Jurgen Klopp’s fears that players travelling from South America 72 hours before kick-off might impact the showpiece Manchester City-Liverpool game came true, but in a most unexpected way.
Of the five players who did the 13,000 mile round trip to South America during the international break, it was Liverpool’s Brazilian goalkeeper Alisson who looked as if he was still affected by jet lag.
Normally the coolest customer around, Alisson’s uncharacteristically erratic performance was capped by a wayward clearance that led to Erling Haaland giving City the lead after 27 minutes.
In contrast, his countryman Ederson was the beneficiary of staying at home to rest an injury. He made a great reflex save to twice deny Darwin Nunez and his distribution was immaculate – in contrast to Alisson’s howler.
The Liverpool No1, who had played in Brazil’s 1-0 home defeat against Argentina in the Maracana during the early hours on Wednesday morning, had already escaped two lax moments with the ball at his feet when he skied a clearance straight to Nathan Ake.
Alisson’s performance at the Etihad on Saturday seemed to show signs of recent travel fatigue
A loose pass from the Brazilian set up a lethal Erling Haaland to score the home side’s goal
The goalkeeper was fortunate not to have conceded a second after it was ruled out by VAR
The City player fed Erling Haaland who took two touches to a control and a third to fire past Alisson who may have felt he could have got a hand to the shot as well.
The Liverpool goalkeeper was fortunate a second goal past him was disallowed for a push by Manuel Ajanji but he did end up redeeming himself with a good save to deny Haaland a second – with Liverpool then going up the other end to equalise through Trent Alexander-Arnold after 80 minutes.
Klopp had been outspoken in criticising the scheduling of the Premier League’s best sides immediately after players had been involved in World Cup qualifiers across several continents.
It didn’t help that the fixture was shunted forward to Saturday lunchtime on police advice given previous history of trouble around the fixture.
Those participants who travelled back together from South America had mixed showings.
Julian Alvarez, part of the winning Argentina team, couldn’t be faulted for his energy, covering every blade of grass in an attacking midfield role and taking nearly every set-piece.
If there was any fatigue, it showed up in his thinking. Twice he rushed his decisions in good positions, taking a loose touch on the first occasion, and blasting over the bar on the second.
Nunez, who scored three times in two games for Uruguay, was also a willing runner and tracked back to help his team, picking up a booking on one occasion for hacking down Phil Foden.
His big moment was a header from Mo Salah’s cross that was goalbound until Ederson tipped away. In the second half his strike to the near post was beaten away by the ‘keeper.
In Liverpool’s previous game following an international break, Argentine Alexis Mac Allister was withdrawn after 45 minutes at Wolves due to exhaustion.
His conditioning was better on this occasion, but you still felt he may have had an extra sharpness without the travel. It was predictable that once Liverpool had levelled, he and Nunez were substituted before their energy fully ran out.
The fifth member of the South American travel party, Luis Diaz of Colombia, was held back by Klopp until the 54th minute when he was sent on with Liverpool trailing 1-0. To be fair, his arrival did coincide with Liverpool putting concerted pressure onto City for the first time.
Given this match was beamed to hundreds of millions around the world, it wasn’t the most thrilling advert for the Premier League, though still compelling.
Julian Alvarez (right, with his Argentina team-mate Alexis Mac Allister) lacked some of his usual sharp thoughtfulness
Darwin Nunez was full of zip but unable to get on the scoresheet during the Etihad draw
Klopp and others may have a point that criss-crossing oceans was not the best preparation if you want the stars to be at their maximum, but there were other reasons too
Games that kick off at 12.30pm traditionally take time to come alive and the huge respect between City and Liverpool mean there was always going to be an element of cat-and-mouse rather than both sides going for each other’s throat.
There were some interesting spells and the individual battle between Jeremy Doku and Trent Alexander-Arnold was fascinating. Doku was ahead on points until Alexander-Arnold broke forward to bury his shot from 18 yards and whisper “Shush” to the City fans in celebration.
A point will satisfy Liverpool more than City but next time Brazil play, Klopp may suggest it’s Alisson who stays on Merseyside, and Ederson the one to go long haul.
