’73 minutes’ – Steve Nicol was alarmed by horrid statistic from Liverpool’s defeat to Man City | OneFootball

Steve Nicol highlighted one statistic which laid bare just how inferior Liverpool were to Manchester City in their 3-0 defeat on Sunday.

Although the Reds had legitimate grievances over the reasoning for what would’ve been a Virgil van Dijk equaliser being disallowed, they could have no real complaints about the overall result, with the home side in full control for almost the entire evening.

It brought to an end the Merseysiders’ sequence of scoring in 44 consecutive Premier League matches, a run which dated back to a 1-0 loss at home to Nottingham Forest 14 months ago.

Nicol dismayed by Liverpool’s wait for a shot on target

As he conducted a debrief shortly after yesterday’s match on ESPN FC, Nicol pinpointed how long it took for Liverpool to get their one and only shot on target at the Etihad Stadium – aside from the controversially disallowed goal, of course.

The pundit said: “Manchester City totally and utterly outplayed Liverpool. It surprised me, the dominance that they had, and other than maybe five minutes after half-time when Liverpool looked as though they were trying to get back in it, that was it from Liverpool.

“We laughed at Spurs [on Saturday] for how long it took them to get a shot. Liverpool were the same today. 73 minutes, [Gianluigi] Donnarumma made his first save from [Dominik] Szoboszlai. That just tells you how this game went.”

Image via Sky Sports Premier League

Liverpool’s xG was among their lowest all season

It wasn’t as if the Reds didn’t have chances against Man City – Cody Gakpo should’ve scored from Conor Bradley’s inviting low cross, while Mo Salah was unlucky to see one effort hit the side netting, and Nicol mentioned the shot from Szoboszlai which forced a strong save from Donnarumma.

However, as per FBref, Liverpool posted their joint-second lowest xG of the season with only 0.7, and the game at the Etihad saw their biggest negative disparity for that metric in the current campaign as the home side had 1.5.

It actually took until the 76th minute for the Reds to register a shot on target yesterday (WhoScored), but pedantry aside, Arne Slot’s side were well and truly beaten once Jeremy Doku thmped in City’s third goal of the evening just after the hour mark.

Roy Keane was typically scathing of what he described as a ‘dreadful’ LFC performance, and whether or not you think that’s too strong a word, nobody could dispute the reality that we were outclassed by Pep Guardiola’s team.

Off the back of impressive wins over Aston Villa and Real Madrid, Liverpool had an ideal chance to make a real statement at the Etihad on Sunday. Sadly, it was Man City who did just that as they closed the gap on Premier League leaders Arsenal to four points.

You can watch Slot’s full post-Man City press conference via Empire of the Kop on YouTube: