Pep Guardiola may have confirmed his best front three after Liverpool experiment backfired

A headline statistic was doing the rounds after Liverpool's victory over Manchester City that didn't flatter Jack Grealish one bit.

It said that Liverpool goalkeeper Alisson, with his defence-splitting assist for Mo Salah's winner vs City, has more assists this season than Grealish has, seemingly criticising the City number ten for his lack of goal involvements this term.

However, as Grealish sat on the bench at Anfield, he may have felt that his long-term City prospects may have increased. Not because of anything Alisson did, but more from the way the Blues struggled to balance their attack against Liverpool.

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With Phil Foden preferred to Grealish on the left, and Kevin De Bruyne shifted out to the right to accommodate Bernardo Silva, City looked to create an overload against Liverpool's makeshift right-back James Milner. It was a tactic that worked wonders on the last visit to Anfield, but Liverpool saw the plan coming and brought back three midfielders to the left side to crowd out the City pair.

Even with Ilkay Gundogan and Nathan Ake behind, City struggled to find space on that left flank, yet often sent their attacks that way.

Maybe the plan was to draw Liverpool in before switching the ball wide where Rodri, De Bruyne and Joao Cancelo were waiting, often in acreas of space. The one time De Bruyne did get that ball, he advanced and picked out the head of Erling Haaland, who could only direct his header into the arms of Alisson.

While City were competitive in the game, though, it made little sense for Guardiola to change things. The longer the game went on, any changes would have to have been more direct, with Grealish's role