Manchester City Reserves 1-0 Liverpool Reserves

A Daniel Sturridge finish condemned Reserve Champions Liverpool to their second consecutive league defeat at Eastlands on Tuesday. The Reds second-string were unable to repeat the feat of the first team days earlier, which in truth never looked like materialising.

Manager Gary Ablett made four changes from the side that lost at Sunderland, including giving trialist Medi Abalimba a start on the right wing.

City took a deserved lead on 12 minutes, with Daniel Sturridge stabbing home from close range after the Reds failed to deal with a deep free-kick. Liverpool’s best and only real chance of the match came on the half hour. Jay Spearing put David Ngog through down the right, with the Frenchman’s early shot hitting the side netting.

Liverpool were much improved after the break, dominating possession for long periods, but were unable to test City’s goalkeeper Tobias Johansen. In fact it was the hosts who should have added to their tally but for a fine save by Gulacsi and an earlier goal line clearance from Stephen Darby.

Player Review:

With two defeats out of their first three league games, which of the Liverpool Reserve side are standing out despite a poor run of form? (Now with ratings out of ten):

Peter Gulacsi (GK): The Hungarian had a decent game between the sticks, making three good saves and could do nothing about the only goal of the game. 8/10

Stephen Darby (RB): Solid performance as ever from the reserve team captain. Darby may find himself in Rafa Benitez’s thoughts in the coming weeks with Degen and Skrtel injured and Arbeloa already on four yellow cards in the league. 7/10

Mikel San Jose (CB): Almost gifted Sturridge and City a second with a naïve back-header yet improved on his disappointing performance at Sunderland. 6/10

Martin Kelly (CB): Playing in his preferred position, Kelly was largely comfortable and gave a good case of his credentials with the likes of Daniel Ayala and Robert Huth previously preferred at centre back. 6/10

Emiliano Insua (LB): For whatever reason, Insua appears to be a shadow of the player he looked like becoming after some impressive outings for the first team in pre-season and the back end of the last campaign. He gave away a silly free-kick which led to the goal and struggled against City’s right winger Vladimir Weiss. 4/10

Medi Abalimba (RM): (off 62) With it not being the easiest of fixtures for a trialist to come and impress in, Abalimba certainly fitted in with the rest of Liverpool’s lightweight attacking options and was always on the periphery of the game. 5/10

Jay Spearing (CM): Despite his tireless running, probing passing and driving runs, Spearing’s commitment led to very little on another difficult night. 7/10

Damien Plessis (CM): Plessis seems to be suffering from the same problem as Insua, where they seem to believe there is nothing they can do to fully break into the first team and look like they have given up. 5/10

Vincent Weijl (LM): Weijl showed moments of brilliance with his skill on the left in the first half, but looked leggy and faded the more the game wore on. 5/10

Dani Pacheco (ST): The little Spaniard struggled against a physically-dominant City back line like the rest of Liverpool’s lightweight attack. 5/10

David Ngog (ST): (off 46) Ngog had Liverpool’s only decent chance of the match and was replaced at half time. Ngog struggled in most aspects of his game against a sturdy defence, struggling to hold the ball up and even make the simplest of passes. 4/10

Gerardo Bruna (ST): (on 46) His influence – albeit largely ineffective – brought about some of the best football in the match and helped link Liverpool’s midfield and attack well. 6/10

Francisco Duran (RM): (on 62) After two cruciate knee ligament injuries, Duran was making a competitive comeback after more than a year on the sidelines. He found it difficult to pick up the pace of the game but showed glimpses of quality to justify the Reds sticking by him despite his injury problems. 6/10

Their next match is against Everton on October 14.

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Written by Michael McGuinness