Liverpool vs Manchester City. Prediction and Preview. Probable Lineups, Team News, Stats and more
Liverpool will host Manchester City in the match for the FA Community Shield at the King Power Stadium. The match will take place on July 30, beginning at 21:30 IST.
Traditionally, it all starts with the Super Cup, this time involving the super giants of world football, the best teams of the last 5-6 years, as well as the main contenders for the Premier League title, which starts in a week’s time. You couldn’t ask for a better appetiser before the start of the football season in England.
The upcoming FA Сommunity Shield encounter has one particular feature that sets it apart from previous ones. For the first time since 2012, the trophy will not be celebrated at Wembley. The reason is that the country’s main sports arena will host the final of the European Women’s Championship on Sunday, July 31, in which England and Germany will clash.
Parimatchnews will tell you everything you need to know ahead of the upcoming match.
Liverpool News & Current Form:
Liverpool have twice been in contention for the trophy in the last three years. Those two matches saw strangely similar scenarios. In 2019, the Reds conceded in the 12th minute from their former player, Raheem Sterling, before equalising in the 77th minute. In the penalty shoot-out, Manchester City were more accurate as they converted all five shots. For the Merseysiders, it was an error by Georginho Wijnaldum that let them down.
In 2020, Liverpool conceded again in the 12th minute. This time, it was Arsenal forward Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, a former charge of Jurgen Klopp at Borussia Dortmund. The Reds levelled the score almost at the same time, with Takumi Minamino netting on 73 minutes. On penalties, the Merseysiders lost once again, 4-5, with youngster Rhian Brewster failing his attempt.
The team’s last success occurred as far back as 16 years ago, when Rafael Benitez was in charge of the Reds and Jose Mourinho with Didier Drogba and Shevchenko in charge of the defeated Chelsea. Since then, several generations have changed in football.
Of course, the Merseyside fans miss the Super Cup, and the players and Klopp himself are eager to bring the trophy to Liverpool, but it will be difficult. There are several problems right now.
Firstly, a certain physical fatigue of the Merseysiders due to the tight football tournaments schedule (indluding international matches) and a busy pre-season. Talking about friendlies, Liverpool unexpectedly lost to Man United (4-0), then defeated Crystal Palace (2-0) and Leipzig (5-0), before finishing with a 0-1 defeat at the hands of Salzburg. What’s more, after the match against the Citizens, they are expected to have another meeting plannedm, against Strasbourg. True, the cosmic level of chemistry and other tactical aspects will thus be improved to the hilt, but the fitness issue is the flip side of the coin.
The second problem involves some manpower difficulties. Liverpool have acquired striker Darwin Nunez to replace Sadio Mane who left for Bayern, as well as midfielder Fabio Carvalho and defender Calvin Ramsay.
But they have not strengthened the goalkeeping line and the first problem happened right there. Alisson Becker will not take part in the match. The Brazilian was injured after the pre-season encounter with Man Utd and his loss could have a key impact on the result, considering the usual level of pressing by the Sky-Blues. Midfielder Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and forward Diogo Jota will also be unavailable for the match. On top of that, Takumi Minamino and Divock Origi left Liverpool this summer as well.
Don`t miss out 👉: 5 players Liverpool must sell ahead of the 2022-23 Premier League season
Manchester City News & Current Form:
For Josep Guardiola, this is his fourth FA Super Cup game during his time at the helm of the Citizens. The first two ended in triumph for the Spaniard’s team: in addition to the penalty shoot-out victory over Liverpool, there was also a triumph over Chelsea as in 2018, the Citizens beat the London club 2-0 thanks to Sergio Agüero‘s double.
However, the third game ended in a fiasco for Manchester City. Last year, the Citizens lost 0-1 to Leicester, having disappointingly conceded a goal in the last minutes. Former player Kelechi Iheanacho made a crucial contribution.
Manchester City had a slightly different pre-season, with Pep Guardiola’s emphasis on the physical condition of the players, the Spaniard tried to reduce the intensivety as much as possible. Manchester City flew to America where in the last 10 days of July they played against Mexican Ameriсa (2-1) and Bayern Munich (1-0) where Pep have been actively rotating players, carefully preparing the main stars like Erling Braut Haaland for the first squad.
It is worth noting that due to coronavirus restrictions, not all the players went with the team on the USA tour. For this reason, John Stones, Ilkay Gundogan, Aymeric Laporte and Phil Foden did not take part in friendly games and probably we shouldn`t expect them in the match against Liverpool either – at least not in the starting line-up.
In general, a measured and relaxed pre-season strategy could work, because most of the players will come to the Super Cup fit and refreshed.
Guardiola now has a full squad, with Erling Haaland and Calvin Phillips joining in the summer. Talking about departures: Raheem Sterling joined Chelsea, while Oleksandr Zinchenko and Gabriel Jesus found themselves at Arsenal. Their loss will not be a problem as they were not really essential, moreover, the Citizens managed to get quite good sums to reinvest.
Liverpool pre-season form guide: L-W-W-L
Manchester City pre-season form guide: W-W
Liverpool vs Manchester City Head-To-Head Record:
| Liverpool | Draw | Manchester City |
| 106 | 59 | 55 |
In their 10 previous encounters, Man City have won three times and Liverpool two, with another five games ending in a draw in regulation time. Last season, the teams have played 3 matches: in the EPL they drew twice and in the FA Cup semi-finals the Merseysiders beat the Citizens (3-2).
Liverpool vs Manchester City Predicted XI:
Liverpool possible starting lineup (4-3-3): Adrian; Alexander-Arnold, Matip, Van Dijk, Robertson; Henderson, Fabinho, Thiago; Salah, Firmino, Diaz.
Manchester City possible starting lineup (4-3-3): Ederson; Walker, Dias, Stones, Cancelo; Silva, Rodri, De Bruyne; Mahrez, Haaland, Grealish.
Statistical preview of the match Liverpool vs Manchester City:
- The recent FA Super Cup matches were not exactly a goal-scoring extravaganza. Three goals have been scored in just one of the last seven finals.
- This will be Liverpool’s 24th Community Shield and Manchester City’s 14th. The Reds have taken the trophy 15 times and the Citizens six times.
- Liverpool newcomer Darwin Nunez scored four goals in the off-season, but all in the same game. City recruit Haaland marked one goal in one game played.
- Liverpool as a host have scored and conceded in 8 of the last 9 meetings between these teams.
- Manchester City have scored more than 1.5 goals in 9 of their last 10 away games.
- Liverpool have scored less than 2.5 goals in 5 of their last 6 home matches.
What has been said before the match:
Jürgen Klopp, Liverpool gaffer, spoke about the realities of his club’s day-to-day schedule:
“The situation is that it’s a very important game, but the situation is that we still have to prepare a season, so we cannot ignore that. So we played last night against Salzburg, we lost 1-0, we trained the day before twice, so pretty intense, that’s what we have to do. I cannot ignore the fact that after this important game is a season coming up. So we have to extend our pre-season, if you want, into the season.”
“We play on Saturday against City and we play on Sunday a pre-season test game, whatever, against Strasbourg. Then we play Fulham and the next day we play another game, just that we can extend our pre-season, that’s what we have to do. Because from mid-August on, I think we play every three days again, so there’s no time for training anymore. So we try to do the right things but, of course, then the schedule is always a challenge to deal with and that’s how it is – not the first time, it’s always like this.”
“The game on Saturday, will it show a lot about the season? I expect two good teams. I saw last night, even when we lost, especially in the second half, I saw us in a really good shape. I hope that we can bring that on the pitch on Saturday as well. But, of course, it will be a challenge just to play now 90 minutes. I’m not sure how the weather in England is but it can be hot as well, so that all comes then together. We will see. But if you win it, it’s a very important competition. If you lose it, then it becomes lesser important.”
Jurgen and Pep’s rivalry takes the EPL to a whole new level every year
Pep Guardiola, Man City gaffer:
“Yeah, for us a title to win it is better, better than losing. It is good for City, not just for the players. For all of us.”
“Tomorrow we try for the first title, it’s an honour to be here, it’s a big success to be there. We know the opponent quite well, it will dictate how well our moment is after three weeks of pre-season, it’s too short. I saw many good things in this period how we played, the guys we have we move forward.”
he said at his pre-match press conference.
He then was asked about the adaptation of newcomers:
“As soon as they settle, the better. In my feeling they won’t take time. Stefan surprises us a lot in all aspects on the ball and build-up, Kalvin knows the PL perfectly. The way they settle in the few games we play, I think they will settle.”
Liverpool vs Manchester City Prediction:
Obviously, Liverpool and Manchester City are far from their optimum form at the moment. And the teams will not be playing with their best squads.
Liverpool have suffered serious squad losses and cannot properly rely on Darwin Nunez, who was acquired in the off-season. The Uruguayan does not yet inspire confidence judging by the games he has played, despite his recent poker, he still looks raw. Unlike Haaland, who helped defeat Bayern Munich in his debut game for Manchester City. Nominally, the Citizens look to be more favourable, but predicting a winner is too risky. Based on the trends, we assume that the teams will exchange goals, and that the overall total for the match will be higher than 2.5.
Don`t miss out 👉: Arsenal vs Sevilla: Preview and Prediction
Parimatch News staff prediction:
We say: both teams to score and the match total over 2.5 – Yes.