This Sunday, Liverpool and Manchester City face off at Wembley in the traditional curtain-raiser to the English Premier League season – the Community Shield.
Jurgen Klopp should be able to select close to a full-strength line-up for the fixture as The Reds try to get some kind of psychological headway against Pep Guardiola’s City machine ahead of the 2019/20 campaign.
In goals, Alisson will continue his reintegration into the team after his summer break. The Brazilian number one committed a howler to present Lyon with an early penalty in Wednesday night’s friendly win in Geneva. He’ll be looking to set things straight and remind us of just how important he is to our defensive solidity on Sunday.
Klopp will most likely pick his first-choice back four which, currently, consists of Trent Alexander-Arnold, Joel Matip, Virgil van Dijk and Andy Robertson.
The midfield trio will possibly be an area of debate for the season with so many options.
On Sunday, I expect Fabinho, Jordan Henderson and James Milner to start in the centre.
Gini Wijnaldum, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Naby Keita, Adam Lallana and Xherdan Shaqiri are the other midfield choices so I’d expect at least two of those to feature from the bench at some stage against City.
In attack, Mohamed Salah should start on the right with Divock Origi in the middle and Harry Wilson just slightly deeper.
Roberto Firmino was only risked for half an hour against Lyon so it’s doubtful he will start at Wembley. Liverpool’s number 9 can probably expect another 30 minutes of action but in the second half, this time.
Liverpool’s predicted lineup (4-3-3) Vs Manchester City: Alisson; Alexander-Arnold, Matip, Van Dijk, Robertson; Fabinho, Henderson(c), Milner; Salah, Origi, Wilson
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