Liverpool and Manchester City both recorded their fifth clean sheets of the season as the much-hyped Gameweek 8 clash at Anfield ended goalless.
While it was a disappointing afternoon for those Fantasy managers fielding attacking assets from either side, anyone who gambled on a Liverpool or City defender were the big winners from an ultimately underwhelming encounter on Merseyside.
Spot-kicks are the obvious Fantasy talking point, namely Riyad Mahrez‘s (£8.6m) skied effort from 12 yards on 85 minutes and who assumes penalty-taking duties for Liverpool if James Milner‘s (£5.7m) hamstring injury keeps him out for an extended period of time.
Our latest set of Scout Notes picks out the best of the action from the Sunday afternoon match between Jurgen Klopp and Pep Guardiola’s title-chasing sides. It shouldn’t be a long article…
Liverpool 0-0 Manchester City
That Sergio Aguero (£11.3m), Roberto Firmino (£9.4m) and Sadio Mane (£9.9m) failed to register a single attempt on goal between them at Anfield on Sunday encapsulated the frustration felt by Fantasy managers who owned any of the attack-minded assets on show.
Aguero, indeed, had only one penalty box touch all match before his now-customary withdrawal just after the hour mark.
No Premier League match in 2018/19 saw fewer first-half shots than this encounter between the two title favourites, while the fact that the ten players who recorded the most passes in this fixture were all defenders or anchored in central midfield was a somewhat damning indictment.
Praise should be given to the two sides’ defences though, who succeeded in doing what no other Premier League team has managed this season in preventing Sunday’s opponents from scoring.
No top-flight club has recorded as many clean sheets (five) or conceded fewer goals (three) than City or Liverpool this season, while City have conceded fewer big chances than the other 19 clubs in the division.
Guardiola’s troops didn’t allow their opponents a single clear-cut opportunity yesterday, the first time the Reds have been prevented from registering a big chance in a league match this season.
Aymeric Laporte (£5.7m) and John Stones (£5.3m) were superb at the back for the visitors, while Kyle Walker (£6.6m) shackled Mane out of the match completely and the returning Benjamin Mendy (£6.2m) demonstrated discipline in a more orthodox left-back role.
Guardiola praised his backline after the match:
We didn’t concede many shots on target so this is key at Anfield and is quite special in terms of the environment.
From all actions, from corners and free kicks, they’re so tall and are stronger than us but we defended well, the back four was so good in their positions.
As a team you know they would punish our mistakes, and at the back four we controlled it very well.
As we have mentioned before, Laporte has assumed the Nicolas Otamendi (£6.1m) mantle of 2017/18 in being the permanent fixture at centre-half and kept up his ever-present record in the league this season at Anfield. For those Fantasy managers wanting a route into this watertight City defence that limits the risk of rotation, then Laporte is the obvious candidate.
The French centre-half’s rate of chances is also better than one per match, a healthy average for an FPL defender.
Where Laporte fails to match Otamendi’s appeal is on the Bonus Points System. Otamendi accumulated 21 bonus points last season, while Laporte has failed to register a single one this campaign despite finding the back of the net once and recording five clean sheets.
While the fit-again Mendy failed to register a key pass, shot or penalty box touch, easier tests await in the coming weeks and we can expect those underlying statistics to soon return to their usual high levels. He was not alone in having his attacking instincts reigned in by Guardiola for this fixture, with Bernardo Silva (£7.6m) forced back into a deeper position alongside Fernandinho (£5.4m) in a 4-2-3-1.
It was noteworthy that Mendy came straight back into the starting XI after his return from injury – though whether this would have been the case had Fabian Delph (£5.3m) been deemed fit to play is another question.
One pattern that continued on the left flank though was Leroy Sane (£9.2m) dropping out of the team upon Mendy’s inclusion. The German winger had been in decent form in Mendy’s absence but Guardiola has famously been averse to fielding both players in the same starting XI and Sane was the fall guy here.
For those considering a move for Mendy after his recovery from a foot problem, however, the Sane/Delph partnership has at least proved itself a viable alternative to the gung-ho Mendy over the last month and could very well be sporadically employed in the league as Guardiola juggles with other competitions in midweek.
Raheem Sterling (£11.1m) was instead used as an inverted winger on the left flank, but it was the man stationed on the opposite wing who was at the centre of most of City’s goalscoring opportunities.
Riyad Mahrez (£8.6m) will be remembered for his blazed spot-kick in this fixture but he was City’s main goal threat, forcing Alisson (£5.6m) into his only two saves of the match and outmuscling Andrew Robertson (£6.3m) to fire narrowly wide of the Brazilian goalkeeper’s post on 60 minutes.
Mahrez has now missed five of his last eight penalties, but Guardiola was supportive of the Algerian winger after the match and hinted that he would be given further opportunities from 12 yards whenever Aguero is absent:
He had the courage and the balls to take the penalty. In training, he shoots perfect penalties but sometimes it happens. The usual taker is Sergio Aguero but he wasn’t there.
I am in the training sessions and I see him training every day with penalties and he gave me a lot of confidence. It will be a good experience for him, next time it will go in.
The player himself was positive at full-time:
I made the decision to shoot in the middle – the ball went up.
It won’t affect me at all. Everyone misses penalties, even big, big players. Of course I wanted to score to help the team to win.
Seeing Mahrez step up and sky his effort into the Anfield Road Stand capped off a miserable afternoon for Aguero and his owners, with the Argentinean striker – the second-most captained player of Gameweek 8 – blanking for the first time since Gameweek 3.
Aguero is now averaging only 2.75 FPL points per away fixture (compared to 10.25 per match at the Etihad), but like so many of the attack-minded players on show at Anfield, it is perhaps best to disregard Aguero’s anonymity yesterday given the difficulty of the fixture.
For Aguero, read Mane, Firmino and Mohamed Salah (£12.8m) – though there is evidently something not quite right with the Egyptian’s radar this season.
Barney Ronay’s piece in the Guardian summed up Salah’s performance nicely. Last season’s Golden Boot winner was the only one of Liverpool’s front three who looked remotely threatening, demonstrating that innate ability to create space for himself around the opposition box, but his end product was once again lacking.
Salah had three of Liverpool’s five efforts inside the City area, but where those shots were flying in last season, Ederson (£5.7m) was barely troubled in the away goal.
One attempt was particularly familiar: Salah wriggling himself into space on the edge of the area and curling a left-footed shot towards goal, but as has so often been the case this season, the Egyptian’s effort went straight into the arms of the visiting goalkeeper.
Salah also shanked an effort wide after a beautiful pull-down from a long Robertson pass.
Fantasy managers’ opinions on Salah aren’t likely to be too influenced by a blank against City, but the real acid test for his remaining owners comes over the next four Gameweeks. Liverpool face Huddersfield Town, Cardiff City and Fulham before the November international break and should he flatter to deceive against this favourable opposition, then that might be the final straw for those retaining his services.
At least Salah was conspicuous: Firmino and Mane didn’t manage a single shot on goal or key pass all match.
For the second time in five days, Liverpool’s gameplan was hampered by an early injury to a central midfielder. James Milner (£5.7m) was withdrawn with a hamstring complaint on 28 minutes, with Naby Keita (£7.2m) – who was himself substituted in the defeat to Napoli last Wednesday – coming on in his place.
Klopp said of Milner’s problem:
How much [serious]? It’s too early, I don’t know. I asked him ‘big one?’ and he said ‘I don’t think so, but big enough that I go off.’
That Milner now has a fortnight to recover from his hamstring issue will perhaps render this debate moot, but should it prove to be a medium-term injury, then penalty-taking duties are once again up for grabs. Salah, Firmino and Mane have all taken – and missed – spot-kicks for the Reds in the past, but those three upcoming fixtures against the leakiest defences in the league (all of whom have conceded at least two penalties already this season) could very well lead to a spot-kick opportunity or two for whomever takes them.
Liverpool’s clean sheet would have been to the chagrin of Trent Alexander-Arnold‘s (£5.2m) owners. The England defender was dropped to the bench for this match, with Joe Gomez (£5.1m) moving over to right-back and Dejan Lovren (£4.9m) coming into central defence.
Lovren was one of the game’s stand-out players and recorded maximum bonus for his efforts, so it will be interesting to see how his display will impact on both Gomez and Alexander-Arnold’s pitch time in the coming weeks.
Klopp praised his side’s defensive display after the match, with Mahrez’s missed penalty the only “big chance” Liverpool allowed their opponents:
You cannot defend them 100 per cent over 95 minutes, so they will always have their moments but I thought how we defended was brilliant apart from the penalty and one or two situations where we needed Alisson with a really good save.
Against City, it’s not news – if you don’t defend the half-spaces then they are constantly between your midfield and last line and you have to constantly jump in the last line, which you don’t want to do really. One situation where you allow them a one-two and then are alone in front of the goalie, or are alone in the box and shoot the ball across the line and somebody scores an easy goal at the back post. It’s so difficult to defend and I am really happy with how we did it.
Liverpool XI (4-3-3): Alisson; Gomez, Lovren, Van Dijk, Robertson; Henderson, Wijnaldum, Milner (Keita 29′); Mane, Salah, Firmino (Sturridge 72′)
Manchester City XI (4-2-3-1): Ederson; Walker, Stones, Laporte, Mendy; Bernardo Silva, Fernandinho; Sterling (Sane 75), David Silva, Mahrez; Aguero (Gabriel Jesus 65′)
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