Central match of the Matchday 11
The central match of the tour will take place on Sunday October, 16 at Anfield, where Liverpool will host Manchester City. Before the season, this match was called the main one in the entire first round, but now it’s impossible to say so. Liverpool actually dropped out of the title race due to an extremely weak start. The Merseysiders are approaching the match in eleventh place. City are located on the second place and are only one point behind Arsenal.
Josep Guardiola’s team is by far the best in terms of scoring this season. In nine matches, the Citizens scored 33 goals with nine conceded. The club’s newcomer Erling Haaland demonstrates phenomenal performance. On account of the Norwegian already 15 goals and three assists. Few doubt that Haaland will score against Alisson. Kevin de Bruyne has nine assists, which is also impressive.
Liverpool, on the other hand, suddenly Roberto Firmino, for whom some stopped hoping last season, unexpectedly became the best scorer. The Brazilian scored six goals and made three assists.
Between the teams at the moment there is simply an abyss in terms of game form and the state of the leaders. It is far from certain that this can be compensated for by Anfield’s support and fighting spirit. At the home stadium of the Merseysiders, the away team will almost never be a favorite, but now it seems that this is the case. Liverpool will certainly have chances, and only a perfect implementation of them can give any chances, because City will obviously create no less.
The game will be judged by a team of referees led by Anthony Taylor. Darren England was reappointed to VAR.
Team news
For Liverpool, according to The Athletic, Ibrahima Konate was slightly injured. The Frenchman joins Trent Alexander-Arnold, Joel Matip, Luis Diaz, Calvin Ramsey, Naby Keita, Arthur, Curtis Jones, and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain in the infirmary.
The defensive line-up is expected to be Virgil Van Dijk, Joe Gomez and Kostas Tsimikas. And on the left flank, most likely the Boss will put in the Scot Andy Robertson.
Jurgen Klopp usually approaches the “big” match conservatively, so we are waiting for a trio of midfielders, and not experiments. The most obvious midfield combination is Fabinho, Jordan Henderson and Thiago Alcantara.
In attack, it would be a crime to keep Firmino’s team’s top scorer on the bench. So we are waiting for the Brazilian at the start, and Mohammed Salah and Diogo Jota will play on the flank. Darwin Nunez, in principle, can also go on the left flank instead of Jota.
For Manchester City, Calvin Phillips, Jones Stones and Kyle Walker are injured.
Win probability
