Liverpool 3-2 ManCity: Coutinho's tactical discipline key for success.

  Liverpool trumped Manchester City on a solid demonstration of inside penetration and offensive mobility. On paper, during the first half the Skyblues should have used the width of the pitch to reach target-man Dzeko trough the performance of Jesús Navas against old-school full-back Flanagan (and Clichy against Johnson to a lesser extent); instead, the work rate of Coutinho and Jordan Herdenson protected Liverpool's full-backs and opened up space for the offensive trio of Suárez, Sterling and Sturridge.

A lot of credit must go to Coutinho's tactical discipline as his continuous presence in front of Glen Johnson in the first forty five minutes created pockets of space ahead of him which were effectively used by Liverpool's strikers; most notably in Suárez's superb assistance to Sterling's opener first, and in the latter's cross to a poor definition by Daniel Sturridge a few moments later. Extolling the virtues of Suárez is indeed an easy exercise nowadays, but the resilience of Coutinho (who otherwise plays either as a classic winger or as a hard-working number 10) allowed the continued switching of flanks by the Liverpool attack and therefore made life a lot harder to Manchester City's back four.

Compare Coutinho's tackling vis-à-vis Samir Nasri; also observe the zone of the pitch where most of it was done. 

 

On the side of Manchester City, it's hard to tell how much the injury of Touré affected the overall pattern of the match in its first half. Numerically speaking, a midfield duo of the Ivorian and Fernandinho was going to suffer in the same measure as one of Javi García and the Brazilian because playing Navas, Nasri and Silva holds the promise of great football just as it guarantees poor ball-winning capabilities. The late first-half Dzeko runs outside the Liverpool box to try to collect the ball and build up play showed the Bosnian's plain frustration.

The match, however, was not only played and won in the first half. Aware of Man City's midfield quagmire, Manuel Pellegrini moved his bench to substitute James Milner for Navas. This tactical movement proved effective as Manchester City almost immediately began to win more balls isolating the Liverpool attack from the rest of the squad. As seen during the Champions League group match between the Citizens and Bayern Munich at the Allianz Arena, the effects of Milner's play on David Silva allow the Spaniard to work the channels and wreck havoc for the opposition full-backs; it then worked against Lahm, it worked today against Glen Johnson and permitted Pellegrini's guys to almost stage a Premier League title comeback.

Outplayed now, Sturridge's injury came as a good excuse for Rodgers to take Allen in, move Coutinho to the left wing, and settle Suárez as the lone striker with Steerling at his right flank. Although this change of course stripped Liverpool of their few remains of offensive mobility, it was nonetheless fundamental to weather Silva's soaring momentum in the midst of the second half because Rodgers now had a five-man midfield line able to park the bus.

Coutinho's winner after Kompany's blunder should be seen as a magnificent reward for the undisputable and silent man of the match. In a tactical sense, by that late winner Liverpool had already managed to cope with the Manchester City threat. Now it is just four matches those that stand between the Reds and their first title of Premier League history.