The two best teams in the country will face off on Saturday lunchtime, with the winner topping the Premier League table and laying down a marker for the season.
Liverpool have dropped silly points at Luton and Brighton, as well as being robbed at Spurs, but they remain in a very strong position, thanks in large part to our unrivaled home form.
Manchester City appear to be threatening. They’re top of the table despite having their best player, Kevin de Bruyne, injured, but they have a few other top players racing to get ready for the big game.
Ederson, Rodri, and Erling Haaland missed their national team matches due to fitness issues, but Pep Guardiola was undoubtedly exaggerating the severity of their problems in order to give them a rest before our trip to the Etihad.
During the international break, Liverpool’s players scored goals and shone, but they also played a lot of football. Trent Alexander-Arnold, Darwin Nunez, Virgil van Dijk, Alisson, Alexis MacAllister, Dom Szoboszlai, and Diogo Jota all played twice, much to the chagrin of Jurgen Klopp.
Hopefully, our South Americans are prepared… Nunez, Mac Allister, and Alisson all played in the early hours of Wednesday morning and will only have one practice session before the game on Friday.
Tactically, Klopp must defeat City in the transition battle, as the latter is lethal when the ball is turned over. They have pace down the flanks, and Jeremy Doku will look to exploit the space left by Alexander-Arnold when he moves into midfield. Haaland is obviously lethal and will constantly run in behind to exploit a line that will always be high, regardless of where or who we’re playing.
City, on the other hand, will play a high line, and our best chance of creating chances is to use Nunez’s pace in behind. The Uruguayan is flying right now. He has three goals for his country and exudes confidence. He was Liverpool’s best player against Brentford last time out, recording an assist and having two goals disallowed. It’s admirable how he’s recovered from the shocking open-goal miss against Luton.
Nunez is a fast and physical player. Salah’s creativity will allow him to run, and Trent is capable of putting longer balls past the defense as well.
It’ll be interesting to see who Klopp picks on the left. Jota has been in better form than Cody Gakpo or Luis Diaz and is the best finisher of the three. He can fight and press, which may be beneficial, but rest assured, all five will feature at some point.
That’s the benefit of having five elite attackers. Klopp is spoiled and our offensive options are potentially the best of any side in Europe. They complement each other well. Diaz needs to return to his swashbuckling, dribbling best, when he loved taking on the right-back and Nunez needs to get better at finishing his easier chances – but there really isn’t much to complain about.
It’ll be interesting who Klopp picks in midfield. Hopefully Curtis Jones will be fit and can take his place alongside Mac Allister and Szoboszlai. That is our best midfield right now. Gravenberch is also hoping to be fit, but whoever Klopp picks will be a slight risk given the intensity of the game and the fact they’re coming off the back off injuries. Wataru Endo simply hasn’t got the pace or ball-retention skills to anchor the midfield against City, while Harvey Elliott has proved himself to be a brilliant sub but not yet a consistent starter.
Kostas Tsimikas will keep his place at left-back, you’d assume, with either Joel Matip or the hopefully returning Ibou Konate alongside van Dijk.
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