Now before anyone asks, I am not going to blame UEFA nor a small minority of Liverpool supporters who attacked the City team bus for our defeat. However I do see 2 reasons why we lost that game, the first of which is Pep putting players in the wrong position (which partly explains why we lost the midfield battle) such as putting KDB as a RW (instead of B.Silva if we were not going to start Sterling).
The bigger problem however is one that I have repeatingly banged on about both on this forum and on Bluemoon (and got banned because of it) all thoughout this season and even before the match. It is we simply lack the strength in depth needed to dominate a hard (by major European Football League standards), win the 2 domestic cups frequently and win the Champions League (on a regular basis) against teams which are more than a match for you. Especially if you play under Pep's system and all the fatigue/energy level issues you end up suffering from as the season drags on (1) every time.
This is the reason why D.Silva, KDB and Fernandinho were shadows of themsevles compared to their usual form (2), that is why Sane, Sterling and Jesus barely attacked the Liverpool defence, that is why Ederson was below par and that is why even Kompany was poor when it came to the defence side of things (not good when you are facing a front 3 like Liverpool's). Just as it was the same reason why we lost to Liverpool the last time round at Anfield, why we lost to Wigan in the FA Cup, why we lost to Basel in the Last 16 of the CL, why we struggled to reach the final of the League Cup and why we have been in poor form for too many games across the second half of the season and the main reason why I feel we will not win the Champions League this season, even if we get past Liverpool in the 2nd round. (3)
Likewise there are some which have criticised Pep for not being pragmatic enough to change his tatics in this match (an issue which also arose in various SF's under Barcelona and Bayern). Now while I understand those critcisms, the bigger issue for me is that if Pep was going to stick by his principles (despite it backfiring in previous Knockout Rounds) then why did not do enough to make sure there was enough strength in depth to deal with tough siutations like this rather than put a whole team of fatigued players (and the same being said with the bench) (4) against a highly motivated (5) team such as Liverpool last night.
(1) Still better than the Tony Pulis way of playing football, which for the record can only go so far as this season as shown. Likewise for anyone who wants to refer to our transfer spending in recent years, one must be reminded that in the age of 9 figure transfer fees, City spending £400+ million does not get you as much compared to what the likes of Chelsea spent in the Mid-2000s (and even they failed to get a CL out of that). So despite the large amounts that we have spent, we are still a long way from both dominating the domestic game and winning the CL on a regular basis as games like these have shown.
(2) I mean for FFS they lost the midfield battle to a midfield 3 of Ox, Henderson and Millner. That says it all...
(3) Which in itself requires the best performance of the season in the 2nd leg, even if it means putting out the youths against Tottenham and hope they perform against the odds.
(4) I would especially say that City have paid the price in their failure to get Sanchez, who would have been a very useful option in siutations such as this.
(5) Despite their shortfalls.
