the other. Manchester City in the first half, doing the things that they were doing, were creating chance after chance – and with better delivery, it would have been a different score by half time.
“Then you go into the second half, and Liverpool then showed a very clear picture as to how they can beat Manchester City.
“When you press them, and you force turnovers, Manchester City have difficulties recovering. And the reason they have difficulties recovering is because they are used to having the ball, they commit those numbers forward, [and] by the time they lose the ball, there is no chance to recover – and now you’re defending in 1-v-1 situations with guys who are not comfortable doing it.
“Manchester City will take positives, Liverpool will take positives, and in the end, all of us benefitted from what was a very good game.”
Given his previous comments about the fixture, the German boss won’t be losing too much sleep over the result, with the Premier League getting underway at Anfield this Friday.
And with the Reds not necessarily at full strength on Sunday (with Golden Boot holder Sadio Mane out of the squad), there is even more of a reason to be positive about that result, as they managed to take last season’s treble winners all the way without one of their star players.
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