Match Preview: LIVERPOOL v Manchester City (Premier League)

Venue: Anfield

Date: 26/08/12

Kick-off: 16.00

Current Premier League champions Manchester City will be the opponents for Brendan Rodgers’ first league game in charge of Liverpool Football Club in front of the Anfield faithful.

After a nightmare unfolded for Liverpool at the Hawthorns on the opening day of the campaign, the Reds will be keen to bounce back in front of their own fans and there will be no better way to do that than to take all three points on Sunday afternoon.

Brendan Rodgers will be anxious for his side to continue its impressive start at Anfield, the Reds having comfortably seen off FC Gomel 3-0 in the Europa League and dispatched Bayer Leverkusen 3-1 in a pre-season friendly; however, he will be acutely aware that the reigning Premier League champions pose a much greater threat.

Mancini’s men arrive at Anfield having defeated Premier League new boys Southampton 3-2 at the Etihad in their opening fixture. The three points achieved from a losing position will no doubt have boosted City’s confidence; however, the fact that City surrendered a one goal lead to a newly promoted side is bound to be of some comfort to their opponents.

The two sides met four times in all in the 2011/12 season, twice in the league (as is the norm) and in a two-legged League Cup semi-final. The head to head from those matches is about as even as it gets – two draws and one win a piece – (despite Liverpool’s aggregate win in the semi-final) and it seems likely that there’ll be little to choose between the teams on Sunday either.

Having a brief look at the history of the fixture goes a long way to backing this up. Four of the last seven Premier League fixtures between Liverpool and Manchester City have resulted in draws, with two wins for the Citizens and one for the Reds. The stats at Anfield suggest that City won’t have it all their own way on Sunday. Of the last ten visits to the home of LFC, City have failed to win any and, in fact, have lost six. The last time the Blue half of Manchester left Anfield with a win was in 2003 when Nicolas Anelka came back to haunt Gerard Houllier by scoring the winner in the last minute.
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Overall, Mancini hasn’t enjoyed the best of time when making the trip to Merseyside. The Italian is yet to win a game at either Anfield or Goodison since taking charge at Eastlands in December 2009 and, at his press conference on Friday, he was under no illusion as to how tough an opponent Liverpool may prove.

“Liverpool will be a very strong game,” said the Italian. “I think Liverpool will fight for the title this season because they play well. They are coming from a game at West Brom where probably they didn’t deserve to lose, but football can be strange like this.”

“A team can have problems in the first month, like all teams when they change their manager or players. But I think they still have a strong team,” he added.

Liverpool head into Sunday’s fixture having rested many key players for the, midweek, Europa League victory over Hearts. Luis Suarez, Steven Gerrard, Glen Johnson and Martin Skrtel were all left out of the squad in preparation for Sunday’s game, with the likes of Joe Allen, Lucas Leiva and Stewart Downing only making minor contributions from the bench. Thus there should be no problems with fatigue for Brendan Rodgers’ men as they face their first major examination of the season in front of their own fans.

Squad wise, Liverpool will be without the suspended Daniel Agger for the visit of City, as he serves a one match ban after being sent off against West Brom. Jose Enrique is still recovering from injury but should be fit to take his place. Joe Cole, who aggravated a hamstring strain after coming off the bench on the opening weekend, is definitely ruled out. New signing Oussama Assaidi may make his debut in Reds’ shirt; the former Heerenveen attacker competed his switch to Anfield last week but has been unavailable for selection, for different reasons, until now. Andy Carroll had a slight twinge in his hamstring but Brendan Rodgers is hopeful that the Geordie striker will be available for selection, come Sunday. Whether Rodgers chooses to play him will be an interesting call. From appearances, Rodgers doesn’t seem to fancy the powerful front-man, however, Carroll has a knack of finding the back of the net against Manchester City, registering four against the Citizens in his career to date, including a brace on his Anfield debut.

Roberto Mancini will be without the injured Sergio Aguero for the trip to Anfield. The Argentine striker who had a fantastic first season in the Premier League, scoring the goal which clinched the title for his club injured his knee in a clash with Southampton defender Nathaniel Clyne, and is likely to be out for at least four weeks. Gareth Barry is unlikely to feature, as he is recovering from an abdominal strain and Micah Richards’s ankle injury will see him side-lined too. Samir Nasri and David Silva both picked up minor knocks against Southampton and are rated at 50/50 to make the starting line-up on Sunday, while Joe Hart has recovered from his slight back injury.

Liverpool should be well rested and fired up for their first home league game of the season. Brendan Rodgers again re-iterated in his press conference on Friday his desire to turn Anfield into a real “fortress” this season and good home form was a feature of Swansea’s campaign last year. The home game against Gomel (admittedly against much weaker opposition) was by far the most impressive performance we have seen from Brendan Rodgers’ side to date and a return to the principles of that performance should put the Reds in with a chance of getting a positive result. As we’ve seen from the head to head statistics, Manchester City and Roberto Mancini don’t like coming to Anfield, let’s hope that on Sunday we’ll see a continuation of that trend.

Possible Starting Line-ups:

Liverpool: Reina, Enrique, Skrtel, Carragher, Johnson, Lucas, Allen, Gerrard, Downing, Suarez, Borini

Manchester City: Hart, Clichy, Kompany, Lescott, Zabaleta, De Jong, Y Toure, Nasri, Silva, Tevez, Dzeko

Prediction: 1-1

You can catch up with Neil on Twitter @Neil1980 or on his blog http://itsallinthegameblog.wordpress.com/
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