Manchester City v Liverpool Which Player deserves an A?

Out of all the players on the field for the early game at the Etihad today, who deserves an A for their performance? To qualify your last name has to begin with the letter A!

Alvarez. C. Missed a promising chance. Should have been subbed off but for a surprising shortage of goalscoring talent on the City bench.

Ake. B. Very solid. Quietly efficient.

Allison. F. (Becker) Poor distribution. Gave away the City goal with it. Looked shaky, uncertain. Klopp must be wishing he had United’s Onana or City’s Ederson.

Alexander-Arnold. B. Spent some time at right back before Klopp realized he was getting tortured by Doku. Not much in the game when he was at left back or in midfield. For once Guardiola was clearly outstrategized by Klopp. Consider the substitutions. A-A silenced his critics with a sweet goal.

Akanji. A++. Played like a lion in midfield. The Swiss put the body on Alisson at every set piece and earned a goal that was disallowed for some incidental contact. Clearly the best player on the field.

Out of the non-qualifying or nearly-qualifying non-As,

Haaland B. (silent H?). Nice goal. Couple other decent efforts. Not up to his sparkling best.

Mac Alister C (no Mac plenty of cheese!). Not in it much. Subbed off.

Doku. A- (formerly of A nderlecht). Great dribbling. Embarrassed Alexander-Arnold and then Tsimikas. A couple of poor pass v dribble decisions. What A prospect!

Nunez gets an A stands for you know what. After the game was over, Pep congratulated Klopp, and Nunez, who should have been minding his own business, clearly said something offensive to Guardiola. You know it if you saw the smirk on Nunez’ face as he walked off. Starts to remind me of his fellow Uruguayan Luis Suarez. Not a nice man!