“Mr Klopp is really spoiling us!” coos Ian Copestake. It’s a fascinating team selection but also a risky one. If Liverpool lose everyone will say it’s down to him picking all four forwards, whether that’s actually the case or not.
Here’s Jurgen Klopp
“I thought it made sense [to play Jota and Firmino]. I wanted their quality on the pitch. If you want to get something here you have to be really brave - it’s an offensive line-up but if everybody is doing their job it’s an even more defensive, solid formation.”
“Good afternoon Rob!” says Drew Gough. “Really looking forward to today’s game, which I’ll be watching from an Irish pub in Lisbon. A penny for the thoughts of Takumi Minamino, who isn’t in the squad today. He was looking in decent form in the cup games, and I thought was developing into a pretty reasonable Firmino replacement. But now Shaqiri seems to be back in a groove, so it’s hard to see him getting into any meaningful games for a while, barring injuries.”
Life at big clubs is brutal these days – it’s a struggle to get in the 1XVIII, never mind the XI.
Leicester beat Wolves 1-0 in the 2pm game. Jamie Vardy scored one penalty and had another saved by Rui Patricio, but Leicester held on to move top of the Premier League - at least for the next few hours. Liverpool will become the fourth league leaders of the weekend if they win at the Etihad.
Pre-match reading
Pep Guardiola has dropped Riyad Mahrez from the City squad, never mind the team. He also has four defenders on the bench, which is a bit peculiar. Maybe he’s planning to take the lead and then switch to nine at the back.
Jurgen Klopp has solved the Firmino/Jota problem by picking them both in a mouthwatering attack. Joel Matip also returns from injury in defence.
Manchester City (possible 4-2-3-1) Ederson; Walker, Dias, Laporte, Cancelo; Rodri, Gundogan; Torres, De Bruyne, Sterling; Jesus.
Substitutes: Steffen, Stones, Ake, Zinchenko, Garcia, Bernardo, Foden.
Liverpool (possible 4-2-3-1) Alisson; Alexander-Arnold, Matip, Gomez, Robertson; Henderson, Wijnaldum; Jota, Firmino, Mane; Salah.
Substitutes: Adrian, Phillips, Milner, Keita, Jones, Shaqiri, Origi.
Referee Craig Pawson.
This could make things interesting
Manchester City (@ManCity)
The stage is set! (And potentially wet) ☔️💪
C'MON CITY!! 💙
🔷 #ManCity | https://t.co/axa0klUGiM pic.twitter.com/zBc73OFtco
November 8, 2020
Hello and welcome to live coverage of Manchester City v Liverpool, the biggest and best game in English football. A year ago this weekend, on an exhilarating afternoon at Anfield, Liverpool stuffed City 3-1 to move eight points clear at the top of the table. It was obvious, even with 26 games to go, that they were going to win their first title since 1990. While a win for either team today will not have quite the same impact, it would be a profound statement of intent to win the 2020-21 Premier League. For all the endearing early season weirdness - stop the count! - the strong likelihood is that one of these teams will be top in May.
This is probably a more important game for City - not because they are at home (if anything, given the nature of Covid football, Liverpool have the away advantage), but because they have had a subdued start to the season. City are 12th and, though they have games in hand, they have not started the season with the murderous purpose that most of us expected. They need three points today; more than that, they need a performance that shows they can still reach the awesome heights on 2017-19.
Kick off 4.30pm.
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