Liverpool, Man City Renew Rivalry with Community Shield
The 2022 Emirates FA Cup winners, Liverpool will face defending English Premier League champions Manchester City in Saturday’s FA Community Shield, which will be its 100th edition.
With the last five Premier League titles between them and just one point separating the two teams last season, Manchester City and Liverpool will begin another season-long rivalry with the Community Shield.
Jurgen Klopp’s side got their hands on both domestic cups last season, but it was the Citizens who finished as top dogs in the Premier League yet again.
The annual English football curtain-raiser takes place at the King Power Stadium in Leicester today.
With the England Women’s team seeking to go one better than the men did at the European Championships, the 100th Community Shield will be staged away from Wembley while the Lionesses face off against Germany for a shot at glory.
Instead, Leicester City’s King Power Stadium – a turf where Liverpool suffered one of their rare losses in the 2021-22 season – will host the charity match, as the Foxes prepare to relinquish the crown they won last year by overcoming Man City in the final.
Fans expectation
Both Manchester City and Liverpool don’t have an impressive recent history in the Community Shield with Liverpool yet to win it under Klopp. They lost to Man City in 2019 and Arsenal a year later.
The Citizens lost in 2021 to Leicester City and will be hoping to do better against a rival they naturally will not want to lose against anywhere.
“It’s another chance to win silverware and we haven’t won it before,” Liverpool skipper Jordan Henderson told the team’s press.
“So of course we want to go there and we want to win the game and we want to win the trophy.
“We’ll do everything in our power to do that and hopefully it puts us in good stead going into the Premier League season the week after” he said.
Notable club signings
As part of their readiness to outwit each other, both Pep Guardiola and Jurgen Klopp have made some reasonable signings some of which could be unleashed today.
Having a quality, out-and-out striker has long been a talking point for City and they ended that discussion by signing Erling Haaland from Borussia Dortmund in a deal worth £51m.
The Norwegian is only 22, but has been prolific for club and country for some time. Haaland has 20 goals in 21 games for Norway and left Dortmund having scored 86 goals in 89 games.
Big things are also expected of Argentine striker Julian Alvarez. The 22-year-old joined from River Plate in January but stayed at the club on loan, and has only properly linked up with City since July. He has been tipped as a potential successor to Sergio Aguero.
In addition, manager Pep Guardiola strengthened his midfield with the signing of England international Kalvin Phillips, 26, from Leeds for £45m.
Liverpool’s main signing of the summer was Uruguay forward Darwin Nunez, who joined from Benfica for a club record £85m.
The 23-year-old has adapted well since moving from South America to Europe and scored 34 goals in 41 matches for the Portuguese side last season.
The Reds also signed exciting young Portuguese forward Fabio Carvalho from Fulham and 18-year-old Scottish right-back Calvin Ramsay from Aberdeen.
Liverpool needed to bolster their attacking options given the departure of Sadio Mane after six trophy-laden seasons at Anfield.
Despite being offered a new contract after scoring 23 goals in all competitions last season, the Senegal striker decided to move on and joined German giants Bayern Munich for £35m – and his goals will certainly be a miss.
Other notable departures included Divock Origi and Takumi Minamino.
Manchester City’s headline departure was Raheem Sterling.
The England forward joined Chelsea in a £50m deal in July, leaving City with a record of 131 goals in 339 games, with 13 goals in the Premier League last season.
City will also come up against another of their former players in the forthcoming campaign, with Gabriel Jesus having joined Arsenal this summer for £45m.
Head to head
Meetings between City and Liverpool in the latter stages of cup tournaments are commonplace nowadays, and the 2021-22 season saw the two powerhouses play out a pair of pulsating 2-2 draws in the Premier League before the Reds survived a scare to win their FA Cup semi-final by three goals to two.
Goalscoring in the Premier League last season wasn’t exactly a big issue for City and Liverpool – they scored 99 and 94 goals respectively, while the next highest tally in the league was Chelsea’s 76.
Injuries aside, the Community Shield should provide some indication of what Guardiola and Klopp view as their strongest XI.
BBC/Jamiu Ogunshe
