"We had a lot of players in different positions," said the Liverpool boss.
"Luis Garcia was not 100% fit but had to play and we needed to manage with the strikers and the centre-backs.
"City played very deep and were well organised and in the first half we didn't find the space that we needed.
"But in the second half we did better, found more space and after we scored the goal it made it easier for us.
"City started pushing forward more and pressing and we needed to do something different and Steven Gerrard did that for us."