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A look ahead to Manchester City vs Liverpool
There’s no doubt about the game of the week in the Premier League, is there? We’ve become used to watching big clashes between Manchester City and Liverpool, and we’ve got another potential classic to look forward to at the Etihad on Saturday.
I think if you’d have said at the start of the season that, 12 games in, these sides would be separated only by a point, Liverpool would have snapped your hand off. But their progress has been encouraging and City are not yet the force we saw last season.
With that in mind, I believe Liverpool will go into the weekend with belief, although if you offered Jurgen Klopp a draw now I think he’d take it. Away wins in these fixtures have been rare in recent years, even though the sides have often been very closely matched in terms of points and league position.
From a Liverpool perspective, the big decisions surround the defence and the attack. For starters, Klopp has a choice to make at left-back, where Kostas Tsimikas is the incumbent but where Joe Gomez may offer a more stable, defensively-adept option against the roving Phil Foden, Bernardo Silva and Kyle Walker.
As for the forward line, the question is which two Klopp chooses to start alongside Mo Salah. Both Luis Diaz and Darwin Nunez will have had minimal training time due to their international commitments in South America, but those are the more explosive options when compared to Cody Gakpo and Diogo Jota. Will Klopp start his European duo and keep Diaz and Nunez in reserve, or will he ask them to get at City from the word go. I’d guess at the latter, personally.
I’d expect Alexis Mac Allister to return in midfield, alongside Dominik Szoboszlai and either Ryan Gravenberch or Curtis Jones, both of whom should be fit. That’s a different kind of Liverpool midfield to the one which has competed with City down the years – more craft than graft, you’d say – and that could be the key to the game. City have shown that they are defensively vulnerable, letting in four at Chelsea last time out, but can Liverpool get enough of the ball to exploit the gaps?
It promises to be intriguing. I’ll be at the Etihad and I can’t wait. I’d be surprised, but not amazed, if Liverpool won, but a score draw certainty wouldn’t shock me, and I reckon the Reds would be delighted if they came away with exactly that.
How close was Jeremy Doku to joining Liverpool?
Liverpool will be up against perhaps the most exciting player in the Premier League this weekend. Jeremy Doku has been sensational since joining Manchester City, and Trent Alexander-Arnold and Co. will have their work cut out trying to stop the Belgian star.
Doku was linked quite regularly to Liverpool during his time at both Anderlecht and Rennes, and I understand he was close to moving to Anfield as a 15-year-old. He has revealed himself that he was shown around the training ground (then Melwood) and that he had conversations with Jurgen Klopp and some senior Reds players, but chose to stay at Anderlecht.
The Reds have consistently targeted attacking players of a similar profile – versatile, aged between 22 and 25, with 150+ senior games under their belt and with a proven output in terms of goals and assists. That’s what they were prepared to pay big money for with the likes of Nunez, Diaz, Gakpo and Jota, and before that Salah and Sadio Mane, and it has brought them plenty of success. They certainly haven’t struggled for talented left-sided forwards in recent years.
A club like City is much more likely to take a big-money punt on someone like Doku. The good news for Pep Guardiola is it looks like the punt is going to pay off, big time. Liverpool won’t regret missing out on him last summer, but they may regret their failure to turn his head back in 2017…
Harvey Elliott and Curtis Jones will be eyeing England places
Harvey Elliott is having a really good season, on the quiet. He is impacting games off the bench in the Premier League, and looks to have found a new level in terms of his physical output, self-belief and consistency.
He has emerged as one of the real stars of a very talented England U21 group, and inevitably there will be questions asked of whether he can make the step up to the senior side ahead of the European Championships.
That’ll be a tall order, I believe, simply because Elliott would need to establish himself as a regular starter for Liverpool in the biggest games. And with the likes of Gravenberch, Jones, Gakpo, Mac Allister, Szoboszlai and Endo all competing for places, and others such as Bajcetic and Thiago to return from injury, he will have his work cut out.
I do, however, think he has the game to impress Gareth Southgate. He keeps the ball well, he passes with purpose, he has goals and assists in him and he has shown that he can handle the other side of the game as a midfielder. He still has areas to improve, for sure, but if he can get a run of starts under his belt, and a little bit of luck to go with it, then he might be able to put himself in the conversation for next summer. The same applies to Curtis Jones, in my opinion, and I’d have him maybe slightly ahead of Elliott at this stage, on account of his age, size and physicality. If I was Jones, I’d be targeting that squad because he is more than capable of getting in.
Liverpool linked with two Brazilian wonderkids
Liverpool continue to be linked with Andre from Fluminense, but Anfield sources have begun to play down suggestions of a January move. There was definitely interest in the Brazilian in the summer, when contact was made with his club to ascertain the conditions of a potential deal, but the subsequent signings of Wataru Endo and Ryan Gravenberch seem to have significantly reduced Liverpool’s need for another midfielder and as it stands, I’d be surprised if Liverpool were in for Andre in January.
Liverpool, generally, do not sign first-team players directly from South America. Their tendency in the past has been to wait and see how a talent develops once it has moved to Europe – think of Diaz, Firmino, Fabinho, Nunez, Mac Allister and Alisson as six great examples – before making their move when the player reaches their early-mid 20s.
Maybe that will start to change with the Premier League relaxing its rules regarding work permits for non-European players. That will make it easier for clubs like Liverpool to cut out the middleman, so to speak, but as yet we have seen no evidence of them doing so.
In terms of whether an 18-year-old like Moscardo, or indeed a 22-year-old in Andre, is the right player for the club, I think most would wish for someone a little more proven in top-level football, but it is also fair to say that the club’s recruitment team generally get it right, so if they were to push the button, they would deserve to be trusted. I’m just not sure they will, for these players.