On one hand, Manchester City’s dropped points made Liverpool’s fate all the more frustrating. It’s never a good time to see a perfectly legitimate goal chalked off by sheer incompetence of the highest order, but it’s particularly galling when seeking to go top of the table.

Then again, whenever they come, dropped points for Manchester City must be celebrated. Liverpool knows better than anyone that Pep Guardiola has built a pretty relentless winning machine, and three squandered points are rare indeed.

It speaks to the quality of Liverpool’s start that fans are even looking at Manchester City again. There’s a long way to go, but Guardiola looks like he is the one with a target on his back, with Jürgen Klopp seeking to reclaim not only a place in the top four but also the Premier League title.

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And while it’s hard to see past the sheer frustration of the Luis Díaz VAR farce, the manner of the Manchester City defeat was particularly interesting. It suggests Guardiola could be heading towards a problem that Klopp himself has already had to navigate at Anfield.

When Fabinho left Liverpool, Klopp paid him a glowing tribute — crediting the Brazilian with allowing his side to play the way that it did during some of the most successful years Anfield has witnessed. Nor was it much of an exaggeration; the ‘lighthouse’, as he was dubbed, gave those in front of him a freedom they could not otherwise have enjoyed.

Ironically, the best evidence of his importance came in the form of his decline last season. Liverpool’s problems could not be pinned entirely on his drop-off by any means, but it was grimly fascinating to see how every stage of Klopp’s approach collapsed as Fabinho sagged under the weight on his shoulders.

Rodri is rapidly ascending towards similar importance for Manchester City. He has inherited the Fernandinho role and even upgraded it, and has become a central cog in Guardiola’s machine.

At 27, there are no imminent fears about any collapse in form — although Fabinho was only a year older when things started to go south. However, Guardiola just got a stark warning about availability.

Against Wolves, Rodri was missing through suspension. Tellingly, Guardiola did not opt to go for Kalvin Phillips from the start even in these circumstances: a damning exposure of a failed transfer plan. Simply put, there is no cover for the Spaniard who commands the faith of the manager.

And perhaps rightly so. First with a double pivot of new transfer additions Matheus Nunes and Mateo Kovačić, and latterly with Phillips introduced, Manchester City proved absurdly vulnerable to quick counter-attacks. The territory Rodri normally patrols became a no-man’s land, and Wolves took full advantage.

Both goals came from quick breaks, and there were other chances too. Indeed, right before Manchester City went up the other end and equalized, Matheus Cunha had a strong case for a free kick on the edge of the box after breaking into acres of space and bearing down on goal.

Rodri will be back for the next match, so there’s no immediate further worry for Guardiola. But this reliance will concern him. His anchor is not immune to injury — and of the five games Manchester City has now lost over 90 minutes in 2023, the defensive midfielder has been absent from the start in four of them.

The pattern extends further. Rodri was absent from five of the nine Manchester City starting XIs that suffered defeat in 2021/22. Without him, Guardiola’s side looks almost as vulnerable as Liverpool did last season, with the risk/reward calculation of the aggressive style of play thrown off in a very similar manner.

Of course, Rodri normally boasts an uncanny ability to avoid dismissals, so Guardiola will hope his absence is a one-off. But for a side that has looked so invincible at times over the last half-decade or more, this reliance on one player is uncharacteristic, and should be enough to instil hope in Liverpool.