Jamie Carragher was left very impressed by one tactic Pep Guardiola deployed against Liverpool on Saturday.
The pundit was speaking on Monday Night Football after the 4-1 win for City at the Etihad Stadium.
Guardiola’s side put in perhaps their best performance all season as they blew the Reds away in the second-half.
Mo Salah gave Liverpool the lead, exploiting a very high line from City.
But Julian Alvarez equalised, before Kevin De Bruyne and Jack Grealish killed the game off with their goals in the second-half.
City were simply magnificent in the second-half.
Carragher was really impressed by one tactic Guardiola implemented in particular, and used Alvarez’s goal as he presented Sky viewers with his analysis.
Essentially, Carragher felt John Stones moving into midfield allowed Riyad Mahrez to play very high up.
The Algerian’s positioning game Andy Robertson a real problem.
In the build-up to Alvarez’s goal, the Scot went to go and press Kevin De Bruyne. But he got nowhere near him because he started too far away from him because of Mahrez.
Speaking on Monday Night Football, he said: “You had Mahrez who was permanently on the shoulder of Andy Robertson. It was just a better set-up, it really was. John Stones, I thought, was outstanding.
“I just thought it was really interesting to set-up from Pep. It was still a 3-4-3, but it was different players in different positions which meant it caused Liverpool more problems. And the second goal which was the killer, who gets in behind Robertson? Mahrez again, crosses for De Bruyne.”
Carragher also suggested it was perhaps Jack Grealish’s best game for City. Erling Haaland also praised the England star after the game.
Pep Guardiola tactically outwitted Jurgen Klopp on Saturday, as Jamie Carragher left wowed on Monday Night Football
It was clear as the game went on that Jurgen Klopp has no answer to this specific tactic from Guardiola.
The overload in midfield created by Stones coming inside, added to Mahrez’s high positioning, just gave City total control and left Liverpool all over the place. Especially Robertson.
It was truly an amazing performance from Stones.
We know he is technically really good.
But to play as well as he did against Liverpool, having not performed such a role very often, was a testament to how good he is.
