Gary Neville lauds $54M Liverpool star whose performance he loved against Man City

Gary Neville still thinks Liverpool will finish in the Champions League spots this season and he was left impressed by one man in particular after watching the Reds play Manchester City

Sky Sports pundit Gary Neville has offered his opinion(Image: James Gill - Danehouse/Getty Images)

Liverpool may not have held on to win against Manchester City — somehow contriving to lose despite going ahead through Dominik Szoboszlai — but at least one man did impress.

Milos Kerkez has generally looked much better in recent weeks as he continues to get used to the demands of playing for Liverpool, with his only real misstep the game at his former club, Bournemouth, when he was hooked at half-time.

Against Manchester City, he played well against Antoine Semenyo and helped shut Pep Guardiola's side down in the first half, when it was well on top in the game but struggling to create clear-cut chances.

"He's done well, Kerkez; he's done really well," Gary Neville, speaking on commentary for Sky Sports, said in one moment.

"Most defenders there spread their legs and it ends up going through into the far corner," he added, analyzing the left-back's closing down and swift movement that saw him block a cross.

Kerkez was a strong performer and is likely to start against Sunderland midweek, though his compatriot, Szoboszlai, is suspended.

In addition to Kerkez, Florian Wirtz was also impressive for Liverpool, though Arne Slot still needs to work out how to deploy him best in games like these.

Liverpool defender Milos Kerkez is interviewed by Viaplay(Image: X/Viaplay)

Ryan Gravenberch and Alexis Mac Allister both struggled to cover the ground at Anfield in the center of the field until Liverpool changed things up at half-time and emerged as the better team after the break.

While he couldn't explain exactly what changes were made at the interval, Virgil van Dijk agreed that the second half was much more like it, at least until the late collapse.

"It's always difficult to accept a loss, especially at home," he told reporters. "If you really analyze the game as a whole, 95 minutes, City was much better than us in having the ball. They created some opportunities, but not massive. Second half, we did much better and created opportunities but the penalty is the deciding factor. At the moment, I'm disappointed that we lost.

"We were trying to be more direct, with much more long balls, winning if not the first ball then the second, and go from there. They tried to shut off our left side and Erling Haaland was constantly with me.

"We weren't good enough in that sense. When we had the ball, we couldn't get that much pressure that we wanted. That's why they controlled the first half as they did.

"Second half, we turned it around a little bit and got more control. We made better decisions and made more challenges."

Liverpool.com says: Kerkez was very good and couldn't do a lot more. He will get even better in time and that $54 million (£40 million) move from Bournemouth will look a real masterstroke. The signs are very much there.