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In this bizarre and fractured season, with a bulky but truncated match roster, Liverpool vs. Man City might not be the decisive game for the title it’s been for the past two seasons … but it could be.
Gaining momentum this season will be difficult. And it’s possible for a weird and wacky title challenger to come out of nowhere. Perhaps Southampton will maintain its exceptional shape and not be bogged down by mid-week European nights. Perhaps José Mourinho can deliver a final administrative masterpiece. Maybe Brendan Rodgers can finally solve his syndrome from the second half of the season.
Maybe. Or maybe that it is Liverpool vs. City all the time, again, but independent parties will have less value. With no supporters and a tight schedule, the results worth bending over are sure to present themselves throughout the season. You don’t need a reminder, but … Liverpool have already lost 7-2 to Aston Villa this season; Man City lost 5-2, at home, to Leicester.
Strange things will happen, which will diminish the head-to-head nature of the title race, and will likely suppress the total points needed to win the league. If it is not 99 or 100 points, if it is closer to 92, 90 or 88, then the unique games against their direct rivals for the title do not matter. as much…
And yet this game still feels huge. Feels like a pioneer. Liverpool are at the top of the league despite a rocky start and a series of injuries. Manchester City are just above the middle of the table, despite being just five points behind Liverpool with a game in hand.
Call him by sending a message or whatever you want, this match feel very important, even if the context of the season tells us that it will probably be much less important than it has been in recent years.
Jürgen Klopp has a series of tough decisions to make. Does Diogo Jota start? Does Roberto Firmino start? Can you both start together? And in the midfield? And who lines up next to Joe Gomez in central defense?
And Klopp is doing it in a context of Pep Guardiola’s mystique. Who knows how Guardiola will line up. Will it be a 4-2-3-1? Will he play three behind? Will Joao Cancelo play as a left back or as an eighth right back? There will be one or two or Three false nines? Will you sign Madonna? Will you sign Maradona?
Who knows.
Our writers offer their picks on who should start Liverpool.
Oliver connolly
Ollie XI (4-3-3): Alisson; Trent Alexander-Arnold, Joel Matip, Joe Gomez, Andy Robertson; Jordan Henderson, Gini Wijnaldum, Naby Keita; Mo Salah, Diogo Jota, Sadio Mané
Klopp has to start from this perspective: Salah, Mané and Jota all start. Questions should flow from there. In a great game, against this opposition (a team that could line up in all manner of looks), the 4-3-3 offers more versatility and a better opportunity to control the flow of the game in midfield.
The only way to slow down City’s carefully crafted preparation game is to put bodies in midfield, build “numbers superiority” in the modern coaching lexicon.
who play in the middle is a fascinating question. Not having Fabinho hurts. This is the kind of game where the hustle and bustle of Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain or James Milner could help. However, the biggest source of intrigue is Curtis Jones.
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Whether Jones is a starter or not will tell us a lot about where Klopp thinks the midfielder is in his development cycle. Atalanta on Tuesday night was the perfect game for Jones. There was plenty of room to work. Still: even under those favorable conditions, he had to act. And acting did. He was excellent on the ball and pretty solid without it.
A crucial part of Liverpool’s own preparation phase on Tuesday night, with Salah, Mané jota in front of all three, was building a front of four. A player would start in the middle, draw in defenders, and then expand their position. The two wide men would narrow (all three took turns) and Jones would push to form a four-man attack with Gini Wijnaldum and Jordan Henderson sliding to form a double pivot at the base of midfield.
It’s exactly the kind of attack that could give problems to the city, especially at rest. But will Klopp trust Jones’ positional discipline? The city will be more structured and more ruthless than Atalanta. Asking him to perform that transformation role is a great question.
Instead, I prefer Naby Keita. He may play the same role as four men in the future, but he has a bit more knowledge in terms of his positional disciple. And it also offers more stylistic diversity that Klopp wants to turn things around midway, be it to be more conservative or even more offensive: Jones can’t play 4-2-3-1, Keita can.
In central defense, I was hanging around all week. But if he’s fit, I’ve decided on Matip as the starter.
Mark Wakefield
The day has come. One of the toughest games, at least on paper, in Liverpool’s long and grueling season. Since it’s a game that could set a trend for the Premier League title race, it’s important that Klopp get as many of his star players on the squad as possible. This automatically means that people like Salah, Mané and Jota enter from the beginning.
The goalkeeping department chooses itself if Alisson is fit, it’s when you move on to the last four that complications begin. Trent Alexander-Arnold and Andy Robertson have played every game since the last international break, but they are starters in a game of this magnitude. The same could be said for Joe Gomez, who has stepped in to lead the back four in the absence of Virgil van Dijk.
A decision has to be made about who will be Gomez’s teammate as a central defender. Rhys Williams has impressed in the Champions League, while Nat Phillips did well last weekend against West Ham. However, it seems that the stage is set for Joël Matip to return from injury.
Yes, there is a question mark on their fitness, but you can’t take on a team of Man City quality with a reserve defender. Although Phillips and Williams have done well when asked, having someone with the first-team experience that Matip possesses is imperative in a game as difficult as this.
There is also a shot with no Fabinho or Thiago Alcantara available for selection, which means that selecting players in midfield is a much more difficult task. For me, I have opted for a 4-2-3-1 formation to allow Jordan Henderson and Gini Wijnaldum to help protect the two center-backs and also win the battle of midfield.
It is at the front where the main topic of conversation surely takes place. As mentioned above, Salah, Mané and Jota have to start given the form that each of them has shown in the first weeks of the season. The question that arises then is whether or not Roberto Firmino is included in the team.
From my point of view, you have to play the Brazilian in a game like this. Yes, he hasn’t been at his best this season, but if he were to play the role of number 10, he would have less pressure to score goals. Then he could grab the ball more in the middle of the park, link the game with the forwards and also help the midfield duo and lead the press.
Mark XI (4-2-3-1) : Alisson; Alexander-Arnold, Matip, Gomez, Robertson; Henderson, Wijnaldum; Salah, Firmino, Mané; Jot
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