PREMIER LEAGUE LIVERPOOL v MANCHESTER CITY:IF MARK Hughes has learned one thing in the last month, it is exactly what Rafael Benitez and Liverpool learned last season: draws can drag you down. Five draws, which is what Manchester City have just put together, is hardly an unbeaten run worth bragging about.
“You always know there will be periods in a season when things don’t quite run for you,” Hughes says, with some feeling.
“We want to draw a line under ours and get three points on the board as quickly as possible. There is a massive difference between three points and one point.”
Hughes insists he is happy with City’s progress – “We’ve only been beaten once and, if you had asked me at the start of the season, I’m sure I would have been happy with that” – yet he is acutely aware that 10 points have been dropped in five games and that that could be more harmful than the odd defeat. If he is in any doubt on the matter he need only consult today’s opponents, who lost only two league games last season yet were unable to topple Manchester United on account of 11 draws.
The player City pinched almost from under Liverpool’s nose this summer, Gareth Barry, is proving one of the successes of the season, along with Craig Bellamy, who will be making a return to Anfield today.
Other Hughes signings have not bedded in quite so well and one or two have even gone missing during the sequence of draws.
The immense promise of Emmanuel Adebayor at the start of the season was largely dissipated by his ban following the Arsenal game and he has not looked the same player since. Carlos Tevez, whom Hughes is understood to be considering dropping from his starting line-up today, has been unspectacular, Robinho injured and Roque Santa Cruz has barely started a game.
However, it is in defence that City have occasionally come apart. The pairing of Joleon Lescott and Kolo Toure has yet to convince, especially for the money, and Wayne Bridge also appears to be struggling to justify his price tag. Consequently City fans have been grateful on several occasions already that Hughes had the foresight to pick up one of the best goalkeepers around in Shay Given, who has certainly been kept busy.
Yet other teams, too, have been dropping points and, with a game in hand on most of the teams above them, City could propel themselves back into the top four should they rediscover the winning habit.
“In some of our drawn games we were happy to get something out of a difficult situation, in others we were disappointed because we should have had more,” Hughes says.
“Overall I cannot be satisfied with dropping so many points but, having said that, you would normally consider a draw at Liverpool a positive result. You couldn’t really view a draw at Anfield as a bad result but I’ve got to be honest, the sooner we get a win and break this cycle the better.
“Anfield is as good a place as any to go and do it, it will be a big test for everyone but in a way that might suit us. It’s a high-profile game, we need to take points off the teams immediately around us and I want to see our big-time players grasping their moment. We are in good shape and it’s fair to say we all want to get back to winning ways.”
Barry, who reported a slight groin soreness on his return from England duty and may be spared a few City games in the coming weeks, feels the same way.
“This is a very important period of the season coming up when we need to make things happen,” he says.
“We feel fresh right now and are looking to kick on from here and not having any European commitments this season could work to our advantage. In the early part of the season teams involved in Europe generally have big squads they can rotate but the number of games can take a toll around Christmas and that’s when we might benefit.”
Benitez believes Liverpool can restart their own flagging season with a win against City today and Hughes thinks the same thing might happen if his side take the points.
“If we beat them it might galvanise their season,” the City manager says.
“That’s certainly what happened with Arsenal. When we beat them people were saying their top-four place was in jeopardy and they looked like the side most likely to drop out, but they have looked really, really strong since and haven’t lost a game.
“Now it is Liverpool who are suddenly everyone’s favourites to finish outside the top four but we certainly won’t be making any such assumptions.
“People have the perception they are not doing as well as they could be but they have the quality and the experience to go out and change that on the pitch. There are enormous expectations on them to be successful season after season and they live with that, just as they have learned to live with the fear of failure.
“I think it is still too early to try and guess how the season will pan out. Sometimes you can look at the table around Christmas and get a fairly strong clue about how things will end up but I’m not sure that’s going to be the case this time.”
- Guardian Service
