Daniel Sturridge and Roy Keane didn\u2019t hold back in their criticism of Liverpool\u2019s defending for the goal that handed Manchester City a 2-0 lead just before half-time on Sunday evening.<\/p>\n
Moments after Virgil van Dijk saw his equaliser controversially ruled out for offside against Andy Robertson, City struck again when Nico Gonzalez\u2019s long-range effort deflected off the Liverpool captain and looped past Giorgi Mamardashvili.<\/p>\n
It summed up the Reds\u2019 misfortune at the Etihad, but not everyone was sympathetic. Both Keane and Sturridge were unimpressed with the manner in which Arne Slot\u2019s side conceded right before the interval.<\/p>\n
Keane and Sturridge slam Liverpool\u2019s defending
\nSpeaking on Sky Sports, Keane \u2013 who labelled Liverpool\u2019s overall display as \u201cdreadful\u201d \u2013 was furious with their lack of urgency and organisation in the build-up to the goal.<\/p>\n
He said: \u201cWhere\u2019s the intensity? This is right before half-time \u2013 a key moment \u2013 and the players aren\u2019t reacting. People will say Van Dijk was unlucky; he\u2019s not unlucky. You\u2019ve got to push up, close down, and put pressure on the ball.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sturridge, meanwhile, lamented the unlucky deflection but still called for better defending. \u201cIt\u2019s not good to see. The shot itself wasn\u2019t great, to be honest, but when you hit the target, sometimes things like that happen,\u201d he said. \u201cHe [Gonzalez] got his reward because things went his way.\u201d<\/p>\n
Liverpool punished for slow reactions
\nWhile Gonzalez enjoyed a big slice of luck with the deflection, the goal exposed Liverpool\u2019s sluggish defending. His initial strike didn\u2019t appear threatening and might have drifted wide, but the Reds\u2019 failure to close him down proved costly.<\/p>\n
Less than ten seconds before the goal, every Liverpool player was in the box, yet City had only four attackers forward \u2013 all marked. Despite that, Gonzalez was still afforded the time and space to control the ball, shift it onto his right foot, and take a shot.<\/p>\n
It was a cruel blow for Arne Slot\u2019s side, but one that could have been avoided with sharper reactions and tighter defending. Gonzalez may have been fortunate, but Liverpool\u2019s passive defending made his luck count.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Daniel Sturridge and Roy Keane didn\u2019t hold back in their criticism of Liverpool\u2019s defending for the goal that handed Manchester City a 2-0 lead just before half-time on Sunday evening. Moments after Virgil van Dijk saw his equaliser controversially ruled out for offside against Andy Robertson, City struck again when Nico Gonzalez\u2019s long-range effort deflected …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":54039,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-54038","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/keane-sturridge-richards-1200x676.jpg.webp","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54038","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=54038"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54038\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":54040,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54038\/revisions\/54040"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/54039"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=54038"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=54038"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=54038"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}