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10th November 2025
10:29am GMT

“I think it is crisis time for Liverpool," said Roy Keane on Sunday, as the Sky Sports studio attempted to come to terms with the worst performance by a Liverpool side in a big game in recent history.
In Pep Guardiola's 1000th game as manager, and a fixture that had been billed as the ultimate climax between the two most successful teams of the last decade, Liverpool collapsed.
Coming into the game on the back of four losses out of their last five, more than 50,000 fans poured into Manchester's Etihad Stadium on Sunday night expecting a huge response. After all, it was only Tuesday that Arne Slot's side had overcome Real Madrid.
And yet, Liverpool offered absolutely nothing.
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Constantly throughout the 90 minutes, City star Jeremy Doku was able to pass through last season's title-winning defence as easily as a hot knife might cut through butter.
A brilliant Giorgi Mamardashvili penalty save may have saved the Reds in the opening 10 minutes, but by the half-hour mark it was 1-0.
Virgil van Dijk was then very unlucky to see his 38th minute header ruled out for offside, but less than 10 minutes later it was 2-0, and two goals too far for the Reds to come back.
After full-time, Liverpool manager Slot made clear how happy he was with his team's performance in the second half, saying: "In the second half, when we were doing better, you could see could us winning much more duels.
"Then we were more than a few times able to win the ball, which didn't result in a goal for us. But in the second half we definitely deserved a goal."
Despite the improvement, they still lost the half 1-0 through a Jeremy Doku wonderstrike, and the match 3-0.
The worst part for Arne Slot's side is that Sunday's result wasn't just one game. It was simply the latest setback in a season to forget for Liverpool.
While the former PSV coach admitted that his hopes of defending the Premier League title are all but over, saying: "The last thing I should speak about is the title race. We have to focus on getting results," but the stats tell a different story.
Having now lost eight games in all competitions, unless things improve soon, Liverpool will have a real battle on their hands to simply qualify for European football next year.
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