Really don't know where to begin with what I saw last night.
I thought up until the first goal we were okay. It was playing out relatively similar to the league cup final only difference being that I felt Lallana and Origi were posing more problems for our midfield and back four than Sturridge and Firmino did on Sunday.
The goal went in and from there it was standard City under Pellegrini in the last 12 months. An absolute abject lack of intelligence, leadership, composure, pretty much anything that you'd consider a basic tenet of football when you go a goal behind at a place like Anfield, we forsook all those things. Instead we had Kompany and Otamendi charging up the pitch with the ball at their feet leaving huge gaps behind them.
The less said about last night's midfield the better. Fernandinho showed why for all his qualities he isn't a Toure replacement, not even close. Both him and Fernando had literally no idea how to deal with Henderson, Can, or Lallana defensively, and had not anywhere near the range of passing to be able to impact the game in the final third. Silva was a joke. Anonymous, giving the ball away, and generally doing his best impression of someone who isn't arsed about doing the hard yards.
Navas, Sterling, and Kun did the best they could but when there's zero service for them, little in the way of support from the midfield, and the knowledge that they were going to be kicked up into the air every time the ball came near them.
We've seen the best and the worst of Pellegrini's 'trust' this week. His call to put Willy in nets was fully vindicated. However the substitution of Bony for Raheem was a thing of staggering stupidity. We brought on our least mobile attacking player to try and impact a game in which our lack of mobility in midfield was killing us and we took of a mobile and pacy player to do that. On top of that, the only reason Bony got the nod ahead of Kelechi was his seniority in the side (there's that trust thing). It was a decision that smacked of keeping the peace and throwing in a player he wanted a year ago rather than making the tough call, which was to put Kelechi on. From there, the Fernandinho substitution was just lamentable. It took everything to not just switch off at that point.
We're a long way from being a Pep Guardiola side. Those players who have the quality, a lot of them don't have the application. And those players who have the application, lack the quality. This is the biggest challenge he's faced since he came into coaching and it'll take one hell of a summer from Begiristain to give him the tools he requires to play the way he wants to play.
