Wijnaldum: “That’s What We Must Do Every Game”

It may have lacked a final, fitting moment, a late goal of the sort he has already had a few of, but that and a draw for Liverpool couldn’t take the shine off one of Georginio Wijnaldum’s best performances of the season, as the Dutch international looked the best midfielder on the pitch in a clash against big spending Manchester City.

In a game that could have seen either team win by a pair of goals and call the result fair, Wijnaldum turned in a man of the match calibre performance and, though he would have preferred all three points he was content with the result as well as with how he and his teammates played on Sunday afternoon at the Etihad.

“I’m a little disappointed,” he admitted following the match. “But not a lot, because if you look at the game fairly, you can see at the end they could have scored two goals. Before we conceded a goal, we had a chance to make it 2-0. The big chance with Adam Lallana makes me a little bit disappointed, but I think it’s a fair result.”

City could have made it 2-0 before Liverpool scored, and a 2-0 scoreline in City’s favour also wouldn’t have been entirely unfair. Then, following the goals, there was Lallana’s chance for the visiting Reds. It wasn’t the end of it, though, as Sergio Aguero then skied a golden opportunity to put his side up in stoppage time.

The result, then, was fair. In a game either side could have won comfortably and not said the result was unfair, shared points is probably about right in the end. And more important than the result and point, perhaps, will be Liverpool taking what they did against City and showing they can put in that kind of performance every week.”

“We must make sure we try not to lose games because in football you never know what can happen,” Wijnaldum added. “Everything can happen during a game. If you play like we did today—and you could see the passion in the team—then it's difficult to beat us and that's what we must do every game.”