Our combination play, defence and even counters have improved exponentially, which could partially be seen today. However, what seperates Liverpool and City from us, the reason they can put consistent pressure on teams and we can't is their midfield.
In possesion:
Even in Liverpool's loss on Monday, they were able to move the ball out of defensive zones in one touch, due to positioning and the ability to make the quick pass. Unlike us, where our CM's position themselves away from possession and don't have the composure to move the ball in one touch, Thiago and Wijnaldum were constantly able to do this ( Fabinho and Henderson can too). I didn't even bother mentioning City, because Fernandinho is world class at this. It has nothing to do with Lindelof or Maguire; Fred, Mctominay, Pogba and Matic all struggle with getting the ball out of their feet quickly, forcing us to build up play slowly despite the quick movements of our attackers.
Out of Possession:
I've seen this consistently in our last 4 games, we have not won and kept in midfield. Mctominay and Fred have been terrible at holding or even hassling defenders, and that has led to us consistently having to move the entire team back to defend, which makes our attacks more cautious than they should be. We have been relying on our forwards, full backs and centre backs to pressure teams off the ball, but in midfield teams can bypass us with a quick combination play. Mctominay is particularly at fault here. What makes matters worse is even when we do win possession, we can't rely on our midfielders to have the first touch or composure to recycle possession. It is the one true weak area in our team and we need to fix it sooner rather than later.