Carra: We saw Klopp's attacking impact against City
Liverpool's scintillating display at the Etihad Stadium on Saturday gave Jamie Carragher a first real glimpse of the attacking potential in his former team under Jürgen Klopp.
Manchester City simply could not stop the Reds as they racked up three goals before half-time by winning the ball high up the pitch and springing forward through a fluid combination of Philippe Coutinho, Roberto Firmino and Adam Lallana.
Eliaquim Mangala’s own goal put Klopp’s team ahead and their lead was increased courtesy of strikes from Coutinho and Firmino, the Brazilian duo taking turns to tee up the other to net.
A long-range curler by Sergio Aguero briefly threatened a comeback, but Liverpool had several chances to score again before Martin Skrtel did slam a fourth beyond Joe Hart in the closing stages.
The manager spoke of the benefit of working with many of his players at length during the preceding international break – an advantage Carragher felt allowed his old side to show all of their attacking strengths.
He said: “The first 30 or 35 minutes was as good as anything I can remember, not from Klopp or any Liverpool team, but in the Premier League – at least when going away to a big team like Manchester City, who are one of the top sides.
“You could see the work that had been done during the week. There was talk about why [Christian] Benteke wasn’t playing and Klopp said: ‘Well I've been using the same players for the last 10 days in training’. And you can see how that’s worked.
“We’ve spoken about the work of Klopp in terms of being organised and pressing.
“I think that was the first time we’ve seen the work of him offensively, what he can do and maybe the damage he can cause with his teams, and that’s from working with those players for 10 days during the international break.”