Sagna: I Wasn’t Ready For Liverpool

“Before the game the gaffer laid out a plan for us and it worked out perfectly”, he told the club’s website (www.liverpoolfc.com). We need him as a target and he came very deep. We don’t have to think about this.

Pellegrini accepts that makes for a “difficult situation” but is still determined to put in a strong performance.

Asked by reporters if he had been ready to take on Jurgen Klopp’s side, Sagna said: “Mentally I was”. We are starting to see a player that has a real creative edge with an incredible work rate. Whilst Jamie Vardy dominates the headlines, Coutinho is possibly the best player in the league from a technical stand point. I felt exhausted quite quickly.

Jurgen Klopp’s side travelled to the table-toppers on Saturday evening and were expected to be in for a tough ride, with the likes of Jordan Henderson, Danny Ings, Joe Gomez and Mamadou Sakho out. “There were reasons, it wasn’t because of the weather or something like this, it (before) wasn’t what the owners or the supporters wanted”, Klopp explained. It wasn’t because of the weather and it wasn’t a problem with Brendan Rodgers because he is a brilliant manager.

“Today we did it all wrong – the performance, the way we defended, the way we went forward”.

“I don’t want to blame the team”, he said.

Liverpool have now beaten champions Chelsea and City in successive away games and while they lie six points off the Champions League places, Klopp believes that vital self-belief is being forged.

City’s top striker Sergio Aguero marked his return after seven games out injured with a fine goal to reduce the arrears but Martin Skrtel lashed in a shot nine minutes from time.

Barrett also believes teams will start mimicking aspects of Liverpool’s approach when they take on City as the season progresses to try and unsettle them. As the last time City shipped four goals in any competition at home was in 2012 under Roberto Mancini (when they lost 4-2 to Aston Villa in the League Cup).

On Saturday the game flowed perfectly into their hands with an early goal, coupled with woeful City defending, allowing them to pick City off on the counter-attack. “We are running now more than ever, more than any other team in the Premier League”.

For Klopp, losing Sterling in the summer would not have been a big issue – and consequently you would have avoided the circus surrounding the transfer – because he would just see it as an opportunity to buy somebody else and create another Sterling, or someone better.

“At Inter there were many different managers in and out so you get used to change”, added the midfield playmaker.