Gary Neville says he felt let down by Pep Guardiola's failure to spring a surprise on Liverpool with his team selection.
Manchester City are struggling with injuries at the moment, and it was predicted that Claudio Bravo would start in goal in place of Ederson and Fernandinho would slot in at centre-back.
Neville says he hoped that Guardiola - the tactical genius he is - would try something unexpected at Anfield, in a bid to unsettle Jurgen Klopp's swashbuckling Reds.
But the Spaniard's team lined up exactly the way they were expected to, and were, subsequently, blown away by Liverpool.
Speaking on Sky Sports' The Gary Neville Podcast, the former Manchesrer United right-back said: "They were in the corner, they were getting punched.
"Everyone thought Liverpool would win, everyone though this was the moment; City haven't got the defenders, Claudio Bravo in net.
"This is when the great teams somehow muster a performance, go in and turn it on its head. And I just had the feeling that Pep Guardiola would have been thinking about this game for the last two or three weeks.
"And I just felt Pep Guardiola would have something different for us, something unique. Something that we've come to expect from him over the last five, 10, 15 years.
"And I got what was normal, what I expected. The team the newspapers and us picked in the morning. Fernandinho and [John] Stones at centre-back.
"Manchester City played well in the game from a football point of view. But that back four and that goalkeeper were never going to be able to cope with this ground.
"Forget this team, these strikers, this ground. You have to have a toughness, an authority to come and play here, it’s the toughest of places - and Man City didn't have that in defence today.
"Whether [Nicolas] Otamendi, [John] Stones and [Kyle] Walker as a back three would have fared better, with wing-backs, whether they could have gone with something completely bizarre and turned it on it's head.
"That's what I've come to expect from Pep: innovative, creative, something that just shocks you like you wouldn't believe. And even if it doesn't come off you think 'well at least he tried to something'. But I didn't think it was very Pep-like."
